VE.Bus BMS v2, Multiplus control with Venus OS on Raspberry Pi

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sum1youno asked May 15, '24

VE.Bus BMS v2, Multiplus control with Venus OS on Raspberry Pi

I have a system comprising:

3x 100ah Smart Lithium Batteries
VE.Bus BMS v2 (replaced a previously installed VE.Bus BMS v1)
Multiplus 12/1600 (firmware v506)
Venus OS (v3.40~2) on a Raspberry Pi 4 (connected to VE.Bus BMS v2 via MK3-USB)

I have been trying to get the remote-control for the Multiplus working in VRM and the Venus GUI, but have had no luck; instead I receive the "this setting is disabled when a VE.Bus BMS is connected" error.

I don't seem to see a separate device in Venus OS for the VE.Bus BMS v2, but see the following firmware and version information underneath the entry for the Multiplus:

VE.Bus version: 2663506
MK2 device: MK3
MK2 version: 1170216
Multi Control version: --
VE.Bus BMS version: 1146113

I have double and triple checked the VE.Bus connections between the VE.Bus BMS v2, the raspberry pi (via MK3-USB) and the Multiplus, and they are correct as-per the installation manuals as far as I can tell. I have also reset all of the multiplus settings in case there was something incorrect there. Using the 'redetect VE.Bus system' button does not make a difference.

Are there known issues with using a MK3-USB and Raspberry Pi instead of a full Cerbo in this situation? Should the remote control functionality work in this setup?

Venus OS Raspberry Pi multiplus ve.bus

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Modifications Space

Node Red Space

Answer 1 · 2024-05-15T16:30:45Z

ejrossouw answered · May 15 at 04:30 PM

@sum1youno Try using the offical version of Venus OS and not beta (?) as well as update all the firmware on all the devices and let us know how that worked out. Maybe consider the modifications space where you may find other answers on this topic.

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sum1youno commented · May 16 at 07:13 AM

Thanks @ejrossouw.

I have made sure I'm up-to-date on all firmware, and have reverted to the latest official Venus release, but still have the same problem:

This is the current state of firmware on my devices (from VRM):

As you can see, the VE.Bus BMS v2 is recognised here, so not sure what/where the problem is.

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ejrossouw sum1youno commented · May 16 at 10:06 AM

I do not have experience with pi, but have see this on one occasion on my testbench (cerbo), but all is well today although as per below I should not be able to control the system, yet I can ?? Inverter is on firmware 510, latest venus beta 3.40-13 (original interface) and selected the VE.Bus BMS option in VE.Config.

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sum1youno ejrossouw commented · May 16 at 11:38 AM

Yes, that is identical to my VE Config (except for the charge current setting):

Interestingly, when I tried resetting the Multiplus settings (then selecting Lithium batteries without VE.BUS BMS) and reconnected everything (following the commissioning example here), the system reconfigured itself automatically, checking the 'Configured for VE.Bus BMS' checkbox and selecting the Lithium i.c.w. with VE.Bus BMS battery type. Going from the commissioning example, this seems like correct/expected behaviour.

I feel like there is either some conflicting setting somewhere, or the issue lies with connecting via a MK3-USB, since this is an obvious difference to the real Cerbo.

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sum1youno ejrossouw commented · May 16 at 12:15 PM

The only other difference I can think of is that the system previously had a VE.Bus BMS v1. I wonder if something about this is lingering in the memory of the Multiplus or Venus OS (I haven't tried factory resetting the Venus OS, since I don't want to lose the history)?

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ejrossouw sum1youno commented · May 17 at 07:48 AM

You can backup the setting in VE.Config, VictronConnect or note them down as there are not that many ;) Also, remenber VRM realtime monitoring has to be enabled to use this function remotely. I can only suggest to also try the latest beta. Personally I have never used a MK3 to connect anything and it may just miss the latest update in Venus OS or something. I am moving this post to the modifications section where I believe it may be better served.

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