Is VE.Direct hex discontinued?

Question

question

Trevin Corkery asked Sep 19, '19

Is VE.Direct hex discontinued?

With the firmware update v1.42 on MPPT charge controllers, they introduced new registers for settings:

Adjustable tail current
Adjustable re-bulk offset voltage
Adjustable automatic equalization

But seeing how the VE.Direct hex protocol hasn't been updated since 2018 I asked a sales representative if there is newer documentation out there and they told me to instead use the venus products for communication as "the hex protocol is not supported anymore." (Which I assume just uses the hex/text protocol anyways)

So is VE.Direct hex discontinued and no longer updated? Because to be honest that is the main reason I went with Victron to begin with over other competitors. The open and well-documented protocol.

VE.Direct documentation

1

2 |3000

Attachments: Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

Trevin Corkery commented · Sep 21, 2019 at 05:27 AM

Hey, @Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) I was hoping maybe you could check with someone that works on the interface and let me know. I would use the CCGX for communication but not only do I not have any of the products, but it also seems limited on what I can control.

(I am currently developing software that uses VE.Direct hex to completely configure your Victron system [Will be released as open-source and will be put on GitHub])

Thanks, man, I appreciate it more than you know.

0 ·

Modifications Space

Node Red Space

Answer 1 · 2019-09-22T10:36:07Z

Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) answered · Sep 22, 2019 at 10:36 AM

Hi @Trevin Corkery

There is some distinction inside Victron between Supported, Unsupported, Depreciated and Discontinued. Though this can easily get confused.

The VE.Direct hex is still available and the documentation will be updated with the new features. Dealers and sales managers are not normally trained to help their customers with VE.Direct hex though.

When there is a change like additional MPPT settings, there are flow on consequences all through the product, firmware, software, documentation, testing, and training stack. It can be a lot of work even for a seemingly small change.

We do our best to get everything organised and up to date in the long run, though there are priorities. Some less used features are still available, but not fully supported* or fully documented.

Supported is a bit of a difficult term too. It can mean 'Victron tested it and it works', but can also mean 'I expect to get help from Victron to make it work'. In this case, it works, but Victron employees can not help to make it work.

Filling those gaps is part of the role of this community.

I will see if I can get you more information to help before the rest of the documentation gets updated.

2

2 |3000

Attachments: Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

Trevin Corkery commented · Sep 22, 2019 at 10:43 AM

Hey, I just want to say thanks for the response because that was actually really informative.

I made another post and mvander posted on it and let me know that the new updated documentation will be out in the next few weeks.

But I also appreciate you searching for the information and I am happy to hear back with what ever you find!

0 ·

Dr. Werner Sachs commented · Oct 30, 2022 at 06:56 PM

Also I can't find any HEX protocol reference to "Smartsolar MPPT RS 450". So I can't use this device in my system.

0 ·

question