RV-C device plugged into VE.Can Bus

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turn10-garage asked Jan 31, '21

RV-C device plugged into VE.Can Bus

I have an RV-C compliant device that is plugged into my MPPT Blue Solar Can which is then plugged into a CerboGX VE.CAN and terminated at the Cerbo GX and the RV-C Molex using a 120 Ohm resitor between the H and L.

I have created a cable with an RJ45A (MPPT) connection on one end and a Molex (RV-C) connector on the other end and connected the wires from pins 3,6,7 and 8 according to the pinout instructions.

Plugging in the device I can tell the RV-C is receiving power but it is not receiving any data from the Can and therefore is not receiving an address, etc. dbus-y com.victronenergy.vecan.can0 / GetValue determines that it is not showing up.

Is there something I need to do within Venus OS to recognize an RV-C device connected? Do I need to write a driver first so that it recognizes the device or is the RV-C device broadcasting it's ID but in a different format that VE.Can can't recognize? Any help from anyone who has connected a RV-C compliant device to the VE.Can would be welcome. I'm out of ideas! Also, if there is a better way to do this I'm all ears.

cerbo gx VE.Can

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turn10-garage commented · Mar 12, 2021 at 01:16 PM

@mvader (Victron Energy) is RV-C over VECan possible at this point? And by possible I mean will the Cerbo GX assign addresses so I can at least see the device on the CANBUS to begin the process of writing a driver to read the information off of the RV-C Device? If not is this even on the roadmap for Victron to enable? If the protocol isn't supported is there any information available to write the code to support the protocol? Finally :) Is there ANY other way (VE-Direct, ModBus, USB) I can get RV-C to connect to the Cerbo? Thanks in advance!

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mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ turn10-garage commented · Mar 12, 2021 at 10:40 PM

See below. Note that in VE.Can there is no such thing as “assigning addresses”. And I’m pretty sure there is not in RV-C either as its also based on J1939 and thus has ACL for network address claiming.

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Modifications Space

Node Red Space

Answer 1 · 2021-03-12T14:30:38Z

antiguasky answered · Mar 12, 2021 at 02:30 PM

This might be helpful. I've used it and Node-Red to integrate my RV-C devices and my Victron devices into one interface. You may also want to load the "Large" version of the Venus OS to take advantage of its built-in Node-Red and SignalK installations.

https://github.com/rvc-proxy/coachproxy-os

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turn10-garage commented · Mar 12, 2021 at 02:58 PM

Thank you! I will start digging into Node-Red and see where that might lead! Mind if I reach out with a few questions once I get my sleeves rolled up?

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browner777 commented · May 23 at 08:37 PM

Are you still working with CoachProxy?

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Answer 2 · 2021-03-12T15:41:17Z

antiguasky answered · Mar 12, 2021 at 03:41 PM

You're welcome! Please feel free to reach out. What type of multiplex board are you trying to pick up the RV-C info from?

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turn10-garage commented · Mar 12, 2021 at 04:27 PM

I have a Magnum Dimensions MSH3012RV Inverter Charger that I'm using to run both legs of my RV and it has their RV-C bridge pre-installed. I'm hoping to get its data (at least) to show up in my Color50. So wish Victron had a 12V 220 Multiplus, it would have made things way easier!

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browner777 turn10-garage commented · May 23 at 08:35 PM

Did you get this to work?

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Answer 3 · 2021-03-12T22:39:21Z

mvader (Victron Energy) answered · Mar 12, 2021 at 10:39 PM

Hey both.

My few cents: mixing VE.Can and RV-C might not work doesnt work. I dont remember what the issue is exactly.

Could be that in your case it does work; as far as I remember its only a few PGNs that conflict. However: as you’ll understand it could possibly lead to the weirdest of issues.

with regards to Venus OS and RV-C: there is some progress on getting an RV-C out feature; just like we have NMEA2000-out which is part of VE.Can.

And they’ll be mutually exclusive in the settings menu: choose VE.Can, or choose RV-C out.

Which is a bit of a shame since we currently have only one fully functional canport, but well thats just what it is. We have to start somewhere.

The plan then is that finction to transmit battery data, inverter data, tank level data and so forth out on RV-C so that RV and Coach monitoring systems can use that to display it to the user. For which I understand that it doesn’t match what you’re looking for.

Lastly, check our website wrt this new product: https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/Datasheet-MultiPlus-II-12V-3kVA-120-50-2x-120V-EN.pdf. First units in stock now or soon; contact your dealer for more info on that ;o).

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antiguasky commented · Mar 13, 2021 at 01:25 PM

Thank you for all you do to make it easier to use Victron devices in a multi-protocol environment. Your efforts really set Victron apart from the rest of the field. It's great to hear that you have plans to share data in the RV-C protocol format.

The CoachProxy project that I mentioned above translates RV-C signals and shares them through MQTT on a Raspberry Pi that's running Mosquitto and Node-Red. In my case I'm using it to "talk" to a Firefly multiplex board that controls various appliances in my RV. I'm also using a Cerbo that's running the large OS as a second MQTT host to make the Victron devices available to the CoachProxy Node-Red flows and the UI that's hosted there. I'm just starting to experiment with the more flexible Victron HTML 5 interface and/or SignalK to use one of those as the primary interface and place the CoachProxy device in the role of a background MQTT host.

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turn10-garage commented · Mar 17, 2021 at 01:51 PM

Well that would be awesome @mvader (Victron Energy)! Right now I only have my MPPT utilizing the VE-Can so allowing RV-C out which could then be used for the items you list and I can just use my last VE-Direct port for the MPPT.

Thanks much for the reply this will help!

WOW!!! Man good things come to those who wait! I should have waited!! :D

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aussiecal commented · Mar 05, 2022 at 03:30 AM

@mvader (Victron Energy) czone have just brought out products that has RV-C is there any update on Victron rv-c out feature to be able to get SOC% etc on czone?

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slewinson commented · May 17 at 07:17 AM

@mvader (Victron Energy) I have managed to get the RV-C bus connected successfully with two Renogy REGO devices - the 60A MPPT and the 60A DCDC.

I have been sniffing the bus and can see that the VenusGX is advertising tank data onto the RV-C, but none of the solar-controller or charger PGNs are being used by the Venus.
Is there anywhere that this needs to be configured? I can assist with captures and testing if that is of use.

Cheers

Simon

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mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ slewinson commented · May 18 at 12:06 PM

The GX device is not reading solar charge controller data from the RV-C network, and I'm not interested in making that feature either; sorry.

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browner777 mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ commented · May 23 at 08:16 PM

Would be cool if some of the Coachproxy capabilities that are utilizing RV-C could be easiy exposed in the New GUI. Motorhome specific Pages with capabilities like Shade controls, Light controls, AC controls, vent controls. This would allow older coaches(pre 2015) to leverage Victron as the central Mgmt system. I’m in the process of converting my Allegro Bus to Victron. Starting with Lithium batteries, then the 12/12/50 controller for the alternator, smart shunt, and Cerbo at the core. Would be great to tap into the Spyder RV-C network and have everything on one touch display.

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slewinson browner777 commented · May 26 at 12:48 AM

Yep, I also would love to integrate all of my RV systems into the Venus environment.

Looks like I will need to do most of it in NodeRed after pushing data in via MQTT.

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browner777 slewinson commented · May 27 at 11:45 PM

Are you planning on using Coach Proxy and the RVC converter to JSON?

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slewinson browner777 commented · May 29 at 03:56 AM

Kinda, sorta. Still thinking over how best to achieve what I want.

Another tool I am seriously looking at is https://github.com/freakent/dbus-mqtt-devices that allows you to add DBUS devices on the fly via MQTT.

Ultimately, I think it will become a parser for the RV-C based on the coachproxy bits that feeds into dbus-mqtt-devices, essentially integrating RV-C like it should be done.

@mvader (Victron Energy) would it be possible to allow access to the RV-C decoding / integration component of the VenusOS code base so we can add RV-C device support, similar to what you have done for the BLE sensors.

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mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ slewinson commented · May 29 at 06:22 AM

Hey @slewinson , to an individual under NDA then yes perhaps. But make no mistake, this is some real C code. And much more than ble-sensors.

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slewinson mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ commented · May 29 at 06:30 AM

Thanks @mvader (Victron Energy)

I am not unfamiliar with C++ coding so that would not be a real barrier. I would love to have a look at the existing code and see if it is within my skill level to add support. Happy to execute an NDA.

I will see how adding it externally goes.

Another question - how hard would it be to forward all traffic from a specific source address to a custom handler thats outside the core code? That might be safer and require less regression testing.

Cheers

Simon

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