All Posts in Modifications

I'm a big fan of the open nature of Victron's platform - both the API and the data itself. We've been using this to great effect in our RV, using the rich, real-time data from our Victron CCGX not just for monitoring but also to integrate into our home automation system.

One such use case is bringing the data into Home Assistant. I'm using MQTT via an intermediary MQTT broker so that I can have multiple consumers without increasing the load on the CCGX itself. This has been running flawlessly for almost 2 years now.

Here's an example of the data I'm pulling into Home Assistant and how it appears:

[image]

The real power, however, comes from not just displaying the data but using it to make physical changes via automations.

For example, most of the time we have our inverter turned off due to the background power draw which is significant in our modest RV setup (600W solar + 300Ah lithium batteries). When dry camping and all our power is coming from solar, we have it set up to automatically turn on the inverter when the batteries hit 90%. The fridge switches from propane to AC at 95%, and at 98% the electric water heater turns on. There is hysteresis configured to turn each toggle off at lower SoCs too.

We're planning to spend this winter in a very cold climate (northern Vermont where temperatures could reach 0°F). Our RV has a 30A main breaker, which is easily exceeded if we run too many appliances - e.g. water heater, space heater, Instant Pot. I'm planning another automation which will automatically and temporarily turn off the water heater and / or space heater if we're at risk of exceeding the capacity of either our main breaker or MultiPlus output (computed in real-time based on shore power connectivity).

Having the data from the Victron system integrated alongside the data from our other home automation system (10+ environmental sensors, contact sensors, GPS, lights, appliances, media, networking data etc) is an incredibly powerful platform that is helping to make our RV more secure, more efficient and most importantly, more comfortable for us to live in.

As I said earlier, the Victron data is being ingested via MQTT but I'm hoping to find some time this winter to work on a native integration with Home Assistant. If anyone from Victron is interested in being involved in that process, please let me know!

Again, hope this inspires people with a few ideas, and thank you again to the team at Victron for making all this possible!

Good day all,

Just now, a new version was made available to test as a Release Candidate, version v2.62~9.

This post is intended for all people participating in the Venus OS Beta test program.

The goal is for this beta release to be one of the very last ones before official release. Please give it a good test and report below if all works well, or if you see any regressions or other issues.

Changes in v2.62~8 and v2.62~9

• Fix an issue causing MPPTs to (sometimes) no longer be properly put in External Control. Issue was introduced earlier during v2.62 development, thank you @Daniel for reporting.
• Fix a quite rare issue with these AC Current Sensors.
• Fix grid alarm flapping in systems having a PV Inverter on the AC-Output. This issue was introduced in v2.60. Thank you @ThomasW. for reporting.
• Fix unreliable detection for BMV-600s running firmware v2.08 and later as well as MPPT Solar Chargers running firmware v1.09 or earlier. Issue was introduced in v2.40.
• Remove parameters "Nr. of modules blocking charge" and "Nr. of modules blocking discharge" for the BYD batteries, since there is a bug in the parameter. Once fixed we'll put it back.
• Improve stability of TCP connection to PV Inverters, most importantly SolarEdge PV Inverters.
• developers: Add support for remotely controlling the relay in a BMV, through for example MQTT. Support for this in ModbusTCP will follow later.

Changes in v2.62~10

• Update dnsmasq as per recent CVEs

To see the changes in previous v2.62 beta versions, start with the previous post, here.

Thats it for now, all the best, as always thank you for your interest and efforts; and have a good day!

Matthijs

UPDATE 2021-01-11: see accepted answer

ORIGINAL

Hi all,

As some of you know, Venus OS for raspberrypi is a hobby project by our developers, worked on in their free time.

And raspberrypi4 support has been wanted and asked for since a while now, as thats the now commonly available raspberrypi model.

We hoped and waited for someone in the community to step up and do the work, but that didn't happen. Perhaps too specialised a set of skills required (openembedded, linux, and-so-forth) - and I must admit that its quite the time investment to work on that.

Anyway, the good news is that we have a new set of images available. One image for the raspberrypi2 and 3, and another for the raspberrypi4.

So now, rather than looking to - or waiting for - the community to do the development work, we're hoping for people to do the testing work. Welcome to comment what work in your system and what does not.

Enjoy, Matthijs

Changes compared to our existing raspberrypi images:

1. Update linux from 4.9 to 4.19
2. The whole sdcard is now used and roughly 1/3 is assigned to /data
3. both root filesystems are also increased to roughly 1/3 each
4. u-boot settings are now stored redundantly on the sdcard; the FAT

   partition is no longer written to.

Not much has been tested, so the question is how many thing still work.

Note: these images are intended for that, testing, don't use them in anything serious. There are no automatic updates / bug fixes e.g.

This code is open source, and the changes are in this branch: https://github.com/victronenergy/meta-victronenergy/tree/WIP_rpi4

Downloads:

• raspberrypi2 and 3: http://updates.victronenergy.com/feeds/tmp/venus-image-raspberrypi2-20200517094246-v2.60~22.rootfs.wic.gz
• raspberrypi4: http://updates.victronenergy.com/feeds/tmp/venus-image-raspberrypi4-20200517094427-v2.60~22.rootfs.wic.gz

Note that they are full images. Its not possible to install it as a .swu file. They need to be burned to an sdcard, which erases all contents on that sdcard. For detailed instructions, see the Venus OS on raspberrypi instructions.

Things to test

Report results in the comments and answers below. Always include the exact model of RaspberryPi you are using please, and just to make sure there are no confusions, report firmware version & build number of Venus OS that you are using too.

Hello guys,

@mvader (Victron Energy), @Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager),@Johannes Boonstra (Victron Energy Staff)

Because most of us use lithium batteries, and as you know, is not recommend to charge it or keep them to 100% this light in my head the ideea to ask you if is possible to add an option in ESS - that can limit inverter/charger to a custom SOC.

I know that we can set charge voltage in inverter but each time we need to hook an laptop with Windows and make changes...and, not all of us are windows users, and not anyone know how to set charger voltage, and is possible to make some mistakes and changes there also that can damage battery or set them on fire.

In some situations will be more easy to do it from ESS menu. For example for normal use I will setup inverter to charge to 90% and discharge based on ESS setting, that is great.

In my case, I have 40kWh lithium and to persevere batteries and increase cycles I can chose to charge only to 80%...and discharge to 40%. Now, I made this by set an small charging voltage, but when I need full battery power need to all this again...and I repeat accidents my happen... This will be an option like Tesla recommend in their cars to use the battery so can last longer.

In other cases when for example a storm is announced...I will set inverter to charge to 100%.

In this way we can configure the real battery capacity into Victron, no need to make calculation in order to charge to a specific value based on voltage. I will setup inverter to know that 4.2v is 100% and 3.0v is 0% (of course based on battery series in parallel)

Will be part of ESS - optimized (Whit batterylife) and (whiteout)

Just a thought from an Romanian fan!

Hi All

Just installed a raspberry Pi 3B+ with Venus GX Firmware as a gataway for my solar system on my boat.

It works pretty fine!

I used the official Pi3 Case for it.

I didn't install any heatsink or fan.

As it can get pretty warm in my boat, just wondering how the device can handle the temperature?

What happen if it would overheat? It will power down automaticly?

Is it nessesary to install a heatsink or fan or I'am good to go how it is right now?

Does anyone has some exprerience on that topic?

Many thanks

I've got a Fronius on AC OUT and it is shown wrong on remote console.

The correct flow is the one i have drawn with the red arrows.

Why's that?

Any possibility do modify that? or will it be corrected in one of the next firmwares?

[image]

regars,

Andy

I posted this in Q&A and got no replies to similar cases.

setup: MP2 5kVA (4.77), 250/100 MPPT, Pylon US3000 (all current GA code)

This is easily reproduced, happens 100% of the time.

If an ESS schedule is enabled (either optimised mode) then the inverter throttles PV for AC loads significantly.

If the schedule is disabled PV returns to normal.

If the mode is changed to "keep batteries charged" it also works fine.

There seems to be a bug related to ESS that is preventing full PV being used.

HI all
Hope you are well.
I connected wind+MPPT to the RPI which Venus OS is installed.
And I executed the dbus-bornay-windplus.py file of github, and it works well, I can read the log.
So I tried to read the value using the following command.
***********************************************************
dbus -y com.victronenergy.windcharger.bornay_ttyUSB0 /ProductName GetValue
************************************************************
But the output is:

ERROR:dbus.proxies:Introspect error on :1.47:/ProductName: dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "/usr/bin/dbus", line 379, in <module>

ret = obj.object.get_dbus_method(method.name, iface.name)(*args)

AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'name'
***************************************************************************
And the output of "bud -y" is like the following.

[image]

Hi,

First time working with Grafana and is seems to be going well, however when i want to change a icon on my dashboard i,m unable to see all options. The dude in the victron video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-sGH0etieM&feature=youtu.be does get all options when he types for exampje system.

[image]

However if I type system, nothing shows in the lines below.

[image]

Any idea why this happens ? Changed browser to test if this was a browser thing...

Tested Chrome, IE and edge,

We are using VRM portal to access and monitor our systems (Venus GX/Victron Multiplus) , but would like to use ssh remotely to login as root to the console to install/update python scripts running on the Venus. SSH is enabled in the Venus GX interface, but how to remotely access the Venus by ssh ?

I have enhanced my Chargery BMS driver for Venus OS a lot and it want to share my code! Maybe we can get other BMS data as well to be displayed on Venus/Cerbo etc... My source code (surely open source) is available at https://github.com/Tobi177/venus-chargerybms and surely Victron is allowed to embed it to Venus OS! :) It even have an install script now! :)

Maybe my code can be helpful for any developers! Victron, thank you for your open source support! Much appreciated!

[image]

[image]

[image]

[image]

Bye

Tobi

Hey guys,

I have a Cerbo unit hooked up to a gx touch 50 screen in my 4WD.

I have a 42L water tank and I’m wanting to somehow hook that up to the cerbo hbitto display water level.

is that something that can be done?

cheers!

Sam

I have venus os running on a pi at 2.60 b37. I figured I would finally get around to playing with the app, and it does not seem to appear on the chart plotter, despite the fact that they are communicating.... My config is the chartplotter and rest of ship ethernet systems connecting to a wifi-router vi ethernet. The venusOs connects to the same router over wifi, not hardwired. The plotter won't see it and post the app, but if I hardwire it in it sees it just fine. The ethernet config lists a "local link address" when hardwired, not over wifi.
I did a bit of digging, and if I go in to /etc/init.d/avahi-autoipd and change the device from eth0 to wlan0 it creates a link local address. The MFD "kind of" sees it. victron appears on the app page, but with no icon. When I try and select the victron app, I get a communication error.
I'm presuming that something else is bound to eth0... maybe mqtt?

Before I go too far into troubleshooting, is this something that's doable or should I just run another wire in the boat?

Just loaded v2.70~3-large-12 onto my Raspberry PI and on boot am getting this error. A search of the Web does not provide any information about what this might be. Anyone have any idea...

[image]

Hello all,

As some of you know, something new is in the works, called "Venus OS large". This post is intented to start getting a large audience for it, as well as to recruite more help in further developing it.

This story is a bit longer than I usually type, here we go:

Introduction

Venus OS Large is an extended build of Venus OS, it adds Node-RED and Signal K server.

Node-RED is a tool for connecting hardware devices, APIs and online services. It provides a browser-based editor that makes it easy to wire together flows. With it, one can for example program something relatively simple such as a relay to open or close based on a temperature measurement. As well as make far more complex algorithms, tying voltage, current, power or other readings and other data available from Venus OS or elsewhere together with outputs such as relays or control points of the Victron system. All without having to write real source code.

Also Node-RED features a fully customisable dashboard, viewable in a webbrowser - both locally and remotely, via the VRM Servers.

Signal K server is aimed for yachts, and multiplexes data from NMEA0183, NMEA 2000, Signal K and other sensor inputs. It makes all that data available for Apps, such as WilhelmSK, a highly customizable boat instrument display. The Sailing with Signal K blogpost on our website is a great read for more information and ideas.

Customisation & automation without needing to be a software developer

The value of above is that now you can self configure and customise your GX Device to do many of the things asked for here. And doing so without having to posses software developer skills. It will require patience, time and to be not too afraid of trying things.

Its really extremely powerful and I'm super excited about the possibilities.

Documentation & how to install

See https://www.victronenergy.com/live/venus-os:large.

Venus OS Large is available for the Cerbo GX, Venus GX, MultiPlus-II GX and EasySolar-II GX as well as the RaspberryPi3 and RaspberryPi 4.

Want to help?

There are a few ways to help. First of all by simply installing and using it; and reporting any issues, or just that you're happily using it and what you are using it for.

The other is by helping others here on the Modifications section on Community. There is and will be no official support for Venus OS Large. Instead, we are referring users to turn here, the Modifications Space on Victron Community. You can help by answering questions.

Next, there is developing and improving the documentation; The manual needs further development, also the nodes and available measurements will need detailing and documenting, examples, screenshots, videos, it will all help adoptation and getting the best out of this. And we'll need more help for all of that that.

Lastly I am looking for help in development and support. First of all to further develop and support the Victron integration into Node-RED, ie. the node-red-contrib-victron package. Which will require nodejs experience, Linux experience, and preferably also experience with Victron products; ideally you'd be following and taking part of the discussions here on Community, (remotely-) debugging issues as well as suggesting and implementing new functionality in the said package.

Besides the node-red package, also the integration of Node-RED and Signal K in Venus OS needs to be maintained. Which requires a different skillset: deep experience and knowledge of Linux, but also the Open Embedded build system.

Conclusion

I can type a whole lot more about this, but have to stop now. Have a good Sunday! And if you have examples, or questions or comments, welcome to put them below.

Ps. Node-Red example flow:

[image]

Hello,

I am working on the Inverter. I need to create a LabVIEW monitoring system for my network. Can anyone suggest to me how can I do inverter 12/509 phonix with LabVIEW?

Thank You

Is it possible, will it be possible to connect an external/existing Node-Red setup to Venus OS instead of using the internal Node-Red that will be available in a future release of Venus OS?

i recently encountered a problem with the system i have had for a number of years, when the batteries are charged up the Multiplus units then dump the battery capacity back into the grid , then the multiplus units will grid charge the batts and then dump them back into the grid again , it cycles like this day and night. The system consists of 2x 5kva multiplus units connected parallel, 1x 5 kw + 1x 4kw SMA inverters, color controller. running ESS with feed into grid enabled.

I want to connect my Cerbo to a REC BMS. REC uses a DB9 and has power on pin 9. Searching information in this forum I found the pinout for CAN, but it only shows the signals and ground. Is there a power line on the VE.CAN?

Pin 3 - Ground, Pin 8 Low, Pin 7 High.

[image]

Hey there, fairly new here. Been working with Victron systems for a few months now in custom RV conversions. I'm curious if anyone has modified the GX touch interface to be a bit simpler? The biggest complaints I hear is a lot of the system information is a bit too complex for the average user. Terms like "Shore", "Multiplus", "Digital Multi Controller", are a lot to soak in for someone's first adventure in recreational living. I don't know exactly how to get where I'm going but my ideal setup would include simple switching without much menu diving on the GX interface. The dataflow for power consumption is neat, but I feel an easy, intuitive pump control, inverter control, and system control would be of more benefit on the main screen. Or swipe between colored buttons and the dataflow screen with deeper menu diving available for the more tech inclined individual.

Is this possible within the GX system interface? Sorry if I'm missing some major points as I'm fairly new to all of this so I'm trying to learn as much as I can.

Thanks

Stykz

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone can point me to the Data Protocol used to control the state of a MultiPlus Inverter/Charger.

I would like to replace the MultiDigital controller function with a RaspberryPI or Arduino. I believe that it is possible to replace the MultiDigital when connected using an MK2/MK3 USB interface.

I understand that the protocol is available but I have to make a request to Victron (aka. "not for the faint of heart" :)) but I can't seem to find how to make the request.

Thanks in advance.

Description:

As an installer I want to be able to integrate an external generator (AC) as smooth as usual using Victron components without negative side effects to the existing installation.

Imagine an installation like this:

Existing ESS installation e.g. 3-phase System represented by 3 MultiPlus II, a Venus device, a Fronius PV Converter behind the Multis (with enabled MG50 / need for frequency shifting) and one or multiple MPPTs connected to a BYD battery

As charging device I want to use a MultiPlus II as a charger only - therfor the Multi would only be connected to the venus device by VE.bus, to the generator on the AC IN, and to the battery.

This MultiPlus should affect the existing ESS System (which provides the AC power for consumption) in the same way as a MPPT does.

Integrating the generator, connected to the additional Multi, should have all advantages the existing system already has, such as:

• Optimal battery charging
  • Venus device knows about the charger and can take its power into account
  • the charger receives the currently allowed maximum charge current and can charge according to the BMS / DVCC
• available data of the charger on DBUS/MQTT/Modbus
• Displaying the charger in its role as a generator and its provided power in the same way a Quattro does

[image]

As read in the community forum and responses from my very experienced and helpful dealer, there are several possibilities to integrate a generator into an existing MultiPlus II ESS System, but in my opinion all of them are not as smooth as I am used to from Victron. They are also do not provide the upper listed advantages (And I'm pretty sure that the system design and the architecture could be enabled to do this).

This is an implementation detail, but It could work like this:

The additional Multi needs to be configured in ve.configure for accepting the generator anyway.

Either the Multis role could be configured at the venus device directly as it is usual e.g. for grid meters or an additional assistant could be created sth. like an "Generator integration" Assistant (unfortunately my "finding good names" gene is broken).

Having this assistant running on the additional Multi, the venus device knows its role and the assistant could also disable features of the Multi which are not required or must not be active in this role.

For sure this use case could be extended for example by integrating a 3-Phase Generator using 3 additional Multis, ...

While searching the forum I saw that a lot of community members have a similar demand.

It would be great if a feature like this would be available in upcoming releases.

Maybe you could give some Feedback.

I'm much more confident with software, control processes and low-voltage discrete current, so please excuse if there are technical restrictions which I do net see right now.

Best regards,

Martin

Good day all

Just now we released v2.62~5 for field testing. Fixing various small issues.

This post is intended for all people participating in the Venus OS Beta test program.

Changes

• Cerbo GX only: Fix bug in Remote Console on LAN password handling. This bug was introduced in version v2.57. Note that change, unfortunately breaks passwords set on versions before v2.57. To reset the password, press and hold the reset button for a minimum of four seconds. This bug only refused login on Remote Console on LAN with the password enabled, not when logging in through Remote Console on VRM. Thank you [ @JetWire ].
• Cerbo GX only: increase buzzer volume. Thank you [@vince.farrar & @Robert Leonard].
• Various small changes related to the VRM Portal, see below.
• Various fixes to digital inputs handling on Venus GX and Cerbo GX, thank you [xx].:
  • Digital inputs were called GPS-es on the VRM Device Overview, no longer (fixed by changing the productids of digital inputs & pulse meters)
  • Fix missing Connection value in the gui.
  • Reset sub-settings when the input type is changed, as still seeing the previous one can be confusing.
• Fix Remote Console on VRM & Remote Support tunnel not working when customers network included IPv4 over IPv6.
• ModbusTCP
  • Add registers for the multiple MPP Trackers of Inverter RS and MPPT RS.
  • Add register for the VE.Bus Ignore AC Input state.
• Fix Remote Firmware update issue when having many (for example 20 or more) VE.Can device in the network by increasing the scan time from 2 to 4 seconds.

VRM

• Add logging of battery module status for managed batteries with multiple modules: nr of modules that are online, offline, or blocking charge or discharge, as also visible in the gui for a while already. Note that not all managed batteries support this feature and that the BYD implementation is currently being checked as it seems lime the field is not yet in line with actual mosfet status in the batteries.
• Add logging the status of the an ESS protection that temporarily disables Feedback when the AC input frequency variation is too high. This protection has been in the ESS Assistant for a long time, and version 0x017A or newer is needed to see its status.
• Reduce data consumption by no longer initiating a transmission when the state of a Solar charger changes, which happens often during sunrise and sunset.
• Add logging the Ignore AC Input status for VE.Bus systemss

For changes up to an including the previous version, v2.62~4, see here: https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/68860/venus-os-v2624-available-for-testing.html.

Lastly, in the ~4 thread there is a comment about a possible regression wrt internet or VRM connectivity. If anyone else is having the same issue, please comment. I expect that we'll look into that one next week.

All the best and have a good weekend,

Matthijs

Hi , I recently installed a Orion smart 12v/12v -30 non isolated in my 2014 Mercedes sprinter. It is charging 2x Exide ER650 marine and leisure 12v 142ah batteries. I'm not sure of the settings I should be using? I couldn't find anything on line. Any help would be greatly appreciated. TIA Glenn.

Hi there,

I am planning to install Victron with an ioBroker connection.

That means I would like to read out the values using Modbus. I can read out most of the data thanks to the Victron Excel table CCGX-Modbus-TCP.

On the attached picture you can see the value DC-Power. I do not succeed in reading these out.

I thought it is: Battery Power (System) 842 int16 1 -32768 to 32767 / Dc / Battery / Power no W

I get values on the address but 3 times as high as on the display.

Did anyone have any idea whether I am choosing the right value or what could be wrong?

Thanks in advance

[image]

Good afternoon (or morning/night/evening),

Just now we released v2.62~4 for field testing. It adds support for Inverter RS & MPPT RS when connected on the VE.Can port as well as fixes problem when connecting many MPPTs (ie. 15, or 20 of them).

This post is intended for all people participating in the Venus OS Beta test program.

Changes (compared to v2.62~3)

• Fix bug that caused the gui to run out of memory when connecting many VE.Can or VE.Direct devices (15, 20 or even more MPPTs). After running out of memory the gui would (in most cases) restart, causing a chain of other issues.
• Add support for the Inverter RS & MPPT RS when connected using the VE.Can comm. port. Connecting on the VE.Direct comm port was already added in earlier versions.
• Add MPPT DeviceOffReason and MPPOperationMode fields to the VE.Can driver.

All the best,

Matthijs

Good day to all,

Just now we released v2.62~3 for field testing. It fixes an annoying regression introduced per v2.62~2 as well as some other open ends. Details below.

This post is intended for all people participating in the Venus OS Beta test program.

Changes (compared to v2.62~2)

• Fix bug that caused VictronConnect to indicate that a firmware update is required when accessing a product remotely through VRM. The problem was introduced in v2.62~2.
• MPPT RS: Add logging of individual tracker data to VRM (still needs completion on VRM itself, for now the data is only available on the diagnostics page as well as in the download available on the advanced page).
• IMT Solar irradiation meter: Fix reporting of negative temperatures
• Fix bug in previous fix for race condition between BMV and systemcalc that caused consumption not to be logged in some cases (only seen on a raspberrypi, more info here).
• Send the the setting (enabled/disabled) of the Node-red as well as SignalK services (part of Venus OS Large) to VRM, will be used to hide/show the links.

All the best,

Matthijs

Good evening Africans & Europeans, and morning/night/afternoon to other time zones,

A new version available for field test, v2.62~7. Fixing two more issues as well as bringing a new feature for Remote VEConfigure.

This post is intended for all people participating in the Venus OS Beta test program.

Changes in v2.62~6 and v2.62~7

• Fix Bluetooth issues: VictronConnect would get stuck in "Fetching data" on certain phones/under certain conditions. Make sure to also restart VictronConnect after updating Venus OS, see Google for how to do that, ie search for example for "restart app iphone" or "restart app android".
• Fix Remote VEConfigure Error 61 on large systems. This error frequently occurred on systems with more than 6 Multis and a MK3 based GX device. The more Multi's the higher the probability of Error 61 occurring.
• Add feature to Remote VEConfigure which allows replacing one Multi (or Quattro or VE.Bus inverter) in a VE.Bus system. Steps:
  1. Read the configuration of the whole system (or use an existing remote VEConfigure file)
  2. Replace the failed unit
  3. Write the configuration (at this step, the system will automatically detect that one previous device has gone missing, and that there is a new unknown serial instead, and will thus assume that one has been replaced and write the settings accordingly
  4. (optionally) Read the new configuration file and store in your records.

To see the other changes in the v2.62 version, read here.

Thats it for now, all the best and have a good weekend,

Matthijs