All Posts in Modifications

Hi Folks,

I just finished putting together a little interface, that's almost too grand a title, to manage the charge current limit via Modbus.

Its a simple board with 4 diodes and a current limit resistor, although the latter is not strictly necessary. The diodes are in a string with the forward voltage drop's providing a reference voltage on the Aux in terminal.

My Cerbo GX is then used to short out some diodes giving selectable charge currents, implemented by the charge control assistant.

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Using the above I get 4 circa 750W steps, in my case starting at 0.

It works very well and I can now set a charge limit, including no charge, using Modbus from NodeRed to control the relays.

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The flow is only for testing right now, hence the inject nodes, but it opens a load of possibilities.

In case anyone is wondering, I have set the multi to shut down the charger when 0 current is requested. This results in a Passthru, state as opposed to Bulk with 0 current, and I was a little concerned that doing this would prevent the Assisting, state from being achieved but I just put a pizza in; that's my kind of testing; and set an AC current limit of 4A.

The multi went into assisting with no issue which is just as well because the alternative was an overload trip and me looking for a TORCH!

I have to say that I am a little confused as to why a module/interface like this doesn't exist, given its simplicity and usefulness, but then I guess you could argue that charge current limiting should be available as a writable parameter in the first place.

I know this isn't a question as such, given that my pizza answered the question I originally asked, but I am posting anyway because charge current limiting/self consumption and many other related queries seem to come up all the time, and have been doing so for years.

For anyone interested in the detail...

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The Aux port has a pullup, circa 600 Ohms I think, on the +, holding it at 5V if there is no current draw. The diodes/relays act as a selectable voltage reference, pulling Aux+ down to a little over the sum of Vf on all diodes that are not bypassed by a relay contact

The switching is binary, 0-3 with bit 0 on Rla1.

I know this is very simple, that is the point; I also know that there are many other ways to go, I could have used a PWM pin on the PI for example. However doing it this way means the relays can be operated via Modbus / MQTT / GX UI / VRM portal, which think is worth the minimal effort.

Additional relays could be used to force on, or off, the charger so the relay assistant could probably be made to do all sorts of stuff by modifying the output of this circuit.

Of course you can do just about anything with Node Red so I probably will not mess with the programmable relay stuff but it is worth pointing out I think.

Thoughts? could I have picked a better way? happy to learn.

Hi All,

I have a Victron MPPT BlueSolar 75/15 in my shed.

Once the shed gets to 40c inside (it is hot in Australia) the Victron will stop pulling power from the solar panels.

Load still works and there are no error lights etc (still shows float/bulk LEDs as normal).

Is there anyway to change this setting as is means I am unable to pull power in from the panels for a large percentage of the day.

Hi guys,

I tried to install some scripts to add a MQTT meter for ESS.

Add one point my /dev/root directory was 100% full so I decided to make a reset with an USB-Stick.
I have done the reset before and it worked well.

But now after the reset the Webinterface was no longer reachable.

Remote Console on LAN 2022-07-03 21-04-15.jpg

I can ping my Cerbo and via the VictronConnect App the CerboGX is still reachable with the VRM ONLINE PORTAL.

I tried the reset again several times with different USB-Sticks but unfortunately nothing changed.

Can anybody help me?

Many thanks in advance!

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:

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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

I have a 64-bit Raspberry Pi 4 with an Ubuntu operating system on which I have installed a 64-bit Docker system.

Now I am wondering if anyone can help me to find the venus-docker-server, venus-docker-grafana and venus-docker-upnp images that I can use, if such images are available.

Regards

I thought i´d share some of my installation pics. (if someone is interested?)

It is in a 2017 Fiat Ducato made by Pössl.

• Lifepo4 2x100ah batterys
• MPPT 100/30
• Smartshunt 500A
• Orion 12/12 - 30
• Cerbo GX + Display 50
• Multiplus 1200VA
• Smart Battery Sence
• Ruuvi Bluetooth tempsensor.
• And 360W sunpanels on the roof.

It is a wonderful system and i have totalcontrol.

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Cerbo GX configuration

the configuration software does not find MK3 interface . Therefore is no electrical connection

between Interface and Cerbo GX. What can I do ? Is there any idea ?

Hi community,

inspired by the dbus-shelly-3em-smartmeter from @fabian-lauer, I created my own dbus-shelly-1pm-pvinverter GitHub project to use a Shelly 1PM in VenusOS as a PV inverter. Maybe some one else find it useful.

Here are some screenshots from my current setup with these three Shelly devices (2x1PM and 3EM):

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An error is displayed after updating firmware on my MultiPlus-II 48/5000/70-48 from v496 to v497:

'Uploaded file does not match model and/or installed firmware version' Error: mk2vsc-46

Prior to the update I downloaded the Remote VEConfigure file "c0619ab040ab_inst_ttyS3_Interfaces_Mk2_Tunnel", so I have the original settings for v496.

Please help - what do I do now?

Thanks!

The communication white paper describes the following configuration when using MODBUS TCP and a GX device:

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I have a question, I’m thinking about a couple 12v pc fans in my van electrical cabinet, where I have 2 x victron dc to dc converters and a 2000va inverter, it gets fairly warm when the door is closed, how would I wire 2 of these 12v fans? Could they be wired directly to the battery? Or could I wire them to the output of the dc to dc converters so they only start when the engine starts? Would there be to much amperage for these little fans?

Thanks in advance.

Just wondering if anybody might have the know-how to integrate the afforable Xiaomi Mijia BLE LYWSD03MMC temperature/humidity sensors with dbus on VenusOS RPi3?

Theres a custom firmware available to tweak the transmitted data, which might make it easier to integrate? https://github.com/pvvx/ATC_MiThermometer

https://hackaday.com/2020/12/08/exploring-custom-firmware-on-xiaomi-thermometers/

https://github.com/algirdasc/xiaomi-ble-mqtt

Its great that the Ruuvi sensors are integrated & available, they're just a little out of my budget.

I've had success with 1wire ds18b20 in VenusOS but I'd love to move towards bluetooth sensors in my RV with VictronMPPT & inverter.

Thanks

Hi everybody,

I tried to download the Venus SDK for cortexa7hf (target is a Multi Plus 2 and a pi 3B for testing) using the instructions at howto-install-and-use-the-sdk. Unfortunately, it seems that the download path given there (https://updates.victronenergy.com/feeds/venus/release/sdk/) does not exist. I found something at https://updates.victronenergy.com/feeds/venus/develop/sdk/ but that seems to be for cortexa8hf only.

Can someone tell me where to get the sdk I need or has the support been discontinued?

Thanks

ks4z

Hello all,

Some good news tonight, we're releasing VictronConnect for Linux on x86 and x64 systems.

Details below, enjoy!

Best regards, Matthijs

Not officially supported

To start straight off with the limitations: unfortunately we do not officially support it. Its provided here as is, and we tested it to work on a few systems. But we can't help neither experienced nor inexperienced users with making it work on their Linux systems. And also I can't promise to be able to maintain our usual fast response to fixing bugs in case there are linux-specific bugs or limitations.

If there are issues, I'd expect them on the Bluetooth Connection side, and maybe some rendering issues; as well as other areas where its platform specific. Its built from the same source code as the Apple, Android and Windows versions of VictronConnect: so most of it will work just the same as there.

Where to download?

Here:

https://www.victronenergy.com/support-and-downloads/software#victronconnect-app

We tested it on these distributions:

• Ubuntu LTS (16.04, 18,04)
• Mint Cinnamon (3)
• Debian (10.2)
• OpenSuse Leap (15.1)
• and read through comments and answers below to learn about experiences on other distros

Installation instructions:

• After downloading the AppImage file, the execute bit must be set (chmod +x *.AppImage). On first program execution the application will be integrated into the menu/launcher.
• On some systems a session restart is needed (sign off/sign on) to reload the menu/launcher.
• The shortcut is installed into $HOME/.local/share/applications/VictronConnect.desktop. In case the AppImage file is moved from the directory where it was executed the first time the shortcut must be deleted or manually edited to update is with the new location.
• To connect to bluetooth devices the bluetooth controller must be activated.
  - Using GUI settings panel provided by the distribution, or
  - using command line by executing "systemctl start bluetooth"
• Mutimedia uses Gstreamer multimedia framework (minimum 0.10.24, or 1.x), and also the GStreamer following plugins: 'good', 'ugly', 'bad', ffmpeg (0.10), and libav (1.x)
• To work with USB devices (VE.Direct USB cable, MK3-USB cable) the user running VictronConnect must be a member of the dialup user group.

Bluetooth usage instructions

Open VictronConnect press scan and connect to one of the found devices. If after a 20 seconds you don't see a pairing dialog close VictronConnect and open a terminal.

In the terminal and run the bluetoothctl command line tool, type "default-agent" without the quotes and press enter. Leave the terminal visible on one side of the screen and open VictronConnect, press scan and connect to one of the found devices, after a few seconds the bluetoothctl tool will ask for the pin code type it in and press enter.

Good morning all!

We are currently beta testing a new feature in VictronConnect which is a major improvement: when you open VictronConnect, it will show information for your products (when in range) within seconds.

Which, patiently as I am myself (…), is really really cool.

Here is a video I took, of my electric boat: https://www.dropbox.com/s/28wqdoraucs0q86/RPReplay_Final1653669859.mov?dl=0.

And a screenshot:

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Within seconds, I can see what I want to know: how is the state of charge, are the batteries balanced. And thats done without having to connect to each individual battery. Much much faster.

Currently available for SmartLithiums, SmartShunt, BMV-712 and SmartSolars.

To try this, see VictronConnect Beta instructions.

Once installed, update your product(s) and then go to the product info page where you need to enable the new feature. Note that you might need to wait 20 seconds for the option to appear. Thats something we’ll fix before release.

Besides faster, also the range is a bit longer.

You might wonder how this works security wise: ie can someone now walk over the camping ground or harbor and see everybody their voltages and state of charge? The answer is no. The data is encrypted with security keys that are exchanged when connected; which is only possible when knowing the pin code. Do note that, as always, for max security, the only solution is to disable bluetooth and don’t use it at all.

Have a good weekend, Matthijs