Hello I have a victron smartsolar 100/20 + batteries and solar pannel in a property without electricity and internet connection. As it os cheap today to have a 4g Access I would like to buy a 12v 4g router and being able to read voltage from my battery from my home in city. Later I would like also to install some wifi camera to be able to watch my property when I’m home.
I don’t find any wifi device that would allow me to read battery voltage using wifi. Only Bluetooth. There is also a problem because in France 4g don’t provide public IP I could use to connect to the installation from outside.
But I discover that using raspberry pi 3 or 4 I may be able to connect to my smart solar 100/20 and retrieve all data I need.
Is it true ? Will I also be able to connect the raspberry pi to my 4g router using ethernet and ask the raspberry pi to write data to my Nas hosted in my home in city?
If it’s possible is there some existing project I could use to create my own ? Do I need to configure all by myself or is it kind of default project already configured ? Or I need to write myself some drivers etc…
There are some links on the blog post.
Yes it is diy and for the most part has community support.
Then there is ther cerbo s. Logs to the vrm and you can download those if you really want local data.
You would be able to set up grafana and docker for locally hosted more granular stuff.
This you will be on your own so to speak. You would need to set up a whole host of things to support it.
The cerbo is too much expensive and i need to connect it to another victron device to have 4g support if I’m correct. And then I won’t be able to have my hotspot to connect other stuff like cameras.
The global link also and more after 5 years I need to pay monthly (price is hidden…) and sale problem, no hotspot to connect cameras later.
I was also tout about a old phone connected in Bluetooth to the victron mppt device with an app to control remotely the phone. It could work but let a phone permanently switch on with a charger is not safe nor very stable. The battery may die quickly.
In the end the raspberry pi solution seems interesting but I don’t understand if it is allowed or not by victron. Do they agree that people install their os on a cheaper hardware than the cerbo ?
Also I don’t know what I may be able to do with the Venus os installed on the raspberry pi ? Internet connection is possible if the raspberry pi is connected to Ethernet to a 4g router ? Are they some applications? I guess the connection to the mppt is possible like the cerbo right ?
For instance if later I need cameras will I be able to configure stuff so that the camera will be accessible from outside using the 4g router whereas there is no public IP for the 4g router (vpn création using the raspberry pi ??)
The cerbo would connect to your 4g modem/router either through wifi or wired network. You still have your internet available for camera or whatever use you desire
But, like mentioned they are fairly expensive just for this sole purpose. Though the watered down version, the cerbo-s with just basic features is about $50 cheaper than the full blown version
There may be other cheaper and more simple options out there but I don’t believe victron offers any cheaper solution
As you already plan to use 4g, there are no future hidden charges as you can also install your own sim as with a 4G router. I used a 3G router (network only supported 2G) and it surprised me how well it worked even for firmware upgrades. The modifications space and github is where you will find lots of info on raspi.
Install an old and cheap RPi as gateway. I think even an RPi zero with WiFi will do the trick. Plug a 4G usb stick in there which holds the simcard. Set this RPi up as access point.
Get another RPi (4 is probably quick enough) and install Venus OS and connect your MPPT with a USB to VE.direct cable.
connect the Venus RPi via WiFi (or network cable if both have ports) to the gateway RPi.
Sounds complicated, but I’m not convinced you can both run Venus OS and set the device as gateway on one RPi. I could be wrong, so people can correct me. Unless your 4G modem includes a gateway function, you wouldn’t need the 2nd RPi.
Thanks a lot, this sound great but I don’t know at all where I could find any information to do this. I. This forum ? On a dedicated raspberry pi forum ?
The cerbo-s is purely a victron tool for monitoring and controlling their products.
What I think you’re confusing it with now, is that if you are handy with electronics you can use a raspberry pi to run the same software that the cerbo uses. This would allow you to use the raspberry pi as an all-in-one solution, though it is very much a DIY project (yes, a raspberry pi forum may be more helpful for this kind of setup)
My personal recommendation, if you want to just plug-and-play you can use a cerbo-s and something like a ZTE MF275R for the modem/router (just an example as you’d need something comparable that will work with your carrier network). Just the 2 items are all you need, the zte modem/router is your 4g modem with a built in wired and wireless router to connect your cameras and the cerbo-s to
Thanks, I will start first by installing official venus os on a raspberry pi to connect to my victron mppt. I will see later if I may need another raspberry pi to host a gateway so that I could connect from outside to reach some cameras.
I have the feeling about Venus os that this forum may be the correct one as on raspberry pi forum o read that the advice is to ask here
So my question is the following do you know if I need to buy a specific version of raspberry pi ? As it is not expensive I would buy the latest one but I need to have a low power consumption so I read also that raspberry pi version 2 is better for this. But I would like to be sure that the raspberry pi is recent enought to run the last version of my mppt (victron smart solar 100/20).
This victron device is quite old, would it work with last Venus os version ? Maybe yes if victron has a good policy (it still work with the android version and Bluetooth).
What kind of cable do I need to buy for the connectivity between victron smart solar and the raspberry pi ?
Raspberry pi seems to have a monitor feature but I don’t care. Is it mandatory for the installation process ? I read also I can connect USB keyboard and classic monitor for the installation. When in place I hope I don’t need anything to configure it (http server seems to be available for configuration)
Finally one important part is the accessibility of the data, it seems the raspberry pi will transmit data to the victron server and victron allow me for free to consult my data that are stored in their server.
I don’t understand well the business strategy of victron here… Venus os available for free with raspberry pi instead of their cerbo that is very expensive, solar data stored for free on their servers ? This is nice and maybe it is a good way to sell their devices (but not the cerbo…)
I would take a RPi 4 with 2GB of RAM. The Cerbo has lower specs than that, so even a 3 could work, but just in case you start running things like Node Red or other scrips on it, a RPi 4 (or later) is not a bad choice.
The advantage of the Cerbo is the dedicated ports and the easy way to get power from the batteries. You can connect the Cerbo straight onto the battery bus (or batteries, be careful in installations that are unattended for a while as it might drain the batteries over time if not always charged). It accepts V between 8-70V. The RPi will be more picky (5V over USB via normal power socket or you need a V step down module from your batteries). You’ll also need VE.Direct to USB adapters for the devices you connect to the RPi. With the Cerbo you can connect VE.Direct, VE.CAN and things like tank monitors.
In your case you just need one MPPT and one RPi plus a VE.Direct to USB cable is enough to get you going. Plus the internet connectivity via your 4G router.
You won’t need your NAS. All data is visible in VRM once you have everything up and running.
