For a professional project a client asked us whether we could integrate a ComAp intellilite MRS16 into our Cerbo GX display. This question came shortly after having read a article about ComAp integration into Victron, so we excitedly said yes to the customer. However, what I did not expect was that it was an older type (intellilite 3 instead of 4) which was not natively supported in VenusOS. This caused some headaches because the ordered Ethernet card didn’t work and we had to purchase the older type. After that also didn’t work, I went looking for alternative solutions to make the systems talk to each other and send a message to @ptrenz who had worked on the generator integration. He pointed me to the “virtual generator“ in Victron’s NodeRed integration. This however wasn’t available in the official release yet, but after updating to the public beta 3.70, I was able to create this generator and was able to set it up using a NodeRed modbus integration that feeds into the generator statistics. Now the client is able to view (most of) their generator information and the fuel level which was a big thing for them. Really awesome for Victron to give us the power to integrate a system ourselves this way and make it look and feel as if it was always part of the VenusOS software. The start-stopping for this particular genset was a bit difficult to get working, but because of NodeRed it works as expected every time! If anyone needs to setup a simular generator or one of the older ComAp controllers, I might be able to provide you with the start and stop code/registers because they are fairly well hidden in the manual. Let me know if there’s anyone interested in that and I can share it here.
Cheers @ptrenz for your response and great work on the integration and hopefully more people will be able to implement something simular using this method!
Yes, of course I can share with you what I did to make it work. Tomorrow I will be back in the office and be able to share the NodeRed code with you, but important to know for now is that the Cerbo needs to be on the Beta and Large VenusOS software. 3.70+
This is needed because the version of the Victron NodeRed integration hasn’t yet been included in the 3.65 software yet.
After you have made these updates, you’ll be able to use a template generator in NodeRed and then you can import the program I will share with you tomorrow.
Make sure you also set the modbus registers from the ComAp controller to the same variables as Victron requires for the ComAp IntelliLite 4 IRS. I will also share a link or instructions tomorrow with the NR software
Before you start, make sure you find out the following: Do you have the intelliLite 4 or the older intelliLite (no number on the unit, but then it would be IntelliLite 3). If you have the IntelliLite 4, you can just follow victron’s user guide found here: 18. GX - Generator auto start/stop
If you happen to have the older version of the IntelliLite, you have a few issues you need to solve.
You need to have the CM2ETHERXBX module installed in the device.
You should have the ComAp IntelliConfig software tool installed.
You need to be on VenusOS 3.70 or higher, because of NodeRed updates.
You have to make a connection to the module and follow most of the instructions Victron provides for its newer brother but instead of their modbus list, you should use the one I have configured: