Hi all,
Right now I’m using Node-Red on a server to interact with my IOT infrastructure. But after some recent bother with a battery, I decided to look closer into Node-RED on the Venus itself, with a view to improving the notifications I’ll be getting about alarms.
After updating to the latest firmware (today that’s 3.72), I logged into the Node-Red interface and began to marvel at what was there.
Naturally my first instinct was to whack an MQTT out node on it to talk to the local broker. This is when I noticed an odd thing.
A large number of the nodes won’t let me select my hardware, and of those that do, a large number simply return null payloads. I have searched in vain for help, but without success.
Thankfully modbus continues to function well, it’s simply that Node-Red is easier to use.
Can anyone help my understanding of what’s happening?
Thank you
could you give a few examples which values you want to send?
Hi @kr0815 , thank you for responding.
I would, for example, like to monitor alarm states, so I can use them as triggers in other systems.
If I add a Battery Monitor node, the node correctly identifies my battery (Freedom Lite), and gives me a list of available data I can pull, which includes the alarms I want. However, they always return a payload of null.
In the interim, I found that I can get much of the same data choosing the Solar Charger node, which can pull an error state. More than adequate for my needs, I’m just confused about why some nodes report null.
My current hypothesis is that when a node returns null, I either don’t own the hardware being referenced, or else it’s managed elsewhere. For example, if the MPTT is managing the battery, perhaps the battery doesn’t report values. This is what I’m assuming.
Do you get the desired values by modbus?
I´d say the Nodes you try are generall nodes, not all values available as you BMS dpesn´t transmit these
Did you see the preview window? There you see directly what is available
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Hi @kr0815, I think so too, thank you.
Yes I can get these values via Modbus, but to get them via local MQTT is far more convenient, efficient, and more secure.
which modbus registers /values are you reading?
Maybe you are looking under the wrong device? Maybe ut is under something like VE-Bus?
If all doesnt work - did you see - almost last in the list - the yellow “custom input” ?
There you should find everything that is available by modbus
A third way would be to read from Venus MQTT Broker and send the desired value through NodeRED to your own Broker
