I have a couple of Samsung SDI Battery (Model ELPM482) and I’m wondering if they’re compatibile with a Victron inverter, and if so, what connections/settings are required.
715449196-4-84kWh-Standard-Product-Specification-R0-2-20190319.pdf (2.9 MB)
Ok, so the voltage range is ok, and you have the connection detail for the CAN and the RS 485.
That’s the good news. Less good is that the can protocol is NOT compatible with the cerbo. However, your document does detail the device protocol, so you could build a translation unit to make that work. You also have the RS485 protocol, which you could use with the DBUS serial battery interface, but you would have to write a driver module for the battery too.
The can protocol should be engineerable. Do you have a firmware file for me? I can have a look to see if it’s readable and possibly extract the objects and encoding.
Essentially you need to map the manufacturer specific can objects and translate them to the cerbo objects. For the most part can objects are standard and usually easily ported.
The issue arises with encoding, knowing what encoding is being defined in the firmware is the “crux”.
While it is possible to just use the public objects, manufacturer and model specific objects are what will really make the cerbo and BMS able to communicate.
Hi Bachete, Thank you very much for taking the time to reply. Does this resource help?
or
Thank you again for your interest and help.
Mike,
Thank you for your swift response. I’ll confess a lot of that went over my head. Where do I write the code? Do I have to edit the inverter firmware? Sorry if these are dim questions.
Again, I really appreciate your response and helpfulness.
David
Alternatively you can ask Samsung for an eds file or for them to send you a list. You can also scan them with any can open module, just probe all address ranges and see where you get responses…though encoding will then still be an issue.
But the base stuff like SOC, cell v and temp, balance state etc should be “standard”
Best practice is to get at the firmware and extract the object range. It should tell you everything you’d ever need to know.
I need the battery firmware. If you get me the firmware off the battery or website,I should be able to extract the objects for you and port them to a translator to work with the cerbo.
Be warned, it’s not going to be easy. It took me 3 months of project time to extract my firmware objects.
You won’t need any special Arduino stuff, the cerbo has two dedicated can ports and can easily handle @250 BMSs.
You really only need to extract the can objects.
No need for firmware!!
6.2 Module to PCS CAN Communication
In your pdf defines the can attributes. So you just need a cable and connect to the cerbo. Just make sure it’s the right cable and we can move from there!
Success!!
You’re amazing. So to be clear, all I need is a network patch cable to go from the battery into the Victron inverter and we’re likely to be ok? Or is that oversimplifying it all?
Okay.
So I ported your batteries to my system that I wrote.
I just uploaded it to my github :
Note that I cant test this, but the system runs like mine does, only using your Samsung batteries.
So yes, essentially you need the cables and to properly switch the bms boards so that they will send the correct information and use CAN, and then install the repository, and we can test from there.
While I cant be sure of anything since I dont have physical access to the cerbo and batteries, it should work. Worst case we need to ssh into your device and set it up like that remotely.
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It’s in the specification document.
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I found hat after I responded 
The UID’s are all wrong for the Victron protocol!!
its a translator, it gets the battery objects and passes them to the victron. So even if something is wrong right now and not perfect, if it doesn’t work, we find it in implementation.
Most important part is to get can traffic on the bus. From there we can map anything.
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The Problem
-
Samsung SDI Battery: Was using
ProductId = 0(Unknown/Generic) -
Battery Aggregator: Correctly using
ProductId = 0xBFFF(49151)
The Fix
-
Samsung SDI Battery: Now uses
ProductId = 0xB005(45061 - Lithium Battery) -
Battery Aggregator: Remains
ProductId = 0xBFFF(49151 - Battery Monitor)
Thank you for catching this critical issue! The Samsung SDI Victron integration now uses the correct Victron ProductIds and will be properly recognized by the Cerbo GX interface.
The fix has been committed and pushed to the GitHub repository.
Can you access the raw CAN data from a python module running in the CERBO?
yes.
Follow-up question. Again, thank you both very much for your help with this. Does this look like a reasonable equipment list?
It I were you, I’d just start with just a cerbo. That way we can know if it’s actually going to work.
I’m about 98% sure it will work, but I don’t know if you can make it work.
I also don’t know if the Samsung uses the same wiring as the cerbo. I don’t know how many batteries you have or how much space you have to install pv. I don’t know how much sun you’ll get or what PV peak is going to be that maxes out your system. I don’t know your draw, or expectations of power delivery…all that should be asked to your Victron dude. I’ll only handle the connection and communication between victron and your batteries.
If you want me to help, you’ll need to set up port forwarding shh for the cerbo etc.
Because if you can’t get it to work with these batteries,what then? What’s the alternative?
The cerbo comes with the end resistors, but the pin out of the Samsung ports may require a custom cable to the cerbo. That is what you have to figure out first. Once you can get the data flowing on the cerbo, you’ll know for sure if my translator works.
Then it makes sense to purchase your kit. Because then the communication layer will be working and everything is plug and play after that.
Hey Bachete, if you were in Melbourne I’d buy you a beer. You’ve been so helpful and I am very thankful.
I’ll buy a CerboGX and have a noodle with it.
I have 6 of the batteries, buy may only use 2-3 down in town. I’m thinking of using the others to fire-proof a farm which always has the power dropped when a bushfire comes and you need the electricity the most.
I have 10x REC panels on a Fronius inverter currently (looking to expand), but I’ll do the maths on that and my usage.
You’ve been so good pointing me in the right direction, so I’ll do some work at my end and if its OK come back to you with my results.
Very best regards
David