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diy solar

JDB BMS w/ RS485 + Epever Tracer-BN Series to Raspberry Pi

TGPB

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I want to monitor my off grid system via wifi from anywhere.
I have
(4) JBD 4S BMS with RS485 connections + UART/Bluetooth
(2) Epever Tracer -BN Series Solar Controller with USB Communication Cables
(1) Raspberry Pi Zero W
(1) Raspberry Pi 3B+

What Do I need to do to get these to turn into a monitoring system? I'd prefer to run this from the Zero W becase of its low power consumption, if possible.

 
Last edited:
I want to monitor my off grid system via wifi from anywhere.
I have
(4) JBD 4S BMS with RS485 connections + UART/Bluetooth
(2) Epever Tracer -BN Series Solar Controller with USB Communication Cables
(1) Raspberry Pi Zero W
(1) Raspberry Pi 3B+

What Do I need to do to get these to turn into a monitoring system? I'd prefer to run this from the Zero W becase of its low power consumption, if possible.

Did you ever get a response to this? I just bought 2 Raspberry Pi 4b to monitor my JK/ Heltec BMS's, and since Bluetooth sucks on the BMS, I want to hard wire to the RS485 or CAN bus connectors, but I am not sure what cable will work to go RS485 to USB. I would like to buy a ready made cable, and not have to kludge something together.
 
It's been a while, but first thing is to verify the serial output from the tracer itself. I had a couple of smaller units in the past that didn't support it.

Get your serial/usb adapter working, verify that you're getting data. IIRC there is a python library that you can test with.
I messed around with this a while back but it turned out that the smaller tracers I had used a different comms standard.
Good luck.
 
A worthwhile thread to read through:

 
A worthwhile thread to read through:

Thanks!
 
I was able to do this with my Renogy Commander 60 (EPEver Tracer knock-off). Renogy doesn't support it any longer and wouldn't even talk to me about it. I found the USB cable for it on AliExpress. It took some doing, but I was able to get it sending data to my RPi 4.

There is a specific driver for the USB cable that needs to be installed. I found that here: https://github.com/kasbert/epsolar-tracer.

I'm using this on a boat with SignalK (a universal marine data exchange platform) as my networking software with all my other devices, and this wouldn't work with the normal software plugins, so I searched further and found this: https://github.com/AdamWelchUK/NodeRedEPEverDashboard

This is a NodeRed module that reads and writes ModBus data through the USB interface to the controller. SignalK has a NodeRed module in it, so installing this was pretty straight forward. I had to build it and install it, which was easy. Worked great and I was able to add my paths to insert the data back into SignalK. I now all my solar data where I need it. See here: https://forum.openmarine.net/showthread.php?tid=3397
 
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