Orion Jr. 2 BMS -computer connection

[Fred]

Anyone here familiar with the Orion Jr 2 BMS? I am setting it up to test how it works on a small 12v pack (4 100ah cells in parallel)
I am attempting to use the CANbus adapter to connect it to the computer to program the BMS. I get an error message saying it cannot connect. I checked the wiring and software utility version.
One thing was strange, the CANbus RS232 port (male) had a female connector inserted into it. I suppose it was a spare part for users who need to wire canbus comms. I took that out then tried to plug the canbus male RS232 into the female RS232 port on the BMS. It would not go in until I removed the two standoff screws that are there to hold connections together.

 

[Fred]

With some tech support I found out I was not understanding the manual.
The standard way of connecting the BMS to the PC is to use a serial cable (USB to serial). You do not directly connect the canbus adapter to the bms serial port as I first thought.
There is a way of wiring 3 wires of the BMS main harness to a connector that will plug into the canbus adapter and the allow the BMS to communicate with a PC that way. It requires a little soldering and the addition of a 120 ohm resistor across two solder pins on the connector. Again, the serial cable is the way to go but since I had the parts but no serial cable, I did it the more complicated way and now have the BMS monitoring the cells.

 

[Mathew11123]

Hi, can you show a schematic on how to connect the 120ohms. I don’t have the Orion CANdapter too pricey. Can I connect with regular usb to serial connector?

 

[Fred]

Yes, you can connect using a standard usb to serial cable. You do not need the resistors for this. Just plug and play.

 

[iRondo]

My experience with connecting to the Orion Jr II has been quite frustrating. A Macbook Pro is my primary computer and since no one asked what platform I was using, I assumed (my bad) that since the vast majority of software developers had long since began writing for Apple systems, that it would not be an issue with the BMS. Wrong was I!
After purchasing several RS-232/USB cables and arguing with the vendor from whom I bought the Orion Jr II about device drivers, I finally broke down and bought a cable compatible with a windows system and resurrected an old windoze machine. In the end, that was all that was wrong.
However, my trouble are not necessarily over. That old computer is shaky at best and I am now looking at either buying a new windows machine or some other solution. A new windows based computer is not my preference as it would only ever be used to connect to the Orion.
So I'm wondering about buying the Candapter and if that would change anything with being able to connect with my Macbook?

Any experience there?

 

[cinergi]

My experience with connecting to the Orion Jr II has been quite frustrating. A Macbook Pro is my primary computer and since no one asked what platform I was using, I assumed (my bad) that since the vast majority of software developers had long since began writing for Apple systems, that it would not be an issue with the BMS. Wrong was I!
After purchasing several RS-232/USB cables and arguing with the vendor from whom I bought the Orion Jr II about device drivers, I finally broke down and bought a cable compatible with a windows system and resurrected an old windoze machine. In the end, that was all that was wrong.
However, my trouble are not necessarily over. That old computer is shaky at best and I am now looking at either buying a new windows machine or some other solution. A new windows based computer is not my preference as it would only ever be used to connect to the Orion.
So I'm wondering about buying the Candapter and if that would change anything with being able to connect with my Macbook?

Any experience there?

Would running Windows virtually (e.g. VirtualBox, VMWare Fusion, etc) work? I use Orion with Windows directly but I'd imagine it would be OK through a VM. Just need the USB to pass through from host to VM.

 

[iRondo]

Would running Windows virtually (e.g. VirtualBox, VMWare Fusion, etc) work? I use Orion with Windows directly but I'd imagine it would be OK through a VM. Just need the USB to pass through from host to VM.

Yeah, that's a thought. I quite often have issues with disk space though so I could try the Wine app again. It's been quite a few years so maybe it's better now or maybe it doesn't exist anymore but I'll check it out. Thanks for the reminder!

 

[SV_Stray_Cats]

My experience with connecting to the Orion Jr II has been quite frustrating. A Macbook Pro is my primary computer and since no one asked what platform...

Hi Rondo, I'm using the Orion Jr2 utility on Linux and although the download is labeled Linux, it's Java, so I think the "Linux" download is actually the platform independent one. I suggest giving that a try, but if I'm right, Orion support should have suggested this.

 

[iRondo]

Hi Rondo, I'm using the Orion Jr2 utility on Linux and although the download is labeled Linux, it's Java, so I think the "Linux" download is actually the platform independent one. I suggest giving that a try, but if I'm right, Orion support should have suggested this.

Yeah, it is a Java based app and so the Linux version should run on the Mac but it doesn't quite behave right. The main issue was being able to connect over the serial/USB. I had contacted tech support and they said it should run on my rpi but I have display issues and can
t get all the entire screen to display on it so that kind of screwed me over there. Then, when I was going through all these different serial cables to connect to my Macbook, and talking with tech support, they said they wouldn't help me unless I was running a windows system and they denied telling me that the Java app would work on a Mac. Frustrating! I've tried installing WINE as the member above suggested but that just lead to more and more frustration. When I get time, I'm going to have to try with the pi again I guess. Is it a pi that you're connecting with?

 

[SV_Stray_Cats]

What a hassle!

No, I'm not using a Pi, I'm using a Linux laptop, so will avoid that whole display issue. I do have a Pi-like headless computer for other purposes but I connect to it through text terminals. It is a headscrachter to think about running a java application on that, with the GUI appearing on my laptop. I'd think it can be done, but don't know how.

My laptop was only $200 so could be your Orion interface computer instead of a Windows one, but this java app and another one I have run quite slowly, taking minutes to load. But once open, the Orion app runs fairly well, better than the other one, which is the Arduino IDE, drastically more widely used software. The laptop has an ARM processor like the Pi, and it's a system-on-chip like a phone, so I attribute the slowness and other quirks to the fact that people are still writing the drivers for a full computer version of a phone processor and so I actually wouldn't recommend it as an interface, which is too bad because it's cheap and thin and light.

 

[cinergi]

I know I mentioned VirtualBox before but wanted to mention that Microsoft has a Windows Virtualbox image (and other formats) with 90-day trials for testing browser versions, etc ... makes a great temporary Windows image that you don't have to run an OS install to get.