Victron VenusOS driver for serial connected BMS - JBD / Daly / ANT / JKBMS / Heltec / Renogy / Tian / ECS

[Louisvdw]

I just want to use the Cerbo integration to monitor and datalog my BMSs.

If you don't want to use the battery as the monitor, then you have to change the Battery Monitor setting to something else like the Multiplus. What is selected in there will give the system the SOC value.

However what you are seeing is what the BMS is trying to tell you. That there is an issue and because of that the charge state had to be adjusted. It's better to fix the cell with the issue than to tell your system to ignore it and use another SOC value. The reason you ask the BMS what the SOC value is, is that it know about the values of each cell. Your inverter will not know that and will only have the total battery voltage to work from and an energy counter.

 

[On_The_Road]

If you don't want to use the battery as the monitor, then you have to change the Battery Monitor setting to something else like the Multiplus. What is selected in there will give the system the SOC value.

However what you are seeing is what the BMS is trying to tell you. That there is an issue and because of that the charge state had to be adjusted. It's better to fix the cell with the issue than to tell your system to ignore it and use another SOC value. The reason you ask the BMS what the SOC value is, is that it know about the values of each cell. Your inverter will not know that and will only have the total battery voltage to work from and an energy counter.

Thank you for the reply.

I have a BMV712 in the system and want to use that shunt to monitor system SOC.

Apparently, if Venus sees a BMS in the system it hands control to that BMS. Which I don't want.

 

[Louisvdw]

Yes if there is a BMS it gets the first piority, but you can then switch that with the Battery Monitor option

 

[On_The_Road]

Yes if there is a BMS it gets the first piority, but you can then switch that with the Battery Monitor option
View attachment 128060

Yeah, that's what I have selected - my BMV on that page but Venus is still looking to the BMS for control unfortunately.

 

[rcr1978]

If your JBD BMS has the RS485 port, then you use that to connect using that USB-RS485 adapter.
Don't worry about the PC connection. It is easier to set up with the bluetooth app.
After the setup, then connect that RS485 adapters you have for the JBD to the GX and it should all just work. You don't need to install anything else on the GX.

In all this the bluetooth adapter stay in it's TTL UART socket. Only if you don't have the RS485 port option, then you need to replace the bluetooth adapter to connect to the GX.

Got everything working, thanks for your help and providing a such a great option for this. I was a little lost when the RS485 adapters wouldn't work on the confuzr, everything works great with them with the CerboGX. Guess I will pick up a UART box if it can be used to calibrate the shunts in the BMS's if needed later. Kind of weird JBD couldn't provide a driver for their RS485 adapters, maybe their description is just off for them and was never meant to be used for programming.

 

[Justice12t]

I've got 2x 12v/400ah EG4 Lifepower batteries. I installed them today, connected them to my Cerbo via the supplied cable from Signature Solar (485 to USB). Ran through the SSH install procedures but couldn't get anything working. I ran through the troubleshooting steps, but nothing seemed to help. It's like my Cerbo didn't even realize the program was installed. No errors stood out as I ran through the troubleshooting doc. I tried a different USB port on the Cerbo just to make sure, still nothing. Tried installing a 2nd time, nothing. Anyone have any thoughts? Something I'm missing? This type of work certainly isn't something I'm super familiar with so dumb it down for me... . Thanks!!

 

[essr]

Hi, what setting should I set it to 1 or 2 if I use Louisvdw/dbus-serialbatter settings

 

[Louisvdw]

should I set it to 1 or 2

Use 2, but 1 will also work.

 

[jdz]

Is there any way to get the time-to-go (TTG) to show up in the battery card on VRM?

 

[Louisvdw]

All the values are published to VRM. You can then create your own custom widgets in the advance tab and should be able to add it in there.

 

[Marccata]

Hi,
Daly BMS 250 amps 4s to Cerbo GX 2.92 connect in Uart, I am getting a - amps when charging and positive when discharging ? Connect with the same wiring to my BMS with laptop using PCmaster, no issue I see positive when charging!

 

[Louisvdw]

I am getting a - amps when charging and positive when discharging

Daly have some BMS where the protocol values are swopped.
Look for the following line in the utils.py and change it to -1 to swop your value

# Invert Battery Current. Default non-inverted. Set to -1 to invert
INVERT_CURRENT_MEASUREMENT = -1

 

[jdz]

All the values are published to VRM. You can then create your own custom widgets in the advance tab and should be able to add it in there.

Gotcha -- I wasn't sure if there was maybe a value that would show it on the VRM Dashboard like here (not my system, a screenshot I found online but it seems as though this is an existing feature/value of VRM)

 

[Louisvdw]

I see.
I have created a ticket for that as we don't currently populate that path.
You can subscribe to it at https://github.com/Louisvdw/dbus-serialbattery/issues/406

 

[essr]

Hi, what does this mean, do I have to set something here?.

 

[Ai4px]

Yes if there is a BMS it gets the first piority, but you can then switch that with the Battery Monitor option
View attachment 128060

I have 6 JKBMS.... can I talk to them via bluetooth with the Cerbo device? Or must I use USB converters? And can I talk to all 6 of them? Will they show up like inthe list above?

 

[BradCagle]

@Louisvdw

I forked your great project, and made BluetoothBattery version. Right now it only supports JBD via Bluetooth

I'll have the repo setup on github soon. It's not ready for primetime yet, and right now it requires build tools to be installed in Venus OS so bluepy can be installed.

EDIT: github repo is up https://github.com/bradcagle/dbus-btbattery

 

[Ai4px]

@Louisvdw

I forked your great project, and made BluetoothBattery version. Right now it only supports JBD via Bluetooth

I'll have the repo setup on github soon. It's not ready for primetime yet, and right now it requires build tools to be installed in Venus OS so bluepy can be installed.

Oh please JK BMS next!!! How can I help? I have 6 of them. The idea of polling all 6 would be GREAT.

 

[BradCagle]

Oh please JK BMS next!!! How can I help? I have 6 of them. The idea of polling all 6 would be GREAT.

I need to get the code up on GitHub, with instructions. Then I can start looking at other BMS support.

If I can just replace the serial read/write code with the Bluetooth code might be simple, and I can just modify Louis' existing code.

 

[Blue-Flower]

@Louisvdw

I forked your great project, and made BluetoothBattery version. Right now it only supports JBD via Bluetooth

I'll have the repo setup on github soon. It's not ready for primetime yet, and right now it requires build tools to be installed in Venus OS so bluepy can be installed.

EDIT: github repo is up https://github.com/bradcagle/dbus-btbattery

Very nice Brad,

I just followed your instructions of your github page.
It works out of the box. Now I can remove the rs485 cable.
One bummer is that only one bluetooth connection can exist to the bms. No way to do something using my smartphone bms app.
Perhaps a connect / disconnect option. Perhaps integration in Kwinrem's software (https://github.com/kwindrem) ?

 

[Blue-Flower]

Very nice Brad,

I just followed your instructions on your github page.
It works out of the box. Now I can remove the rs485 cable.
One bummer is that only one bluetooth connection can exist to the bms. No way to do something using my smartphone bms app.
Perhaps a connect / disconnect option. Perhaps integration in Kwinrem's software (https://github.com/kwindrem) ?

Oh,

After a reboot I have to ssh into Viccy to start it up again. Maybe something to start it automatically?

 

[BradCagle]

Oh,

After a reboot I have to ssh into Viccy to start it up again. Maybe something to start it automatically?

Sorry, It's still very early work-in-progress. I'll make some instructions soon to have it start automatically.

 

[BradCagle]

Very nice Brad,

I just followed your instructions of your github page.
It works out of the box. Now I can remove the rs485 cable.
One bummer is that only one bluetooth connection can exist to the bms. No way to do something using my smartphone bms app.
Perhaps a connect / disconnect option. Perhaps integration in Kwinrem's software (https://github.com/kwindrem) ?

Right, It conflicts with the App BT connection. I'll need to come up with a solution.

BTW on my app, I think it still connects through WiFi. I see two devices, one grayed out (which would be the Bluetooth), and another that I can connect to which I assume if through my WiFi connection. Does yours have this?

EDIT: I just realized you are talking about the BMS app connecting to the battery (I thought you were talking about Victron connect app). Yes, that is true. You would need to shut off the Venus device. then you could connect to your BMS via the app.

 

[BradCagle]

Hey guys, I created a new thread for the Bluetooth driver here: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/victron-venusos-driver-for-bluetooth-bms.54124/
Trying to avoid hijacking this thread.

Thanks

 

[BradCagle]

Oh,

After a reboot I have to ssh into Viccy to start it up again. Maybe something to start it automatically?

Ok I added service files, there's new instructions