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

[Louisvdw]

It's always good to be special

The problem it seems is that it either cannot read your cell count from the BMS, or more likely the min/max cell voltages you set cannot be read.
It could be that something is breaking it when you edit it, which could be Windows vs Linux line endings, or even regional settings.
If you have access to a linux system there is a tool called dos2unix which fix any Windows characters. The build system for the driver use that on each file when a build is created. See https://github.com/Louisvdw/dbus-serialbattery/blob/log-battery-settings/create_build.sh

You could also run it yourself. It is not available inside the GX system on your Pi - you need another linux system like Ubuntu.

 

[Louisvdw]

Try this file that already has your cell voltage changes.
Copy it to your GX adn extract with this this:

tar -zxf utils.zip-C /data/etc/dbus-serialbattery

 

[Hubba]

I'll try this evening, still at work.
But I haven't touched the utils.py at all after the installation, as you said the voltages make no difference except the BMS will stop charging at 3,45V.
Little hope therfore...

 

[Voltemort]

Any updates on the progress of the electrodacus SBMS0?

 

[VanBuilderMan]

A complete noob here. Never in my life have I worked with code nor used SSH but trying my best to get this awesome feature installed. I have a JK BMS and Cerbo GX running firmware v.2.89. Using Putty for the first time, I followed the steps in the install github page as well as the Youtube video. Logged into Putty using host name root@venus.local, then entered the password. I then copied and pasted this into the command field (wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/L...ster/etc/dbus-serialbattery/installrelease.sh). Everything up to this point was going well according to the video. Next, I entered this (sh installrelease.sh) and then it got stuck. Messages say "cant create directory," "no such file or directory," "omitting directory." One thing I later read about is creating SSH keys which I didnt do, but I didnt see that in the install video. Not sure what else I could do differently. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Another thing I also dont quite understand is how to edit the battery parameters and get those uploaded into the Cerbo using SSH since my understanding is that everything gets downloaded and installed from the internet via the link in the wget command. I did download the folder venus-data.tar.gz and edited the utils file. Now how to get that edited file onto the Cerbo?

 

[Louisvdw]

A complete noob here. Never in my life have I worked with code nor used SSH but trying my best to get this awesome feature installed. I have a JK BMS and Cerbo GX running firmware v.2.89. Using Putty for the first time, I followed the steps in the install github page as well as the Youtube video. Logged into Putty using host name root@venus.local, then entered the password. I then copied and pasted this into the command field (wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/L...ster/etc/dbus-serialbattery/installrelease.sh). Everything up to this point was going well according to the video. Next, I entered this (sh installrelease.sh) and then it got stuck. Messages say "cant create directory," "no such file or directory," "omitting directory." One thing I later read about is creating SSH keys which I didnt do, but I didnt see that in the install video. Not sure what else I could do differently. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Another thing I also dont quite understand is how to edit the battery parameters and get those uploaded into the Cerbo using SSH since my understanding is that everything gets downloaded and installed from the internet via the link in the wget command. I did download the folder venus-data.tar.gz and edited the utils file. Now how to get that edited file onto the Cerbo?

Just reboot and then check the GUI if it picks up else check the log files. It seems that those folders did copy in one of your tries.
You don't need ssh keys - you are using a password.

The easiest way is to edit the parameters inside ssh. (that is the SSH edit using Nano editor from the wiki). Once you changed the parameters you need to reboot your GX device again.

 

[EWE]

What a perfect solution you created Louisvdw! I got it running now for 2 months now with a Daly BMS and it's a very good solution.
My current system consists of a 280Ah 48V Eve Battery with Daly 250A BMS connected via a Victron smartshunt to three Multiplus II 3000VA and two SmartSolar MPPT 250/100's managed by the Cerbo GX.
As I haven't seen many posts about the Daly falling a sleep and just showing no current and sometimes not even visible to the Cerbo which cuts out the MPPT's, I think this problem is related to my Daly BMS. The Smart Shunt is working flawlessly and gives me a good representation of the Soc, but as the Daly sleeps half of the time it hits the boundaries of the SoC and cuts the MPPTs.
I'm currently in the progress of buying another set of batteries and I'm looking to buy its BMS. What is in your opinion the best BMS which works with your solution? And another question... would it be possible/ a good idea to use the Soc of the SmartShunt to manage the ESS system and have a SoC representing both the battery packs?
Thanks a lot for the time you are investing it this solution!!!

 

[Louisvdw]

the Daly falling a sleep

The Daly is not suppose to go to sleep while the driver is querying it. Is there perhaps a setting that you can change for this in the BMS?

What is in your opinion the best BMS which works with your solution

The BMS that people have the least querries/issues are the JBD or JKBMS (JKBMS is also a good option but it seems that the SOC calc for the JBD is a little bit smarter/better. The JKBMS app is easier and less complex).
The Daly gets by far the most issues logged and it's communication protocol is also a bit limiting.

use the Soc of the SmartShunt

The problem is that a BMS will adjust it's SOC when some issues inside the battery occur. For instance if one of your cells go over the cell protection voltage the BMS will show 100% SOC (correctly) while any external shunt (like SmartShunt) will think the SOC is perhaps 85% and push in more charge current. So it is not the best option.

 

[EWE]

Wow, thanks for your incredibly quick reply. I've looked into the first option, but haven't found anything, maybe someone else has found a solution. I figured that the JBD would be my go to BMS and I probably/certainly replace this 'bad behaving' Daly BMS. Your remark concerning the adjustment of the SoC based on Cell Voltage hadn't crossed my mind, so thanks for that. I'm going to look for your Paypal-account on Github, but maybe you want to post it again?

 

[Louisvdw]

If you do keep the Daly for use on your system I would suggest adding an extra cell balancer.

Just click on the link in my footer. It will take you to the github page for this project. The sponsor links is on the top and on the right.

 

[EWE]

Is the JBD BMS already sporting a good cell balancing solution?

 

[Louisvdw]

Yes the JBD does have a good balancer. The JKBMS has an active balancer. Both are good options.

 

[EWE]

Well thanks for the information and your good work, I just send you a couple of beers/coffees per Paypal...

 

[towatai]

@EWE

Change the Sleeptime inside the Daly BMS to 65535. With that Settings it should never go in Standby.
The current measurement threshold for the Daly can also be adjusted downwards via the Daly-PC Software and Firmware update may also help. Do you have the possibility to connect the Daly with your PC and read it with the Daly software? Important is the read hardware version, in the software called "HD version". If your hardware version fits, I have a firmware for you that fixes the current measurement. Many have the problem that the current measurement under load jumps between +/- ~15A up and down.

My 8S 150A Daly now measures relatively accurately currents up to ~0.5A.

The best thing is to send me a screenshot of the readout Daly software.

 

[EWE]

Perfect a Daly expert! Well I have connected the Daly a couple of times with the BMS monitor V2.1.2 and v1.2.8 to change the SoC and I also tried to increase the sleeptime (in parameter settings) but after a read session it was still on 3600 s. The Hardware Version is BMS-GD230-309e my current firmware is updated to: 31_220224*CADC. But I haven't found the current measurement threshold, but I believe I saw it in the Bluetooth app...

Thanks in advance

 

[towatai]

Check Out the DATA MONITORING-Tab for the live Current Measurement Threshold.

 

[EWE]

Well, I'm currently looking for a JBD BMS with 200A 16s with both UART and RS485, but it's quite difficult to find the differences between their types. I found one which has active balancing the DP20S004 and some others like the AP21S001, the AP20S006 and the DP24S002? Does anyone have some advice or experience with these BMS's. I would like to use the UART for connection with the Cerbo GX and the RS485 for connection with their display... And maybe I replace by Daly with one of these so I order two of the same running in parallel...

 

[towatai]

Why not add an active balancer for round about 50 bucks?

 

[EWE]

@towatai : Thanks to your information I have the feeling that the Daly is performing better, if it stays that way I'll keep it and add an active balancer (any suggestions). But I still need an additional BMS for a second battery bank... for which I'm looking at JBD...

 

[Hubba]

Hi Louis,
didn't get it done to copy the utils.py to the raspi. My Linux commands knowledge is not nearly sufficient...
Untouched utils.py though.
But I recognized some anomalies during the installation process of the serialbatterymonitor: "Omitting directory". Perhaps is this the reason for the monitor not working?