Victron

unkel

A search doesn't throw up an awful lot about Victron around here, so I thought I would start a dedicated thread for all things Victron

I always reckoned the Victron hardware, while nice and slick looking, was overpriced. A bit like Apple if you like 😂 But I got a few smart MPPT recently and a smart shunt, and they have impressed me. I got them cheaply though, which of course helped form this positive opinion 😂

The smart shunt is better at guessing the SOC of my battery than any BMS or inverter I have yet used. The Victron Connect app is good too

All I would like at this stage is get some basic data from these devices into Home Assistant, which is a struggle. I need the so called "advertisement keys" but it is impossible to contact Victron directly, they just defer me to installers, who do not have access to this proprietary information

I bought a Cerbo GX from Amazon, but it turns out that doesn't really work unless you use Victron's proprietary VE direct cables. Which are unsightly, expensive and there really shouldn't be any need for them amongst smart devices that can communicate with each other wirelessly. So this Cerbo GX will likely be returned to Amazon. I know I can accomplish the same by installing the Victron Venus OS system on an old PC or Raspberry Pi

Some regulars on here have spoken positively about Victron before, they might have an idea? @the_amazing_pat , @ELM327

ELM327

I love Victron but I found that there are little to no providers of them here that would do the install and sign off - so I opted for someone else. Ideally I'd have a victron because the functions are great for isolation from the grid etc but two negatives really, no local support and also they are expensive compared to others.

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122528563#Comment_122528563

Once you have your initial install done and NC6 signed off (back in the day when I started, you could sign the one page NC6 form yourself), you could change your hardware no bother?

Technically speaking you would just need any RECI to change over an inverter, but it really isn't much harder than changing a socket yourself really.

For me not an option as the Victron hardware simply isn't powerful enough to do what I can do now unless I would install them in parallel. Which would be a step back. And their more powerful inverters cost at least twice as much as they should cost. Which is a big no no to me.

ELM327

I could , but not really in the way I wanted it done. Also I was looking for NC7 at the time for the 15kW victron, so I would have needed new signoff anyway.
To swap one 6kW solis for another 6kW unit in the same location I could of course do myself, it's plug and play, but the victron in order to get the best performance it needs to be wired differently with the incoming AC coming before the main consumer board, and then the outgoing AC going to the consumer board, and then the string inverter(s) connected to the Victron too. Essentially - and this is all based on the university of youtube - Victron quattros function best when they have visibility and control of everything.

the_amazing_raisin

Did you mean me? 😉

Although I'll admit the amazing pat is a much better username 😁

I never got any Victron gear myself because most of it isn't type rated for the Irish grid. They're slowly getting stuff certified but I've put them on the back burner until I'm looking to upgrade

They are pricey, but they do seem to know their stuff. I think the comparison to Apple is quite fitting

I think their newer equipment uses their VE CAN bus which uses standard ethernet cables. Unfortunately I think only the bigger charge controllers will have the CAN bus ports

https://www.victronenergy.com/media/pg/Cerbo_GX/en/connecting-victron-products.html#UUID-0963aebb-bb3b-4a8a-df4f-b02751010457

The Victron Community site is a great place for asking questions. There's a lot of very knowledgeable people there including installers across the globe. The page below might answer your questions about home assistant

https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/63997/home-assitant-integration-with-victron.html

There's also a page here describing the installation of Venus on a Raspberry Pi. There's also a large image which includes Node Red if that's of use

https://github.com/victronenergy/venus/wiki/raspberrypi-install-venus-image

What I like about Venus is that it's just Linux underneath, so you can connect in via SSH and load some extra software as needed

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122528590#Comment_122528590

I think you can do a grid parallel setup with a Quattro, but you need an external anti islanding switch, in which case you're losing the good points of the Quattro

The Multiplus II can definitely do grid parallel, and I'm pretty sure it's certified for the Irish grid, although I'm not sure if that includes the 15kVA model

unkel

Yes meant you, @the_amazing_raisin 😁 It seems you can't edit your post if it is the first post in a thread, another lovely vanilla feature

The problem for me is I am only one step away of doing what I want to do, but it involves getting an "advertising code" per piece of Victron hardware. This is like a MAC address but then for BT and it is not published. There are ways some people have found out what it is, but it hasn't worked for me. See my comment near the bottom of this link:

https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/187303/victron-bluetooth-advertising-protocol.html

I contacted Victron directly too, via their webform. But they don't seem to provide any support, just re-direct the call to one of their installers / suppliers who originally supplied one of my products. That supplier got back to me, but they don't have access to these advertisement keys either

There is an add-on in Home Assistant that is supposed to get data from all sorts of BT devices, Victron and JK BMS included, but I am mostly getting just error messages in the logs. Andy from the Off Grid Garage covered this a while back, but he had similar problems. He did hint that there might be a solution and that he would cover it in a later video, but so far nothing. I have contacted Andy in the past and he did get back to me, but he is obviously very busy and I don't want to annoy him over a trivial thing like this

But you can sense my frustration from my above post on the Victron forum 😂 Cerbo GX is going back to Amazon tomorrow

the_amazing_raisin

So the idea is to connect to the MPPT and Smart Shunt via Bluetooth to get the data into home assistant, am I right?

I'm not the best expert on BLE but from the thread they should be stored in an SQLite table, whereas your table is empty?

I'm guessing the method via the smartphone app doesn't work either?

Seems to be a common issue on the thread with different combinations of OS needed. I wonder if older versions of firmware are causing problems as well, maybe the value is hidden on older versions

the_amazing_raisin

One other thought, how and when are you reading the DB file

As I recall SQLite is kind of lazy with transaction locks, if the file is open by another process then the DB can't be written to

If you have the SQLite prompt open while Victron Connect is running then it might be blocking the table from being written in the first place

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122529933#Comment_122529933

Yep you guessed all that right. I installed Victron connect - it must be at that stage when you run it and it finds Victron hardware via BT, it should populate the SQLite database. I then close Victron connect and then run SQLite. I can read the SQLite database and I can see records in some tables. But the advertisementkey table is empty. And no, you can't see it on the app on your phone. Tried W10, W11 and latest version of Ubuntu Linux

I even made a lowball offer on an old iMac on adverts to see would that do the trick, but someone outbid me 😂

SD_DRACULA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122530118#Comment_122530118

Install a BT proxy on an esp32 via esphome and then check its logs in HA, it's supposed to find any BT device macs which are advertising it.

Had to do this to yank the MACs of my JK BMSes as they don't expose them in their app either, worth a shot.

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122530629#Comment_122530629

That's pretty much what the batmon add-on for Home Assistant does, but it is not working well. Probably doesn't help that I have 8 * smart (BT) JK BMS all in the one room too, as well as the 3 * smart (BT) Victron devices, all spitting out data into the ether 😂

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122530698#Comment_122530698

You'll have ComReg banging on your door with that setup 😂

From reading through the thread on the Victron forum, it looks like a lot of the issues arise from older firmware. That was for the Bluetooth dongle but I think the SmartSolar MPPTs use the same Bluetooth chip

Might be worth checking if there's an updated version?

Also, it definitely didn't work via the smartphone app? I noticed in the manual that Victron Connect doesn't support Windows connections to MPPTs (even though it seems like it kind of does)

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122532472#Comment_122532472

Are you kidding? Any hardware always gets the latest firmware, even before I deploy it 😀

The app works fine, but it does not reveal the advertisement keys

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122532844#Comment_122532844

Hmm, yeah something odd is definitely going on

Problem is it's in the realm of "barely supported" for Victron so unless you can get a hold of the developer it's going to be tricky to get an answer

What might help is if you tag Matthijs on the community forum and send the model number of your charge controllers and firmware version, he might know if there's an update needed somewhere

I might reply into your post on the Victron forum so I can keep an eye on it

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122534831#Comment_122534831

Yes please if you would do that, tag Matthijs while you are at it. And hopefully if this gets resolved / maybe Victron can give restricted access to their database of advertisement keys. That would help many people going forward

I have seen Matthijs respond to several threads alright, he the main tech guy in Victron?

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122535061#Comment_122535061

I'm not exactly on a first name basis with the guy but I think he's one of the main software guys

There seems to be several Victron staff software people on the forum, plus a bunch of people doing integrations. Some of the folks outside the company can be very knowledgeable as well

eiritated

This thread is timely for me as I’m considering Victron for a home ESS. I’m particularly interested in protecting critical loads from grid brown and blackouts.

We live rural and interruptions are more than monthly.

What does that mean not type rated for Irish grid? Thanks!!

Shoog

I have a victron MPPT in my camper and I find the range on the Bluetooth is appalling. Connectivity is patchy as well. The product itself is great but this is a big letdown and wouldn't encourage me to think they would integrate well into HomeAssistant.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122536919#Comment_122536919

So to be connected to the Irish grid, an inverter needs to be certified as being able to detect a grid failure and safely isolate itself

Ireland, for whatever reason, has unique settings to the rest of Europe and historically Victron didn't bother getting certified for the Irish grid

Now there's an updated standard EN50549-1 which covers all of the EU including Ireland, and the Multiplus II is definitely certified to this standard

The Quattro is not certified and there's apparently a bit of a design screw up with the Quattro II that needs to be fixed before it'll pass certification

The story doesn't end there however because you also need to program the grid settings for Ireland manually, there isn't a preset that I know of. I think this is one reason installers often don't supply Victron hardware

EDIT: Correction, the Quattro II is actually certified, but is only available up to 5kVA currently

The main advantage of the Quattro is the built in generator input and the ability to parallel. If you don't need parallel operation then a Multiplus II should be sufficient

eiritated

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122536953#Comment_122536953

That’s incredibly helpful. Thank you for such a detailed answer.

It would be the Multiplus II. Is there a way to be certain an engineer is trained and certified to commission one of these systems? The list of authorised dealers on Victron website is sparse for Ireland (including NI) and maritime seems the more dominant use case here?

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122536953#Comment_122536953

I don't mean to bang the sunsynk drum.. but I end up doing it.

I dare say sunsynk cough deye ticks all them boxes too generator, parallel etc.

Although most people don't need them features.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122536967#Comment_122536967

Strictly speaking any electrician could install it, the list on the Victron site is more a list of suppliers

I've spoken to one guy who definitely does domestic setups, although in the end I got a Sofar inverter because I was having a lot of trouble pinning down an installer

https://mpe-online.ie/product-category/batteries/battery-chargers/

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122537003#Comment_122537003

Yeah I can't really fault Sunsynk, they've got most of the same features at a competitive price

the_amazing_raisin

Hey @unkel I dunno if you're still tricking around with the Victron gear but would this Andy special help?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50V50lISnC8

He's got a segment around 16:00 where he makes a VE Direct cable from a serial cable. Bit of a hack job, but much cheaper than Victron cables. One thing I always love about Andy's videos is he links everything he uses on his website

https://off-grid-garage.com/victron-connect-through-raspberry-pi/

jumpin jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122536967#Comment_122536967

I wonder could anyone recommend a knowledgeable Victron person who could help me with the my setup. I live in the Greystones/Wicklow area.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122647594#Comment_122647594

There's not many resellers in Ireland, MPE online in Mayo was the only one listed by Victron

Having said that, pretty much any electrician can install them, it's the setting up which requires a bit of knowledge

jumpin jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122648292#Comment_122648292

Thanks for that Raisan 😀

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122645581#Comment_122645581

I watched that a few months ago. I've a spare RPi, so was going to install Venus OS on that. But I've a few problems with all this. Mainly that it still won't give me data into Home Assistant (that I use for everything else). Also those cables everywhere. Really? My Victron devices are all bluetooth, there really shouldn't be any need for cables. The only plus is that I would have internet access to my data rather than just phone app access. But that is not all that important to me

I just want Victron to give me the advertisement keys of my hardware. But they are hiding behind resellers for doing their dirty work (tech support). I posted on the Victron forum, in a relevant thread, and someone acknowledged my issue and also asked Victron to help out here. But then the thread got closed 🙄