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Victron Venus GX or Color control GX

Dr Bob

By Dr Bob
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Dr Bob Veteran II

Dr Bob

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On 05/02/2019 at 22:25, Dr Bob said:

Ok, only 5 months later.....I did have an excuse, the boat went off to be repainted. Then it was Christmas. Then it was.......er.......er.......

 

.....@robbo, What Pi do you have? I tried it on a Pi A+ (the first one) and it would not boot up. I suspected the sd card and the flashed image so I loaded Raspbian and that worked, so it wasnt Etcher or the card. I looked at the victron site and it said that the Pi A and Pi B are not supported. Maybe it was just a bad power supply.

Gave up and ordered a Pi 3plus and a decent power supply. I'll give it another go on Friday when it arrives.

@Robbo

Update for anyone interested in getting a Pi instead of a venus gx to put on their NB to monitor power when their off the boat......ie no one. I do like talking to myself. I get a lot of practise when talking to Mrs Bob.

Way to go! I got it working! I got the Pi 3 plus today and started it up with the venus OS flashed sd card. Booted up first time. Finding the IP address on the Teltonika router was a sinch so then an easy step to get the display working on the MacBook.

Next step to connect to Victrons VRM portal, so you can remotely log into the Pi when off the boat. Set up an account then add an installation, ie tell the VRM portal where to find your Pi. This is straight forward if you can find a VRM portal ID. If you have a Venus GX, that is easy as it is written on the box. If you have a Raspberry Pi then you have to interogate the Pi to find this out by typing in a line of code that contains the character "|". Duh!

Now this is where it gets technical. For those of a less technical persuasion then please skip a few lines. There are 2 ways to interogate the Pi. Type into the Pi itself or do it from a computer - getting access via SSH. I do have a small bluetooth keyboard for the Pi, but could I find the "|" character. An hour later.....No! Could I get access via SSH.....after an hour ....No! Finally twigged it by typing "ssh root@ 192.168......." rather than "ssh Pi@ 192.168....... and I got access. ( I have been practising hard to be a muppet and succeeded today).

That sorted it and now I can access the Pi from the VRM site.

Tomorrows job is see if I can connect the BMV monitor and the victron MPPT to the Pi.

I hope installing the Lithium bank is going to be easier than this!

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rusty69 Veteran II

rusty69

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2 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

Update for anyone interested in getting a Pi instead of a venus gx to put on their NB to monitor power when their off the boat......ie no one. I do like talking to myself. I get a lot of practise when talking to Mrs Bob.

Way to go! I got it working! I got the Pi 3 plus today and started it up with the venus OS flashed sd card. Booted up first time. Finding the IP address on the Teltonika router was a sinch so then an easy step to get the display working on the MacBook.

Next step to connect to Victrons VRM portal, so you can remotely log into the Pi when off the boat. Set up an account then add an installation, ie tell the VRM portal where to find your Pi. This is straight forward if you can find a VRM portal ID. If you have a Venus GX, that is easy as it is written on the box. If you have a Raspberry Pi then you have to interogate the Pi to find this out by typing in a line of code that contains the character "|". Duh!

Now this is where it gets technical. For those of a less technical persuasion then please skip a few lines. There are 2 ways to interogate the Pi. Type into the Pi itself or do it from a computer - getting access via SSH. I do have a small bluetooth keyboard for the Pi, but could I find the "|" character. An hour later.....No! Could I get access via SSH.....after an hour ....No! Finally twigged it by typing "ssh root@ 192.168......." rather than "ssh Pi@ 192.168....... and I got access. ( I have been practising hard to be a muppet and succeeded today).

That sorted it and now I can access the Pi from the VRM site.

Tomorrows job is see if I can connect the BMV monitor and the victron MPPT to the Pi.

I hope installing the Lithium bank is going to be easier than this!

Wot are you on about man? Is this even written in English! 

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Dr Bob Veteran II

Dr Bob

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10 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

Incidentally if you want fresh pi, they have opened the first pi shop in Cambridge. No malt included! 

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-england-cambridgeshire-47143411

I hadnt realised they were a UK invention 'till I ordered this new on on Wednesday. 38 squid is a bargin for what is quite a powerful computer. The cable to connect it to the BMV meter was £30! I must spend more time learning Linux programming.

I lied before. I'm actually on the Hobgoblin gold. The Bunnahabhain will come later!

No Octopuses were harmed while typing this post.

 

eta Mrs Bob has just told me the word octopus comes from the greek and the greek for multiple octopus is Octopodes. So there!

Edited by Dr Bob
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rusty69 Veteran II

rusty69

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Posted (edited)
3 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

I hadnt realised they were a UK invention 'till I ordered this new on on Wednesday. 38 squid is a bargin for what is quite a powerful computer. The cable to connect it to the BMV meter was £30! I must spend more time learning Linux programming.

I lied before. I'm actually on the Hobgoblin gold. The Bunnahabhain will come later!

No Octopuses were harmed while typing this post.

I think they were invented by a bunch of Cambridge muppets, hence the Cambridge store. 

 

Bring back Robbo, need an interpreter. 

 

Eta if i could figure out why i might need one, i would buy one myself 

Edited by rusty69
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rusty69 Veteran II

rusty69

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Posted (edited)
11 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

 

 eta Mrs Bob has just told me the word octopus comes from the greek and the greek for multiple octopus is Octopodes. So there!

Don't be silly they are octopi

2408188_0.jpg

Edited by rusty69
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Dr Bob Veteran II

Dr Bob

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14 minutes ago, jan-kees said:

one fun thing about the Venus.. the digital inputs.....great for getting alerts when a bike pump goes on or how many times the bilge went on.

Hi Jan-kees. Good to hear from you again.

A question for you. I am using a GSM modem on the boat with a very good 4G connection. I am reading however that if you connect your venus gx to the VRM portal, the connection drops out every few days as the GSM routers dont have fixed IP addresses and the Victron VRM portal needs fixed addresses. Have you got the same problem? I wanted to test this out using the Raspberry Pi before investing in the venus gx.

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Alway Swilby Rising Star

Alway SwilbyDonate to Canal World

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11 hours ago, Dr Bob said:

Hi Jan-kees. Good to hear from you again.

A question for you. I am using a GSM modem on the boat with a very good 4G connection. I am reading however that if you connect your venus gx to the VRM portal, the connection drops out every few days as the GSM routers dont have fixed IP addresses and the Victron VRM portal needs fixed addresses. Have you got the same problem? I wanted to test this out using the Raspberry Pi before investing in the venus gx.

Sorry I didn't spot this thread back in September! We have a Venus GX. It is connected to our Multiplus inverter, our MPPT controler and our BMV. It is connected via a cat5 patch lead to the 4G router. Everything just worked out of the box. It doesn't use much data talking to the VRM and the VRM doesn't seem to mind the external IP address changing whilst we move about or reboot the router. All in all I'm very pleased with it and it works well with no problems.

When we were away for a few days in December I spotted via the VRM that the shore power had tripped so I could contact a neighbor to turn it on again. This made the cat happy as the heating came back on!

I was wondering about connecting the senders for the MSC fuel and water gauges to the "tank" inputs but I haven't got a round tuit.

 

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jan-kees Gongoozler

jan-kees

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1) the Venus wifi connection was not really designed to use as the 'main connection' to the outside world...it is great to log into the Venus with your laptop, tablet or smartphone

2) Connect the Venus with a Cat 5 cable and there will be no issues.  The VRM does not need a fixed IP...the connection from our router via wifi to the Venus is not always stable ..it was not designed for that )

 

I have connected the fuel and water gauges to the Venus and it is great to see what is still there.   for that Have a old second hand iPad (1). ..it only needs a border and wifi

Ye it is great to see when shore power is out ect ..

 

I also have connected the Kabola Heater via a relay to the relay output of the Venus. ( yes the Venus relay turns the 24V solid state relay on which switches the 240 V..just an additional safe step)

Since we do not live close to the boat...( a nice flight). I can turn on the heat the moment we land and by the time we arrive at the boat it is warm

 

I am construction an optocoupler box so I can connect the bilge pumps on the digital inputs ..and then the Venus will warn me when they turn on.  and some wil be connected to a door alarm and a smoke alarm.   ( the optocoupler box..is an extra safety between the 24 V signal and the Venus. since the Venus uses 3.3V signals)

 

Edited by jan-kees
added add info
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Dr Bob Veteran II

Dr Bob

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47 minutes ago, Alway Swilby said:

Sorry I didn't spot this thread back in September! We have a Venus GX. It is connected to our Multiplus inverter, our MPPT controler and our BMV. It is connected via a cat5 patch lead to the 4G router. Everything just worked out of the box. It doesn't use much data talking to the VRM and the VRM doesn't seem to mind the external IP address changing whilst we move about or reboot the router. All in all I'm very pleased with it and it works well with no problems.

When we were away for a few days in December I spotted via the VRM that the shore power had tripped so I could contact a neighbor to turn it on again. This made the cat happy as the heating came back on!

I was wondering about connecting the senders for the MSC fuel and water gauges to the "tank" inputs but I haven't got a round tuit.

 

Thanks AS. That sounds really good. Glad to hear you can keep connected. I was interested in keeping a log of my voltages - especially as I am in the process of putting some Lithiums on board - and being able to remotely montior shore power still being connected. I will try out the Pi and see how much functionality that gives before thinking about the venus GX.

Good to hear someone else has got one.

I bet Smelly's got one and not told anyone!!

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Dr Bob Veteran II

Dr Bob

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41 minutes ago, jan-kees said:

1) the Venus wifi connection was not really designed to use as the 'main connection' to the outside world...it is great to log into the Venus with your laptop, tablet or smartphone

2) Connect the Venus with a Cat 5 cable and there will be no issues.  The VRM does not need a fixed IP...the connection from our router via wifi to the Venus is not always stable ..it was not designed for that )

Thanks Jan-Kees. Yes, I'll run a Cat5 cable down the boat to connect the Pi (at the back) to the router at the front. Looks like that will sort it.

I need to think about the alarms and tank inputs. I need to work out how the Pi or venus GX could give me alarm info re the lithium batteries ie over or undervoltage alarms. The BMV 712 will see the voltage and I guess the venus gx will see any alarm state and communicate that to the VRM portal. Can it then email you to alert you to a problem? I think I need to read the manual.

I want to monitor 3 source inputs - 2 BMV 712's (one monitoring the Lead acid bank and one monitoring the LiFePo bank) and one victron 100/15 MPPT so that is 3 connection leads. Not sure if the Pi can cope with that.

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