Victron Smart Solar data on RPi. Is it possible?

[LorenzoC]

Hi to all, I just installed a Victron Smart Solar on my boat. It is very useful to see all the solar charge data on my phone through bluetooh, but I wondering if there is a way to read the same data while I'm at home.
Maybe using a Raspberry Pi internet connected?
I open to any suggestion

 

[AngusMcDoon]

Hi to all, I just installed a Victron Smart Solar on my boat. It is very useful to see all the solar charge data on my phone through bluetooh, but I wondering if there is a way to read the same data while I'm at home.
Maybe using a Raspberry Pi internet connected?
I open to any suggestion

Get Android Developer Studio. Fire up the Bluetooth packet sniffer. See if you can make any sense of the data coming from your Victron device - it may be obfuscated on encrypted. Write an Android app that connects to the solar charger via Bluetooth instead of the Victron app, it's probably only the Bluetooth Serial Port Protocol they are using. In that app add a MQTT library and send the data to a MQTT broker that has free access like Hive. Leave that phone with the app running on your boat. On your Raspberry Pi at home write another app that also has MQTT that gets the data from the broker and displays it somehow - maybe another UI app or perhaps Python has some GUI capability (I don't know that one, I've never developed in Python). You have to use an intermediate like a MQTT broker because phones using standard SIMs can't be reached from elsewhere on the internet when establishing a connection - their IP address is known only to the network operator and is much munged in transit.

Simples!

 

[LorenzoC]

? If I could do all these, I'll be a professional programmer...
Someone suggested me Openplotter and maybe add the smart battery monitor.
I think that the IP address isn't a problem if you install rust desktop or anydesk

 

[AngusMcDoon]

? If I could do all these, I'll be a professional programmer...
Someone suggested me Openplotter and maybe add the smart battery monitor.
I think that the IP address isn't a problem if you install rust desktop or anydesk

The IP address problem exists at both ends because both our mobile phone on an operator's network and our home computer (of any type) on our broadband router don't have a public facing IP address but sit behind NAT (Network Address Translation). So from either end you can initiate a connection to a destination with a known public IP address (like forums.ybw.com) but the reverse is not true. When both ends are behind NAT you have a problem and that's where an intermediary like a MQTT broker (with a known public IP address) comes in. Both ends can connect to the broker in the middle.

You can get a static IP address for your home broadband if you pay for it, but static IP addresses for mobile phones I have not see available to the public for a while. There may be some operators left who do it but it won't be cheap or the connections allowed will be highly restricted (i.e. you have to tell the operator in advance want connections you will have coming in to your static IP address). It's for business use only in reality.

There are some hacks available for the home end of things where although your router IP address will change magically every so often on the operator's whim there are services that notice that and can do some IP address munging for you. It's likely to be a paid service again though.

Easiest free way of doing this stuff is to use a free MQTT broker as I have done for some of my YAPP projects published here, like this one...

Anchor watcher YAPP - remote boat monitoring from a mobile phone

 

[affinite]

You can run Venus OS on an RPi
see here

 

[LorenzoC]

You can run Venus OS on an RPi
see here

Thanks! I'll give it a try

 

[vas]

to elaborate a bit on affinite:

smart solar -> cable (have to buy) -> rpi running VenusOS (free from victron)
create an account in VRM, data from rpi flow to victron servers, you loggin from wherever and see realtime data, and history.

That assumes you have internet connection on board.
Easier to setup (if you're not a programmer) but more expensive is to buy a "black" (well blue) box GX device from Venus that has the same features (you can buy one with integrated touch screen, or without)

V.

 

[jwfrary]

Connect the pi and smart solar with a ve. Direct to usb cable. Load Venus on the pi, and register it on Victrons VRM service. You still need an Internet connection for the pi but then your away.

You could also look at the global link 520 which may have coverage in your area as a out the box solution.

 

[LorenzoC]

I'll buy the cable Ve. Direct to USB

 

[GHA]

I'll buy the cable Ve. Direct to USB

You don´t actually need to splash out so much on their cable if you have bluetooth to do the firmware updates, any serial/usb should work just to get the data from the VE direct TX pin (but not for updating firmware on the regulator).
No need for Venus either, openplotter/signalk will do loads more useful things on a boat.

Briefly.... install openplotter 3 - Welcome to OpenPlotter’s documentation! — OpenPlotter 3 documentation & read the manual ?
Then in signalk app store find @signalk/vedirect-serial-usb & install that & configure.
The regulator data will then be converted to signalk , gold dust is influxdb database, signalk will save everything to that if you ask it to.

To view from afar openplotter comes with realvnc installed, if you create an account you can run the Rasp Pi desktop from anywhere on the web, dead easy, no need for any port messing. Openplotter settings installs all the software you need with a mouse click.

 

[jwfrary]

Best to use an opto isolated cable, victron one is and isn't ridiculously expensive.

Yep you can do open plotter, but thats a lot more effort to do the remote logging, depends how able and willing the OP is doesn't it!

 

[LorenzoC]

I tried open plotter last summer with gps antenna.
I didn't find it easy, but I could give it another try.
I found a video in which it is explain how to build a diy cable to use ve direct and USB port. I want to try it

 

[GHA]

Best to use an opto isolated cable, victron one is and isn't ridiculously expensive.

Yep you can do open plotter, but thats a lot more effort to do the remote logging, depends how able and willing the OP is doesn't it!

Never had any problems with any serial/USB cables for nmea0183, VE direct or any other serial data, you could play ultra safe but yet to see any data to show serial/usb converters are a risk. Actually not heard of any incidents. Must be millions in use.

Realvnc isn´t much effort at all, it´s already up and running when you first turn on the Pi using the openplotter image. Load on a remote machine, get password on both machines & have full control over the web straight into the desktop.