Victron Venus OS Raspberry pi

Daverw

Daverw

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I’ve put together a raspberry pi running Venus OS that is monitoring my Victron solar, shunt and battery system, this then gives me full remote access to all over the internet, all for under £50. It works very well however I want to add the function of screen dimming and blanking. To do this I need to add overlays to the linx code. All the instructions and you tube show this to be done via terminal link to raspberry pi from laptop, the problem I’ve got is that I’m not familiar with linx and also my laptop is a work one and terminal use is locked out.

Can any of the linx experts on here offer help / advice on how I can sort this.?

if anyone is not sure what I’m on about look on you tube for Venus OS, it’s the code issued by Victron to use the raspberry pi instead of their own controller.
 
gregcope said:
Can you attach a keyboard and screen?
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You run it in headless mode to show the victron screen so keyboard will not show txt, also the links to the download and install code are very long and would have to be typed perfectly, also the screen is only 4” wide
 
For those who are wondering what I’m on about have a look at

being able to use victron VRM remotely also has option for remote switching from what I see people doing,
 
gregcope said:
Another guess. Can you install putty which is a simple(!) terminal program?
Click to expand...
I tried this but the admin restrictions stop me installing certain programmes, I’m looking at options without having to buy my own pc as this does not make the project low cost then,
 
Yes have iPad but didnt know this this is an option, all the you tubers show a pc or Mac being used, they also all refer to using Ethernet connection to both
 
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There are terminals for iphones/ipads although without a keyboard its a little hard to type the commands. But do-able.
 
Yes, the actual question here is “how do I run an ssh client when I don’t own a computer?”

There are perfectly good ssh clients for iPad - and the keyboard‘s as good or bad as any other app, whether you’re using the on-screen one or an external Bluetooth keyboard. The bigger problem is likely to be sorting out the networking, since the OP won’t have an Ethernet interface for his iPad (they exist, but someone rambling about “linx” is not going to own one ?) so will need to get the iPad onto a wifi network on which the pi is also accessible, organise appropriate IP addresses, and know what the address of the pi is in order to connect to it.

What’s the pi doing at the moment in the way of networking?

Pete
 
Dave, what rpi have you got? 3 or 4? how much RAM? and what screen?
I've got a 3B+ 2GB and the official rpi 7in touch screen.
Currently running 2 ver back Large (with node-red and signalk)
in Nov when I first started playing with that, it was a tad complicated.
Latest one I tried at Easter was smooth to install with not much config needed.
Are you sure you're trying the latest? should work fine (with dimming!)
However having a way to ssh to it is necessary imho. And not being familiar with linux is not helpful at all.
 
Using 3B+ as 4 is not yet fully supported with Venus OS and small 3.5 TFT DSI touch screen, the problem is that dimming and blanking is not within Venus OS and has to be added with overlays and scripts, plenty of YouTube to show how but they seem to assume certain steps are taken first and move a bit quick through these without explanation. you don’t load anything other than the Venus OS and this does not help with learning linx as it’s not using many of the standard commands.

victron have released the same Venus OS that they use in the GX touch screen product for open source development but don’t directly support it of course.

the initial system was really easily done, had it running on the remote victron VRM and local network both wired and wireless in less than 20 minutes, took a little longer tomake it headless to use the victron user screen as I had to modify the config files directly but this was easily done via HDMI to TV and plug in keyboard. Just need to find way of avoiding typing very long code and web based links.

I don’t want to really get into linx coding but want to get a very good system working well. I suspect that soon the latest version of the Venus OS image file will have these options included but I understand that the varied number of screen specs make this hard.
 
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prv said:
Yes, the actual question here is “how do I run an ssh client when I don’t own a computer?”

There are perfectly good ssh clients for iPad - and the keyboard‘s as good or bad as any other app, whether you’re using the on-screen one or an external Bluetooth keyboard. The bigger problem is likely to be sorting out the networking, since the OP won’t have an Ethernet interface for his iPad (they exist, but someone rambling about “linx” is not going to own one ?) so will need to get the iPad onto a wifi network on which the pi is also accessible, organise appropriate IP addresses, and know what the address of the pi is in order to connect to it.

What’s the pi doing at the moment in the way of networking?

Pete
Click to expand...
The pi at the moment is on the boat connected to wireless router and the Venus OS makes the current IP easy to find, I can connect via internet or local mode if I’m on board with browser on iPad or pc no problem. When I have a working ssh client the easiest way to do what I need is to copy and paste the code lines and they then grab and install them selves, finding the linux commands a bit of a challenge
 
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