Violating a Princess!

[wildebus]

It just makes a handy terminal post.

I did have a suspicion And keeps it looking 'right' (touch of the OCDs?)

 

[SquirrellCook]

That is very neat indeed

I have just this morning disconnected just about EVERYTHING in my installation to redo. Your cabling is putting mine to shame! (I would post a pic of mine but it would be X-rated for Horror ) It's all going to be connected the same again, but look a lot tidier and look more logical now the setup is virtually final (still waiting on my custom programmable VSDR-200 (200A Voltage Sensing Disconnect Relay) as the final piece for the Hybrid Battery but that should be fairly out the way from the rest anyway - hopefully will be programmed and tested in the next week ready to ship to me)

No, if it works leave it alone. I used to get bullied by the wiring/assembly inspector at Racal Thorn in Wells. She wouldn't let me remove any equipment from the factory unless it was to her standard. Funny really as they were one of our subcontractors and I guess that made me her inspector. That said I wasn't supposed to be doing their work, but when I had senior military officers pleading for kit I had to get it sorted.
BTW, I wouldn't have shown her this board, she'd have condemned it.

 

[wildebus]

No, if it works leave it alone. I used to get bullied by the wiring/assembly inspector at Racal Throne in Wells. She wouldn't let me remove any equipment from the factory unless it was to her standard. Funny really as they were one of our subcontractors and I guess that made me her inspector. That said I wasn't supposed to be doing their work, but when I had senior military officers pleading for kit I had to get it sorted.
BTW, I wouldn't have shown her this board, she'd have condemned it.

I'm redoing mine primarily to remove some bits and try and get better cooling (I didn't notice before but the 4th battery I added a few months after the original installation is very close to the EasyPlus exhaust vent which I think is both partially restricting its airflow (it was getting too hot to touch when charging at a high rate) and causing the battery to go over 40C with the hot air pushed right at it.
But while that is getting done, makes sense to tidy it up

 

[SquirrellCook]

Water pump turned up today, might be a bit big. Should give many years of service though. BTW they did have smaller options.

 

[Deleted member 12559]

There you go, T2 concept van, perhaps Mercedes plagiarized Plaxtons bus design 1998.
You never know, after all MB aren't above a bit of pollution data fiddling

!

 

[SquirrellCook]

I’ve seen something like that in Italy, though I think it was home built. I guess that was the inspiration.

 

[SquirrellCook]

Just when you think your under control, you end up adjusting things. In an effort to progress this project I decided to make blind leaps based on no experience. Don't do it. Even though I had dimensions and CAD drawings of parts it didn't work. I've had to juggle a few things around.
Make sure to have the bits to juggle with.

Next, connectivity! I have or will have at least five VE direct devices. Three VE direct ports on the Cerbo. So three of them can be taken up with three of the four mppt's. Only three of them will be regularly used for the three arrays of solar panels. The fourth is for an optional external panel. This I think will have to have a VE direct to USB cable. Next is the smart shunt, this again is VE direct. I wonder if the blue tooth will have the level of adjustability the display had? Or can it be set up via the Cerbo? Anyways this will need another VE direct to USB cable, but with an extension cable as the batteries could be up to five meters away. The calorifier will have to be switched via the relays on the Cerbo as the smart shunt doesn't have one.

 

[wildebus]

Just when you think your under control, you end up adjusting things. In an effort to progress this project I decided to make blind leaps based on no experience. Don't do it. Even though I had dimensions and CAD drawings of parts it didn't work. I've had to juggle a few things around.
Make sure to have the bits to juggle with.

Next, connectivity! I have or will have at least five VE direct devices. Three VE direct ports on the Cerbo. So three of them can be taken up with three of the four mppt's. Only three of them will be regularly used for the three arrays of solar panels. The fourth is for an optional external panel. This I think will have to have a VE direct to USB cable. Next is the smart shunt, this again is VE direct. I wonder if the blue tooth will have the level of adjustability the display had? Or can it be set up via the Cerbo? Anyways this will need another VE direct to USB cable, but with an extension cable as the batteries could be up to five meters away. The calorifier will have to be switched via the relays on the Cerbo as the smart shunt doesn't have one.

Looking sexy

As far as I am aware, there is virtually nothing you can do on a BMV Display that you cannot do via the VE Connect app. The only thing I can think of is clearing the history with is a display-only function (on the Smartshunt of course, that is done on the App).
Once you have a VE.Direct device cabled to the Cerbo and the Cerbo connected to the VRM system, you can use VE Connect via VRM instead of Bluetooth. That is handy for a few reasons:
1. The device does not have to have Bluetooth to use VE Connect (so for example, you could have a BMV-700 instead of a Smartshunt as a low-cost option and still remotely view and set it up. Good way to get the flexibility of a Relay without the cost of a BMV-712)
2. You can use any device with a browser rather than a Phone (I tend to use VE Connect on the laptop now and I very rarely ever connect via Bluetooth to any Victron device).

Relay 1 on the Cerbo GX is much more programmable than the relay on a BMV anyway, so as a way to control a device it is the best option.
you can use the Load Terminals on the MPPTs as relays to a degree, having them go on and off based on voltage levels. Not sure how well that would work with a big load like on a water calorfier as the act of turning it on would cause a voltage drop which would turn the load off again, letting the voltage rise and reenabling the load again, and maybe go round in circles. But small loads could be controlled I would think?

Relay 2 on the Cerbo GX is currently just a remote on/off relay.
I believe that unlike the Venus GX, Relay 2 on the Cerbo has the hardware ability to be programmable and hopefully at some time Victron will update the Venus OS to let that happen! (it might be possible with some modified version of the OS? I just stick to the regular version so not sure - but after saying this, I think I will try it out ).

 

[SquirrellCook]

I've put 24 volts to the board and connected to the VRM portal. All it's telling me is that's it's OK and Inverting with 24.39 volts. I guess I shouldn't be expect much?

 

[wildebus]

I've put 24 volts to the board and connected to the VRM portal. All it's telling me is that's it's OK and Inverting with 24.39 volts. I guess I shouldn't be expect much?

This is a screenshot of my VRM dashboard with the sections in dotted lines and what devices drives each one when it is connected.

If all you have connected so far is the Multiplus, then you are seeing the right stuff.
What you can do if you want is add some dummy devices by enabling Demo Mode but I don't think I would bother if you are getting cables shortly.

 

[SquirrellCook]

New HDMI cable turned up today, but still no display from the Cerbo. Does the HDMI port need enabling?
I've plugged the display into a pi, still no display as I haven't configured the pi for it. Though the display knows it's connected to something.

 

[SquirrellCook]

The replacement water pump has just turned up, I think I have gone from one extreme to another. At half the price of the common ones I'll give it a go. A nice big accumulator will help.

 

[wildebus]

New HDMI cable turned up today, but still no display from the Cerbo. Does the HDMI port need enabling?
I've plugged the display into a pi, still no display as I haven't configured the pi for it. Though the display knows it's connected to something.

I never had any joy with getting a display working on the Pi. like you elude to, you have to mess around with the setup for the Pi and change some code.

As far as the Cerbo goes, it should be a matter of just plugging it in pretty much.
Possibility I can think of ....
The Cerbo's output is a rather small 800 x 480 resolution.
Most screens can cope with that, but you might need to ensure the Screen is already powered up when the Cerbo boots so the screen gets the right 'setup' signal to set the resoution. The 7" screen I use is a native 1024 x 600 and if I turn the screen on AFTER the Cerbo boots, the image is in the top right corner. I tried using the Cerbo with a big computer screen with a 1920 Resolution and that was right up in the top corner, but a reboot of the Cerbo fixed it automatically.
So with everything connected and powered up, reboot the Cerbo and see what happens.
I guess it is possible you have a screen that will just not accept an output resolution of 800 x 480? Try a different screen and see what happens?

How are you powering the screen? the Cerbo HDMI port will not provide any power (just in case you are thinking that? some HDMI ports do I believe?). On the Cerbo GX, the USB nearest the HDMI is designed to provide power for a USB-powered Screen (it has no other use). the other USB ports are likely not able to power a screen.

 

[SquirrellCook]

New 7" screen has been ordered, let's see if it likes that.

 

[PeteS]

The screen will work on a pi out the box, it will display something. The standard Venus software is by default in Headless mode which means its not expecting a screen. However it will still output something if connected to the HDMI port in the form of text showing that it is working but not the Cerbo screen. Headless mode needs to be off for that to happen.

 

[SquirrellCook]

Yes life from the pi even without a driver, but nothing from the cerbo. So how we do get the cerbo out of headless mode and in turn get me out of that mode also?

 

[wildebus]

Yes life from the pi even without a driver, but nothing from the cerbo. So how we do get the cerbo out of headless mode and in turn get me out of that mode also?

Is this with the different screen?

 

[SquirrellCook]

No still waiting for it to turn up. Just been looking at the vrm portal and I can't see anything about turning the display off.

 

[wildebus]

I don't think you do, you just don't plug a screen in if you don't want it.

Try plugging in a standard screen with an HDMI connection. This is a screen connected to the Cerbo and sitting on a table top of 50cm diameter ...

 

[PeteS]

This youtube video will go a long way in showing you what to do, a lot you will already have done to get the venus os running on the pi to at least connect to the VRM.
You have to change a config file and the video shows you how to that and also get the touch screen to work.
I'm unsighted on your knowledge of pi but there is an easier way to do it on github and i'llmpost that link too.

(6) Install Victron Venus OS 2.60 on Raspberry Pi with Update Script - YouTube
you will already have a version of Venus OS so you can ignore the first part.

raspberrypi install venus image · victronenergy/venus Wiki · GitHub
This is the script the Youtube is following.

kwindrem/SetupHelper: Helper functions to simplify writing setup scripts that modify VenusOs functionality. The package includes automatic reinstallation of the package after a VenusOs update.
If you know how to SSH into the Pi (you find out how to in the youtube video) then as soon as you have succesfully SSH'd into the pi you can run setuphelper to set up the display and touchscreen but YOU HAVE TO BE RUNNING VERSION 2.70 AT LEAST FOR THIS TO WORK otherwise just follow the youtube video