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Ole Saether posted Mar 22, '19

Service to turn Multiplus on/off via digital input

EDIT: Edited for Venus v3.0x. See below

A frequent requested feature of mine (and others on forums discussing off gird systems) is a means to turn on or off the MultiPlus with a switch. With a stand-alone Multiplus you can connect an external switch but when the Multiplus is connected to a CCGX or VGX the external switch does not work and you have to dig deep into the remote console to turn the Multiplus on/off.

I have created a service that monitors a digital input and when it goes from high to low it turns the Multiplus ON if is is OFF and OFF if it is ON.

I had to create a new digital input type: #12, "Inverter control".

Below is a link to the python service repository. Patches for the gui-files and dbus-digitalinputs service can be found in the "diffs" folder. Under releases there are prebuilt installers for Venus GX and Raspberry PI.

https://github.com/osaether/dbus-inverter-ctrl.git

For those of you that want to build it, here is the Bitbake recipe with instructions:

https://github.com/osaether/meta-dbus-inverter-ctrl

Use at your own risk!

Ole

2 |3000

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Ole Saether commented · Mar 30, 2019 at 07:18 PM

Tried this on 2.30~39 today and it does not work as expected. I get python errors when writing to the dbus so there must have been a change in dbus lately. I will get back when I have figured it out.

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Ole Saether Ole Saether commented · Apr 07, 2019 at 08:27 PM

Issues fixed now and repo updated.

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Ole Saether commented · Apr 07, 2019 at 08:32 PM

I tried it out his weekend and it works very well. See video below. This feature is most useful for off-grid systems where the zero load power of the inverter will drain the batteries in the winter months where we have no or very little sun.

Your browser does not support HTML5 video.

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2019-04-06-170846.mp4 (19.8 MiB)

Elimac Ole Saether commented · Apr 08, 2019 at 08:43 AM

Will it be possible also to change to "Charger mode" remotely?

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Ole Saether Elimac commented · Apr 11, 2019 at 11:52 AM

Hi, yes that would be possible but in the repo above it is ON/OFF.

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Rune Eilertsen commented · Apr 20, 2019 at 09:07 AM

If was on when input is high, and inverter off when input is low would help more.

Because else you need som feedback to know if you turn the inverter on or off.

Then also bms and other security switch would benefit as well.

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Ole Saether Rune Eilertsen commented · Apr 23, 2019 at 10:03 AM

Hi @Rune Eilertsen Yes that is easy to change but I prefer a momentary push-button for my application. In the button in the video above the light is wired to the AC out of the inverter.

I will update the example so that this can be configured. When I have time...

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espen commented · Apr 26, 2019 at 02:47 PM

Hi Ole,

This is a long awaited feature. Unfortunately, I don't get it to work.

On “Digital Input 1”, when I select “Inverter Control”, it goes back to “Disabled”.

The service “dbus-inverter-ctrl” is up and running, and the Multiplus is on tty05.

(My push-button on the digital input 1 is also confirmed to work, as when input1 is set to pulse-meter it counts the pulses.)

/Espen

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Ole Saether espen commented · Apr 27, 2019 at 09:48 PM

Hi @Espen. I am suspecting that I have not got the Type settings correct. If you are comfortable editing files on your Venus, stop the inverter-ctrl service:

svc -d /service/dbus-inverter-ctrl

Edit the file /data/conf/settings.xml and scroll down to <Digitalinput> and find the <_1> section and change the Type to 10:

<Type default="0" max="10" type="i" silent="False" min="0">10</Type>

Save the file and exit, then reboot your Venus.

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espen Ole Saether commented · Apr 28, 2019 at 09:23 AM

Hi Ole,

Thank you. I can confirm that the settings is working now.

I'll go to the cabin later today to also check the powerbutton on the venus .

/Espen H

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espen espen commented · Apr 28, 2019 at 02:03 PM

Hi,

I can confirm that it’s working now!

Thank you so much Ole :)

/Espen

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vicrvusr commented · May 08, 2019 at 03:14 AM

Hi, I'd like to install this on an rpi running venus os. I found out the image hasn't been made for the rpi. I'm lost as to how to go about building or manually installing it. I can manually edit the patches in easily enough, but don't know where to go from there. Please be kind to me as I'm pretty new at Yocto and the Victron-specific stuff.

Thanks in advance for any help, this will help my WAF of my install with the Multiplus greatly!.

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Ole Saether vicrvusr commented · May 08, 2019 at 09:52 AM

Hi! I have now built an installer for rpi and uploaded to github. It's the file, dbus-inverter-ctrl_0.6-r0_cortexa7hf-neon-vfpv4.ipk here:

https://github.com/osaether/dbus-inverter-ctrl/releases/tag/v0.6

You will probably have to change the digital input pin in the scripts.

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vicrvusr Ole Saether commented · May 09, 2019 at 12:30 AM

Thanks! Yes, I suspect I'll have to change the inputs, I could not find any kind of mapping from Rpi to the Venus GUI's input number so I'll just play with them on the bench until I find one that switches in the GUI and use that one. Getting another Rpi just in case I'm too fumble fingered...

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vicrvusr Ole Saether commented · May 14, 2019 at 05:26 AM

It's working on the Pi now! Thanks very much for writing this and supporting us!

I was able to use the same input however I did have to correct the type settings from your reply to Espen above. The Multiplus address changed since it was on a USB port. Once I fixed that it worked like a charm! I also changed the off mode to charge only (replaced the 4 with a 1 in two places in the python service script).

For reference here's a chart of the Rpi inputs used by the Venus OS, I used pin 29, pulled it low and reversed the polarity in the inverter control setup, though that may not have made any difference:

Rpi Pin #	GPIO #	Device Instance	Normal state
37	26	5	low
35	19	4	low
33	13	3	low
31	6	2	high
29	5	1	high
1	3V3	pull low pins hi thru 10k
39	GND	pull hi pins low thru 10k

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espen commented · May 11, 2019 at 06:39 PM

Hi Ole,

I did see in your release notes that you removed "inverter control" from the mainpage. (over to service?)

But I have it still on the main page.

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screenshot-20190511-111406.png (351.5 KiB)

Ole Saether espen commented · May 11, 2019 at 10:16 PM

Hi @Espen I checked and you are right. I will try to figure out another way to do this. I was gone in some earlier versions of Venus.

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Ole Saether commented · May 24, 2019 at 06:38 PM

This service does not work with Venus v2.30~50. I don't know why yet. Reverting back to Venus 2.30~47 and it works. We need to wait for the ~50 release notes from @mvader (Victron Energy Staff) to see if there is a change related to this. Maybe they changed how the digital inputs work?

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Ole Saether Ole Saether commented · May 24, 2019 at 08:58 PM

The Venus 2.30~50 release notes are out now and there are no changes related to this. Despite that, this service is working fine on ~47 but not on ~50. I will try to debug it but my impression is that Victron don't want us to create custom services. Given the lack of feedbcak from Victron in this thread.

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mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ Ole Saether commented · Jun 02, 2019 at 09:28 PM

Hi @osaether, . Found and fixed now; in v2.31~2 test version at this moment.

Sorry for not recognising this sooner and thanks for reporting

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Ole Saether mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ commented · Jun 02, 2019 at 09:57 PM

I tried v2.31~2 now and the digital input works as expected. Thanks!

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mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ Ole Saether commented · Jun 02, 2019 at 09:32 PM

Ps. You wrote:

> I will try to debug it but my impression is that Victron don't want us to create custom services.

Not at all. I think its an honour that people like you spend so much time building on top of our work.

The lack of response sometimes is that its difficult to debug / help with software not under our control. And a lack of time. Also for me there is only 24h in a day.

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kvittern commented · Nov 04, 2020 at 03:03 AM

Hello,

Is this still working with Venus OS 2.60.

Installed it successfully, but when I’ll try to choose inverter under digital input, it reverts back to disable. I also tried to do the change to the settings.xml file (0-10) as described in an other comment here.

Any idea?

Regards Rune

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vicrvusr kvittern commented · Nov 10, 2020 at 11:20 PM

Confirmed, this broke upon upgrade to 2.60. Also reinstalled the service (opkg --force-reinstall) with no change. Fortunately there is an option to boot into the backup version (I had 2.33) which restored the switch operation. Thanks, devs, as that kept DW happy!

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vicrvusr vicrvusr commented · Nov 11, 2020 at 02:50 AM

Resolved the issue with 2.60, at least the one I had. The install script changes /opt/victronenergy/dbus_digitalinputs.py and it was not changed when I forced the install script to run again. To resolve I manually edited the file and applied the changes in dbus_digitalinputs.diff which is in osaether's github repository here.

There are also several .qml files that the install script changes so all should be verified, they are located in /opt/victronenergy/gui/. The diff files are the first three files here.

Hopefully this will help you @Kvittern.

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bathnm commented · Nov 06, 2020 at 11:03 AM

@osaether, Can I ask a couple of questions on this. Is this designed to be be used with a MOM switch connected to the digital input or an on/off switch?

Looking at your code the last change you made was to the line

if int(value["Value"])==3:

You changed the value from 3 to 2. What does teh value 2 mean?

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Ole Saether bathnm commented · Nov 06, 2020 at 02:18 PM

Hi @Bathnm yes, it is designed to be used with a MOM switch. You can use it with a ON/OFF switch as well but then you need to modify the script so that it reads the switch continuously to keep the inverter and switch in sync. With a MOM switch you can turn off the inverter elsewhere and turn it on again with the MOM switch. You cannot do that with an ON/OFF switch.

I changed the value from 3 (switch = ON) to 2 (switch = OFF) such that the inverter turns on when you release the button.

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bathnm Ole Saether commented · Nov 06, 2020 at 04:58 PM

@osaether, Thank you great explanation why a MOM is better than switch, had not thought about ANO situation switching it off and then being out of sync. I suspect that is the issue with the VE.Bus BMS and why the mode capability is disabled on VenusOS and why a DMC is required.

Out of interest why did you'd decide to react to the off rather than on?

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Ole Saether bathnm commented · Nov 06, 2020 at 08:07 PM

@Bathnm When the script reacted on "ON" it sometimes did not turn on. I guess this is because the switch generates ripples. With reacting on "OFF" it works every time with the switch I have.

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bathnm Ole Saether commented · Nov 19, 2020 at 08:21 PM

@osaether, Is your MOM a close or open when pushed. Just trying to get my head around the logic. With a standard MOM, there would be a circuit until it is pushed, on pushing it would open the circuit and then remake on release. Therefore my logic, and have not tested says that pushing the button should trigger and off and releasing trigger an on. Have I missed something?

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Ole Saether bathnm commented · Nov 19, 2020 at 08:28 PM

@Bathnm This is the switch I use:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/302775850762?ViewItem=&item=302775850762

Are you having trouble getting my script to work?

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bathnm Ole Saether commented · Nov 19, 2020 at 08:35 PM

@osaether, I am remote from my system at the moment, so just reading the code and trying to work out how it all works. Looks like the switch can be wired to both make the circuit and break the circuit when it is pushed. In a few weeks time I'll be on the boat again and will play and debug.

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espen commented · Feb 06, 2021 at 03:50 PM

Hi Ole,

Have you tried to do the same thing with node red?

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espen espen commented · Feb 08, 2021 at 09:53 AM

I did a setup for this in Node-Red, and got it working.

It's my first time I've tried Node-Red, so not sure if this is the correct/best way to do it.

Here is the code (to many characters to insert here): penyacom.org/p?q=VnBEdkw

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am48293 espen commented · Nov 20, 2022 at 08:36 PM

Hi espen,

Could you possibly repost that scritp - i belive it expired

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huit commented · Apr 15, 2021 at 11:16 PM

Just commenting to say I got this working on a cerbo gx. I replaced two references to the inverter device in the dbus_inverter_ctrl.py file.

"com.victronenergy.vebus.ttyO5" => "com.victronenergy.vebus.ttyS4"

I just ran the raspberry pi (cortex A7) installer and modified the copy that gets installed into /opt/victronenergy/. It would be handy to have a custom installer but i haven't used bitbake before so this will do for now.

Thanks @osaether for sharing!

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bigbadbob76 huit commented · Feb 28, 2022 at 11:55 AM

Hi @huit and @osaether I need to do some mods to dbus_inverter_ctrl.py too. (I need to use ttyUSB1)

I tried copying it out of it's folder (using filezilla) after installing it, modifying it and copying it back where it belongs, then making it executable using chmod 775, but python doesn't compile it automatically.

I have edited .py files on venus like this before and it has usually automatically compiled the the .py file as a .pyc file the first time it is run after copying back. but not this time. :-(

I have tried compiling it using py_compile /opt/victronenergy/dbus-inverter-ctrl/dbus_inverter_ctrl.py but it throws me an error.

Can you advise if that's the way you did your edit and how did you compile it?

Cheers.

Bob.

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huit bigbadbob76 commented · Mar 01, 2022 at 12:28 AM

I just edited it in place using vim probably in a secure shell. As such I didn't change permissions or anything. I imagine you can just match the permissions / ownership it is installed with. You shouldn't need to compile anything, the python interpreter will make a compiled version (e.g. bytecode file, .pyc) if it wants to when it runs it for the first time. Are you sure it is being called in the first place?

FYI don't have it working right now as it broke on firmware upgrade and I haven't had time to work out a fix and didn't want to roll back.

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bigbadbob76 huit commented · Mar 01, 2022 at 08:54 AM

Thanks @huit

Yes, as you say I expected the interpreter to make a compiled version the first time.

I'll check that it is actually being called but it was before I edited the tty port.

more investigation needed my end. cheers for your help. :-)

I'm using venus v2.66 so I'm hopeful it will work and I can then edit it it to change from "on" to "Invert only" depending on MPPT state.

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bigbadbob76 bigbadbob76 commented · Mar 03, 2022 at 08:55 PM

hmmm.... that's odd.

dbus_inverter_ctrl is being called but the log file tells me-

DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name com.victronenergy.vebus.ttyUSB1 was not provided by any .service files

yet.... dbus-spy tells me my multiplus is on com.victronenergy.vebus.ttyUSB1

i'm confused dot com.

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bigbadbob76 commented · Feb 09, 2022 at 02:00 PM

Hi Osaether.

This looks like it would help me in a project to improve solar priority.

I have been trying to get venus (on a pi) to switch inverter mode based on solar charger state.

Your service should help me there I think.

Thanks for your work.

Bob.

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joe-d commented · Mar 04, 2022 at 01:00 AM

Hello everyone, I had this service working but after updating my Venus GX OS to v2.82, and now when I attempt to re-install the ipk, I get the following error shown below.

Does anyone know how to correct this?

Thanks for any help

Joe

-------------------

root@beaglebone:~# opkg install dbus-inverter-ctrl_0.8-r0_cortexa8hf-neon.ipk

Collected errors:

* Solver encountered 1 problem(s):

* Problem 1/1:

* - nothing provides python-dbus needed by dbus-inverter-ctrl-0.8-r0.cortexa8hf-neon

* Solution 1:

* - do not ask to install dbus-inverter-ctrl-0.8-r0.cortexa8hf-neon

root@beaglebone:~#

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Ole Saether commented · Jul 22, 2023 at 06:35 PM

Hello!
Today I updated the repo for Venus v3.0. Installers for Venus GX and Raspberry PI 2 under Releases in the repo above (please star the repo if you like it :-)

I have also created a repository with the Bitbake recipe in case you want to create an installer for different hardware:
https://github.com/osaether/meta-dbus-inverter-ctrl

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