question

happyvkv avatar image
happyvkv asked

Reading data off an MPPT 150/35 using raspi

Hello!

I'm currently working on reading the data from an MPPT 150/35 charge controller onto my raspberry pi. The purpose is to use the data I get to analyze the performance of our solar car and improve the car's model accordingly.

So far, I have connected directly the smart V.E.-USB dongle into the pi and asked it to read what the controller is spitting out (using a cat /dev/ command). The problem there is the output I'm getting is nonsense (or likely in some other 'language' that I do not know how to decode). I will link a picture showing specifically what I am getting.

Is there a certain library or method to directly talking to the 150/35 charge controller and sending it commands to output the solar panel's instantaneous data? And if I have done this correctly so far, is there some source code I can use to actually make some sense of my current output?

In the ideal case, I would like to have repeated outputs saying: power consumption _, current drawn_, voltage_, etc.

(For reference, I'm working in python.)

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Using my Mac as a shell, I got the following outputs:



MPPT Controllers
2 |3000

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1 Answer
mvader (Victron Energy) avatar image
mvader (Victron Energy) answered ·
2 |3000

Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.