I recently installed Venus OS 3.12 on a Raspberry Pi 2B+ without problems. The system runs flawless in demo mode and I patched the MQTT broker address in dbus_mqtt.py so that the demo data are sent to my own MQTT broker. Works perfect!
Then I connected the Raspi via VE.direct/USB to my RS Solar 48V/6000VA/80A. On the Venus OS website I got intstantly information about my RS system: Name, product ID, firmware version, VRM instance and serial number. Fine! But there is no information of solar power, battery power, no technical data at all. Instead I can find this information: "Unsupported device found: This product is not supported when connected via VE.direct. Connect via VE.Can instead."
Well, that is a little disapointing. What is the RS Solar's VE.direct interface good for if not for reading operating data? But ok, maybe the Venus on Raspi solution is a little oversized anyway. All I want to do is to monitor and store operating data - i.e read the battery state each 30 minutes, send it to my MQTT broker and store into my database. A few simple tasks that can be done with an ESP32 based solution easily.
Now here is my question: What data are beeing sent via the RS solar's VE.direct interface? Does the RS Solar not send operation data via this interface? Or is it just the Venus OS installed on my Raspi which does not support all VE.direct telegrams sent by the RS Solar?
Thank you all for your advice!