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We have a BMV-712 and want to buy a MPPT charger. Would it be possible to but a BlueSolar MPPT 75/15 (SCC010015050R) and connect it with a cable (VE.Direct) to the BMV-712 and get data from both of them in the app, or do we have to buy a Bluetooth dongle or a SmartSolar for that to work?
A very similar question we had here a few weeks ago.
No that will not work. The VE.direct port is only to connect the BT-dongle or to connect the device to a venus device.
I'm new so bare with me.
I was thinking that the BMV-712 could send battery voltage and temperature readings to the BlueSolar MPPT controller if the BMV-712 had the optional temp probe.
I thought the data was sent to the BlueSolar via the VE-Network over BlueTooth provided both devices are on the same VE-Network.
Do I misunderstand?
Bill
@HotWaterJoe, this question is referring to the BlueSolar model MPPT (without Bluetooth), not the SmartSolar model which has Bluetooth. If you have a SmartSolar MPPT on the same VE.Smart network as a BMV-712 with a temperature sensor, then yes the BMV will share the temperature data with the Smart MPPT. It is not possible to hardwire-connect a BlueSolar MPPT to a BMV using a VE.Direct cable and achieve data sharing, which is what the OP was inquiring about.
I use an Arduino to read BMV and send to MPPT
Hi Greg,
I used the VE-Direct Hex Protocol for both BMV and MPPT
https://www.victronenergy.com/support-and-downloads/whitepapers
Read from BMV, send to MPPT.
I was able to do this using a raspberry pi - I had 2 mppt solar chargers, 1 bmv 712, a gps, 2 3rd party chargers. I used the v.direct leads with usb at the other end into a usb hub and into raspberry pi - I used a node-red flow design and was able to read in data from all devices, do some simple logic and even some commands back to the devices.
This question is from 2019 but as BlueSolar models still are sold today it's still important. DON'T BUY a BlueSolar, go for the BlueSmart instead. Even with a Bluetooth dongle the BlueSolar isn't the same as the corresponding BlueSmart model (and likely not even cheaper). The BlueSolar simply is obsolete.
1. you don't have a free VE.Direct port as that is blocked by the dongle and you can't use a Cerbo GX, Raspberry Pi or somesuch and Bluetooth at the same time because the VE.Direct port is needed for the connection.
2. you can't synchronize BlueSolars even with the dongle.
3. You don't have history data unless your BlueSoolar model already supports that. Otherwise in the Victron Connect app data shown in the Trend tab are discarded as soon as you switch back to the device list or leave the app.
My experience is that with bigger systems, the blue-solar works fine. I can change settings via Cerbo as this gives you all the functions that the other MPPTs have (running multiple blue solar). It might not work for everyone, but it does work for me.
