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vaughancoke avatar image
vaughancoke asked

SmartSolar MPPT 100/20 and a Raspberry Pi 3+ with Venus OS - Device List empty

Hey all,


I don't know if I'm just doing something really silly, but I can not get my SmartSolar MPPT 100/20 to communicate with Venus OS that I have installed on a Raspberry Pi. When I access the menu on Venus OS all i see is Notifications and Settings as options. I have the MPPT device connected to the Raspberry Pi using a Victron VE.Direct to USB cable. Do I need to enable a setting in the MPPT device, or in Venus to get this working? It feels like I've missed a step somewhere.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

MPPT ControllersVenus OSRaspberry PiVE.Direct
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4 Answers
Hannelore Winter avatar image
Hannelore Winter answered ·

@vaughancoke

Have you ever tried to restart the Raspi (with the MPPT connected)?

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Bill avatar image
Bill answered ·

Seconded... I was having my BMV drop often from the VGXRPI and to get it back i would use the "reboot" function from the remote console. Its under settings, Its found in Setting, General then about 5 lines down is Reboot. -Bill

PS. Now for about 36 hours it hasn't dropped out. Not sure what changed as I didn't swap anything.

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vaughancoke avatar image
vaughancoke answered ·

Let me start off by saying thank you for giving up your time to respond.

I have previously tried to power on the Raspberry Pi with the USB connected and complete the reboot from Venus OS however that has not helped. I have completed these steps again today just in case it worked, however the same result exists.

Is it as easy as just connecting the USB cable and everything should work? If so i suspect I have a faulty USB lead, or maybe MPPT. I have been using the Raspberry Pi for well over a year for another project so I know its working well. Do I need to change a setting in Venus OS/Raspberry Pi/MPPT Controller in order for everything to play nice with each other?

I've attached some images/screenshots of the setup in case someone can see something wrong.



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klim8skeptic avatar image klim8skeptic ♦ commented ·

Check your VE direct > usb cable with a phone/tablet with a known working OTG.

Turn of Bluetooth on the phone, plug in ve direct cable to otg, start Victron connect,, see if that works.

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vaughancoke avatar image
vaughancoke answered ·

I attempted what @klim8skeptic recommended however the situation remains unchanged.

I turned off bluetooth on my Pixel 3 XL and connected the VE.Direct USB Cable using a USB-C to USB-A dongle. The Victron Connect app was unable to find any devices. I then installed the USB Drivers and Victron Connect onto 2 different Windows 10 x64 machines. As the laptop only has USB-C i used the same technique as I did on the Pixel 3 XL. I checked device manager after i connected the VE.Direct cable and noticed that the VE.Direct drivers were not working. I tried the same method on my desktop machine, however this time I was using the USA-A ports and got the same error in device manager.

Below is the error. To me its looking more and more like a faulty cable


1579426593562.png (50.2 KiB)
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klim8skeptic avatar image klim8skeptic ♦ commented ·

Hi Vaughan,

Check the Ports (com & LPT) in device manager. Device should be manufactured & driver by FTDI. Com port # will vary.

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