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mvader (Victron Energy) avatar image
mvader (Victron Energy) asked

Venus OS v2.60~28 available for testing

Good day all,

A new version, v2.60~28, is available for testing now. Several changes compared to the previous version & coming closer and closer to the official release. The change log is below.

In case you're new to the v2.60 beta test series, please make sure to read the previous v2.60 posts, listed below. There are several significant improvements in v2.60. The highlights are the addition of a feed-in limit, added ethernet-connected energy meters, updates on the NMEA2000-feature (addition of tanks, and Solar chargers), as well as many other improvements with regards to tank monitoring.

I am of course aware that above list now amounts to a lot of reading and clicking back and forth: I'll soon work on combining it all in one complete v2.60 change log.

What to test & how to report?

  • The new feed-in limiter. If you see issues with it, welcome to post below. Also if it works well, very welcome to post your system details (what mppts, what pv inverters, etcetera) & that it is working well for you below.
  • PV Inverter monitoring & feed-in regulation. This was changed a while back in v2.60. No issues reported: all good so far.

The newly added Carlo Gavazzi EM24 ethernet energy meter is working well for a long time already (despite the currently missing config screen).

If you see issues, please post a new "answer" below; or in case the same issues is already mentioned, then comment on that to say you see it too; or help, and so forth. Please do mention the Venus OS version you have installed; just to prevent confusion.

Change log v2.60~28

  • Restore configuration pages for the new Ethernet meters (this was removed earlier in v2.60 test series).
  • Cerbo GX: disable the USB port close to the HDMI port. Now, it can only be used for powering the GX Touch. No longer for data such as a VE.Direct USB cable or a GPS. My apologies to those affected, and it is rather unfortunate that we have do this. I'm well aware this might catch some installations and users by surprise & we are not happy about it at all. But trust me, there was no other feasible solution. The datasheet has already been amended; and we'll be communication more regarding this change in the specifications. Meanwhile, if this affects your system, there is a simple work around to revert to the previous version using the Settings -> Firmware -> Backup firmware menu. Note though that using this port for data may lead to corrupted VRM data on USB sticks or unreliable communication to for example a Solar Charger when using a VE.Direct to USB cable.
  • Add read-out of raw resistance measurement for the tank inputs.
  • Show phase sequence issues for meters that support that (more details to be documented later; at the moment I don't know more details. Except that this is to quickly catch wrongly wired meters which can be very hard to determine from the other data)
  • Fix problem where position of PV-inverter on L2 of an EM24 or ET340 could not be set to Output. Thank you ?? for raising this.
  • GUI: Enable suppressing notifications with the center button again. This was broken earlier during v2.60 development.

Thats it for this version! I'll be going through all the various reported issues later this week.

Best regards, Matthijs Vader

Venus OS
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4 Answers
n-dee avatar image
n-dee answered ·

concerning the usb-port: oh dear! :-( Next year I wanted to add an MPPT there...

As I don't want to use USB-Hubs: In cerbo its possible to configure canbus1 and canbus2 but I was not able to mix 250 and 500 kbit. Will this be possible in future releases?
-> As I have BYD LVL with 500kbit, this would give me the possibility to add VE.Can-MPPTs (with 250kbit)

regards,

Andy

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mvader (Victron Energy) avatar image mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ commented ·

Hi @N-DEE, sorry for taking a while to get back to you - and my apologies for that USB port.


For the canbus frequencies: on one of the two ports you can configure that freely.

On the other port its fixed to 500kbps. That is not something we'll fix in softwrae.


But, if you connect the BYD LVL to the port named BMS-Can (which is the one fixed to 500kbps and also the necessary protocol for the BYD LVL), and your MPPT to the other canbus port, named the VE.Can port, then all will work fine.


So, in other words: I don't really see what problem you're having with mixing? :)

Hope that helps!

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n-dee avatar image n-dee mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ commented ·

Well that's what I tried. LVL on BMS-Can and MPPT on VE.Can.

Can-Bus1 on 250kbit / Can-Bus2 (fixed one) on 500kbit:

Whatever I configure in Bus1 (there are three options with 250kbit), I only hear a clicking sound from Cerbo and continuing alarm notification: SmartSolar MPPT VE-Can 250/85 rev2 Alarm#67 BMS connection lost.

Thats why I asked. Thought that mixing of connection speed is the problem...
Note: Port2 on VE.Can is empty on my cerbo.

Second setting:
Bus1 on 250kbit / Bus2 (fixed one) DISABLED:

Whatever I configure, MPPT goes enabled and disabled (endless alternating) in device list. Furthermore BYD is shown with 0w 0A (well ok thats because bus2 is disabled)

So definately something wrong here...

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mvader (Victron Energy) avatar image mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ n-dee commented ·

Do you see both the battery data & the mppt charger data in the device list in the gui of your gx decice? How you have connected & configured the canbusses then can’t be the problem. If you see data, canbus config is ok.


the clicking sounds is the alarm relay. And for the error message see the mppt error messages document we have. My first things I’d check are mppt firmware version as well as that DVCC is properly enabled on the GX Device as per BYD/Victron instructions



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n-dee avatar image n-dee mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ commented ·

Fimrware is up to date, DVCC enabled as in instructions.

MPPT shows up in Devie list but was switching between disabled and 0w (it was dark yesterday when I was trying)

Error Code with bus2 disabled was #68 Network misconfigured
Document says update software+firmware (I have the newest) or be sure that its connected ony via VE.Can (unplug direct cable)

So - everything as it should be... but doesn't work



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n-dee avatar image n-dee n-dee commented ·

SOLVED!

This is a bug of v2.54
Upgraded to 2.60-28 and working as intended,

BUT
I had to go back because the LVL error I reported in a releasecandidate before still exits.
In Notifications you get the warning CELL IMBALANCE with the release candidates.

So when the BYD-error gets fixed, i may upgrade and use VE.Can MPPTs :-)

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mvader (Victron Energy) avatar image mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ n-dee commented ·

I'm surprised: BYD LVL is supposed to be fully supported under v2.54.

Perhaps you do have a cell imbalance issue in your BYD LVL? Are you sure its a false warning?

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mvader (Victron Energy) avatar image mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ commented ·

but good to hear its solved :)

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n-dee avatar image n-dee mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ commented ·

Hi, it is fully working under 2.54 but not on release candidates!

My colleague has LVL aswell and same notifications when he does upgrade. My voltages of highest and lowest cell differ max 0,008v

So it should be a false warning.

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n-dee avatar image n-dee n-dee commented ·

hi @mvader (Victron Energy),

thanks for passing me trough to Level3 Support.
Mr Blaser quickly found out that it is a bug of BYD LVL version up to 1.8.
I check firmware updates on regular basis but another Bug in the BE-Connect APP prevented to show the newest release.
On my Phone (Android 10 / german) the app shows v1.8 as newest release when choosing english as language in the app.
When choosing german it showed 1.11 and I was able to update.
-> Now there are no more errors in Notifications.

So thats the tip for the community (with BYD Battery): Be sure to check language settings in Be-Connect.

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mvader (Victron Energy) avatar image mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ n-dee commented ·

Hi, thats good to hear! Thank you for confirming this back here.

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john-hagtharp avatar image
john-hagtharp answered ·

Hi @mvader (Victron Energy),

As experienced multiple times before:

  • "Press to update to v2.60~28" is unresponsive.
  • "Check for updates" is unresponsive.
  • "Reboot?" reports "Rebooting..." but does nothing.

I expect logging in via ssh and "reboot -f" will resolve the problem as usual but I have not done this in case someone there would like to connect in and check my system while still in this state. Feel free to do so.

Regards,

John

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mvader (Victron Energy) avatar image mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ commented ·

Thank you! Yes, I'd like us to check that. Someone will login in the Tali system. I'll report back.

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john-hagtharp avatar image john-hagtharp mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ commented ·

Thanks @mvader (Victron Energy), please let me know when they've finished looking so I can go ahead, force a reboot and upgrade it.

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mvader (Victron Energy) avatar image mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ john-hagtharp commented ·

finished! Indeed something is wrong, but what we dont know yet. If happens again while running ~29 or later, then we can see more: we’ve added some extra logging.

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Mark avatar image
Mark answered ·

I am Running beta v2.60-28.... On my home ESS and every night I’m getting ‘grid lost alarm’....

as I’ve no loads currently connected to the multiplus,(work in progress) I use the mppt to switch the system off during the hours of darkness, and back on in the morning to export.

i reverted back to v2.54 last week for a few days with the same set up in place with NO ‘grid lost’ alarms recorded!

@mvader (Victron Energy)

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mvader (Victron Energy) avatar image mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ commented ·

Hey @Mark, noted - we'll look into this, thank you!

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jpasop (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image jpasop (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

Hi @Mark,

Thanks for your report. We will look into it.

Can you provide some info about your setup? I am interested in how you connected the mmpt to switch of the system?

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Mark avatar image Mark jpasop (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

I use the N/c relay of the 250/100 mppt to switch off the multiplus via an emergency stop assistant connected to Aux1 of the multiplus in series with an emergency stop button!.

this works flawlessly on V2.54....your welcome to view the notifications log.


regards

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jpasop (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image jpasop (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ Mark commented ·

Thanks, I know where to look now

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mvader (Victron Energy) avatar image mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ jpasop (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

Hi Mark, fyi, this is fixed in v2.60~33, available now. Thank you again for your help in this!

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kris avatar image
kris answered ·

I wrote about this problem before but no response from Victron.

As you can see in the pictures, despite the change in instance, there is a conflict in the N2K network, where is the problem?



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mvader (Victron Energy) avatar image mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ commented ·

I know this wont help you, but I’ll say it anyway: Maretron software thinks there is a conflict. But, according to how we read the NMEA2000 standard documentation, there is no conflict. And yesterday a colleague and myself tested this on a Simrad, a Raymarine and a garmin MFD (no Maretron), and the result is that

1) Simrad handles it all nicely.

2) Garmin okish - but hard for the user to see what voltage is what.

3) Raymarine needs unique data instances.

And that requirement for needing unique data instances is something we can’t align with how the n2k spec was written but more importantly also is one that makes some other things for us rather complicated. Its not so easy for us to simply make all of them unique by default: doing so will break other Victron functionality.

Having said all that, the solution for you is to change the data instances, which you can do with Actisense software. We have a document that explains how to do it.

More general information about all n2k specifics including instancing is in our GX manuals, for example here:

https://www.victronenergy.com/live/ccgx:start#marine_mfd_integration_by_nmea_2000

I hope that helps!



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kris avatar image kris mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ commented ·

As you can see I changed the data instance and it didn't help.

With several Victron devices on Garmin, GpsMap8412 and Furuno TZT2 also sees several devices under the same instance and the data is overlaid which causes a mess in displaying data.

You think that changing instance with Actisense will solve the problem. I changed the instance changed with Maretron, Actisense will do it in a few days but I think the effect will be the same.

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mvader (Victron Energy) avatar image mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ kris commented ·

Hi, there are two commonly used types of instances: data instances, and device instances.

Looking at the screenshot, I'm pretty sure you changed the device instances, but not the data instances.

I have tried changing data instances myself with Maretron, but never succeeded. The only way I ever managed to change a data instance is with Actisense. Instructions here:

https://www.victronenergy.com/live/ve.can:changing_nmea2000_instances

Please do let me know what happens when you have the Actisense, also if it works well.

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kris avatar image kris mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ commented ·

I'll let you know in a few days when I'm on a yacht, I'll make a change through the Actisense gate.

Regards, Kris

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Related Resources

Victron Venus OS Open Source intro page

Venus OS GitHub (please do not post to this)