question

jacola avatar image
jacola asked

BETA issue on Venus GX firmware

Hello, i am new to the Victron world, but experienced in IoT, Modbus, Control and energy management.

Yesterday my installer finished a nice ESS setup with 16x Pylontech batteries, Venus GX and 3x Multiplus 5000.

I had loaded the latest available beta on the Venus GX because my energy meter is far away and needs to talk Modbus/TCP, now:

- the Beta software seems to be broken in terms of communicating with the Batteries. The installer searched quite some time for the problem before finally downgrading the firmware and the communication with the battery started to work.

- the Modbus/TCP communication with the reader is very strange, it opens huge amount of TCP connections instead of opening ONE connection and using it. I do not have a Gavazzi with ethernet interface, but use the ET340 with a modbus/TCP gateway - so i can share the meter but also see much more. The sheer amount of connections opened is crazy, and the meter communication does not work.

Any ideas ?

I'll post system related questions separately


Johannes


BMV Battery MonitorVenus OS
2 |3000
Toggle Comment visibility. Current Visibility: Viewable by all users

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

2 Answers
mvader (Victron Energy) avatar image
mvader (Victron Energy) answered ·

Hi @jacola, welcome here and welcome to Victron.


wrt Pylontech batteries not working when running a beta version: what version was that? Please see here for more details about the beta program and where to post test results & possible bug findings: https://www.victronenergy.com/live/ccgx:beta-testing

I’d be surprised if there is an issue with v2.60~29 and Pylontech batteries: its a very popular battery; no other complaints and also no issue on our r&d test system.


Modbustcp & energy meter: I’m afraid that what you are trying to do there is not supported. We dont support any modbustcp gateways; the only ethernet connectable meter soon to be officially supported is the carlo gavazzi em24 eth as mentioned in the v2.60-beta series changelog.



2 comments
2 |3000
Toggle Comment visibility. Current Visibility: Viewable by all users

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

jacola avatar image jacola commented ·

Hej Matthijs, thank you VERY MUCH for your answer !
CEO answering is cool - i do same things in my companies.


I will probably re-test it, my installer was doing the install with the Venus i had set to the latest beta, and then complained that this was the reason he could not see the batteries (or multiplus'es).
I will upgrade to latest beta again and if there are any issues, report them appropriately.

About the Modbustcp gateway: if done right you don't even realise you talk not to a native ethernet meter :) I have been building such gateways for Modicon/Lantronix and others since more than 20 years .., and if done right your software would not see the difference. Anyways, i got all working using MQTT and external control for now, will optimize the timing and maybe use Modbus/TCP TO the Venus and then provide you with an overview of the install and what it does.

Thanks again,

Johannes


0 Likes 0 ·
mvader (Victron Energy) avatar image mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ jacola commented ·

Hi Johannes, welcome.

Wrt modbus meter: careful, besides that whilst for sure doable, I do think it will be a challenge to fully simulate the em24-eth meters, the other issue you might run into will be timing. Timing is critical in ess system, and adding a gateway in between will for sure make the timing different than how we expect it - no?

0 Likes 0 ·
dafyddhirst avatar image
dafyddhirst answered ·

From a modbus point of view they sound like reconnects . as most modbus RTU to TCP gateways infact don't do full conversion . if you need to change your framing to RTU over tcp.

Modbus tcp is one standard

Modbus RTU is another standard its not identical to TCP.

I can give you examples in pymodbus if it helps.

Im working on a Deep sea Generator integration via modbus tcp. so what you want is achievable.

If you wright your own driver this could be accomplished.

a very dirty method would be to go RS485 into RTU to TCP/UDP Converter ...... cat 5 cable.....UDP/TCP to RTU converter ...... back to RS485. This could be 2 microcontrollers or 2 of the shelf units.

2 |3000
Toggle Comment visibility. Current Visibility: Viewable by all users

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