Victron vs Smart Home

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Victron vs Smart Home

scheme_victron.jpg

In this post, we will show you how to read information from a photovoltaic power plant from the company Victron. We will connect to the Cerbo unit via MQTT. Based on these values, we can control various devices (heating, boiler, etc.) and prevent battery waste for large appliances when they don't need to run.

Hardware

Pi-Home - if you don't have it, see the section How to Do It

Victron FVE

Software

OpenHAB 3

Procedure:

1) Find the IP address of Cerbo on your router. Usually in the DHCP tab, for example, on MikroTik, go to IP-> DHCP Server -> Leases. In this example, it's 10.1.1.125

2) Enter the IP in your browser and enable the MQTT Broker function in Settings -> Services.

3) In OpenHAB, in Settings -> Things, add a new MQTT Broker (New Thing -> MQTT -> MQTT Broker) and enter the Cerbo's IP address. Use "ccgx" as the identifier and name it, for example, MQTT CCGX

4) Connect to Raspberry via SSH

ssh openhabian@RASPBERRY-IP-ADDRESS

5) Connect to Raspberry via SSH (our fictional OpenHAB IP is 10.1.1.125)

mosquitto_sub -h 10.1.1.125 -t "#"

If everything is working, you will get a VRM ID:

In the following sections, replace the ID with your own ID. Since MQTT on Cerbo goes to "sleep" every 60 seconds, we need to keep refreshing communication and tell it that someone is listening. For this, a simple rule in Rules directly in OpenHAB 3 UI is sufficient. Go to Rules, add a new rule, give it a name (e.g., Cerbo's Refresh), and use the following code:

triggers:
  - id: "1"
    configuration:
      cronExpression: 0/30 * * * * ? *
    type: timer.GenericCronTrigger
conditions: []
actions:
  - inputs: {}
    id: "2"
    configuration:
      type: application/vnd.openhab.dsl.rule
      script: |
        val actions = getActions("mqtt", "mqtt:broker:ccgx")
        actions.publishMQTT("R/c0619*****/system/0/Serial", "")
        logInfo("Solar", "CCGX MQTT Keep Alive Timer fired!!")
    type: script.ScriptAction

Select Save. Then you can create a new Thing for each item you want to read into OpenHAB. Again, go to Settings -> Things, and using the + icon, create a new one. Fill it out according to the following pattern. Don't forget to choose the MQTT Victron in the MQTT Broker that you created earlier.

After creating it, expand the Code tab where you can copy the following channels:

UID: mqtt:topic:pihome:vitronthings
label: Victron Things
thingTypeUID: mqtt:topic
configuration: {}
bridgeUID: mqtt:broker:ccgx
channels:
- id: pv_battery_soc
    channelTypeUID: mqtt:dimmer
    label: Battery SoC
    description: null
    configuration:
      stateTopic: N/c0619*******/system/0/Dc/Battery/Soc
      transformationPattern: JSONPATH:$.value
- id: pv_battery_temp
    channelTypeUID: mqtt:dimmer
    label: Battery Temperature
    description: null
    configuration:
      stateTopic: N/c0619*******/system/0/Dc/Battery/Temperature
      transformationPattern: JSONPATH:$.value
- id: pv_battery_state
    channelTypeUID: mqtt:dimmer
    label: Battery State
    description: null
    configuration:
      stateTopic: N/c0619*******/system/0/Dc/Battery/State
      transformationPattern: JSONPATH:$.value
- id: pv_battery_voltage
    channelTypeUID: mqtt:number
    label: Battery Voltage
    description: null
    configuration:
      formatBeforePublish: "%.4f"
      stateTopic: N/c0619*******/system/0/Dc/Battery/Voltage
      transformationPattern: JSONPATH:$.value
- id: pv_battery_power
    channelTypeUID: mqtt:number
    label: Battery Power
    description: null
    configuration:
      formatBeforePublish: "%.4f"
      stateTopic: N/c0619*******/system/0/Dc/Battery/Power
      transformationPattern: JSONPATH:$.value
- id: pv_power_pv
    channelTypeUID: mqtt:number
    label: Solar Power
    description: null
    configuration:
      stateTopic: N/c0619*******/system/0/Dc/Pv/Power
      transformationPattern: JSONPATH:$.value
- id: pv_power_consumptionL1
    channelTypeUID: mqtt:number
    label: Consumption L1
    description: null
    configuration:
      stateTopic: N/c0619*******/system/0/Ac/Consumption/L1/Power
      transformationPattern: JSONPATH:$.value
- id: pv_power_consumptionL2
    channelTypeUID: mqtt:number
    label: Consumption L2
    description: null
    configuration:
      stateTopic: N/c0619*******/system/0/Ac/Consumption/L2/Power
      transformationPattern: JSONPATH:$.value
- id: pv_power_consumptionL3
    channelTypeUID: mqtt:number
    label: Consumption L3
    description: null
    configuration:
      stateTopic: N/c0619*******/system/0/Ac/Consumption/L3/Power
      transformationPattern: JSONPATH:$.value
- id: grid_power_consumptionL1
    channelTypeUID: mqtt:number
    label: Grid L1
    description: null
    configuration:
      stateTopic: N/c0619*******/system/0/Ac/Grid/L1/Power
      transformationPattern: JSONPATH:$.value
- id: grid_power_consumptionL2
    channelTypeUID: mqtt:number
    label: Grid L2
    description: null
    configuration:
      stateTopic: N/c0619*******/system/0/Ac/Grid/L2/Power
      transformationPattern: JSONPATH:$.value
- id: grid_power_consumptionL3
    channelTypeUID: mqtt:number
    label: Grid L3
    description: null
    configuration:
      stateTopic: N/c0619*******/system/0/Ac/Grid/L3/Power
      transformationPattern: JSONPATH:$.value
- id: pv0_power
    channelTypeUID: mqtt:number
    label: PV0 Power
    description: null
    configuration:
      stateTopic: N/c0619*******/solarcharger/0/Yield/Power
      transformationPattern: JSONPATH:$.value
- id: pv1_power
    channelTypeUID: mqtt:number
    label: PV1 Power
    description: null
    configuration:
      stateTopic: N/c0619*******/solarcharger/1/Yield/Power
      transformationPattern: JSONPATH:$.value

After Channels, go to Settings -> Items -> Add Items from Textual Definition and paste below rows:

Group Victron         "Victron"                       <energy>            ["Inverter"]
Number pv_battery_soc         "Battery SoC"           <energy> (Victron) ["Energy"] { channel="mqtt:topic:pihome:vitronthings:pv_battery_soc" }
Number pv_battery_temp         "Battery Temperature" <energy> (Victron) ["Temperature"] { channel="mqtt:topic:pihome:vitronthings:pv_battery_temp" }
Number pv_battery_state        "Battery State"        <energy> (Victron) ["Status"] { channel="mqtt:topic:pihome:vitronthings:pv_battery_state" }
Number pv_battery_voltage      "Battery Voltage"      <energy> (Victron) ["Voltage"] { channel="mqtt:topic:pihome:vitronthings:pv_battery_voltage" }
Number pv_battery_power        "Battery Power"        <energy> (Victron) ["Power"] { channel="mqtt:topic:pihome:vitronthings:pv_battery_power" }
Number pv_power_pv             "Solar Power"          <energy> (Victron) ["Power"] { channel="mqtt:topic:pihome:vitronthings:pv_power_pv" }
Number pv_power_consumptionL1 "Consumption L1"       <energy> (Victron) ["Power"] { channel="mqtt:topic:pihome:vitronthings:pv_power_consumptionL1" }
Number pv_power_consumptionL2 "Consumption L2"       <energy> (Victron) ["Power"] { channel="mqtt:topic:pihome:vitronthings:pv_power_consumptionL2" }
Number pv_power_consumptionL3 "Consumption L3"       <energy> (Victron) ["Power"] { channel="mqtt:topic:pihome:vitronthings:pv_power_consumptionL3" }
Number grid_power_consumptionL1 "Grid L1"             <energy> (Victron) ["Power"] { channel="mqtt:topic:pihome:vitronthings:grid_power_consumptionL1" }
Number grid_power_consumptionL2 "Grid L2"             <energy> (Victron) ["Power"] { channel="mqtt:topic:pihome:vitronthings:grid_power_consumptionL2" }
Number grid_power_consumptionL3 "Grid L3"             <energy> (Victron) ["Power"] { channel="mqtt:topic:pihome:vitronthings:grid_power_consumptionL3" }
Number pv0_power              "PV0 Power"             <energy> (Victron) ["Power"] { channel="mqtt:topic:pihome:vitronthings:pv0_power" }
Number pv1_power              "PV1 Power"             <energy> (Victron) ["Power"] { channel="mqtt:topic:pihome:vitronthings:pv1_power" }

Insert it, and you're done! In OpenHAB, you now have real-time data from Victron. You can create various rules and also access the history and graphs of these values in OpenHAB. It's up to you how you want to display this in your dashboard and what rules you want to create. We welcome any rule suggestions in the comments.

You can find a complete list of the values that can be read in the download link here:

victronmqttvariables.txt

Tip: For all items, you can add Add metadata -> State description, and in the Pattern field, you can change the formatting. For example, a value like %.1f W in the Pattern field means rounding to one decimal place and the unit is Watts.

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