Why make a new Victron integration for Home Assistant?
There are already a few integrations for monitoring Victron devices from Home Assistant and they each rely on different interfaces and have different capabilities.
Until recently, I used a Victron VE.Bus Smart Dongle to monitor my Victron Multiplus II over Bluetooth LE and I controlled the device state using an optocoupler wired to the remote on/off terminal. It worked well but I could only switch the device on or off and I wanted to programmatically switch it between on and charger-only instead.
It turns out the Victron MK3 USB interface can set the operating mode and current limit programmatically, thereby achieving my goal of toggling charger-only mode. It also exposes a little more detail about the device’s behavior such as the AC input and output voltages and frequency which is nice. I’m not aware of any existing Home Assistant integrations for the Victron MK3 USB interface so I just wrote one.
I hope you find this new integration useful and I welcome your feedback!
Jeff.
It looks interesting. I have a few questions about whether it can be used in my use case and whether I can avoid having a GX in the system, as Multiplus II will be the only Victron device in the system.
I want it to run in the following modes:
UPS / Charger (with control of charging from the HA side as it has information about SOC)
Standalone inverter - for light load use conditions
Power assist mode with separate off-grid inverter as “generator” - for higher loads
Use the MK3 dongle with the Victron Connect app on your computer to configure the Multiplus II basic operating parameters such as battery chemistry and power assist behavior.
Then plug it into your home assistant box to read data from sensors and to set the operating mode to on / off / charger_only / inverter_only with automations depending on your needs.
Hi,
I have the following questions (since I am completely new to all of this)
I have the MK3 USB dongle. I have home assistant as Vmware in a Windows environment, and so far works flawlessly.
I have reconnected the MK3 and assigned it to the Vmware.
What happens next? I havent seen anything in the discrovered devices.
How do I make home assistant see the MK3 USB?
Thank you in advance for any assistance.
Have you installed the Victron MK3 integration using HACS and restarted Home Assistant?
If so, ensure that the MK3 is plugged into one of your inverter’s VE.Bus ports and that the inverter has power since the MK3 powers itself from VE.Bus.
If so, and the MK3 is still not being discovered, navigate to System → Hardware and click on All Hardware. Search for a USB serial device corresponding to the MK3 dongle. Mine is at /dev/serial/by-id/usb-VictronEnergy_MK3-USB_Interface_HQ2217T743W-if00-port0
If you find the MK3 device and it still isn’t discovered, then please send me the list of attributes (in case my integration isn’t matching them correctly).
If you don’t find the MK3 device, then perhaps check how you mapped it through VMware or examine the kernel logs for further clues.
