Victron Energy VEDirect Bluetooth

KinDR · June 6, 2021, 2:06pm

Hi im use only tx and gnd pin from ve.direct port

frank451 · June 6, 2021, 4:08pm

Nice one. Thank you

KinDR · June 6, 2021, 4:48pm

Note: if you use power from Battery pack (with stepdown for wemos) connect only TX pin NO gnd from ve.direct port

pidiman · June 7, 2021, 12:51pm

Hello KinDR

What are the other two black cables from ve.direct?
Are they needed or are they involved in something else?

Thanks a lot

frank451 · June 7, 2021, 1:35pm

I think they are +5v and ground. it should be adequate enough to power a ESP chip. I haven’t tried it but @KinDR may have done.

KinDR · June 7, 2021, 2:34pm

Hi ,

black cables NC (RX and +3.3/+5V)
ve.direct port has current limit (15-20mA) it’s small for powering esp !!
ve.direct to esp has connected only 2 pins (TX and GND other pin it’s not connected !)
if you use power from Battery pack for powering esp (with stepdown for wemos) connect only TX pin NO gnd !! from ve.direct port

pidiman · June 8, 2021, 7:14am

Thanks a lot

cristi2005 · June 17, 2021, 7:28pm

@ KinDR Thank you for share you work.
I installed and work very great. The good part is that the bloetooth and wi-fi work in paralel for smartshunt in my case.

KinDR · June 19, 2021, 8:39pm

I thank you:wink:

vameleon · June 25, 2021, 1:44pm

Hi,

Have you attempted this work on ESP32? I am guessing it should work.
Also, since ESP32 has more HW UART, does it mean we can attach multiple Victron devices (e.g. Smart shunt and MPPT) on UART to ESP32?

KinDR · June 27, 2021, 7:59am

hi, esp8266 also has more UART, I haven’t tried it. I use one wemos for each device, some items have the same name in the ve.direct protocol, so I can’t even recommend this

vameleon · June 28, 2021, 8:42am

I see, I will give it a try first only with 1 Mppt on ESP32 and update here

vameleon · June 30, 2021, 5:33pm

Tested with platform: ESP32 and board esp32-poe. Works simply good with MPPT/Pheonix inverter.

Informaitor · July 16, 2021, 7:59pm

Wich Connector do you use at the VE.Direct port ?

Stppel · July 21, 2021, 1:18pm

That is so awesome! Thanks much for your work on that! I hope ESPHome will integrate your solution!

austrisv · July 23, 2021, 8:25pm

esp32 is 3.3v while victron communicates 5v (or am I wrong with this?) - did you use any level shifter or series resistor? or just direct wire?
I just got my first smartsolar and eager to connect yo esp32. but better safe than sorry:)
Thank You!

vameleon · July 26, 2021, 6:40am

Correct, I used a logic level shifter 5V → 3.3V, I guess this also goes for the ESP8266.
Note however that a while ago I needed that logic shifter board really bad and therefore I removed it and hooked the ESP32 directly into the MPPT and it works. But I started to notice some tiny bit of harmless garbage values.

I think the ESP32 and most probably ESP8266 GPIO inputs are 5V tolerant but better be on the safe side and put a logic shifter.

Note that I read somewhere that not all Victron products UARTs use 5V, that you have to check for yourself

KinDR · July 26, 2021, 7:29pm

hi, i have a smart mppt 150/35 and a smartshunt 500A on each wemos esp8266 everything runs for over a year and everything is without a level converter

frank451 · July 26, 2021, 7:32pm

@KinDR hi

Just getting round to implement this. I’ve noticed you need custom components within the ESPhome folder.

Once the esp is flashed does it still require these files? Reason I ask is I program my ESPs on my house HA build that is supervisor with ESPHome built in but in my camper I run HA on docker so no ESPhome but can add them in integrations.

Cheers

KinDR · July 26, 2021, 7:36pm

Hi
once compiled (and uploaded of course )esp is portable and does not require the source code contained in the custom_components folder to function