Used Victron Cerbo GX replaces dead Raspi and why I lean towards no BMS communication!

[@MrElciupacabra]

finally!!! you arrived at the most logical conclusion that we don't need communication with the BMS. thank you!

[@rpsmith]

The BMS reporting battery data to the system is very beneficial but you don't want the BMS to be in closed-loop control! It's best to let Victron control the charging based on the data supplied by the BMS.

[@MrElciupacabra]

@rpsmith controlling charging by BMS is not a good thing. Let Victron charger take care of charging and BMS only for protection

[@mariusz76543]

@@MrElciupacabra not good because ... ? any serious reason ?

[@MrElciupacabra]

​@mariusz76543 because bms in general doesn't have accurate measurements because decalibrates easily

[@kurtklingbeil]

@@rpsmith isn't "Victron control the charging based on the data supplied by the BMS" the very definition of closed-loop control ? If the BMS is supplying zero data or wrong data the charging may be suppressed / impaired. I am trying to resolve a bog-standard system with 24V 605Ah Rolls Lead Acid Battery - no BMS - Two MPPT controllers and an inverter charger... The batteries need a good equalization. The MPPT controllers have an equalization configuration - but typically do not produce equalization grade current (that is an additional glitch) The inverter/charger appears as SMART SHUNT in the Victron APP There appears to be no setting for max charging current or for equalization. Battery charged voltage is all there is. We observe that on AC Generator Input Power the charger will charge at 50A but only for a little while, then it collapses to 11A We assumed it was because when SoC goes to 100% charging chokes. So we reset SoC to 65% and did it again Charging again went to 50A. We watched it for 15-20 min and it continued at 50A Next day, looking at the trend in SmartSHunt, it appeared the 50A charging was only for a very short period and then dropped to 11A. So our assumption about 100% SoC was wrong... The battery charger just does what it wants. It seems weird that there is no setting for maximum charging current both for battery protection and also to prevent Generator overload. It seems weird that it doesn't just work - normally - with some mysterious black art secret masonic handshake incantations

[@007silverwings]

I'd recommend a SSD for the raspi, the SD cards are not designed for constant access with reading and writing 👍🏻

[@Zirrad1]

There are higher performance, more tolerant, cards that are only slightly more expensive.

[@RFDarter]

VenosOS does not support a SSD

[@ellingolsen3194]

Or use a so called industrial SD-card. They cost more, but maybe you don't need 32GB. I use 8GB which is cheaper.

[@ua420]

I can double that. Been playing with SBC for long time. Only when setup NVME SSD on OrangePi5 I forgot what corrupt system disk is. Otherwise just always have spare backup SD card ready to be swapped.

[@NiueChannel]

The solution is SanDisk "Max endurance" series. (not "high endurance").

[@urbanbeeman5402]

Lol as a subscriber for years, I must say.I have never hooked up my inverter to my BMS. My system is not nearly as large as yours and as far as Rasberry pie goes the seeds get stuck between my teeth. But I love your testing and there is usually some kernal of knowledge I can walk away with...Keep up the good work

[@butchwilliams7637]

Andy, if you decide to put in a new raspberry pi, put a heat sink on the CPU with a fan. These CPU's get really hot. Plus use a hi quality SD card. I have been using RASPI"S for several years and a heat sink with a fan is a very important component. Power supply with 3-4 amps is also important . Good luck and thank you for all your videos. You are the BMS KING.👍

[@vonasi2]

In my 20 years living on a sailing boat I noticed that a lot of the marine electronic companies started moving towards networked systems with loads of communication between parts of the system. Out at sea having a system shut down because one component failed or stopped talking to another could end in a disaster. I stuck with my independent components (often not even the same manufacturer) because I hated the idea of losing everything just because one component failed. On a sailboat you also carried a spare for everything. I'm building a narrowboat now and even though Amazon can now deliver virtually everything I need tomorrow as I'm inland I have still designed it so that if one component fails I don't lose everything. Two battery packs, two BMS's etc etc.

[@keyem4504]

Since I didn't trust the SD cards in a RasPi I bought a Multiplus II GX. And I agree on the communication. For me the BMS is a safety feature. I am fully happy with Multiplus and Smart Shunt taking care of charging and discharging. Just keep it simple.

[@NicklausJ]

Hi Andy, be aware that there are a few cerbo GX devices with a hardware issue. Victron does have a manual how to fix this. You need to add a capacitor over the power supply to solve this. Maybe good to check for everybody with a cerbo gx. Cheers! 🍻

[@TheRonskiman]

That's only an issue if powering the Cerbo with 48v, Andys using 12v

[@NicklausJ]

@@TheRonskiman your correct only couldn't see his power supply.

[@technician1974]

Hi Andy, I have 2 Raspberry Pi3s running fine 24 hours a day with Venus OS, using a high performance SD is ideal and a power supply isolated from your system prevents a power surge or static electricity from damaging the Raspberry and use original Victron cables to interconnect everything and that's it.

[@brucebugbee6604]

I've run my system for two years now and have never used closed loop communication to control the invertors and solar charge controllers. The inverters and charge controllers operate based on voltage setpoints and everything works just fine. I use a Cerbo GX to tell my Victron Multiplus to switch on/off grid based on battery SOC and/or voltage. I just don't see the need for all the headaches associated with closed loop communications.

[@Raphael_Hofmann]

In the DVCC, you can select under "Controlling BMS" the option "No BMS control". -> You can have all the information in victron, just without any controll of the BMS -> redundant system :) But you have to go to each MPPT and also restart the VE.Bus system for the change...that is annoying.

[@alsemi-back-up579]

Hi Andy I bought a Raspi 4 and had to return it cause it was defective they sent me another one working Great with New version! Amazon sells some defective products sometimes but no hassle to refund you 99% of the time! Wait till your Cerbo Crashes like I hear they DO!!! Good Luck!

[@NedKLee]

2 Battery Banks, 2 Victron Smart Shunts, 2 Raspberry P1 B4, 64 GB Sandisk cards, both running Solar Assistant. That gives me all the info I need locally, or like this year so far, sitting in Alice Springs, Brisbane, Cairns or Adelaide. My recommendation would to get the original Raspberry Pi power supply and also hook it up to a monitor, so you can see what's happening. You can also backup and upload your historical data without taking the SD cards out. Argon case with a fan hat too, good cooling.

[@Glpn633]

what inverter do you use?

[@volodumurkalunyak4651]

Your Ras Pi's work with 64GB SD cards? Video states those aren't supported.

[@NedKLee]

@@volodumurkalunyak4651 No, I misspoke, my cards are 32 GB each, just checked and both are currently at 6% used. My apologies for the misinformation.

[@GüntherKoll]

The Gobel Power Battery Home Assistant Addon also works with the included RS232 to USB Connection Cable; thank you very much for pointing out the addon

[@stefanlevedag8072]

Hi Andy, stepped away from raspis completely due to so many failures. Mainly SD card but also power supply, the number one point of errors - check this out, may be the single point of failure you are looking for!. Replaced them with cheap used Fujitsu Futro - SSD and external power supply, runs forever...

[@millzee60]

Does VenusOS run on the Futro?

I would recommend a SD endurance card. Those are designed for high writing cycles. Usually used in DVR and servers. On the other side, try to remove ALL partitions in your current SD card before using "Raspi Imager". It has an option for that (Erase -> Format card) in the drop down menu for operating systems.

[@albertweterings828]

Connect a monitor to your PI's hdmi, it will at least tell you something. Might be telling why it doesn't boot.

[@Jamey_ETHZurich_TUe_Rulez]

Also he can install RSYNC and have rpi backed up periodically, venusos is just debian.

[@XanthossNL]

Hi Andy, Since an SSD is not an option due to the victron Venus OS, you might want to use the RasPiKey? It is a SD-to-Emmc and sits in your SD card slot. Doesn't fit all RPI cases though and it should sustain more writes than an SD card. SD cards usually die in the RPi if it will be power cycled during a write operation or just the wear and tear on the card due to excessive writes. Since VenusOS has a /data mount to write stuff, this might be the case of it's ultimate demise (other than breaking into two pieces).

[@dredge999]

A word of advice. Many SD Cards are counterfeit. I would say 50% on amazon are fake. We only buy SD cards directly from Samsung (and that's our card of choice for longevity and performance).

[@hellbringer898]

Being the device you just installed was a raspberry pi in a casing from victron. The new pi's either raspberry or orange. Have mmc cards and have adapters for m.2 drives. I use a orange pi 3lts with 8gb mmc for solar assistant and a orange pi 3b for home assistant with a m.2 500g drive in it.

[@notathome13]

Plenty of better options available than another closed source hardware. As a number of others have pointed out, backup your os and replace sd card regularly.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

A manual process is not practical.

[@marksavenije3047]

You can run a raspberry totally in RAM without any writes back to the SD card: Use the Overlay File System option in raspi-config. That make the file system read-only and overlays a RAM disk over it where writes will happen. The writes are lost when the system is rebooted. You can save (when needed) to e.g. a usb stick.

[@chrisr819]

Fully agree. I have an ElectrodacusBMS with no communication to the Cerbo but communication to home assist. The BMV 712 is connected via BT to solar and inverters like Andy has it. The BMV is also last line of defense in case BMS fails and steers with its relay output a full shutdown is battery is below 9.9V and above 14.75V. Cerbo and also home assistant does monitoring, load optimization and home automation but BMS is completely independent the

[@petrstolz5788]

I used Raspberry Venus OS in a camper with a 7" touch display. I had both components lying around, so it seemed the most logical "free" choice. but... Neither of these two is really designed for extensive vibrations. We do a fair amount of off-road driving. The display gave up within weeks (the top section touch control doesn't work). My raspberry is far away from the Victron gear. This means I had to run about a 7-meter-long cable. USB cable didn't work, thus I went with USB to LAN to USB adaptor. It works great while stationary. It surely doesn't like moving. Once we drive, I'm getting random disconnects, and then the info from JK BMS is no longer available to manage the solar chargers... Replaced the whole setup with Cerbo GX and Victron 7" Touch. HDMI extension and all is dead stable. IMO Victron gear, even though pricy, is well designed to take upon demanding tasks.

[@rpsmith]

My primary Victron system consists of a 48V MP2, MPPT VE.Can 250/100, Ekrano GX and two EG4 indoor wallmount batteries. My GX device is communicating with the EG4 batteries but DVCC is set to "No BMS control" so the batteries are reporting everything to my Ekrano but the BMS is not in control. I'm mainly using the BMS as a battery monitor and controlling the charge parameters via the GX device and the MP2. You can put it in closed loop but I really don't like the way it acts when the BMS is in control of everything.

[@junkerzn7312]

Its just running Linux, presumably, you once you get an RPi working you can ssh into the RPi from a laptop and poke around. If you've never used ssh before then its worth reading up on setting it up and learning how to use shells (bash, tcsh, etc). A bit of a learning curve if you have only used GUIs before, though. You can also shut the RPI down and make an exact image backup of the SDCard, but sometimes linux boot code references devices by the serial number so it would require some messing around to get the image copy to boot. Personally speaking I always setup my RPis so I can ssh into them as root from another machine, and I'll usually setup rsync that I run from cron to maintain a backup of the entire image to another machine... at the very least, the configuration files, but its easiest to just backup everything. I can't really provide instructions, this gets into the weeds of learning how to use unix shells and applications. -Matt

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

I can install the scripts I need to run on the Cerbo/Pi, but certainly not someone who can poke around and make sense out of it.

[@sparkletornado5890]

I still have one Raspberry Pi system running with two charge controllers, a shunt, and a Multiplus. The system has been corrupted a few times, so I've had to replace it. However, I manage all my parameters through Node-RED, which makes it really easy to create a backup image with all the mods for Shelly devices and the setup helper. When needed, I can swap the SD card, upload the Node-RED flows, and have everything up and running again in just a few minutes. I have no idea why you keep using home assistant. Node-RED generates beautiful dashboards and controls so many settings and other devices.

[@dazh2465]

I would try to power your RasPi's from a known GOOD original RasPi foundation power supply if you have one. The Pi3 will need 5.1v at 2.5a, especially if using HAT's. The Pi4 is fussy & will prefer 5.2v at 3a. If no official RasPi adapter use your power supply set to 5.2v (max) with 3 amps with a sacrificial USB lead, check the polarity with a DMM first though... Plug it into a monitor so you can see if there are any low power 'lightening' flashes on the display and otherwise observe what it is doing... The Pi3B+ will boot to a high quality (Samsung Bar for eg.) USB drive out of the box, the PI3 will boot to USB if the firmware boot bit is set (guides online). USB sticks are more rugged and have cooling air around them as they stick out from your Pi. SanDisk Ultra A1 class 10 16GB SD cards seem to be the sweet spot for me (Iv'e ran some SanDisk cards in my Pi servers for 7 or 8 years now - no problem! Use the 'Raspberry Pi Imager' software to set your cards up if trying the latest BookWorm image, larger SD cards will be formatted in the correct file system before applying the image. As for backing up SD cards I use another Linux machine (RasPi or Ubuntu based distro on a PC) and use the DD command (approximately every 4 to 6 weeks between backups). BUT bear in mind that any copies are just copies until tested as working... i.e. verify the copy is ok by restoring it to an SD card and testing it. Sometimes in the past I've had to restore 16gb SD images to larger SD cards because there can be a few 10's of bytes LESS room on a seemingly identical SD card. I counter this by using GParted to shrink a master image down by a couple of MB before DD'ing it. Kudos to those who have probably already mentioned these points - I DON'T have time to read all the comments :). Love the channel Andy - I've been messing around with RasPi's since the PI1 in 2012, so have found out the hard way how to get the best out of these.

[@InspectorGadget2014]

SD card problems with a Raspi is often due to either powersupply problems or bad quality of the SD card. Powersupply-problems such as thin wiring, bad grounds, or a bad DC-to-DC converter on the Raspi, or even a brown-out. It is also recommended not to pull the power from the Raspi, but instead use the poweroff command instead. A broken SD card could indicate a DC-to-DC convertor problem on the Raspi, as SD Card uses 3.3 volts, and most of the rest of the Raspi uses 5 volts. When the DC-to-DC convertor fails, it could potentially blow-up the SD-card. The fact your Raspi no longer seems to operate could be indicative that indeed the DC-to-DC (often the blue LM2576 SMPS, a 3 amp switching powerregulartor) failed and inadvertently put more then the 3.3 volts onto your SD card, blowing it up, literally. I would recommend to use a good quality SD card bought from a (local) reputable source, preferable a brand-version (Samsung, Sandisk, Lexar, just to name a few) As for monitoring, whilst it is nice to have the overview & control, I rely on the BMS to do the work, the alarms etc, and, knock on wood, in the many years I have done my DYI LiFePO4's, never failed me so far. I like the App, I like the BMS. Everything else is a nice bonus but not a requirement to me.

[@MMMM2MMMM2MMMM]

So conclusion is: The raspberry has poorly build quality?

[@InspectorGadget2014]

@@MMMM2MMMM2MMMM No, I would dare to proclaim that. There are however some liberal design choices made with Raspi, that can at times bite you in the behind. E.g. the aforementioned DC-to-DC convertor is not grounded, which is not a recommended design-practice. One can also argue that the Raspi requires heatsinks but often lacks there off. And as already mentioned, the SD card is fine for storing the OS, programmes but for data, you should use a SSD, which is way, way more durable. So, poor build quality? No, but I would say it is an open platform where next to the various software, you should also take good care of the electronics (too); heatsinks, powersupply, storage. It is all densely packed together, for casual use it is often fine. But in applications such as outlined (and was in use) by Andy, you will also need to take care of the Raspi itself. A pretty box is just not enough. Those are my recommendations with almost a lifetime of experiences in electronics..

[@rpsmith]

@@MMMM2MMMM2MMMM -- No. The problem is he is running it without a fan or even a heat-sink in an un-air conditioner garage full of heat generating equipment in Australia and had a completely predictable outcome!

[@edwardvanhazendonk]

I keep a record of the commands which I made and the fixes to the files. This helped me when I bricked it several times when I didn't have an isolated setup. I need to upgrade in a while and that makes it somewhat tricky. Good luck fixing it. There might be a Linux way to makes copies. When you insert a USB stick you could do a 'rsync -av /data/ /usbpath/' it would copy the files, or you could do a remote rsync. But this is still cumbersome.

[@heslavviac]

Honestly, it is quite tricky to run RPi without cooling. At least passive. Better to have active, especially if you are in sunny hot Australia 😅 Second thing I would check is power supply. RPi needs really good and reliable power supply.

[@ivor33]

Andy, the RPI is NOT limited to 32GB sd card size. Raspberry Pi computers with micro SD slots support the SDXC standard, which is cards up to 2TB capacity.

[@Ale-or2gk]

Hi Andy connect a monitor to these raspi.... on the screen like a normal computer you can undestand at which point of boot they are stuck. without a monitor how can you troubleshooting the pi? newer version of raspi-os maybe don't run on the older pi (like 64bit version for example) and the new pi4... this devices can be setup also to run directly from a usb (pen or ssd drive... infinitely more reliable than a sdcard) it is possible the bootloader is setup to run a usb and it is just ignoring your sdcard. With an hdmi screen connected you are able to see whats is going on..... and yes for the Pi4 you need a microHDMI cable/adapter!

[@JrgenDurkeHansen]

I have lost at least 4 setups on rpi because of a faulty sd card. Those card are not designed to that kind of use. Last setup I lost was my HA test setup, so that wasn't so big a deal. Now I use a regular ssd harddrive in a usb 3 enclosure and it is actually running faster due to the faster usb3 interface. And just to clarify it. I have been using rpi since rpi1 came out.

[@typxxilps]

5:50 - looks rather like an evening in the shop with "dancing queen" and discolights everywhere. You are an Abba die hard fan.

[@Giovanni-cz8hj]

Hi andy, thanks for sharing. Do you plan to deal with deye inverters in the future?

[@LarryKapp1]

that gobel software for pace bms looks interesting - I will give it a try. Most likely what ever power supply you are using for the pi is not good enough any longer . I had same problem until I got better power supply for my pi.

[@ch-solar2293]

This is the result of a German money saver (Sparfuchs)..... ended up using the CERBO GX after all! Everything will be fine.

[@johnbrisbin3626]

I have broken pi sdcards by failing to remove them when putting the pi in its case (they stick out) you can, of course, put them back in once it is installed in the case. When you switch out boards and they all fail, look to the power supply (cable and USB adapter) and anything else that is common.

[@FarmGeluk]

You do have the option to setup a Solid State Drive to boot the R-Pi from. This should resolve the SD card issue.

[@retrozmachine1189]

Still a good idea to copy the running config to another media or cloud backup. To another media could be easily automated with rsync using the output of date (say +%w) to place each copy into a separate directory and rotate through those directories automatically. Run nightly via cron / systemd or what ever, done.

[@blieven1]

Ordered another JK inverter BMS (as a spare) and now received a HW15.5 (15 and a half???). Not sure what they changed this time. Only visible difference is that the red wire now is also screw connection instead of soldered on and the coil is wrapped in heatshrink

[@luc_libv_verhaegen]

Venus OS is just a linux with some victron binaries on top, and some config. You can do whatever you want (apart from the binary blobby bits), this includes running cron jobs and backing up filesystems.

[@njksky]

Hey Andy, nice thoughts about the KISS approach. I am thinking now to add a shunt to keep track of SoC and others. It would replace the Pace BMS data so the Victron Chargers can actually to the floating. The Pace BMS switches of its charging MOSFET's at 100%. Would it be worth you showing how to achieve (if you get my point)? I guess there are still a lot of guys running the Pace. I am annoyed by this fact because floating is not controllable with the Pace. Moin Nicholas

[@pondandmore873]

Moin Andy. Thanks for the video. It's nice that the system has continued to work. Even with this glitch. I don't know much about Ardiuno. but the cerbo gx works fine here with plenty of information. prost. Ein schönes Wochenende wünsche ich ihnen

[@millzee60]

I would like to reduce communication between my BMS and the Victron gear. But, when the Victron gear is throwing 40A into the battery the cell balancing can’t cope and some of the cells run away. With communication the BMS can tell the Victron gear to reduce charge current to a point it can cope while balancing. The RPi, you’ve already considered cloning the SD card. I don’t think the RPi stores any information so swapping the card for a cloned copy when things go wrong should be fine. My brother has an RPi controlled solar charge controller and he as a backup RPi and a preconfigured SD card. As for the RPi itself failing, have you tried turning it upside down? Maybe it doesn’t like being down under :)

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Well, in this case, you are masking the underlying problem of unbalanced cells in your system. Of course, slowing down while charging helps to mitigate the problem, but it does not solve it. Cloning the SD card is not really an option as I pointed out. I will just forget for months or altogether and it's a hassle to do it manually.

[@danarawding5198]

I have a script that I wrote that backups the important VenusOS directories and sends them to my network attached storage box. It runs as a cronjob every night. I've used it a couple times now. Should probably make a GitHub project for it.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

That sounds interesting. Yes, Github please so I can show it on the channel.

[@m_cabral]

To save your SD card you could setup a RAM disk or use a USB SSD and symlink your log directories to those drives. Since you’re exporting your logs some sufficiently large ram disk is an elegant solution so long as you’re ok with losing some logs during power loss.

[@rpsmith]

What "important VenusOS directories" do you backup? I'm thinking about using WinSCP to make a manual backup.

[@ellingolsen3194]

I would try to burn the image onto the SD card using a different adapter to put the card into. I don't know why it would work, but it did for me.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

A few people have suggested that. I will try. Thank you.

[@davidniquot6423]

I do not use BMS communication, it makes the system over complex and prone to failure. The BMS is here to safeguard the battery pack and he does it independently, i'm fine with that. If the Bulk and float voltage are set correctly ... then the max charge amperage is set natturally by the battery chemistry, it charge fast with a higher bulk voltage to the 90% ish SOC in my case .. then when current decrease it goes in float (54.4V for me.. and stay at 95% SOC). Natural physics laws lean in the good direction... no need to control it. For the communication to work correctly you need a shunt on the battery ... i got a 48V secondary DC circuit, not the DC rail used for inverter/mppt.... but a regulated one where i can use the hifi system, lights, tools that are needed in case the inverter would fail. The gx was not sensing that consumption and would not provide enough Amp on the MPPT side. It would have needed a shun on this Dc circuit or it will not be able to calculate the MPPT current to provide to the system. Now, without communication it's super simple : The MPPT (RS450+Smartsolar 100/20) make available all current then can provide and devices (battery, inverter.. DC cirtuit) take what they need on it without having a bad influence on each others. There is a lack of power on the 48V rail ? The battery just fill the gap... it's all natural and react instantly, physically, no electronic logic is needed. It work like for 3 years in our shed, all is good. When i tested the fallback system from "BMS controlled" charging to "MPPT controlled" .. was not as good as i wanted .. was taking too much time. With no comm ... All MPPT just give what is drawn on the 48V DC rail.... nobody care who is using it.. inverter, BMS, DC circuit... Cerbo... And Rasp are not reliable, Cerbo is the best way and in the end a cerbo is not that more expensive then a Rasp. Even my home assistant is on a miniPC cause Rasp are too unreliable and far too expensive for what they offer. For low consumption... Arduino or ESP32... higher then that .. miniPC. My NUC with Home assistant (200+ sensors), Frigate (4 cameras), Adguard and some other small projects... consume 11W. A N100 would maybe doi it for 9W.

[@RollinHomies]

Thanks for the video. Question: how are you getting more than two mppt's reporting? my understanding is that you can only have two through the GX device using VEDirect cords. Thanks

[@beek402]

Check out using a cm4 module ? No ssd at all. Waveshare has a nice din rail option with CAN. I have installed venus os on it an it works

[@fldutch]

Weird. Ok, Micro-SD cards do fail - quite normal. Never have seen one splitting in halves ^^. So on the 32GB limit: i run my RPI 4 with a 128GB Sandisk Max Endurance Micro SD Card with enhanced read/write cycles for video survaillance - knock on wood - works flawlessly with my InfluxDB/Grafana monitoring datagrave. On the RPI4 and VenusOS: i assume you made sure, that you used the VenusOS build for RPI4 / RPI5? With the standard RPI2/3 build the RPI4 won't start - done that, been there :).

[@NaamNatuurlijkniet]

Hi Andy, I have always been under the impression that an SD card is not the moet reliable boot medium for any OS. In case of a Pi some suggest using USB Boot and boot from an SSD. Faster and more reliable. When using a simple removable drive bay you could make backups more often and easily, bit still need manual labour. There also a way to boot from Lan, logged data would have to be stored elsewhere in that case. Anyway.. there are options. The question is.. won’t an original GX be better as it works from the box. On the other hand, when the GX device fails I guess you have a similar problem of no backup and having to reconfigure the whole system.

[@colingale]

if you enable SSH then you can ssh into the venus device and do a 1-1 backup to a usb device/ftp site/ tftp and many more options, just a little command line work.

[@jlegen]

Pi3b already supports SDXC - which is good for up to 2TB. And the first thing i‘d do with a Pi that does not come up is - plug a HDMI monitor! Rumours say that at least sometimes you get an error message there… :)

[@wilcostienezen9403]

I have here a Pi3 with a voltage problem. It runs only if i put 5,45V on it lower then that it stays on the red light. The Pi5 runs on a normal usb power supply

[@9111logic]

🙏 Thanks for sharing. I really don't see any reasons for using the RPI instead of the Cerbo GX other than the moderate financial gain, which in turn requires a lot of extra work, let alone the disadvantages and risks. Can you mention some unique features that the RPI would add to the installation compared to the standard Cerbo gx? Also, be aware that the VE Smart does not like running in parallel with the Cerbo GX, I recently had to disable it as I was getting several warnings "error code #66"

[@markusviel6440]

There are some , but it is regarding add ons and NODE RED . For me the build in advantage is the usage of DC Volt Batteries it accepts 8 to 70V DC . If you are having an Island Battery approach that Part cost you some for a Raspi !

[@9111logic]

@@markusviel6440 I'm not sure I understand what advantage would Raspi give us with Node Red which is meant to comfortably run on Venus in the GX, perhaps you can expand on this?

[@heartobefelt]

@@markusviel6440 i am attempting to use VenusOS on Pi so i can convert the BMS protocol to talk reliably with some Samsung batteries that have a different CANBUS protocol , in a system with Victron MPPT's , Sungrow Inverters , Samsung batteries ..... :/

[@thomasschwarzenberger8943]

The raspberry sometimes has a problem with ohe of te supply voltages coming out of a BGA power chip. Check the voltages on the board.

[@vaneay]

did venus OS could be vitualized on proxmox for example ? you could perform snapshots and backups of the venus OS VM.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Where does Proxmox run on though? There is even more to maintain and to backup then... That's the wrong direction, I think.

[@vaneay]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia proxmox run on practically anything (raspberry pi, x86, ...). Yes it is an overhead at the start, but in the long time it might be more reliable. And it support ssd drive on the raspberry pi.

[@vaneay]

youtu . be / NAA5R4tb7G8

[@kevinmills5293]

I’ve a Multiplus II GX. As best I can tell it uses a nanopi so I’m wondering how long it will last.

[@louwrentius]

I have used 64 GB SD cards in Pi’s without any problems 🤷‍♀️🌷 Always quality Samsung A1 / A2, never had one die ever over 10+ years

[@markusviel6440]

Me too .... ( Raspi3 + 64GB Sandisk )

[@junkerzn7312]

I'm trying to come up with scenarios where the card could break like that. Its never happened to me, ever. I can think of two. One, the card got damaged from a bit of bendy bendy while you were inserting it and finally failed. Or, two, the card is held in place with a spring mechanism of sorts... heat combined with time could have made the plastic bendy enough that the stress broke it. -Matt

[@lua-nya]

3B, 128GB kioxia card. It was a noticeable upgrade from the older 32GB SanDisk one.

[@PeterWraa]

me too (raspi3+ 64gb sandisk)

[@aecrimnasirc]

Hello. Please tell me if my 15kw lifepo4 battery that I will receive from china will work with my untested Anern max 10.2kw,wifi/rs385 hybrid inverter?

[@mosfetkiller3851]

had same problem, but i inserted a backup sd card and all is running again i dont do changes in the venus os. i set it once and do a backup. so i store a backup sd card near the raspberry

[@BluBioBike]

I also destroyed an SD card once when I opened the case of the Raspi and forgot to take the card first. Raspi wants a good supply with 5,1V and >2A.

[@royag]

I think the rp3 is dead. The rp4 needs a very powerful power supply. The best is the original wall plug for rp4. It is 5v 3A. The 3a is out of specs for the most usb adapters. I use in my setup 128 ond I think also 256gb cards. Works well. I highly recommend to use an ssd. The rp4 with the newest board update it is plug and Play. Just use an sata to USB adapter.

[@IPMan-me6lo]

I think you have to do Uboot-procedure on your raspys, and of course, install a Nvm2 SSD. It works well once you did it right. The only drawback is, you're losing 1 USB port. I have one question, did both channels of your can head works? I don't get it done, even kwindrem said somewhere raspy 3 and 4 accepting only one channel.

[@luisaviles6066]

Hi Andy, I solve this problem using one pen drive. Not anymore problems.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

They will die as well eventually. And I think it does not work with Venus OS.

[@jasong7374]

Can you please do a video on the JK inverter BMS dry contact especially with the remote setting, I can't work it out,bet you can

[@BobHannent]

I wonder if the VenusOS is using OverlayFS, because that should be used to make the system Read Only. Then when the config changes it can write only that. Logs should never be written directly to the SD in real-time, maybe periodically stored.

[@ThanosSustainable]

BMS communication is useful to lower the charge current when the battery is close to 100%.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

No, that's really not necessary. The battery will take less current automatically when it is full. We use CV for absorption and the current will go down. There is no need to actively limit the charging.

[@ThanosSustainable]

@@OffGridGarageAustraliaif you got a badly-balanced battery (for whatever reason), then the connected BMS will alert the system to lower the current prior to the battery reaching its CV voltage, giving time to the balancing process to happen. If there is no communication, the BMS will cut charging altogether, which could potentially lead to an unstable situation.

[@tedhamilton2362]

Early days, I toyed with Raspi 4B installing Venus OS. However, Cerbo GX with 5" screen was the way to go. 100% compatibility with the Victron and no programs to edit/install. I hope to repurpose my 4B to monitor environmentals and onboard tanks (fresh, gray and black water).

[@maliciousloki]

Most likely the number after "USEDASREPLACEMENT AT" is Unix Epoch time. If converted, that number is Tuesday October 1 2024 at 1:24:14PM GMT.

[@olafschermann1592]

As flash storage = SD-Cards have limited amount of write cycles you should do the following things: 1) buy endurence cards for car-dash-cams - those survice much more write cycles 2) on linux enable „tmp fs“ for /var/log to minimize write cycles of 10 times per second log file entries by redirecting them to ram disk. Would help to automatically reboot once a week or every night 3) backup backup backup - so no need to sit hours and days every 2 years when the card crashes

[@olafschermann1592]

You can configer newer raspis (3+, 4,5) to boot from USB sticks. Makes backup much more easier and you can use bigger and more reliable sticks.

[@markusviel6440]

There was a Post from another youtuber who was also leaning to use @Battery without the control to the BMS as they are having Problems sometimes and it will then have a Domino Effect . With a Smart Shunt it is more @simple and tends to work .

[@bernardlegrand8234]

Salut Andy ! De Nîmes, dans le sud de la France, je t'envoie mes amitiés. J'ai toujours cru que tous les Australiens avaient un kangourou comme animal de compagnie... Où est le tien ? Merci pour tes vidéos 😁🦘🦘🦘

[@ThanosSustainable]

Any change the SD-image-writing software you’re using is messing up?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

I tried the Etcher software as well with the same result. I always have used the W32imager

[@vaneay]

did you try to connect a hdmi monitor on the raspberry pi to see if it display an error message ?

[@typxxilps]

2 raspberry pi not running, a brand new, I doubt that this is a raspberry Pi issue. I have bought 20 from 2 to 4 and all of those are running. The only one that suffered here and there were early pi zero . But I can not give you an advice except no SD card in a pi and get an SSD for pi. Best move ever cause since then I have no more issues with dead pi except in my lab or sandpit where I test things. And there these SD break ervery now and then and just by my impression I would say the rather more expensive brand SD cards from Samsung and Sandisk struggle a lot more. 50% of those are dead forever, and the other half can be formated and will reboot and run like before. I am still on 8 GB SAN DISK which I bought a dozen from cause those fitted my needs and the backup on a NAS and the restore is a lot faster than a giant 16 GB SD. But only for the sandpit and lab, not for productive work.

[@HouseofBronn]

I believe my Cerbo GX crapped out. It only sends data from my pv arrays, the cerbo seems to run hot. I have tried researching on anybody that had somewhat of the same situation until I seen this video today. I would think everything that is going on with the razberry pie and cerbo gx is running to hot on these compact units. Maybe run a fan for cooling system down. As for the cap on the power point is only for arcing when you unplug in and out, mine always was plugged in but when I first noticed it was when i did the last update and never worked right again.

[@camielkotte]

I bought a nvme enclosure with a small nvme stick from an upgraded laptop. It is very fast on the rpi4 and gives loads of storage

[@TheMoe9584]

It is possible to change the instance of the vrm devices if you want to keep the data from the old devices. Just rename the device number of the old device and change the new device to the old number in dbus Settings.

[@pbasista]

8:36 There is no hardware limit on micro SD card size with the Raspberry Pi computers. I am currently running a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Rev 1.2 with a 128 GB micro SD card. I would suspect that the issues you are experiencing might be coming from incorrect data on the SD card. Check whether the version of the operating system you are flashing is suitable for the correct Raspberry Pi model you have. And also check that the card's content after flashing matches your expectations.

[@loucinci3922]

Enjoyed the video. Thanks for sharing

[@xpatrikpvp]

yea communication is really not needed if the stystem and the bms are setup correctly. but it would be nice to have a option in venus os to use the bms as a "secondary" measurement device for example if some battery is unbalanced to slow down charging at the end

[@rpsmith]

That functionality already exists.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

That's what I have right now. The 'Peter Boards' are CAN connected and report to the Cerbo/Pi but are not in control.

[@DavidPrue]

The culprit is your SD Card writer, no doubt. Write the SD Card on a different machine/adapter and see.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Hmm, has always worked with this adapter and computer. I also tried different software to write the images.

[@DG3ACM-Marc]

Hi Andy, I am not deep into Linux but is there no chance to run a daily cron job which sends data and config files to a NAS for example? /Marc

[@paulhowes3788]

I have my jk bms connected to a pi3 mostly to monitor battery temps and control a relay hat to keep the battery temps up. Has been a stable connection for the most part but do wish it would failsafe to bluetooth communication should something happen to the vrm device

[@UKsystems]

i made a script to auto back up the Venus os but is is too janky to share it has issues like if the first of the month is a tuesday it just breaks.

[@dennydewaal137]

That 1k is almost in the pocket 💪

[@Françoisproduction-j5g]

I think the problem is the imager. Using RPI imager is the best way for ... RPI. Used for RPI 3/4/5 with no problem. I've use Rufus one time for RPI image and RPI 4 doesn't boot. But only tested with resbian (official os for RPI). I've never use Venus os but on resbian you have a software include to copy the SD card. For daily save i use a command line tool to copy the SD. Domoticz call a python script on the RPI to start the save and return result on Domoticz. For my Domoticz box v2 i will use RPI 5 with a SSD M.2 hat since the RPI 5 have a external PCI slot..... Boot on SSD is not as simple as SD card but it's fine. My actual Domoticz box run on RPI 4 with a 64GB SD card Kingston Canvas plus. Only change one time to increase memory from 32GB to 64GB.

[@morning...morning]

Just curious, do you measure the temperature inside your battery case, is it ventilated? Heat is definitely the enemy of most electronics and RasPis are particularly sensitive.

[@SonPowerSolar-jc1ov]

always clone a raw copy of you're sd cards. Use balena etcher to make a image file backup.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

That is totally impractical if it is a manual job.

[@SonPowerSolar-jc1ov]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia not following, all you need is a card reader and it copies to a file on your computer. You can flash it unto any sd card anytime later.

[@Rinzler1215]

I guess Andy mean the work to switch Off the Raspi, take out the SD-Card, go to the computer, etc. Yes, this ist no work you want to do let's say 1 time per month?

[@SonPowerSolar-jc1ov]

@@Rinzler1215 it may not work if you want to backup the logfiles. But at least you have your starting point back.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

@@Rinzler1215 exactly, if it is such a manual process, it just won't work. There needs to be a better, automated way. In HA, the backup runs automatically and gets uploaded to Google drive afterwards. That's what we need for Venus OS if it runs on a Pi.

[@ericnewton5720]

Can you give an idea of how much you’ve spent on all the free amps? I’m just trying to gauge what the ROI is

[@rpsmith]

Plug a FAT32 formatted USB thumb drive into your Raspberry Pi. Then: GUI Mods / Package manager / Backup & restore settings / Backup settings, logos, logs [Press to backup] or [Press to restore].

[@calarndt]

@OffGridGarageAustralia Andy Andy Andy! I've never used a venus OS, BUT if its a Linux distro, SD card backup is a no brainer and requires no added software. Additionally plug a monitor into your rasberrypi and read the errors off the screen and post them here and I'll troubleshoot.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

I'm not a linux person.

[@calarndt]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia You don't really have to be!

[@cordebakker5513]

Maybe you have to format the SSD to the required format?

[@garymiller7870]

I've run into this problem on an unrelated device that required a fat32 format only.

[@sentienthamster]

Good luck, both usb ports completely failed on my cerbo after 2-2 1/2 years.

[@mausball]

PNY SD cards are famous for failures. Pis in general have two big issues: Power supply, and SD card. There are reasons to use one, but honestly, in your application, there are reasons to use something else more. It's just not reliable enough.

[@frank-michaelbonath6707]

Hallo Andy der Pi5 startet nur mit dem originalen Netzteil da ein Datenaustausch zwischen Pi und Netzteil beim Start stattfindet . Man kann das nach dem Start in der Datei umstellen hat dann aber nur begrenzten Strom an den USB Ports zu ferfügung . " sudo nano /boot/firmware/config.txt folgenden Eintrag ergänzen: usb_max_current_enable=1

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

I don't have a Pi5

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

I only have a Pi4 and Pi3, no 5!

[@upnorthandpersonal]

Set up an rsync from the Pi to a computer to automatically back-up config files, /data, scripts, etc.?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

No idea what that is...

[@Juergen_Miessmer]

​​@@OffGridGarageAustralia Time to get into the basics of linux, after running it on your Raspi for years ...😉

[@223Sako]

The raspberry pi devices are nice, but for the amount of faff involved I would just buy a Cerbo GX

[@Chris-ut6eq]

Does the pi get warm/hot. SD cards fail much faster if they stay hot for long periods or you are constantly writing lots of little pieces of data in the same locations. Pi hardware is not industrial grade electronics so 3years of constant running may be an issue.