Seplos BMS, Raspberry Pi and Victron Venus OS. Why it is not a plug'n play solution.

Where do I start...?!
In this video, I show you how difficult, cumbersome and awkward the connection of my two Seplos batteries are. When I tried to connect them to each other and the computer, I hit several roadblocks. Setting up the CAN Hat with the Raspberry Pi is a totally different story. In fact, I really cannot get it working at all and consider now a Victron Cerbo GX as an alternative to show you the alternative setup. Yes, the Cerbo is more expensive than a Raspberry Pi (good luck getting a Pi), but it is the real plug'n play solution.
So, if you have the CAN communication working on a Raspberry Pi, please leave your comments down below. I'm more than happy to learn from you and make a how-to video about your solution.
Seplos BMS Function Switch Description (it's right under the Seplos BMS):
off-grid-garag...
Raspberry Pi CAN Hats I have used:
off-grid-garag...
Charge Algorithm for the Seplos System:
1: Charging current limiting algorithm
1.1. A device triggers a charging alarm of voltage, temperature, current and capacity or any charging protection, and is judged as no charging current;
1.2. When zero devices can be charged, the charging current is fixed at 10.0A；;
1.3. When a single device can be charged, the charging current shall be ["Charging Overcurrent Alarm Value"-10.0A]; If the charging overcurrent alarm value is greater than 20.0A, it will be reduced by 10.0A, and it will be fixed by 10.0A when it is less than 20.0A;
1.4. When more than two sets can be charged, the charging current shall be ["Charging Overcurrent Alarm Value" * number of sets/2];
1.5. When the voltage of any single cell in all parallel battery packs exceeds "set value of monomer overvoltage protection" +30mV, clear the charging current and set the charging capacity to 0A;
2: Discharge current limiting algorithm
2.1. A device triggers the voltage, temperature, current, capacity discharge alarm or any discharge protection, and is judged as no discharge current;
2.2. When zero devices can discharge, the discharge current is fixed at 0.0A；;
2.3. When a single device can discharge, the discharge current shall be ["Discharge Overcurrent Alarm Value"-10.0A]; If the over-current alarm value is greater than 20.0A, it will be reduced by 10.0A; if it is less than 20.0 A, it will be fixed at 10.0A
2.4; if more than two units can discharge, the discharge current will be as per "Discharge over-current alarm value" * number of units/2;
”
(the original text is in Chinese)
Please subscribe and join me on my journey of the Off-Grid Garage!
For more information, please check out my website with links to all the batteries, materials, devices and products I have used in my videos: off-grid-garag...
The 'Buy me a Beer🍻'-link is here (on the website, scroll all the way down):
off-grid-garag... Thank you for your support!
You can also click on the Thanks button under the video to support the channel. Thank you, if you have already!
T-Shirts, caps, mugs and more in our merch-shop:
off-grid-garag...
**** These are the batteries you are looking for ****
🔋➡EVE LF280/304 LiFePO4 cells 3.2V/280+304Ah: off-grid-garag...
🌞➡Solar charge Controllers, Inverters and accessories: off-grid-garag...
🔧➡Tools, Analysers and Testers: off-grid-garag...
📈➡ Battery Tests and Results: off-grid-garag...
🔌➡Batteries, charger and accessories: off-grid-garag...
⚡➡Cables, Inverters and Electronics: off-grid-garag...
Get 5% off when buying Bluetti all-in-one Power Storage Products!
off-grid-garag...
Great "Next Gen" AOLithium Batteries (4000 cycles, Bluetooth, CALB cells)
aolithium.com/...
The Sunfunkit DIY battery. Great product to build your own 12V battery. Use OGGA at checkout to get 6% off. Video Review: • The Sun Fun Kit Experi...
New to AliExpress? Use my referral code below to register and earn US$19 store credit. What a great start! a.aliexpress.c...
Take a live sneak peak at the Off-Grid-Garage in the Victron VRM World (link at top of the page):
off-grid-garag...
My other KZbin channels:
/ offgridgarageaustralia
Please don't leave any nasty words or links in your reply. KZbin will not publish your comment in this case.

[@carlosgaspar74]

Great work you are doing here Andy. You humbly entered the rats nest that is the communication between systems and different hardware... Finally someone that actually talks about this problems that common people encounter and are not tech genius. 🙏 Not found in the manual is something inadmissible these days...😤⚠️⚠️⚠️ Keep up the good work informing because some BMS's come equipped with very nice features but the end user rarely uses them. Those features can increase the safety of the system and give us a much better night sleep. You already have some very nice tips in the comments below. 👌

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thanks for your kind words Carlos. Much appreciated.

[@hundlos1]

Can + rs485 Work at the both time. Did you Set the can Mode to pylontech ? I even have the Same rpi can hat as you have. I will create a few Pics tomorrow

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

I set the protocol to Victron inside the software. It was on Pylontech as default but did not work either.

[@MeineEnergiewende]

Hi Andy ! Regarding your can hat: did you set the crystal speed of the hat to 12000 ? That was my fault with this hat. After that it worked quite nice with venusos and batrium / JK-BMS etc.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yes, it sits on 12000 and I checked the crystal on the board as well for that. Have you ever tried a Seplos BMS with your system?

[@gavinnoname1424]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia I have the same Waveshare CAN hat and my Seplos DIY kit works. It did take a few evenings of tinkering to get it working

[@blackpearlphotos3529]

The boxes seem great. Sadly we are reliant on their in house bms/comms though someone will likely figure out a working solution. I was close to ordering a stack of these but my days of messing with comm ports ended when the 90's were over.

[@FutureSystem738]

You and me BOTH 👍

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

The new Seplos BMS coming out end of September is hopefully universal and will just work with others of their BMSes.

[@onthelake9554]

If only Victron would make some BMS , maybe one day .

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

They do! But they only work with their smart batteries.

[@onthelake9554]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia I thought they only had battery balancers for a group of batteries , do they have cell level BMS too , besides the ones in their batteries ? They could just sell us the ones in their batteries if they are making them ?

[@pulith5220]

Andy I will keep bugging you till you put the video about what the electrician said n about the email you got regarding the heltec.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

All in the making, my friend...

[@lextekkie8962]

Hello Andy, I could help you with the CAN and also with the BMS. briefly to my background. I work as a developer for a German company that develops and sells battery storage systems. I know these BMS, because I work daily with these BMS. if you are interested, we can skype. Greetings from Berlin :) Lex

[@Victor-ut4zp]

Andy, mach dein Vorteil!

[@gersch8598]

Hi Lex, die Probleme von Andy sind nachvollziehbar aufgrund der verschiedenen Hardware Revisionen, wenn auch nicht nachvollziehbar im Sinne der Produktstrategie. Ich selbst habe 2x die DIY Kits mit identischen CAN BMS und selbst die sind zickig im Parallelbetrieb. Würdest Du Dein Wissen auch an weniger prominente aber nicht weniger Solarinteressierte weitergeben? VG ausm Speckgürtel

[@repairman2be250]

Good on you Lex Tekkie. Grüsse aus Australian.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Danke Dir Lex. Kannst du mir eine Email senden? Findest du unter meinem KZbin channel in der 'About' section.

[@ragohy]

Hallo Andy, is the termination at each end of the can bus set? There should be a jumper @ raspi can hat and @ seplos bms. If you connect more than two devices on the can bus, remove / switch off termination (jumber) of the devices between the endpoints. If you measure the resistance L to H, it must be 60 Ohm's (120 Ohm's in parallel). Missing or wrong termination is the main problem, if anything else is ok. Hope it helps. Regards - Henry

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thanks Henry. The hat has a resistor and it is set by default. I'm not sure about the BMS though. I'll have to ask Seplos for that

[@soerensprenger8381]

I think you have to terminate the can bus on both ends using a 120ohms resistor in order to get the communication to work.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yeah, this is all set correctly.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Exactly, from a hardware perspective, it's not a problem. Just the software is #%@$#!

[@soerensprenger8381]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia Ok, this was just a shot in the dark. :) Thanks for your videos, Andy!

[@PachaTip]

​@@OffGridGarageAustralia firmware config setting from factory was program at 9600Bps you must flash a new firmware

[@SmartToysCZ]

Hi Andy, great work you do, you are very close to my offgrid solution, so its very usefull to listen to your experience 👍 Here is my experience with 2 seplos BMS's in parallel connection (2x 16S DIY battery packs) and hooking with Victron CCGX. My idea was to have simultaneous connection via CAN to my Victron and also to seplos app in my computer via RS485... Tough work I must say, no intuitive solution from the seplos at all... because there is two different DIP switch settings, one for CAN and other for RS485 which I realized after some comm with seplos support. Anyway we only managed to make work only one of those two choices, because when you setup DIPs for CAN (master/slave), then you have working comm with Victron, but no with seplos app, or you set DIPs for RS485 to seplos app and then stops working CAN to Victron. Seplos support was cooperating only until this moment, but after this has nothing to say any more... wonder why 🙂 Because I have also SmartShunt, so I decided to use it as main data source from battery to Victron and then I can have also working lookup on seplos app. Luckily I have both BMS's same revision, so your baudrate trouble is not my case. Anyway this product has as I say "typical chinese footprint", so this kind of bugs are expectable. Their weird and oldfashion windows app is example what I mean 🙂

[@oneandahalflegsawm]

I have the same setup and experienced the same with comms.

[@Sjb-on5xt]

I've got a Seplos battery pack with a BMS baud rating at 19200, that has stopped connecting with the laptop battery monitor after just 1 month from new. All was connecting fine until then. Could it be the RS485 to USB adaptor at fault or faulty BMS or some other problem?

[@COMpuLANdiaRD]

Hi Andy, I found that I must disconnect the ground wire on pin 3 of the CAN port on 10C Seplos BMS to make it communicate with my inverter. So I'm just using pin 4 and 5 of CAN. I have never tried it with a Ras Pi.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yes, thank you. It has now worked, the video is coming tomorrow.

[@mfgxl]

I wonder if Seplos reads the comments. I wonder if I say, "what a cluster" if they would know what that means. I am so sorry for your time and frustration on this. At least you have saved countless people countless hours of frustration.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yes, they watch and read. So keep going 😁

[@jashast3248]

You need to test the pylontech server rack batteries. Their communication works much better

[@jurajnikolov4219]

pylontech is just Plug&Play solution :)

[@paulcurtis5496]

First Like 👍!!! Woohooooooooo! Andy, I'm in the planning process of introducing some Victron equipment into my ecosystem to assist with crappy reporting from Growatt. I'm starting out with the Victron Energy Lynx Power In Battery Connector connected to the Linx Shunt and then the Cerbo GX. Phase II I'll start replacing the Charge controller function of the Growatt with what I don't know... Victron doesn't seem to make something strong enough? I have String one with an open circuit of 249.65volts open circuit and string 2 with an open circuit of 246.5v open circuit. Each string is made up of 5 panels in series. Questions, should I have someone build me a voltages limiter, say 240volts? Then I could safely use the SmartSolar MPPT 250/70 in each string.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thank for the first like, Paul👍 You can use one the Victron RS chargers (MPPT) they can handle that voltage and also both strings individually. I will also use the Lynx system for my battery 3.0 so we can learn together. I think the Lynx distributor connects to the Lynx shunt but the Power In has no active parts which needs connection.

[@paulcurtis5496]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia Hmmm from the data sheet (100amp version): Max. DC output charging power 4000 W per tracker | 5760 W total That seems awfully low , doesn't it? It seems like most of Victron's stuff is geared for a decade ago's panels, the 100 - 200 watt panels and not today's 550+ watt panels? Taj-Ma-Haul is only 20' long, so maximizing the wattage is paramount. String one is made up of 5x550watt and string two is made up of 5x465watt bifacial panels. String one is on the roof, string two is a collapsable porch awning. On 9/9/2022 (Tucson, AZ) I hit 4,887watts with both strings, that's only 900ish watts short of this units max, imagine in the winter when power will surge well past that... With the SmartSolar MPPT RS 450/100-Tr costing $1,300 US, kind of pricey...

[@michaelgunzelmann1193]

Doesn't look like a solution I would would want to use. Poor design...

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yep, same.

[@edwardvanhazendonk]

And again you need to exchange hardware for new options, that's so 1970s

[@IanNature7]

so i would say Tshirt. 😂 cause „ If you „can“ let the Balancer Balance let it Balance if not please contact the saleman“ 😆

[@Sanwizard1]

I am in the same boat. It seems the BMS's communicate to each other over RS485, but to the inverter ONLY either CAN (10C) or RS485 (10D). My inverter uses RS485, and Seplos told me an RS485 BMS master cannot communicate with a CAN BMS as a slave. I just said screw it and am using the inverter voltage to manage my 7 Seplos batteries in parallel (Both 280AH and 135AH models), and treating each battery individually. I just bought the Blue Sea 1000 amp busbars to hook them together.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

That is frustrating! I don't know why this is so complicated. It should be straight forward.

[@typxxilps]

How long will it take till they get the new BMS incl BT and finally an active balancer every good BMS comes with even for a lot less money.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

The new BMs should not be too far away. End of the month they are saying...

[@Dutch_off_grid_homesteading]

Heya, it shout be working 1 way or and uther hope you find out how

[@Oli83two]

Ich werde dir die Tage wieder berichten! Ich habe auf jeden Fall ein 150A "C" also can! 19200.

[@danmc1313]

To get the Raspberry PI working do you not have to set a battery brand to spoof on the Seplos BMS config such as a Pylontech for it to be recognized?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yes, the protocol sits on Victron in the BMS.

[@HiltonT69]

Das ist mucho stupidnessage on the part of Seplos. :(

[@gregseggewiss694]

active balancer is a deal breaker. Has to be 2-5 amp minimum.

[@mikedavison4313]

@15:10 have you tried connecting pins 3 and 6 to ground.

[@jurajnikolov4219]

Hi Andy, "If someone here has already advised you, sorry for the offtopic" did you try connect this seplos battery via RS232 Usb Uart to USB port on RasPi ? If you have imported the louis driver, it should by work and shoud by see the battery in venus OS. If you have another Pi you can connect the another battery in this way... ok it is little stupid BUT my two JKBMS i got so connected and works :) I dont have Seplos BMS but I think that is possible way how to conncet it ;) what I watch on seplos site then the RS232 is in the CAN port, but which pins represent what.... :D

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yeah, the JK have TTL and use the RS485 adapter only to connect to the USB adapter. a bit of stupid setup but I think you can now extend the cables between the JK adapter and your USB adapter as per RS485 rules. You could not do that with pure TTL. This would not work with Selpos though as they are not using TTL but real RS485.

[@rickyogles8854]

why not have two computers problem solved

[@kuhrd]

So the real problem is nobody in the BMS design world will take the time to establish one standard that everyone uses so instead we get BMS units that talk on many differnt communication protocols via many different physical connection protocols/standards. I have 6 differnt BMS units all made by the same manufacturer and only 2 support CANbus/MODbus over RS485. 3 are Bluetooth only but use some flavor of serial interface to talk to the Bluetooth module and 1 uses an RS232 interface to talk to a external display and/or connect to a computer.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yep, that seems to be the problem. It is a bit easier if you have the Cerbo GX from Victron (if you use Victron gear at all), but with a Pi and connecting all these BMS, it is a total nightmare.

[@Cooldudeblue261]

Makes sense you "should " not mix different ah batteries. You wouldn't put a 200 and 100 amp lead acid battery in parallel

[@Cooldudeblue261]

But it's only software and why not mix ah packs

[@camielkotte]

What is behind my comprehension is what their idea is behind sending 2 batteries for reviewer that do not communicate. Probably they do not want to sell their product?!?!

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Haha, it almost seems like this. Obviously they didn't think about it before they send out their stuff.

[@awesomusmaximus3766]

Wow bad design

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yes!

[@MrMinnesota99]

We should be able to control the time-out 1:44 feature

[@showme360]

Hello Andy, I've just gone over this video again, and as I understand it the reason why they have RS485 and CAN BMS's is because of the world of Inverters. Only some Inverters use RS485, and others only use CAN. This was the question I was asked prior to purchase of my Mason 206 packs, and as I was going to use a number of different Inverters I order both types. However for NOTE to other out there! There is a Firmware update for the RS485 and I mistakenly used it on 2 of my Cam BMS's. I know! Fortuitously, as I had not used the the BMS to charge and discharge the battery I was able to get the to repair them. I paid for the shipping there and they paid for the shipping back. This was agreed because there was no warning on the software prior to uploading the firmware.

[@JR-kk6ce]

I think your canine thinks you are crazy because he sees you pointing all over the place and talking to yourself.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

He's a spy from Seplos!

[@repairman2be250]

Kudos for Seplos in terms of communication with Andy. Perhaps it might be a good thing the new BMS not having an active balancer - provide your own solution to the battery.

[@typxxilps]

They should add all the missing pieces cause their BMS is already pretty expensive.

[@guntherdrehsen]

CAN needs to be properly terminated at both ends of the bus cable otherwise it will not work. The total resistance between CAN-high and CAN-low has to be 60 Ohms. If you use a very short cable it is possible to use a single 60 Ohms resistor, but the normal way is to use two 120 Ohm resistors placed on the longest ends of the CAN cables. Since CAN cables can use splices with several side arms, only the longest have to be terminated with the two resistors. The total length of all spliced cables can be up to 100m, but shorter is always better. Depending on the type of CAN (highspeed or lowspeed) a connection of the gnd-signal might be necessary too. The normal CAN cable used in cars is a twisted pair cable with a minimum of one twist per inch. And in a car the ground connection (auf deutsch Masse) is already there by the car metal structure. Lowspeed and highspeed will not communicate with each other, but this shouldn't be a problem in your case since the BMS should use the same type. Otherwise there has to be some kind of a translator like the gateway in a car.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thanks Gunther. I believe the resistor is set on the hat PCB but I have to check again tonight.

[@gavinnoname1424]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia there is a 120ohm resistor inboard the CAN hat already. There is also one embedded into the Seplos BMS. I went through these exact same diagnosis steps that you are.

[@SoundzAlive1]

Hi Andy, You did not say but did Seplos say that the comms would work if all banks were the same? André in Sydney

[@Taiwanek]

Hi Andy, Here is what I've found on one forum: "Baud-rate depends what you order at seplos ( if you request pylon protocol ) then the baud-rate is 9600 instead of 19200." So I would try to change the communication protocol if it's possible. Or maybe they can send you a different firmware with the correct protocol. For the CANbus, you don't need a ground connection because it uses differential voltage. Try to set the CANbus speed to 500k as it's mentioned in the manual. And try to reverse CAN H and L wires. Then I would try both battery packs to see if any of them worked.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

So the protocol in the software is set to Victron for the CAN bus. During the Hat installation, I set the speed to 500kB and it shows the port available

[@Taiwanek]

​@@OffGridGarageAustralia OK, I tried to post a comment, but it's constantly getting deleted. I don't know why. Maybe I've triggered some KZbin censorship....

[@Cooldudeblue261]

My Pi is working perfectly with waveshare .

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

RS485 or CAN?

[@excillisbank2611]

Bonjour ANDY, c'est très professionnel a SEPLOS de communiquer avec toi, car c'est rare d'avoir des retours techniques rapide par des entreprises Chinoises, et cela démontre le sérieux de cette entreprise. J'encourage SEPLOS dans les améliorations futurs sur ces produits. Merci et bonne continuation.

[@sergea1138]

Andy Everything is normal here, #1 Every bms version has a inverter port label CANBUS. _BUT_ and this is important, this port can be CANBUS or RS485 depending of your bms version. (check the sticker on the bms). !!! #2 The others RS485 port are just wire in parallel to one interface and are only for interlink battery and pc communication. not for inverter communication. #3 You can't mixte canbus bms wtih rs485 bms, not same speed, not same, dip switch configuration, and not the same rs485 protocol (I still don't understand why they make it this way, but it is like that) So actually you can only connect your small battery (don't connect the big one) to your Pi. since your DIY bms is a RS485 bms even if it label CANBUS, on the box and the PCB. I hope it is more clear for you now. Ask seplos to replace your bms with a CANBUS version and everything going to be fine.

[@kevinmills5293]

But both BMS can communicate with the computer via RS485 only not at the same Baud rate

[@sergea1138]

@@kevinmills5293 computer can communicate if you change the speed only, you are not suppose to use different bms version. on one battery stack. either CANBUS or RS485 version not both.

[@sergea1138]

@Juha Tuomala any comparable bms are at the same price.

[@kevinmills5293]

@@sergea1138 to quote you “So actually you can only connect your small battery (don't connect the big one) to your Pi. since your DIY bms is a RS485 bms even if it label CANBUS, on the box and the PCB” This doesn’t make sense. Why can you connect the small battery to the Pi via RS485 but not the large one? Surely either can be connected to the Pi.

[@sergea1138]

@@kevinmills5293 Yep, I'am a little bite confusing : The small battery (100Ah) has a CANBUS BMS, the DIY one(=the big one 280Ah) has a RS485 BMS , you can connect the small battery with CANBUS to a GX controller since it is a CANBUS BMS. the big one has a RS485 BMS. gx support pylontech and victron protocol battery only with CANBUS .

[@edwardvanhazendonk]

Wow, some crappy sw/hw you cannot change the baud rate.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yep, it totally insane!

[@HG-Pilot]

Andy, 10C and 10D BMSes have different DIP switch configuration too and as it was said previously their protocols differ hence the different speed (to prevent people mixing them together) Seplos CAN is 500bauds so RPi jas to mirror this too. Once speeds are matched, see if it works and if not you could try inverting the L and H cables. Hopefully this helps.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thanks, Anton. I have set 500kB in the Pi during the installation and config of the Hat. I didn't put this in the video but the Pi shows me the CAN port available now. There is a termination resistor on the hat but nothing in the BMS. At least nothing visible. I'll ask Seplos again for advice...

[@HG-Pilot]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia Yes CAN requirement is to have a line terminator. If I remember correctly it should be 120 Ohms from end to end. Some devices have it physically other logically. I don't have CAN bms, mine is 10D so I don't know. Setting jumpers may enable a resistor too... There was a German guy in comments offering his professional help... Good luck my friend!

[@milan2931]

Crazy 🤦‍♀ I ordered a BMS for testing and forgot to specify the type - RS485 or CAN. I'm hoping the will talk to the inverter 😅

[@gavinnoname1424]

Apparently CAN is the default they send, so you should be good for connecting to Victron kit. You have to explicitly ask for RS485 if that's what your inverter requires

[@milan2931]

@@gavinnoname1424 I will get a new version of BMS with CAN and RS485

[@gavinnoname1424]

@@milan2931 I have not heard of a Seplos BMS with both protocols to connect to the inverter.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

The new BMS will have both. But it won't ship until end of Sept 22.

[@wva5089]

I was told by a car guy that a cheezy quick way to detect if two wires were can was to measure the voltage.. if you saw around 2.5 to 3.5 volts... you prolly had two can bus wires.. with the low one being L and the high one being H. dunno if its true though.

[@vukasinovicdragan8386]

What do you think is it possible to replace the slow BMS in this box with JK BMS as example . I know it is a challenge but …..

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Definitely possible but for what reason? Just the balancing? I think the Seplos is not a bad BMS and if they can connect to multiple batteries (and talk) it's a great system.

[@vukasinovicdragan8386]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia Yes that was just because balancing. Thanks for your replay.😀

[@binauchich]

Look like Seplos has a good mechanical in the house, but no one who have a clue about right technical equipment. What a mess so far

[@Cooldudeblue261]

Did you load the victron protocol on the Seplos???

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yes, I did.

[@GapRecordingsNamibia]

Hi Andy, you probably already have thought about this. But. Have you tried the raspi with a RS485 connection to both bms's? Maybe if you use the RS485 you may be able to see both packs, then, connecting the dongle to the usb on the raspi may bring both packs up in venus OS? Am guessing here though. Thanks again fir the info.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yes, I have tried that and had no luck of getting any data. The Seplos RS485 data seems to be different of what is included in Louis's driver for the serial battery. So no valid data received.

[@sergea1138]

That won't work.

[@GapRecordingsNamibia]

@serge a Would be nice to have an explanation, rather than just a generic "that won't work" answer, why won't it work? Would you care to elaborate? I am inquisitive by nature so like to learn....... When it comes to this kind of stuff that is..

[@sergea1138]

@@GapRecordingsNamibia I have explained many time, but people don't seem to understand or Iam bad at explaining;-). Gx doesn't support pylon or victron battery on rs485 only canbus.there is no way you can get both battery work together without replacing the 280Ah bms with a cabus bms version.(10C). In a other way you can only use a canbus bms with gx/Pi for a victron or pylon compatible battery

[@laurentsantaibambu7324]

Hi Andy, and thank you again for this video, Very interesting, yes it's very strange that you can't monitor the 2 battery at the same time, indeed it's certainly still a Chinoiserie!!🤣😂 the BMS not the same protocol?😂🤣 I have problems with my battery, to make them communicate with the inverter, monitor 4 packs at the same time no problem. But with the inverter it was more complicated, and the solution was simply to use the CAN port on the battery, to connect it to the inverter (growatt Port BMS) Apparently on your Battery the RS 485 ports are gateways, for the battery between them, not to communicate with 1 inverter? But all this is not simple, and my BMS and software are different from yours. but now everything is working perfectly. I think you'll still have to spend some time on your battery, but it's nice to share, that's the point!👍

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thank you. I have the communication working now but still don't see the point of doing it.

[@MeisterKotty]

Hi, after this video i was interessted in testing CAN and RS485 at my vrm Instance. This is at the moment a Playground because the Victron stuff have not been arrived. So i Ordered both the WaveShare dual Can and the WaveShare RS485. At the moment there is no RS485 device here so i'd to test with the dual Can stuff. I attached the Board and connected can0 to can1 also it is needed to set stuff in the file /u-boot/config.txt At the end in the [all] section i added: dtoverlay=mcp2515-can1,oscillator=16000000,interrupt=25 dtoverlay=mcp2515-can0,oscillator=16000000,interrupt=23 After a reboot can0 and can1 where active. To test if there is a communication possible i did following: ifconfig can0 txqueuelen 1000 ifconfig can txqueuelen 1000 in one shell i startet the candump tool: candump -tA -a can0 in a second shell the cangen tool: cangen can1 this works perfektly, so i assume the Can bus should work with vrm If you want to test the single RS485 HAT you need also a line at the config.txt - this line depends on thy Chrystal at your board, mine has an 12 MHz on it so the line should be: dtoverlay=mcp2515-can2,oscillator=12000000,interrupt=25,spimaxfrequency=2000000 if you got the 8MHz Version the line should be: dtoverlay=mcp2515-can0,oscillator=8000000,interrupt=25,spimaxfrequency=1000000 i hope with this stuff you will be able to get the HATs working :) Regards Kotty

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thanks for sharing. I have installed the script from Louis' website and it did all the configuration as well as the config file with correct entries. The CAN setup is in one of the following videos. Total nightmare and tinkering. Not impressed with such a solution being the one which will control my setup. Hmmm...

[@lotechgreg]

Ahhhhhh..... I remember the "Good 'ol days", of about 3 months ago, I was producing 15-16 kWh/day, GLORIOUS I Tell You,.... only prob', I was using ~19-20 kWh/day, and, have been up until last Friday, when we got the first real storm we've had this year, and, our temps went from ~115f to 85-95f, quite the welcome relief..... You're doing GREAT work on the Seplos BMS's, BTw....

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thanks. I'm close to 20kWh per day now and we're just at the beginning of spring.

[@hundlos1]

I got Seplos and rpi working via can bus.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yes, me too. One BMS, yes but not the other one...

[@jdw1248]

3&6 together also in the raspberry bios is something where you can activate the serial function.

[@PlanetCypher_]

Wonder if you can get a pcb that takes a 19200bps port and then outputs at 9600? Raspberry pi with 2 spi rs485 ports? 🤔 then you maybe able to talk to both batteries 🔋

[@niktak1114]

It's a different protocol, not just a different speed.

[@pau1phi11ips]

@@niktak1114 both BMS's were communicating over RS485 in Andy's test, just different baud rates. It's the same protocol.

[@sergea1138]

@@pau1phi11ips no, it is not the same, the pc software, use 2 différents protocol when talking to each bms.

[@PlanetCypher_]

Ok thanks, so the PC software switches between CAN and rs485 mode when connecting, in that case Andy is screwed 😄

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

It's their internal communication protocol between their BMSs. For the sake of... of... why would you make this different from one BMS to another 🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️

[@longdistancerider691]

what you think I have already done for a few months, the switch to the cerbo gx. all problems solved

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

I know it will just work but I want the Raspi to work as well. It could be only a simple thing which I don't see atm...

[@ToThePointGarfield]

Hey Andy. My guess is that the 280Ah witch you only bought the case is old stock and thus old BMS. People buy more a DIY kit all included ( using a wet finger ), aka with cells. I didn't order from semplos, could be that you have to order cells separately. Anyway introduce your supervisors ! I've got 5 velcro dogs that follow me everywhere and supervise me when i craft something together. LOL

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

They just happen to have two different BMS and sell them accordingly what you inverter can connect to. Some inverters do CAN, some RS485. The new BMS they are working on does both, so this will not happen again any more. Hopefully.

[@gavinnoname1424]

I have a Seplos DIY 280ah Battery connected to my RPi4 with Waveshare CANHat. Took a while to get it working though and I nearly gave up a few times!

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yeah, I got it now working as well. A total nightmare. I found it does not reliably talk to the hat though and after a restart of the Pi, you never know if the hat is working or not.

[@richardhoult5342]

have you every thought about making system a hybrid, by adding a wind generator

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Not really. There is not much wind here. We're in a valley.

[@richardhoult5342]

Just updated my mppt controller to a victon however it say my max wattage is 12watts I do however have 1000watts of panel an ideas as why

[@airgead5391]

Yes we CAN! Oh NO! We CAN'T!

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

We CAN't. That's right!

[@FutureSystem738]

Yay - another video. Thanks Andy - interesting stuff!

[@millzee60]

To get my BMS to talk to the Victron Color GX I had to set the Settings->Services->VE.Can port->CAN-bus profile to 500kbit/s.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

I don't have this option under Services. But I'm still running an older version of Venus, 2.66 it is... Maybe that's the problem.

[@denson180]

i ordered another 280 Kit today and asked Seplos for the new BMS. They told me that i would get the new Version, shipped End of September. Iam really excited what i will get :D

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

That's what they told me as well, it will be ready by end of this month. They will then send two out to me for testing. Fingers crossed.

[@houseofancients]

not every inverter "talks" canbus. all voltronic inverters ( mpp solar, mercer, voltacon, axpert) only support rs485 ( pylontech) . what is confusing , is that for inverter comms you still use the port labeled canbus, eventhough it does speak rs485. took me a while to figure that out also the pin out might be different for canbus

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

That is correct but it is not documented in the manual. I flagged this huge problem already with them. A total mess!

[@KSA-wo7dh]

Hi, I'm having Comm trouble. I bought 2 of the 280Ah DIY kits. I am in a very remote location in Guyana, SA. No internet and very cell service, only through my Wilson Pro booster. I have a Windows Surface Pro which only has 1 USB port. I've downloaded everything but can't use the software because when I open the Seplos program, the computer says "not a valid port". Additionally, the Seplos bms won't communicate with my inverter. Any suggestions??? Seplos has been no help. They have tried, I guess, but end result is they seem to only want to sell and not inform. I expected default parameters in the bms, which there are, but it won't work without the grid. An off grid that isn't off grid. HELP!

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

What BMSes do you have? 10C, 10D or 10E?

[@KSA-wo7dh]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia I have 2 units stacked and although I can remove the top cover, I can't remove the bottom without 3 more people. So I sent Adam, my salesman to tell me. I'm back in the US now, but Adam's reply to what bms I have was "200A 16s 48v BMS" which is normal BS that you get from them. I've ask for the exact model, and waiting. Thanks

[@KSA-wo7dh]

Does the USB adapter have to be from Seplos? They never told me anything about the requirement for mandatory PC connection and downloads, which included not providing the USB adapter, so I bought one from Amazon and received it next day. Perhaps it us some of the problem?

[@KSA-wo7dh]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia bms is 10E

[@KSA-wo7dh]

So I just watched your video on the 10E bms you upgraded to. Why on earth does Seplos not tell the customer important information. I've been sending dozens of emails to figure out how to connect to my computer, which I still cant do, and now I find out I have Bluetooth BMSs. Guess I'll be weeding thru that next? Thanks

[@jasondevine6014]

I have used can with Arduino and you must use the termination resistor even with a short cable for it to work.

[@BeezyKing99]

this makes it appear like it has to have similar BMS's to communicate as series/parallels packs; 150A BMS to 150A BMS.... i think it's Seplos's way of keeping mix'n match packs apart from one another if they don't have the same A rating on the BMS?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

It is the communication of the BMS. Either it talks RS485 or CAN to the outside world. The RS485 ports are just for internal communication. Wait, not even that works across their fleet. 🤦‍♂️

[@helmo5663]

Hi Andy, Unfortunately I can't find the two documents you wanted to make available for download. Could you write where they are exactly, or again highlight the links on your homepage. Thank you very much

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

It's both in the video description. The first link will get you to my homepage with the link to the documents. (OK, I just added the text in the description because I always forget doing that. But the link was always there)

[@MichaelAConnolly]

Re your comment about no active balancer in the future of the BMS. What active balancer have you like best so far? There have been a few but I have not heard a specific recommendation

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

The NEEY active balancer is my recommendation. It is the perfect, fully adjustable and programmable active balancer so far. off-grid-garage.com/battery-management-systems-bms/

[@edwardbyrd7667]

It is always sad when siblings refuse to speak to one another

[@mikeunum]

Could you change the baud rate in the PC software? I would be very pissed off and send it back.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

I can as shown but only for the software itself, not the BMS.

[@pbasista]

Being unable to configure the baud rate is in my opinion an extremely bad practice. Especially in case when there are multiple hardware revisions and the customers expect that all of them would be able to communicate with each other. The fact that the newer hardware revisions are *intentionally* configured to use a different baud rate would suggest that Seplos wants to prevent them from communicating with each other for some reason.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

It could be also that they have just a bad design for their BMS and used different chips for the comms part.

[@ciciedee5474]

On solar power forum they say you can set RS485 to CAN from the front panel of battery. The picture was to fuzzy to make out what screen they were on

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Seplos said it can't because they are different chips on each of their BMS. It's not as easy as flicking the switch or flashing a firmware.

[@davecollier8946]

HI Andy. As an rs485 expert here is your issue it is nothing to do with can. The rs485 is a 2 wire interface so for it to talk to the second device you have to change the baud rate between connecting to each device. All they have done is passed through the rs485 to the next device so the baud rate must be changed on one of the devices. You could put baud rate changer in between using a raspi and a couple of rs485 adapters. super simple code using python if you know how.

[@sergea1138]

You can't change the port speed on the battery, they are fixe., They are not supposed to communicate together, not the same bms not the same protocol anyway. He just have to replace the rs485 bms with a canbus bms version , which support the same protocol at the same speed on the interlink rs485 port. Simple.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yeah, no idea where I would start. But the point is, they should not use different baud rates across their BMS. It should just work.

[@aki21]

I saw a rasberry pi os called Solar Assistant. inverter and battery monitoring OS. Planning to get one for my interter and daly bms

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yeah, does not work with Victron. They provide their own with the VRM.

[@tedreumer]

I was waiting for the magic words: “Cerbo GX”. Works fine with the 280Ah version for me. Set the cambus to pylontech as mentioned.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

I have one incoming and we will test it with the battery 3.0

[@jarnol1179]

Eh ? on (14:16) did you put the CAN HAT properly on , it seems that all the pins are not connected only half?

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

It was all properly connected when I tested. This was just for demo purposes.

[@SigmaOfMyParts]

can or can not - thats the question

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

I CAN but it's not as straight forward.

[@1981dasimpson]

try swapping the a and b wires over on the hat cards

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Didn't make a difference. But now having it working it needs to be H to H and L to L. No swapping.

[@1981dasimpson]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia was worth a try I just recalled trying to get coms on something years ago and after many hours realised I needed a cross over cable not a straight patch cable

[@jamesthepuerilis]

Seplos should be giving you stuff for free to test

[@RambozoClown]

You could use a RS485 baud rate converter.

[@brucekrisko4364]

Hey Andy, thanks for your great videos! I’m building 2, 24 volt banks for off grid, and need a supplier for 2 JK BMS’s @ 100 amp. Can you suggest a dependable place to purchase them? Thanks, Bruce

[@jackiedines5229]

He has it all on his website.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Hey Bruce, all links are in the description of each video pointing to my website: off-grid-garage.com/battery-management-systems-bms/

[@Pey5531]

Hi, Andy CANBUS communication is a bit trick, it require termination resistor (120 ohm) at both end of the bus between CAN_H and CAN_L in order to works. The BMS CANBUS RJ45 port has the resistor built-in, so you another on the RaspberryPI's end. I was stuck with that same problem for a while so I understand the frustration. and I believe you should be able to change RS485 baud rate either via software or firmware update.

[@gavinnoname1424]

The Waveshare CAN hat that Andy is using already has a 120ohm resistor onboard. It was one of the many tests I performed when trying to get my Seplos to talk to Victron. Eventually got it working after spending 4 evenings working on it.

[@Pey5531]

@@gavinnoname1424 the Andy was using in the video is the single channel can hat, that one doesn't have the resistor only the dual channel can hat has.

[@gavinnoname1424]

@@Pey5531 I only have the single CAN board myself and tested the resistance without the Seplos connected and both sides show 120ohm. And tests at 60ohm when Seplos connected. My battery is working fine with the Waveshare CAN Hat. Easiest way to check if the Victron side is working is to see if the TX Packet count is increasing by 2 each second. If its not then the Victron side is not setup correctly.

[@TrevorFraserAU]

Thanks Andy, you are now getting into the real interesting bits. Can you put a link in the description of that helpful comment you mentioned? Thanks.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Just done it. I forgot, of course.

[@TrevorFraserAU]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia That's what the community is here for, keeping you honest and on your toes 😂

[@batteryaddiction1848]

Hi Andy ! Great video! I don't see an explanation in the comments about setting software to the correct manufactures CAN protocol. You need to add one that is compatible with the Victron system. I think the Pylontech 2000 units are compatible. You must select the correct CAN protocol in the Seplos software, but which one I couldn't tell you. I was told the Pylontech was compatible with SMA which should be compatible with the victron equipment.

[@batteryaddiction1848]

Make sure its the Victron CANBUS_PROTOCOL in the battery monitor software. Little button on the top bar Under CAN.

[@batteryaddiction1848]

One other small item to check would be the CAN DIP Switch settings - ie Page 16 in the Seplos user manual. Not the difference in the RS485 Dip Switch Positions.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Of course I forgot to add the text 🤦‍♂️ It's under the video now, sorry. The CAN protocol can bei either Voctron/SMA or Pylontech. Both are working with the Victron system.

[@ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΣΚΡΗΤΙΚΟΣ]

Hi Andy . The can port is for inverter protocol (can 10c or rs485 10d) the right ports it is only for battery or pc

[@ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΣΚΡΗΤΙΚΟΣ]

And you are the best........

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Thank you. Yeah, that they told me but have labelled the ports wrong then. The new Seplos BMS will have both CAN and RS485.

[@walterweese2527]

Kannst Du die Baudrate bei der schnelleren auf 9600 einstellen? Erst wenn beide mit der gleichen Baudrate arbeiten macht ein Zusammenschluss Sinn!

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Nein, kann man nicht, das ist im BMS fest eingestellt.

[@gumpster6]

What an exercise in frustration. Thanks for trying to get things communicating.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Got it all going now but for what? It does not seem to bring any immediate benefit.

[@gumpster6]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia I agree.

[@Ericcando81]

Wie der Wauzi hinter dem Akku (04:32) steht und sich denkt: "Mit wem zur Hölle redet er da die ganze Zeit?!" 🙂

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Ja, der passt immer auf was abgeht. Und lernt...

[@ciciedee5474]

Is hardware physically different or is it firmware and can you get updated or different firmware?

[@sergea1138]

Hardware is different, you can't put a canbus firmware on a rs485 bms.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Hardware, I was discussing the problem with the Seplos engineer. Now way to fix that without having to swap the BMS.

[@jackoneil3933]

Thanks Andy, Time for a Spat, or two.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yes, absolutely!

[@rklauco]

Try NOT to connect ground for CAN bus - only connect the High and Low.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

I did this as well with no avail. Thanks for the tip though. I guess it is something different.

[@nikolas22954]

Andy what charge controllers are you running

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Victron MPPT 150/70 kzbin.info/www/bejne/iKOrXqB5qa-NhZo

[@wayne8113]

Thanks Andy

[@dtvking]

How about using a CAN to RS485 converter for the computer method. That way you should get both batteries working on the same CAT5 port.

[@GapRecordingsNamibia]

Well..... Fancy seeing you here? 😂🤣 Hello Mark!!

[@dtvking]

@@GapRecordingsNamibia Charles how are you 😄. Yes been here some time, its a small world

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

What's going on here?! 😁 I have tried to connect the BMS via RS485 to the Victron system but no valid data received. I only have the serial battery driver though which works with some of the BMSes but not the Seplos.

[@GapRecordingsNamibia]

@@dtvking Been here a few months..🤣

[@GapRecordingsNamibia]

@@OffGridGarageAustralia Mark and I are aquinted via another site😂

[@jeremyee1980]

You should be able to get them both to work by having the vendor make the baud rate the same between the two so the application can talk to both devices. another way is to use 2x serial rs485 to usb adapters in a PC or victron.

[@sergea1138]

Not the same rs485 protocol on both bms version plus, gx support victron or pylon protocol on canbus only.

[@jeremyee1980]

@@sergea1138 what was that protocol the application using? I thought it was rs485 like the adapter. That app could talk to both bms but only worked with different baud rates. I am looking at using the eg4 battery with Victron. Also. Just starting but thinking of a python script to access the rs485 serial data from the battery’s and using mod buss on the cebro to access the rs485 data

[@sergea1138]

@@jeremyee1980 rs485 is a differential line protocol, it just mean they are electrically compatible. On top of it you can have modbus or any other proprietary protocol. On the rs485 ports seplos use a variation of modbus . On the inverter port labeled canbus the rs485 bms run pylontech protocol. Just because they are rs485 or canbus interface doesn't mean they can communicate. If you want your eg4 to talk to gx ask the vendor how to activate canbus pylontech compatibility on the bms. Gx support pylon only on canbus. Personally I will never buy a battery without pylon emulation. You should talk to your vendor.

[@jeremyee1980]

@@sergea1138 sounds like you are saying the application is auto detecting canbuss or the other bms protocol to communicate over rs485. Why can’t the application switch protocols based on the node address. I think that would work if both bms used the same baud rate and the application changed protocols. I guess the app could disconnect the serial and reconnect at different baud rates to make it work. Where I am going with Thai is poor vendor support. As for the Victron integration I think a tcp/mod buss server might work to connect to serial devices. I can add a tcp modbuss device in the cebro to collect data so I think it just would be the modbuss server to translate the bms data from the battery. Just thinking about this at a 50 thousand foot view

[@PierredeVilliersLife]

😉

[@tonmilly]

Hi again Andy I’m just watching the latest instalment and again very informative. Thanks for your efforts. When playing around with my 2 seplos bms. I’ve noticed an rs485 and can toggle switch selection on the top banner of the seplos software I’ve messed with it but not really experimented. It seems you can choose between both options. Tony

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

Yes, thank you. I have set the protocol to Victron but it is still not seeing any data from the Seplos BMS 🤷‍♂️

[@danmc1313]

All the blurb on their website states a 200A CAN BMS? Did you specifically ask for the 150A BMS as opposed to the 200A? I'm starting to worry what is going to turn up at my door now.

[@niktak1114]

They have been out of the 200A BMS for weeks now so they probably sent the 150A one so he didn't have to wait

[@danmc1313]

@@niktak1114 Thanks for the clarification. I'm hoping this is something they would run past you first and they wouldn't just send you the 150A version without saying anything.

[@niktak1114]

@@danmc1313 They asked me if I wanted a 150A BMS with my 280Ah kit or if I wanted to wait for the 200A shipment

[@danmc1313]

@@niktak1114 Thanks very much for putting my mind at rest. Much appreciated.

[@OffGridGarageAustralia]

The 200A BMS was not available at the of ordering so I took the 150A BMS not knowing that they would not communicate.