Victron IP67 / VictronConnect

Any chance we have a known way to pull data from the IP67? It's bluetooth only but I use it for Shorepower with a cerbus-gx-s and a MPPT - but I can't track the data from the IP67 outside the victron connect app, which is oddly closed for a company that's been so open lately... Halp!?
104 Replies
Greg Young
Greg Young11mo ago
@irjudson unfortunately (as far as im aware) the current position is ..No. the victron BLE plugin doesnt support the IP67s, https://github.com/stefanor/signalk-victron-ble/ and only supports a limited selection of the victron “bluetooth broadcast BLE” enabled devices. the author/s of the plugin indicated that at present expanding the compatabiluty was a low priority.. i likewise have two IP67s that i used for starter battery ‘charging” (mostly floating/storeage mode).. to get around it, i fitted shunts on each IP67 output, and with sensESP and INAxxx devices I read the shunt current and chgr output volts. whilst i dont get “chgr mode” .. its fairly easy to determine by the chgr voltage when it moves between float and storeage … in which it spends most of its time.
irjudson
irjudsonOP11mo ago
This was my thought, a way to measure the input and output and wire it into my cerbo-gx-s as the "AC Input" and "AC Output" (I don't have any actual AC on the boat, it's too small to warrant it - just DC) Thanks for the confirmation, I can't stomach buying the IP43 just for the VE.Direct interface to the Cerbo, but two monitors is almost the same price!
nimblewillo
nimblewillo11mo ago
Victron has a really odd take on their smart devices. I get the feeling that there's some schism inside their engineering team where one team DGAF as long as they ship gear.
mpvader
mpvader10mo ago
Hey all. Victron speaking here. yes the Blue Smart Chargers are quite last in line wrt getting the Instant readout feature (our commercial name for the BLE broadcasting protocol). Its about prios and limited resources rather than DGAF. But good news: we finished adding instant readout to the blue smart chargers (IP22, IP65, IP67); and that firmware is just going into internal testing now. So I’d say two, perhaps three months and you’ll find a new firmware for your charger that adds Instant readout.
irjudson
irjudsonOP10mo ago
@mpvader I'm happy to beta test if you want, no surprises or expectations, just a friendly offer...
tobi42
tobi4210mo ago
@irjudson if you have an iOS device, you can simply self-signup for beta releases through apple's "testflight": https://testflight.apple.com/join/cvufYMEh
irjudson
irjudsonOP10mo ago
@tobias_r maybe I misunderstood, I took "instant readout" to be BLE broadcast, which I hoped to mean I could see my IP67 status on my Cerbus-GX and report it via N2k...which is the functionality I am hoping for 🙂
tobi42
tobi4210mo ago
yeah, and that same functionality is used in the iOS and android apps. which are also used for firmware updates on bluetooth-enabled chargers/shunts/etc. - so if you run a beta version of the iOS app, you automagically get access to the beta firmware releases. but i think the cerbo would also need a software update to be able to handle the IP67-charger BLE messages, so...
irjudson
irjudsonOP10mo ago
I am running the beta app now fwiw. Thx
Greg Young
Greg Young10mo ago
also highly interested in this feature, I had/have the signalk BLE plugin - but as we know it has v limited support for devices. So to clarify above : am i correct that Cerbo has? or is planned to have? functionality (via bluetooth) to read in the BLE device messages? (if so , this is fantastic and closes the Cerbo gap for the BLE (only) devices ).
tobi42
tobi4210mo ago
i don't know about the cerbo, but seeing as I have two IP65 chargers on our small boat.. you can expect the BLE plugin to have support for them as soon as the charger firmware does BLE 😉
Greg Young
Greg Young10mo ago
@tobias_r noted and excellent news, and my thanks to you for your efforts on the signalk BLE plugin. (which i have deployed, but not yet doing anything useful 😦 …. anyway we can motivate also getting - Smart Battery - orion B2Bs included into the future roadmap? 🙂 .. I have qty 6 Orion B2Bs, qty 2 IP67 chgrs, qty 3 Smart Lithium batteries…. all with BLE … but no way to read it via Cerbo OR Signalk. the signalk BLE plugin is my hope that i can expand the information avail in signalk from these devices.. further.. given i have all the above devices, and have the bluetooth capability enabled in rpi/signalk, im willing to help/contribute where I can; i can run the “BLE/BT scanner” or similar sw to capture BLE messages from above devices. Im hopeless at coding , but very capable with help in capturing data, analysis, and testing/debug.
tobi42
tobi4210mo ago
the "orion smart" dc/dc converters are already supported by the signalk plugin.. and someone else (on the old slack) said they were working on support for the smart-lithium batteries
Greg Young
Greg Young10mo ago
good news on B2Bs .. sorry i had missed that one. look fwd to testing in a a weeks time once back to the boat.
mpvader
mpvader10mo ago
Hey again all, thanks for the offers. For now no help is needed; and first place where this new blue smart charger firmware is available will indeed be a VictronConnect beta version. I don’t know the timeline by heart to be honest.
irjudson
irjudsonOP10mo ago
No worries, thanks
Greg Young
Greg Young7mo ago
@mpvader any news on status of the updated BLE support for IP6x chargers? have recently checked the beta versions of victron.connect .. but nothing i can see?
mpvader
mpvader7mo ago
Hey @gregy and others: beta firmware in above zip files Our testing is completed, once the holidays are over we’ll release this Enjoy!
taagaard.
taagaard.6mo ago
This makes me wanna buy more Victron stuff ! Thank you so much for your efforts 🤘
irjudson
irjudsonOP5mo ago
Howdy! My app says 3.25 is the latest firmware (on the testflight victron connect) - do I need to do anything to get the newest firmware installed?
tobi42
tobi425mo ago
i'd say you can either manually install the firmware from the zip files that @mpvader posted, or you can wait a few more days until it shows up in the official beta on testflight
irjudson
irjudsonOP5mo ago
yep, but I can't manually install it if it claims to be up to date 😉 - curious how to poke that setting
tobi42
tobi425mo ago
you sure? i seem to remember that there's a manual firmware upload option somewhere in the device settings part of the app but i'm not anywhere near my boat right now, so can't confirm
irjudson
irjudsonOP5mo ago
there is, but it's grey if it senses it's "up to date"; that's the crux of the issue if it'll be prod in a day or two, that's my preference, for sure
tobi42
tobi425mo ago
more like a week or four, not a day or two, but yeah.. it'll show up in the beta eventually
irjudson
irjudsonOP5mo ago
meh, then I would update manually 😉 I was patient through labor day, now I'm anxious 🙂
tobi42
tobi425mo ago
and then someone still needs to write the necessary parser snippets for the victron-ble python library and the signalk-victron-ble plugin, so... just keep working on your patience and everything will be alright
irjudson
irjudsonOP5mo ago
I hate that answer, but appreciate the honesty and transparency I might write it if I can update python is my strongest language
tobi42
tobi425mo ago
even if you install the beta firmware right now, the data from your charger still won't magically show up in your signalk data browser two minutes later https://github.com/keshavdv/victron-ble https://github.com/stefanor/signalk-victron-ble go ahead! 🙂 what, you think I'm joking? I'm german. we don't make jokes about serious work. 😂
irjudson
irjudsonOP5mo ago
No, I know you're not joking I'm laughing at your directness, because I love it are you in germany now? if so, where?
tobi42
tobi425mo ago
yes.. berlin
Greg Young
Greg Young5mo ago
i had to laugh to myself… victron “we will release after the summer holdiays” … that was early august . …. wow i wish i had summer holidays that lasted 1.5+ months:) .. noted on your above caution of patience… for the subsequent updates of the plugin etc. to note, i also cant work out how to manually update the FW from a downloaded version - same as above the option is “greyed out” … so will await it being included into the test flight update.. once summer holidays are over …. haha 🙂
taagaard.
taagaard.5mo ago
Just to clarify : When the chargers (I have the ip22) are updated with support for BLE - can we expect that a firmware update for the Cerbo enables us to read the data on both the Cerbo and SK (assuming you are running SK on the Cerbo) ? Without any extra plugins ??
Lure
Lure5mo ago
No, Cerbo cannot read BLE out of the box and even signalk-victron-ble does not help, as some packages are missing on Cerbo. would be great if at least signalk-victron-ble would work on Cerbo
tobi42
tobi425mo ago
well, the (school) summer holidays in berlin started in mid-july and went on for 6 weeks until the very end of august, so.. yeah, not so unusual for european countries i think france has even longer summer holidays.. something like 8 weeks
taagaard.
taagaard.5mo ago
Well - Cerbo supports Ruuvitag sensors on BLE. I would assume that it is pretty easy to also support their own products on BLE ??
nmbath
nmbath5mo ago
There is no support in VenusOS for reading Victron BLE instant readout data. I am not aware that it is coming any time soon. the beta firmware that was supplied needs loading into VictronConnect. I keep forgetting how and once in there you can then udpate devices. Alterntively wait for it to be shipped in a Victron Connect beta.
taagaard.
taagaard.5mo ago
@mpvader - can you confirm this ? No integration between IPxx chargers and Cerbo over BLE ?
tobi42
tobi425mo ago
looks like I'll have to push the "SensESP-victron-bridge" project up a few points on my eternal to-do-list.. (and before anyone starts bugging me about it: the first free time slots in my "hobby projects" calendar are somewhere at the end of Q1/25...)
irjudson
irjudsonOP5mo ago
Now that I broke my shore power outlet, my ip67 is not powered up to upgrade firmware, every software problem is blocked by a hardware project 🙂 (it was 30+ years old, it was time to replace anyhow...)
Mat Bailey
Mat Bailey4mo ago
Has the new firmware been released now for instant readout?
Greg Young
Greg Young4mo ago
the victron connect app (beta version) now has the updated FW for IP6X chargers to support BLE .
irjudson
irjudsonOP4mo ago
which version of the app?
tobi42
tobi424mo ago
the current ios beta 6.10 (18), available through the testflight program
naugehyde
naugehyde4mo ago
@mpvader are the instant readout protocols for the IP22, IP43, IP65 and IP67 available anywhere? I'd like to support them in my plugin (https://www.npmjs.com/package/bt-sensors-plugin-sk/v/1.1.0-beta.2.1.2) . Thank you! @mpvader is it the AC Charger protocol from the Extra Manufacturer Data doc (from 2022?)
irjudson
irjudsonOP4mo ago
I'm on test flight but only have 6.10(14), meh
Karl-Erik Gustafsson
Just updated to beta 6.10(14), which is latest for Android and no fw update to IP22 12 | 30 (1) A324? Or is this too old hw or sw?
naugehyde
naugehyde4mo ago
In theory, the bt-sensors plugin should support the new firmware for the IP65 and IP67 (and the IP22/43 if it ever arrives). My code is based on VE specs from 2022 so I can't be sure of anything without testing. If you're up to date on the IP## firmware and have the bt-sensors plugin installed, don't hesitate to share your results here or on the plugin's github issues page.
Karl-Erik Gustafsson
IP22 is the one remaining bt Victron, which I would like monitor too.
naugehyde
naugehyde4mo ago
Do you know if the IP43 firmware is in testflight yet?
Karl-Erik Gustafsson
No idea. https://www.victronenergy.com/live/victronconnect:beta#v610beta14 Phoenix & Blue Smart Chargers: Add firmware v3.61 Did not see any possibility to update IP22. Don't have IP43. Change log is not listing supported/not supported devices separately.
naugehyde
naugehyde4mo ago
Bah.
Karl-Erik Gustafsson
Very confusing
naugehyde
naugehyde4mo ago
Yeah it says the new release has IP22/43 new features but no mention of whether it supports the Instant Readout protocols. @mpvader, any help? There's a IP43 at the end of my dock. I'll see if the new version prompts for a firmware update or not.
naugehyde
naugehyde4mo ago
Don't know if they update the test flight description but it doesn't mention ip22/43 at all.
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naugehyde
naugehyde4mo ago
Well, the charger at the end of my dock was a IP65 after all. The IP22 and 43 are both battery chargers but it's unclear if they are the same class of battery charger with the same readouts and features as the IP65/67. What's the deal? @mpvader , any help?
mpvader
mpvader4mo ago
Hi all, I’ll find out for you how to get v3.61 and for which modesl its available and for which not
naugehyde
naugehyde4mo ago
Found an IP43! It was somewhere in the bowels of the Aquila, a 180m megayacht. Remarkably, the device was unprotected (pin was 000000). VictronConnect reported it needed a firmware upgrade, so I obliged. (see attached screenshot). From what I could see, it's just another AC Charger as far as my plugin is concerned so IP43s should work,with the latest firmware installed and encryption key applied in plugin. PS Told a crew member they might want to change their Victron device pins.
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naugehyde
naugehyde4mo ago
No IP22s in sight, alas.
mpvader
mpvader4mo ago
Hi all, I know the details now: So the answer is yes, for IP22, IP65 and IP67 there are too old hardware versions out there, produced before 2019/2020 (the exact change over date changes per model) and they won't be getting the instant read-out or any other new features. I'm sorry for that, but that is what it is - too little memory available in those microcontrollers.
mpvader
mpvader4mo ago
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naugehyde
naugehyde4mo ago
Thanks for the update! Is there comprehensive documentation on the GATT protocols used by the connect app available anywhere? I was only able to find GATT docs for the smart battery monitor class of devices. I'd like to implement GATT connections in my bt-sensor plug-in as an alternative for older devices (GATT connections already work for battery monitor in the plug-in) Also, I can confirm that at least for the ip43/65/67 chargers I found in my marina, firmware v3.61 shows up as an upgrade in the latest victron connect beta (14).
SCarns
SCarns4mo ago
To help push this along, I should find the new beta of VictronConnect and update my IP43? I can do that tmro when I'm at the boat. Perhaps that'll get this closer to where I want to be with all this!
naugehyde
naugehyde4mo ago
Download links for various platforms is here: https://www.victronenergy.com/live/victronconnect:beta There's a chance (per @mpvader above) that your IP43 is an older generation model and not eligible for updates).
SCarns
SCarns4mo ago
A chance, yes. However, I just bought/installed it back in March, so I'm hoping it's not that old.
naugehyde
naugehyde4mo ago
Confidence is high then!
SCarns
SCarns4mo ago
I'll let you know tmro!
mpvader
mpvader4mo ago
Hi,
There's a chance (per @mpvader above) that your IP43 is an older generation model and not eligible for updates).
The fw is available for all IP43s
Is there comprehensive documentation on the GATT protocols used by the connect app available anywhere? I was only able to find GATT docs for the smart battery monitor class of devices. I'd like to implement GATT connections in my bt-sensor plug-in as an alternative for older devices (GATT connections already work for battery monitor in the plug-in)
Sorry, that is not available.
Also, I can confirm that at least for the ip43/65/67 chargers I found in my marina, firmware v3.61 shows up as an upgrade in the latest victron connect beta (14).
More devices where nobody ever took the effort to set a different pincode?
naugehyde
naugehyde4mo ago
Lots of default PINS in the marina. 000000 happens. I mean if it can happen on a 84m superyacht it can happen anywhere.
irjudson
irjudsonOP4mo ago
@mpvader thanks for your work and support. Just upgraded and turned on instant read. Now to do the other bits. @naugehyde the plugin found my IP67 (with updated firmware) but what "sensor class should I pick" :)?
naugehyde
naugehyde4mo ago
@irjudson the IP67 is only supported in the beta available here: https://www.npmjs.com/package/bt-sensors-plugin-sk/v/1.1.0-beta.2.1.2 or in the playstore (search for beta -- if you can't find it, install directly from npm) The beta version is in active development as users like yourself report their data to me (I don't have access to an IP67, for example, so I'm relying on users like yourself to test.) Bugs affecting the IP43 have been reported and may well affect the data that the IP43 shows.
irjudson
irjudsonOP4mo ago
installing beta what can I give you that helps?
naugehyde
naugehyde4mo ago
If you note any anomalies, send me a bluetooth capture and your device's encryption key and a screenshot of the victron connect data (and/or victron-ble data) and I'll get to it.
irjudson
irjudsonOP4mo ago
what's the best way to install this beta? npm command line? from github url? oh, it's in the readme ignore stupid it's well caffeinated, so faster but not smarter restarting, do de do like a kid at christmas
naugehyde
naugehyde4mo ago
awesome. feel free to join the thread here: https://discord.com/channels/1170433917761892493/1295425963466952725 github has latest code of course
Karl-Erik Gustafsson
Are all SmartShunts supported, i.e having Instant Readout?
naugehyde
naugehyde4mo ago
They should be. But I suppose it depends on the firmware version and if VE changed the advertising protocols without letting us know.
Karl-Erik Gustafsson
It would be nice to have a complete list of devices supporting Instant Readout, now & near future.
naugehyde
naugehyde4mo ago
And reliable docs on the protocols. Been a huge pain getting VE support into the plugin.
Scott Bender
Scott Bender4mo ago
You should ask on #victron
naugehyde
naugehyde4mo ago
@sbender my plea from 9/27 read: "If there are any VE engineers or execs lurking, PLEASE help. I've exhausted all online information and need real data to test with before releasing the plugin." @mpvader has been helpful but the docs I'm working from (Extra Manufacturer Data from 9/22) is producing strange numbers for some devices (notably ip43/65/67 AC chargers and Smart Lithium Batteries). Not sure yet if the problem is on me (parsing bits in NodeJS is a lot more challenging than it is in Python) or on the docs yet.
Scott Bender
Scott Bender4mo ago
let me know if you want me to take a look at the code
naugehyde
naugehyde4mo ago
@Scott Bender have at it anytime! https://github.com/naugehyde/bt-sensors-plugin-sk/tree/1.1.0 relevant parse code is in sensor_classes subdir
SCarns
SCarns4mo ago
@naugehyde It works. Woke up this morning and had the idea to check VE.Smart networking in VictronConnect. I diabled VE.Smart on all three devices and BOOM! The plugin works! Even the IP43. I'm sorry I for all the confusion and wish I would've thought of that sooner. It would've saved us both a lot of frustration. Somethings: house battery wattage field for the BMV-712 doesn't generate a sk path - nothing in the data browser. Also, on the IP43, voltage reads 56.04 when it should be 14.55 and current reads 129.9 when it should be 15.3. Progress! for the IP43, the "ac current" field also does not generate a sk path.
naugehyde
naugehyde4mo ago
IP43 etc have a few changes already on github -- just not in the SK plugin store yet. What is VE.smart? And why was it active? Do you need it? When you say the plugin doesn't product a path can you be more specific? Send screenshots (and debug log) can.
SCarns
SCarns4mo ago
Sure. Here's one. the PI is generating a SK path called "BMV-712" with a value. I don't know what that is.
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naugehyde
naugehyde4mo ago
Can you send me your config?
SCarns
SCarns4mo ago
IP 43 sk paths vs VictronConnect:
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SCarns
SCarns4mo ago
VE.Smart is Victron's way of letting their devices communicate with each other. For example, it lets the IP43 tell the Solar Charger that it is doing the charging and to stand down. No, I don't need it and will leave it off for now. I did the ol' npm i [email protected] before starting today, so it should be the latest? I see you just did 2.1.3. I'll give that a go...
naugehyde
naugehyde4mo ago
VE.smart shouldn't affect the plugin. The positive result may have come as a result of something else. Can you test with VE.smart on and off?
SCarns
SCarns4mo ago
Turned it back on and it totally messes up all the values.
naugehyde
naugehyde4mo ago
Good get @Scarns. VE-Smart and the plugin aren't playing well together. There's a solution but it'll take time. In the meantime, do as @Scarns suggests, folks and turn off VE-Smart from the Connect app before using the plugin. nb: as a stopgap just added support to warn if a device is found to be using VE-Smart. future versions will support VE-Smart.
SCarns
SCarns4mo ago
IP43 update: In the latest update, the Voltage is now correct. Current and AC Input are still not the same as in VictronConnect.
taagaard.
taagaard.2mo ago
Somewhere along the line I lost track of the roadmap from Victron. I got an updated IP22 with BLE readout and would LOOOOOVE to get that data natively integrated to my Cerbo GX. Is that coming soon ? Or should I go for the 'bt-sensors-plugin-sk' and hope that I can create Virtual Devices when that feature is out of beta testing ? Any advice highly appreciated. Thanks 🙂
Scott Bender
Scott Bender2mo ago
If you are looking for official info from Victron, you should post in their forums. I have not seen or heard anything to indicate that GX hardware will ever communicate with Victron devices using BT.
taagaard.
taagaard.2mo ago
Thanks, Scott. I think @mpvader mentioned something about it a while ago - but I cannot recall where..
Scott Bender
Scott Bender2mo ago
I am using the virtual device stuff now for temperatures. You need to install their palette into the sk node-red anyway, so not really any reason to wait until it’s out of beta. I didn’t think to try to get my Orion integrated using virtual devices! Oh. You can’t 😦 Will have to wait and see if they add more device types
naugehyde
naugehyde2mo ago
@taagaard. FWIW, I've gotten reports of the bt-sensors plugin working on SK on GX devices. out of curiosity, what did you mean by "Virtual Devices" is that a Venus OS feature?
taagaard.
taagaard.2mo ago
@naugehyde - another happy user report: After entering the encryption key, I now got readout from my IP22 charger on current, voltage, errorcode and state. Great work, thanks ! Now heading over to node-red to push that data to MQTT, so my Grafana monitoring system can pick them up 🙂 BTW : You might wanna leave a note in the git documentation on the encryption part.

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