Seplos BMS and Victron Venus OS connected via CAN. Very easy setup (almost).

I finally did it, guys! The Seplos BMS is now talking to Victron Venus OS through CAN bus. The setup is very straight forward but for some reason it did not work for me with the Waveshare CAN Hat for the Raspberry Pi. At least this is what I thought.
I tried two different CAN Hats for the Pi and had immediate success with the isolated version but not with the 'normal' CAN Hat 🤷‍♂️. After a bit of experimenting, I found a workaround and now both CAN Hats are working with the Pi.
We now have the Seplos BMS showing as the battery monitor in Venus OS, connected via CAN bus. Unfortunately, the second Seplos battery (or better: the second BMS) did not work with this method. It has only a so called 'RS485 BMS' (10D version) and the CAN port is non-functional.

Kevin Windrem's Github site with all the great projects he's working on:

His VeCANSetup page:

Waveshare CAN Hats for Raspberry Pi:

How to connect your BMS to Victron Venus OS. Easy setup and works with JK, JBP, DALY and Heltec.

All working RS485-USB adapters to connect your BMS to Victron's Venus OS:

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[Zools_tube]

I thought I'd chip in here. Kevin's latest VeCanSetup works straight out of the box with the single waveshare Can/RS485 Hat as shown, choose option 5. The hard bit to find (anywhere) is the required Hi/LO can connections. Looking at the contact side of the RJ45 connector Pin 4 (typically blue on a std network cable) is Hi, Pin 5 is Lo (typically light blue or blue/white). This works on the Seplos BMS - assuming you have the bluetooth version which can be set for Victron.
For Helen you are right the options have changed, what was 9 in the video is now option 5. so I think you are looking at option 6 or 7 now - hope that helps.
Andy many, many thanks for your videos, I couldn't have worked this out without them, Danke Schön

[Pey]

This could be a classic example of language barrier. Since I speak Mandarin, my communication with them is always been clear. They know exactly what I am looking for and I know exactly what they can offer. Of all the BMS I purchased so far it has worked as expected.

Thinking back, they always ask what inverter I am using when I was making the purchase.

[martijnheeroma]

I have my EEL diy battery box (Seplos BMS) connected with the Rasp, really happy with that. Andy (and Kevin) thank you so much for you're help.

[hermannbischof]

Off Grid rocks again - even with SEPLOS. Day could not start better !

[DannyCsaszar]

Yahoo! my JK is talking to my venus os. User Data 2 says "Always be thankfull for Andy" I couldn't of done this without you!

[timothyflynn]

Thanks Andy I got my board setup. Just wanted to let you know the driver install is a bit different now and there are more options. I think mine went ok but don't have my lynx shunt in place to check yet. Here is my install log if it helps others. I got the same board as you on amazon and it appears to be ok.

VeCanSetup adds CANbus ports to the Venus OS system
Raspberry PI includes 0 CANbus ports
an unlimited number of USB ports may be configured
one single or dual CANbus hat may be configured

Available actions:
Install and activate (i)
Reinstall (r) based on options provided at last install
Uninstall (u) and restores all files to stock
Quit (q) without further action
Display setup log (s) outputs the last 100 lines of the log

Choose an action from the list above: a
Choose an action from the list above: i

no CANbus definitions found
Available actions:
Add a USB interface (a <interface>)
interface may optionally be added to the action, (e.g. a hat or d 11)
USB interface must be 10 or greater
Hat interface should be entered as 'h' or 'hat'

Choose action from list above or (cr) if done with changes: a hat
1 ) Canberry Hat (1-channel)
2 ) PiCAN-M Rev B 2.0 Hat (1 CAN-bus, 1 RS422 channel)
3 ) PiCAN-M Rev B 2.0 Hat (1 CAN-bus, 1 RS422 channel)
4 ) PiCAN Hat (1-channel)
5 ) Waveshare 1-channel CANbus Hat 12 MHz crystal
6 ) Waveshare 1-channel CANbus Hat 8 MHz crystal
7 ) Waveshare 2-channel CANbus (non FD) Hat
8 ) Waveshare 2-channel CANbus FD Hat

Choose the Hat configuration from the list above (by number) (cr to skip): 7
selected interface: Waveshare 2-channel CANbus (non FD) Hat

Install both channels of this interface (y/n)?: y

Enter optional name for first port on this Hat (cr for none):
Enter optional name for second port on this Hat (cr for none):
Waveshare 2-channel CANbus (non FD) Hat
can8 spi0.0
can9 spi0.1

Install interface as shown above (y/n)?: y
adding CANbus hat
Hat configuration updated

CANbus interface definitions:
interface: hat ) Waveshare 2-channel CANbus (non FD) Hat
channel 1: can8 spi0.0
channel 2: can9 spi0.1

Available actions:
Add a USB interface (a <interface>)
Delete existing interface (d <interface>)
interface may optionally be added to the action, (e.g. a hat or d 11)
USB interface must be 10 or greater
Hat interface should be entered as 'h' or 'hat'

Choose action from list above or (cr) if done with changes:
installing CANbus ports
adding udev rules for hat
updating VeCanSetup udev rules
adding new CAN hat overlay to config.txt

new interfaces will not become active until after a reboot
adding VeCanSetup/setup to reinstallScriptsList
Reboot system now (y) or do it manually later (n): y
rebooting ...

The system is going down for reboot NOW!

[ciciedee]

Another outstanding video!!! I now know what the forums meant when they said said select can in the top right of the screen. Kudos!

[maxmeyer]

Andi, it's good that I always look to the end...👍👍👍

[alanfalck]

Thanks for demystifying the Geek & Linux stuff, I've been trying to do this for a while, immensely helpful video (thanks also to Kevin) :) BRAVO !!!

[edwardvanhazendonk]

Thanks for sharing the collected knowledge enhanced with your off grid view and wittyness. Great it works.

[excillisbank]

Merci ANDY pour ta contribution exceptionnel.👍

[Sako]

Thanks for your hard work Andy and Kevin. I recently bought a pair of Pylontech batteries. I have a Cerbo GX but its connected to a 12V system and I want to move to 48V with the Pylontech and a 48V inverter. I bought the Waveshare can hat you linked too and whilst the Kevin's VECanSetup program isn't the most user friendly program to install and setup it works superbly.

[gavinnoname]

Andy you mentioned the CAN port being pointless on the RS485 BMS, but I think the confusion is based on the labelling of that port. It should be called "Inverter" Port. There are two pins for CAN H+L and two pins for RS485 A+B.
So if you want to connect the Seplos using RS485 you would still use the same "Inverter" port. The other two RS485 ports are for stacking batteries.

[ragohy]

Cheers🍻 Andy! Very Informative.
That's why i said: "... If anything else is OK".

[tedhamilton]

I plan to leverage this video to install a 3rd party inverter/charger as well as two solar charge controllers using the RS485 port on the CAN HAT that mounts on the RASPI. Looking forward to making it all work. I will also be adding my Daly 500amp BMS as the 'battery monitor' using the other video for that.

[wideawaketotruth]

Thanks Andy, I'm just watching your informative videos hoping eventually it will sink in for me. Based on your previous recommendation I bought the JK BMS through your link as well as the display monitor. I would very much like to know how that could possibly integrate with the raspberry pi.
Thanks Andy for all your very valuable information!
Rick Fort Worth Texas and traveling.

[tjpproduction]

Hi, thank you a lot for your help. I live in Guadeoupe (French west indies) and i have one Pytes E_box 48_100R and everything is ok with the single channel RS485 CAN HAT. With the double channel it doesn't work. See you next time.

[jmausk]

This is so crazy. In a few years, they will realize that an ethernet port with webserver will be standard. We shouldn't be relying on bluetooth, wireless, or any non standards for computer connections. CAN is great for a car where you really only want 2 wires to control everything. But the few cents more for ethernet is far more effective for debugging and everything else.
And the BMS should be throttling current to manage a cell over/undervoltage....not shutoff all related batteries. Seriously, going to have to design one of these to get it right. So many are just completely inadequate.

[camielkotte]

Back in the days we could update /udev manually with a single command.
My guess is that the install script gives an unclean exit or the author just didn't shake the /udev tree within the script. A reboot van do that for you but since you have root access you should be able to update it by command. I retired from Unix and Linux. a swift Google should people help sort that out. My guess it is.

Nice job Andy. It is good to see how everything sticks together.
Wether you will monitor your expensive batteries with "toys" is up to you. I always ask myself the question "What if I am not at home/location, who is going to fix issues and monitor? Can they or do they need a 2 month course? It is all in the game with Diy projects I guess...
Let's amp!

[sergea]

The canbus port is not functional on the 280Ah battery bcoz it is not a CANBUS port but a RS485 port (to connect to voltronic like inverter for example) since it is a RS485 bms version, even if it labeled as CANBUS. ;-). they didn't modify the label on the pcb, and didn't produce 2 different front box panel.