Thanks to you and this video, I bought the USB and JST 4 pin cables for my project! At 6:14 your diagram shows the wire mapping from USB to JST. Curious why GRD doesn't go to GRD, RXD doesn't go to RXD etc?

@tobisreallifeskillswithtobi

2 жыл бұрын

Hi Chris, Thanks for bringing this up and it looks like I made a mistake with my labeling for the JST 4 Pin connector. The correct labeling is: Pin 1 (black) - GND Pin 2 (red) - RX Pin 3 (white) - TX Pin 4 (yellow) - +5V Still, the color matching is correct, it is just the labeling of the JST 2.0 4 Pin cable off.

@tuberroot1112

2 жыл бұрын

@@tobisreallifeskillswithtobi that''s really handy to know once we've expanded every comment to look at replies. Why isn't this error at the top of your description info ? Pointing out that 5V pin4 is on the left of the Victron 75V models would also be useful. It's the other way up , so on the right on 100V.

@austinfunk7397

Жыл бұрын

@@tobisreallifeskillswithtobi sorry im still confused can you do a overlay of the correct pinout plz

You have been incredibly helpful! Thank you!

Thanks for this, now all we need is a VE.bus to usb cable now.

@aloisdecroon6096

5 ай бұрын

Yes indeed, 70 euro (cheapest I can find) for the MK3 ve.bus to usb is a lot

Thanks for a great video - exactly what I needed!

Hi, the cable works fine but i add usb galvanic isolator (usb male-female) to connect at raspberry pi3bplus for more safety.

Huge problem with the cable is, no galvanic isolation, that's why the oem cost more and is more safe...

@tobisreallifeskillswithtobi

Жыл бұрын

Yes, there are some downsides for making the cables yourself. I will make a follow up video to clarify this.

Hi... Genau Pfusch am Bau. But i like it. Danke Dir, genau das habe ich gesucht.

master of diagrams :)

Super video

Hi all. This cable will initially work (without the 5V connected, the Victron bus use 3.3V), but when installed in a system with a Victron shunt for battery monitoring, or together with other components, you will create a ground loops, creating a wrong grounding reference, and making the cable to an antenna. The data will be unusable. (reading 100W power usage one second and 13200W the next, and back to -300W and so on.) Tried it myself. You will then need to make an isolated TTL cable, which will cost you nearly the same as the original Victron cable. I hope I will spare you for some money and time.

@tobisreallifeskillswithtobi

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing your experience with the community! I did indeed not use it that way!

@jbat66

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for your reply. I purchased all the parts and was trying to figure out why the video showed Rx go to Gnd, so I decided to look in the comments and found your reply to the isolation topic. That made me go read the VE.Direct Protocol, and found where it states "...provides galvanic isolation between the VE.Direct product and the host (your computer/PLC/etc)". So I'm not going to make this cable, and have to use some other way to extend the USB cable. That way maintaining the Galvanic Isolation used by Victron's cable. I do thank you Tobi, for making the video however, it and my research has taught me more about the victron systems

@GreatRockRealEstateDenver

11 ай бұрын

@@jbat66 I am curious as to how you extended your usb cable. I have the same problem, my equipment is about 12' from where I want to mount the pi and screen. I have never seen usb extension cables that long and would be concerned about data integrity. Maybe just extend the cable after the isolation? What have you done to solve this?

@jbat66

11 ай бұрын

I got a USB extension cable from amazon, cut it so the wire would go through a small hole, and then soldered it back together.

@jensschroder8214

8 ай бұрын

use the board with ADUM1201 to prevent ground loops

@Tobi I have made several of these cables and if I connect more then 1 to a RP system only 1 will stay connected, any suggestions

There are some variants in the MK3 to USB connector that all should be aware of. Toby's USB A connector is built for a PC or MAC connection. The other end is a 4 pin connector. I have a Multiplus Compact which has a RJ-45 Ethernet in it. So you plug in with a Ethernet cable. The other end is a USB C cable designed to connect to an Android phone. I hope to use Vicltron Connect to update the firmware on my Multiplus.

@andreask.682

2 ай бұрын

Der MK3-Adapter ist für einen VE.BUS und NICHT für VE.direct !

I am anxious to see how you duplicate the opto-isolator.

@jbat66

Жыл бұрын

I was wondering why the original cable from Victron had that little 'box' along the cable.

@JulianGoesPro

Жыл бұрын

how would I include something like a BOJACK PC817 Optocoupler in that? Thanks!

@fellpower

3 ай бұрын

@@JulianGoesPro Try the ADUM1201 - its made for this. And NEVER use that cables, without an optocoupler, u can fry your victron units, if u have a gnd loop ore something else. many ppl fried their mppt chargers and so on, because they saved that 2$ piece ^^

Hi, and if I need to connect it to an Android smartphone from a USBC? How can be the connection, what pins I have to invert to give me an OTG cable?

@tobisreallifeskillswithtobi

2 жыл бұрын

I am not aware of that, sorry

Do not connect the 5v to the jst connector if you connect it to a BMV-700 as on this battery monitor the ve.direct bus is working at 3.3v And not at 5v.

@tobisreallifeskillswithtobi

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for your comment. I read something like this as well but wasn't bale to verify it. Do you have more information to share about this?

@alexcalcan

2 жыл бұрын

The cable works without connecting the +5v cable indeed.

@netrocker9990

2 жыл бұрын

If PV is connected,+5v wire has no use.

@Addlonfire

2 жыл бұрын

@@tobisreallifeskillswithtobi This should have all the information (in german) kzread.info/dash/bejne/iGSYw6x8Zpyth7A.html

@michaelculley8790

Жыл бұрын

@@tobisreallifeskillswithtobiI would just avoid connecting the 5V altogether. It can only lead to danger.

Dear Tobi, Thank you for the tip to make the cables myself. Unfortunately I was less succesful as you. The cables I made refused to work in combination with 2 of them. Hooked up to a MPPT and a Smart Shunt. Or the one or the other and after a while they blew up internally. I assume this has something to do with an non isulated internal layout. I bought 2 original cables and everything works direct. You can test the self made cables easy by finding the correct COM port the USB creates and than use Putty on that COM port. When you short the middle 2 pins from the JST 4 connector you should see an echo of your keyboard input in the putty screen. So just a warning that these cables not always work.

@tobisreallifeskillswithtobi

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing !

@lexicase8805

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah these cables are not isolated, meaning that the ground from the shunt or smartsolar, will be shared through the usb and whatever it is connected to. In my case, i had a raspberry pi being powered from a buck converter on the output side of my bms, and the bmv712 connected before the bms, and when the bms turned off, it literally blew the buck converter to pieces, as the inverter tried to pull its full power through the usb cable and rpi. The genuine ve direct cable i gather is more expensive because it is completely isolated internally, so this fault wouldn't occur with the genuine cable. I gather you may have had a similar issue. This however isnt an issue if your rpi is powered by an isolated source and you are only using one of these diy cables, as theres no ground loop through the usb cable

@RoaldKoger

2 жыл бұрын

@@lexicase8805 Good point. Best solution is to put a simple optocoupler between the USB cable and the JST cable.

@waseefarshad509

2 жыл бұрын

Hi @@lexicase8805, i am facing this exact issue i believe and my MPPTs keep dropping out until i reboot my raspberry pi and then they show up again for a few hours and then they disappear again. Could you please clarify what it means to "power the RaspPi from an isolated power source" ? and further more, you stated "only using one of the DIY cables". Does that mean i cannot use 2 or 3 DIY cables even if RaspPI is powered via isolated source? Thanks!

@lexicase8805

2 жыл бұрын

@@waseefarshad509 so basically whats happening is the power in your system with non isolated cables, can flow not only through your main power cables, its able to flow through your data cables as well, which is extremely bad! So the victron gear is sensing this power flow where it shouldnt be, and protecting itself which is why it drops out. An isolated power supply would be something that doesnt have a connected path through either power or ground from the battery side to the usb side. Try powering your raspberry from a portable usb power bank, that would be absolutely isolated. I was also using 3 diy cables and have since replaced them all with genuine victron cables as i didnt have time to wait, but there are apparently isolated versions of the TTL cables, i just dont know what to look for. What that means is that the usb end only sees the data from the victron device, but the power and ground are not directly connected, they are protected by some fancy circuitry i dont understand. I decided to switch to genuine victron cables a few days ago as one of my systems had a raspberry pi powered through a buck converter since it was only a 12v system, and the raspberry pi only running one bmv712. The buck converter was connected after the bms, the bmv shunt before the bms. When the bms did shut down, the ground then flowed from the bmv shunt data cable, through the bmv screen, diy ve direct cable, through the pi and buck converter ground and tried to continue the negative supply that the bms was trying to shut off. The raspberry, bmv712, buck converter and all cables between, caught fire. Over $500 in the bin because i didnt use a genuine $40 ve direct cable.

It worked fine with MPPT 100/30, but when I connected to BMV712 it frozen, and need to unplug to recover the device. The configuration that worked for me is black-black, white-white and green(usb)-red(jst), not connected red(usb),yellow(jst)

I have a question, my BMV-712 monitor is routed about 20+ feet away from where my Raspberry Pi & all my other Victron components are located. How do I extend this to reach the back of the BMV-712 display (where the VE. Direct plug is located)? Do you know where I can get a set of wires (matching) that I can splice in-between these to make it longer?

@tobisreallifeskillswithtobi

Жыл бұрын

Good question, let me check

@jbat66

Жыл бұрын

While not color matching you could use Cat 3 or better Phone or Ethernet wire. they are solid core (low resistance), and twisted to protect the data in transit. AKA UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair)

Can I use this cable to connect a phoenix inverter to PC?

@tobisreallifeskillswithtobi

Жыл бұрын

What would be your intention when connecting the inverter to a PC? It can be connected to a device which runs VenusOS for example - which can communicate through the cable.

@cihanbozkir

Жыл бұрын

@@tobisreallifeskillswithtobithank you for your reply. I would like to adjust cut off voltage, top voltage and load check period. It's a phoenix 375VA inverter. I'm just worried about connection without optocoupler. Can I have any issues without an optocoupler when connecting to PC with DIY cable?

So its USB out the ve.direct port and they used the jst connector instead of a micro-USB to sell expensive cables! I will be doing a jst to micro USB port asap. Thanks for the diagram

@m0nad539

16 күн бұрын

Well, NO! This is not just a 1:1 wire connection. You need to take into account the USB-to-Serial converter (e.g. FTDI or PLC2303) within the blue USB unit, plus the galvanic isolation that's missing from this DIY sketch but which you may want to have for dealing with ground loops and/or 5V/3V3 differences (see other comments).

Hi I had different color setup for my JST 2.0 but I think you can better do it this way also you don't have any issues with connecting the wrong wires kzread.info/dash/bejne/Z2SKl5KlebbUc5s.html

Wonder if the VE.Direct device could be plugged to Raspberry Pi straight into the GPIO RS232 lines without the USB-converter in the middle... Could hook up atleast one device with just the JST connector :D

@tuberroot1112

2 жыл бұрын

Should work. Check voltage levels, I'm not sure Pi GPIO will take 5V signals. RX/TX may need to be crossed over.

@derz1978

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the video, have you noticed that the cable loses connection randomly meaning you have to unplug the cable to reset it?

@laszlolebrun4114

5 ай бұрын

Best way to fry directly your Raspberry.

8:54 | 5V 3.3V ? Don't do this ! GND TX ? RX GND ? TX RX

Geiler Schei......

This did not work for me. I followed Andy from Off Grid Garage and it worked. kzread.info/dash/bejne/Z2SKl5KlebbUc5s.html It is possible the pin outs changed on the JST I am not sure but your pinout didn't work and I followed all your Links to buy the parts. I am in the US so maybe the parts delivered were different. I do appreciate the Video. I used your other video to get my Raspi loaded and connected to my network without connecting a monitor to it. That was very useful.

@SolarBuck

4 ай бұрын

I had a unique case where my batteries are 40 ft away in a shed outside my home. his is also where my smart shunt is. I did this as my batteries are NiFe batteries and off gas hydrogen. I used usb extension adapter via ethernet cable. Then ran an ethernet cable to my shed. I thought something in the length could also be a problem but changed the pinout to match how Andy did it and voila! it worked.

@tobisreallifeskillswithtobi

4 ай бұрын

Thanks for sharing! I have to look into this :-)