dbus_generator

Python script taking care of generator start/stop based on battery status. To be used on the Color Control GX.

Current implementation is meant for DC Generators, where a BMV battery monitor is used to monitor its current, and it expects to start and stop this genset by opening and closing the relay on the CCGX.

Project status

Work in progress, current functionality not yet finished.

Future improvements and additions

• It should also work for AC gensets, connected to AC input 1 or 2 from the Multi. To get ideas on the necessary conditions, see the options in VEConfigure3-virtual switch tab, the options in the Generator start/stop assistant in VEConfigure3. And then add other possibilities that we have because there is a clock in the CCGX. For example silent nights, auto starting before the night or auto starting every x days to allow equalisation.
• Make it possible configure how to start/stop the genset (relay on BMV, relay on CCGX, relay on ??). Note that this requires work on vedirect-dbus as well, currently it is not possible for the CCGX to control the relay in a BMV.
• Publish ourselves on the dbus as a generator (com.victronenergy.dcgenerator and com.victronenergy.acgenerator). See also outcommented code in dbus_generator.py

Debugging and development on a pc

You will need to the run the localsettings dbus service. Get the code from https://github.com/victronenergy/localsettings, and run localsettings.py

Then, in another terminal, run the dummy battery by starting ./test/dummybattery.py.

And then in a last terminal you can run the project: dbus_generator.py