Victron Venus GX connection to Pace BMS CAN

[SunsetSolar]

I'm struggling to get my Victron Venus on Raspberry Pi to communicate with my PACE 16s200a BMS in my new Gobel GP-SR1-200.

I will write here what I learn and what does / does not work, in the hope that it helps someone else who is having the same struggle.

I will update the next reply for my recommended solution.

If anyone has got this working already, and can give any suggestions, please drop a message or a screen grab here to let me know any useful tips.

Thanks!

[SunsetSolar]

If you have to wire up your own cable, you might find these diagrams useful to make the connection.



- CAN-H is wired to pin 4 on Gobel
- CAN-L is wired to pin 5
- GND is wired to pin 6

The colours in your cable may vary, but be very careful to note the sequence of twisted pairs is not in order.
CAN signals are sent on 4 and 5 as a twisted pair, so they both should have the same colour (one is solid, one is striped.)
The pairs are twisted to resist Electro Magnetic Interference, which is pretty common in our high power environments.

You need to change the ADS switches to ON OFF OFF OFF for Master
And the interface works at the standard 500 kbps.

With my Raspberry Pi, I use SetupHelper, GuiMods and VeCanSetup to manage the connection which will survive through Venus upgrades.
You can find full instructions here. It is easier than it sounds. https://github.com/kwindrem/
If you have any Victron GX device this will allow you to modify the front screen to show extra information, such as Ruuvi temperature sensors.

The excellent youtube video by Andy at OGG (recommended by @DutchSolarFreak), suggests these changes to default parameters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=deskt ... GridGarage

Details
- Change Cell OV Protect (V) - change from 3.70 V to 3.65 V
- Pack OV Protect (V) - change from 59.20 V to 58.40 V
- Balance Threshold (V) - change from 3.40 V to 3.45 V
- Balance Delta Vcell (mV) - change from 30 mV to 20 mV (this is only a charge balancer, so pretty ineffective)
- Pack Full Charge Voltage (V) - change from 56.0 V to 55.6 V
- FullCapacity (Ah) - increase from 280Ah to ???Ah depending on your battery's tested results
- Env OT Alarm (C) - reduce to 55 C
- Env OT Protect (C) - reduce to 65 C -
- Env OT Release (C) - reduce to 60 C

Other things I learned along the path
- I prefer v1.0.6 of Pbmstools program, since the user interface is a bit more consistent.
- Version 2.0.x adds support for the heated pad, so this is not important for me
- You can just use the front panel buttons to select CAN interface, and that works (for Victron and Pylon, not tested for others)
- Daniel at Gobel Technical is amazing and very patient !!

If anything here is wrong or badly explained, please feel free to add your thoughts below.

[DutchSolarFreak]

Maybe this video points you in the right direction....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=deskt ... GridGarage
Arround 18:00 Andy connects the PACE BMS to a Victron CerboGX

or maybe this one where he is installing a CAN hat on the raspberry pi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w4A9f0 ... GridGarage