wind-mppt-bornay: add to serial-starter

[mpvader]

Basics:

• the wind controller talk ModbusRTU over RS485
• Bornay has implemented a Python script that talks to the controller and publishes the data on D-Bus

Changes required before adding the script to the serial-starter:

• the script should accept a serial port as a command line argument (and then it should not scan all the ports)
• the script should quit in case it doesn't find a wind controller on the RS485

[CarlosBornay]

Hi Matthijs, we have develop the command line argument to accept a serial port and we remove the port scan.We ran the script to test the new code and works fine.Also the script stops if any error happend. We also check the d-bus paths as Jesus told us and also the script checks if the process is te correcto to starts de Dbus. We think that with this changes all is done by our side until now. Here you have the link:

https://github.com/CarlosBornay/Bornay-venus-driver

[mpvader]

@jepefe pls review

[izak]

I deleted my previous comment because I changed my mind on how to do it.

Here are some things I propose you change:

1. We add velib_python as a submodule. I've already done that here
2. Line 203, self.dbusservice = VeDbusService('com.victronenergy.windcharger.bornay_ttyUSB0'), that should use the serial port as passed on the commandline.
3. Shorten the command line option, make it just --serial.

For deployment, I will then:

1. Create a recipe for packaging pymodbus. We already have recipes in OE for pyserial and six.
2. Create a recipe called dbus-bornay-windplus.

Then finally we just need to add it into the serial-starter loop.

[izak]

I see code that attempts to change the port permissions on Raspbian, when running non-root. The correct solution is to add the pi user to the dialout group, as the dialout group always has write permission to serial ports. Run this command once, and you never need to chmod the port again.

adduser pi dialout

I'm going to kill the systemtype code, it should not be necessary once you do this. You also don't need to do this on Venus, it can already read the serial port.

[izak]

@CarlosBornay I made a significant amount of changes. Please see the list here. Please test that it still works for you.

On your development platform, which I deduce from the code is Raspbian, add the user to the dialout group, then log out and back in, and make sure it still works. That is a cleaner solution than calling sudo and chmod from inside the code.

Also, on Raspbian, you should be able to install the required modules using apt-get install python-pymodbus, that should compensate for the fact that I removed the ext.zip binary blob. Then you no longer need the external modules in that directory.

Finally, I added recipes so this can be pulled into Venus.

To add this into serial_starter, edit /opt/victronenergy/serial-starter/serial-starter.sh and add in the relevant place:

svc_bornay=dbus-bornay-windplus

Then in get_program, put bornay into the list:

        FT232R_USB_UART)                 
            echo cgwacs:gps:vedirect:bornay     
            ;;                           
        USB-RS485_Cable)                                 
            echo cgwacs:redflow:bornay          
            ;;                           
        USB-Serial_Controller_D)    
            echo cgwacs:gps:bornay             
            ;;                      

Test if that works to auto-detect it.

[CarlosBornay]

Dear @izak,
We have tested the script and it works well. In this case we cannot test it in the Color Control because we had cannot install these libraries. We have found problems to install needed libraries. If you consider that is necessary to test all here please give us instructions or connect with us via Teamviewer for example to explain it. But he have tested at the raspberry and the communications works.

[mpvader]

@izak pls add those changes you made (meta-victronenergy) to the todo list for inclusion in master.

@CarlosBornay that will take care of the missing package for you.

[izak]

Hi @CarlosBornay

I just created a pull request so that this driver can live in your github account. Once merged, please tag the release (git tag -a v1.5.1 -m v1.5.1) and reply here so I can merge the recipes into venus.

[jhofstee]

seems this is done, https://github.com/CarlosBornay/Bornay-venus-driver/releases

[mpvader]

The driver code is now hosted here: https://github.com/victronenergy/dbus-bornay-windplus.

The latest release, v1.5.4, is in Venus since v2.20~11.

Next step is for Bornay to test if it now works properly with a Victron RS485 cable. And if it does we can add it to the serial-starter.

[mpvader]

Bornay was put in touch with Ivo to help them further as a "venus-consultant". Closing this.