Hello everyone, thank you for your welcome !!!
Let me introduce myself, I am Steve administrator of two French-speaking websites that talk about vintage trailers and mini trailers, http://www.RPRQC.net and http://www.TEARDROP-QUEBEC.net. I am a native and live in Canada and I live on the edge of the St. Lawrence River not far from Quebec City.
I thought of you because I have small concerns with the understanding for the confuguration for example, for the installation of three water tank level sensors (fresh water, gray water, black water and propane gas) and installing cards for relays on the Victron Energie system controlled by a Raspberry Pi.
I come to you today because I want to improve my experience in our 2020 travel trailer (Riverside RV Retro 135) and install a central screen (Raspberry touchscreen) where I could see all the relevant information on the different energy levels in the battery and liquids at a glance know the recharging capacity of the solar panels and the charge controller which will be connected to an interface on my raspberry pi 3 b +. Victron VenusOS for Raspberry Pi, but quite honestly I'm quite a novice and have no idea where to start. The software is installed and is already connected in SSH on my network and seems to work because I land on the home page, but otherwise I'm not sure.
I know that (Victron Venus Os) also allows to be able to check the levels of the drinking water tanks on board, the levels of the waste water tanks (gray and black), as well as the quantities of propane gas remaining in the tanks. But I have no idea how to do this and which level sensors should be used. Those which are already installed on the trailer are not reliable.
I already have in hand:
The Raspi 3 b +, and 32 GB SD card with VenusOS which is installed
The Raspberry touch screen, and its case
2 modules of 4 relays 5v,
2 DC to DC 12v to 5v 3 amp modules
I still have to buy Victron Energy parts for the solar part of the project, SmartSolar MPPT 100V / 30A charge controller and BMV-712 plus shunt, 2 VEdirect USB cables if needed, fuse blocks and fuses. And I'm probably forgetting a few other pieces. I am waiting to be certain that the project will be feasible and possible before I invest more money in its items that are not donated.
I have done a lot of research on the different sensors with no real success, my main problem is knowing which protocol to use for this Victron system because it does not seem to have an analog port on the Raspi? I have to use what sort of equipment to be able to measure the levels of the water and propane tanks. And the other part of the problem, and not the least, is that these sensors must be resistant to water and the acidity of organic liquids (black water tank). Is it possible to use an ACD interface board to be able to achieve this.
For the relay module it's the same thing, how to be able to control lights? What kind of connectors do I use and how do I connect the wires to the relay modules? What cable connects to the GPIO to be able to transfer the data from the level sensors between the different Victron modules? Then comes the programming and setting of all its elements which will have to communicate with each other.
Already, for the MPPT charge controller and the Victron BMV-712 battery monitor they are Bluetooth the information should flow well. You have to guess it's the other things that worry me.
Do you think you could help me bring this project to fruition ?? For me it's quite a challenge to overcome.
I don't know if it's clear enough for you to understand the main lines and I don't know if this is a big challenge for you ?? If not do not hesitate to contact me.
A big thank you to you for taking the time to read this far !!!
I am a French uniligue and I use a translation tool to be able to communicate with you. It could be that there are words or baths which will not be comprehensible to you.
Steve
http://www.teardrop-Quebec.net
P.S. My project looks a bit like this one but there are differences in the level sensors present on this trailer, which are SeeLevel II and that it uses a proprietary protocol. On the other hand, the advantage of SeeLevel sensors is that they do not need to be inside the tank to be able to function and be precise.
