Orion BMS J1939 to nmea200 pgn? #42

ZM2533 · 2023-01-16T08:58:36Z

ZM2533
Jan 16, 2023

Hi everyone. I am very new to signal K and am not a coder. I am trying to get information from a battery management system (orion Jr2 BMS) into signal K on my boat. I have built a Lithium battery bank and would like to be able to monitor it via signal K. The BMS puts out the data - voltage, current, state of charge etc over canbus using J1939 format. THis is the same format that NMEA2000 is based on. I can read the info via a raspberry pi with a pican M hat using candump, but I cannot seem to get it into signal K. Signal K does read other data off the bus - AIS and raymaring autopilot info.
I have the DBC file that orion supply for the BMS and have tried to convert it to json format, and have written it into the pgn list in the canboat folder in signal K. This does not work.
I am really guessing - can someone point me in the right direction? Sorry for the somewhat vague ramble, but I have been fiddling for nearly a year with no progress. Thanks,

pbegg · 2023-01-16T09:33:13Z

pbegg
Jan 16, 2023

Do you have a copy or link for both the DBC file and the log file from candump?

1 reply

ZM2533 Jan 17, 2023
Author

Yes - attached. The OxO6b1and 6b0 are the standard Orion BMS can messages. The 001 is junk that I added in the BMS utility. The dbc file is in a pdf format as this would not accept a DBC file. I'll email you the dbc format.Much appreciated.
candump-2023-01-17_201848.log
Orion_CANBUS.pdf

ZM2533 · 2023-01-17T08:32:12Z

ZM2533
Jan 17, 2023
Author

hi there thanks for responding. I have attached these to the thread, but could not upload in dbcformat, so have attached the .dbc file here. Hope that helps. Cheers, Rob

…

On Mon, 16 Jan 2023 at 22:33, pbegg ***@***.***> wrote: Do you have a copy or link for both the DBC file and the log file from candump? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#42 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/A5IXXQJCXDSRNWVD2BB5E23WSUIWLANCNFSM6AAAAAAT4PJLPE> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

0 replies

ZM2533 · 2023-01-19T08:43:51Z

ZM2533
Jan 19, 2023
Author

I can decode a message using cnadump, canconvert and the dbc file, so I know that is basically correct. Then I have tried to convert the dbc file to json format using the format in /home/caper/.signalk/node_modules/@canboat/pgns/pgns.json. An online json parser says 'this file is valid', but it still does nto seem to work.
Am I on the right track? Is the pgns.json the correct file to edit to add the new pgn to, or do I need to add it elsewhere?
Thanks

2 replies

pbegg Jan 19, 2023

Sorry haven't had a chance to look more into this yet.
Can you confirm. Do you currently just want to monitor the BMS? Or is the bms connected to you nmea2000 network and you want to monitor both on the same CAN network?

I think it could be worth having this as a seperate plugin?

pbegg Jan 19, 2023

Do you have a copy of the values that log file should be producing eg Volts Amps etc. just want to make sure I am parsing it correctly.

mairas · 2023-01-19T14:42:24Z

mairas
Jan 19, 2023

Hi,

Even though NMEA 2000 is built on J1939, you can't combine the two networks. The PGN assignments are independent, and it is more than likely that some PGN numbers will clash.

In principle it would be possible to create a custom pgns.json only containing the J1939 PGNs and then modify the SK server and/or canboatjs to parse a specific CAN interface input using that definition file, but you'd still need a custom plugin a la nmea2000-to-signalk to convert the parsed input into SK deltas.

In practice, if the number of PGNs is limited, I think I would create a custom plugin that reads and manually parses the CAN interface input and outputs the results as SK deltas.

Possibly an even more practical approach would be to use an SH-ESP32 board with the SensESP framework to read and parse the input and then transmit the results to the SK server over WiFi. (Full disclosure: I am the main author of SensESP and my company Hat Labs Ltd produces the SK-ESP32 boards.)

2 replies

pbegg Jan 19, 2023

I think a plug-in is the best option for this as well.
I was curious mentioned he was using a pican-m with only one can input. Maybe there is no N2K data.

I started working on a plug-in for this last night to run on the Pi and will hopefully finish it over the weekend.

ZM2533 Jan 20, 2023
Author

Hi - The pican m only has 1 input. There is N2K data on the network from an OceanSignal AIS unit, and this data is available on signal K. When I use candump there is data from both the BMS and the n2k data from the AIS on the network.

pbegg · 2023-01-20T09:39:12Z

pbegg
Jan 20, 2023

I have created a plugin - would be great for you to give it a try and let me know your thoughts,

You should be able to install via app page on signalk orion-bms-to-signalk

0 replies

tkurki · 2023-01-20T15:00:48Z

tkurki
Jan 20, 2023
Maintainer

Just a note that I think this discussion has been pretty high quality! Nice s/n ratio, covering a use case I am sure others will benefit from.

0 replies

ZM2533 · 2023-01-22T07:01:02Z

ZM2533
Jan 22, 2023
Author

Wow!!!! That works really well. The pi could not cope with decoding all the data on the canbus and ran slowly. Opencpn just froze and crashed. I changed the frequency of the BMS broadcast from every 8msec to every second and then things ran smoothly. If there are any logs or info that you want to look at let me know and I see if I can provide it. The current reading seems to be wrong, but thats probably a scaling error. Its then easy to format the info onto gauges, which Ive played with a bit today.

Is it easy to add further or different PGNs to the add on. The Orion BMS software allows me to make custom pgns so I could set up a set with the ideal info to monitor the system.

Once again - thank you very much :)

1 reply

pbegg Jan 22, 2023

Im glad it's kind of working!
It needs some refinement.

What kind of Pi are you using? I'm not sure how efficient my code is - obviously not very...

Ill look into some other options to improve this.

Yeah adding extra pgns is pretty simple.
It would be good to get a break down from you showing the raw CAN frame and what you expect the data to be reading. The DBC file you sent didn't seem to be correct, I made an adjustment until I was reading what I thought would be the correct voltage ~ 12.6v

But this could also be causing the issue for the current value.

ZM2533 · 2023-01-22T07:49:26Z

ZM2533
Jan 22, 2023
Author

pi 4b 8gb, no cooling or case - it could have been over T.
I think there are some errors in the DBC file as canconvert said one of the PGNs was incorrect- I think it had overlapping frames of data.
Ill download some logs over the next few days for you to look at and also think about what data is ideally needed.
If you want to look at the Orion software the utility can be downloaded from https://www.orionbms.com/products/orion-jr2-bms/ It loads a default profile and you can look at the canbus settings and outputs under the battery management tab.
Yout voltage adjustment is pretty close, but I will check it more carefully

3 replies

ZM2533 Jan 30, 2023
Author

HI again. I have done a little bit and managed to more or less sort out the dbc file. I've added another message to my BMS 0X06B2 and created a dbc file for it and it decodes ok. At least now I know how to customise the messag
canconvert output.txt
es that the BMS puts over the canbus, and how to make the dbc files. I have attached a log and dbc file and a copy of the decoded messages using canconvert. I also found Appendix B in the help file of the BMS utinity that I linked in my last post. This is a list of all the PGNs which should make things a lot easier. I've attached 1 - the relay states.
candump-2023-01-28_141909.log
canconvert output.txt
new_DBC.txt

pbegg Feb 3, 2023

I just released v 0.2.0 on npm. so you should be able to update from the app store again. (this is still very much in development) Do you custom make the PGN's or are they standard?

If they are customised I think the plugin will need a better way of being modified at the moment they are written into the plugin. If they are standard we can just add all of them and in the plugin configuration we could just make a option for a filter of pgns?

The data looks as though it is converting properly.

I think moving forward maybe we can move the discussion to the issue's on the plugin repo?
orion-bms-to-signalk/issues

ZM2533 Feb 10, 2023
Author

Cool! I head over to the plugin page

ZM2533 · 2023-04-22T08:56:43Z

ZM2533
Apr 22, 2023
Author

Hi there I have been using this on my pi and have made some progress. Question - does it only work on a pi? I am currently using navigtrix (lubuntu based) on an intel I-5. Signal k and open cpn work well, but I cannot install the orion-BMS plugin - it just says 'failed" Ive tried multiple times with the same outcome.

2 replies

sbender9 Apr 22, 2023
Maintainer

Can you find the error in the log?

ZM2533 Apr 22, 2023
Author

HI - yes, sorted. The log identified it as a permission problem in .npm. All sorted now. Thank you!

ZM2533 · 2023-05-18T08:33:01Z

ZM2533
May 18, 2023
Author

Hi again - I've run into another problem on a new install on debian. Now says Orion-BMS-to signalk failed to start: Unexpected toker '?' in the log. I get the same error on the lubuntu install.
any ideas? Thanks again.

4 replies

pbegg May 18, 2023

Best if you can post the log output.

ZM2533 May 19, 2023
Author

May 19 09:54:42 orion-bms-to-signalk failed to start: Unexpected token '?'
Thats all that the signal k server log says - not sure if there is some other log that is mor informative?

pbegg May 19, 2023

Can you turn on the log output for that plug-in and check if there is anything further?

ZM2533 May 19, 2023
Author

No - it does not seem to add anything - just the same sentence.

tkurki · 2023-05-19T08:56:18Z

tkurki
May 19, 2023
Maintainer

What version of Node do you have? node -v

2 replies

ZM2533 May 19, 2023
Author

v12.22.12

ZM2533 May 19, 2023
Author

Installing the latest node changes the error to :
May 19 21:10:40 orion-bms-to-signalk failed to start: The module '/home/caper/.signalk/node_modules/socketcan/build/Release/can.node' was compiled against a different Node.js version using NODE_MODULE_VERSION 72. This version of Node.js requires NODE_MODULE_VERSION 115. Please try re-compiling or re-installing the module (for instance, using npm rebuild or npm install).
Node version is now 20.2
will this work or so I need to go to version 16

ZM2533 · 2023-05-19T09:53:25Z

ZM2533
May 19, 2023
Author

I may have sorted it out by changing the version etc, and with chatGPT help on how to do that. I need to test tomorrow when I am back on the boat.
Thank you - again

0 replies

wjn13 · 2024-03-05T11:59:39Z

wjn13
Mar 5, 2024

You could use a programmable CAN bridge to convert messages between busses. The BMS data will be available for all NMEA2000 devices on your network. For example:
NMEA 2000 Bridge YDNB-07
https://www.yachtd.com/news/orion_bms2.html

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Orion BMS J1939 to nmea200 pgn? #42

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