victron_ble

A Python library to parse Instant Readout advertisement data from Victron devices.

Disclaimer: This software is not an officially supported interface by Victron and is provided entirely "as-is"

If you'd like to support development for additional devices, consider creating a pull request with sample advertisement data.

Install it from PyPI

pip install victron_ble

Usage

To be able to decrypt the contents of the advertisement, you'll need to first fetch the per-device encryption key from the official Victron application. The method to do this will vary per platform, instructions below:

Fetching Keys

Using the Victron Connect app

1. Install the VictronConnect app (Android, IOS, Linux, OSX, Windows)
2. Open the app and pair with your device
3. Locate the device that you want to monitor in the list shown by the app and click on it.
4. Click on the gear icon to open the Settings for that device.
5. Open the menu and select Product Info.
6. Scroll down to Instant Readout via Bluetooth and enable the feature if it is not already enabled.
7. Click the Show button next to Instant Readout Details to display the encryption keys.
8. Copy the MAC address and advertisement key

Headless system

You can follow the above instruction to get the keys but you will need to pair with your headless system (using bluetoothctl for ex) to continue the proccess.

OSX

MacOS's bleak backend uses a bluetooth UUID address instead of the more traditional MAC address to identify bluetooth devices. This UUID address is often unique to the device scanned and the device being scanned such that it cannot be used to connect to the same device from another computer.

If you are going to use victron-ble on the same Mac computer as you have the Victron app on, follow the instructions below to retrieve the address UUID and advertisement key:

1. Install the VictronConnect app from the Mac App Store
2. Open the app and pair with your device
3. Enable Instand readout via Bluetooth to be able to receive advertisements from your device
4. Run the following from Terminal to dump the known keys (install sqlite3 via Homebrew)

❯ sqlite3 ~/Library/Containers/com.victronenergy.victronconnect.mac/Data/Library/Application\ Support/Victron\ Energy/Victron\ Connect/d25b6546b47ebb21a04ff86a2c4fbb76.sqlite 'select address,advertisementKey from advertisementKeys inner join macAddresses on advertisementKeys.macAddress == macAddresses.macAddress'

{763aeff5-1334-e64a-ab30-a0f478s20fe1}|0df4d0395b7d1a876c0c33ecb9e70dcd
❯

Reading data

Here we're using OSX as an example. If you're using another system, replace the UUID with the real MAC address. The project ships with a standalone CLI that can be used to print device data to the console.

# Will show all discovered Victron devices with Instant Readout enabled, their names, and IDs
$ > victron-ble discover 
763aeff5-1334-e64a-ab30-a0f478s20fe1: SmartShunt HT4531A246S
...


# Dump data for a particular device (replace the ID and key with your own)
$ > victron-ble read "763aeff5-1334-e64a-ab30-a0f478s20fe1@0df4d0395b7d1a876c0c33ecb9e70dcd"
INFO:victron_ble.scanner:Reading data for ['763aeff5-1334-e64a-ab30-a0f478s20fe1']
{
  "name": "SmartShunt HT4531A246S",
  "address": "763AEFF5-1334-E64A-AB30-A0F478S20FE1",
  "rssi": -79,
  "payload": {
    "aux_mode": "temperature",
    "consumed_ah": 0.0,
    "current": 0.0,
    "high_starter_battery_voltage_alarm": false,
    "high_temperature_alarm": false,
    "high_voltage_alarm": false,
    "low_soc_alarm": false,
    "low_starter_battery_voltage_alarm": false,
    "low_temperature_alarm": false,
    "low_voltage_alarm": false,
    "midpoint_deviation_alarm": false,
    "remaining_mins": 65535,
    "soc": 100.0,
    "temperature": 382.2,
    "voltage": 12.87
  }
}
...

# Dump data for debugging and supporting new devices (replace the ID)
$ > victron-ble dump "763aeff5-1334-e64a-ab30-a0f478s20fe1"
Dumping advertisements from 763aeff5-1334-e64a-ab30-a0f478s20fe1
1671843194.0534039      : 100289a302413bafd03bb245e131ae926267f6fd0b59e0
1671843194.682535       : 100289a302423baf58a1546e5262dcdf0ef642f353ed65
1671843197.676384       : 100289a302453baf804707549cffb2ab970c981ae897b6
...

To consume this project as a library, you can import the particular parser for your device:

from victron_ble.devices import detect_device_type

data = <ble advertisement data>
parser = detect_device_type(data)
parsed_data = parser(<key>).parse(<ble advertisement data>)

Development

Victron has published documentation for the instant read-out protocol here.

If you'd like to help support a new device, collect the following and create a new Github issue:

1. Run victron-ble discover to find the ID of the device you'd like to support
2. Run victron-ble dump <ID> for a few minutes while collecting corresponding screenshots from the official apps instant readout to identify the current values

For pull requests:

Read the CONTRIBUTING.md file.

Contributors

Special thanks to https://github.com/rochacbruno/python-project-template for the project template