victron-ble2mqtt-integration

Bridge Victron BLE advertisements → MQTT with Home Assistant discovery. Designed for Raspberry Pi with BlueZ; publishes entities via ha_services.

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What’s working (verified)

• ✅ BLE scanning on hci0 (LE-only) is stable.
• ✅ Victron Solar Charger (VE.Direct SmarT / BlueSolar MPPT 75/15 rev3) is detected and decoded.
• ✅ MQTT discovery + states arrive in HA (entities like battery_voltage, charge_state, solar_power, etc.).
• ✅ Optional: Dozzle is running and can be used to tail container logs.

See Home Assistant → Settings → Devices & Services → MQTT for discovered entities.

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Requirements

• Raspberry Pi with BlueZ (Bluetooth) enabled
• Docker Engine + Compose v2 (installed by deploy script if missing)

System info publishing (Pi4)

• Previously, Pi system metrics (CPU, temp, load, wifi, etc.) were only published when a BLE packet was decoded and forwarded. If no Victron BLE adverts were seen, these sensors appeared to “stall.”
• Now, a periodic publisher runs inside override/victron_ble2mqtt/__main__.py, pushing system metrics at a fixed interval regardless of BLE activity. This makes Pi4 data flow consistently, including right after container start.
• Tuning: SYSTEM_POLL_THROTTLE_SEC (default 3s) in docker-compose.victron.yml.
• Reboot-proof via systemd runner installed by scripts/deploy.sh.

If you run tails/clients in Docker, set MQTT_HOST to the broker’s LAN IP, not localhost.

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Deploy

Run the unified installer:

sudo bash scripts/deploy.sh

It installs prerequisites, configures logging (Docker daemon json-file rotation and journald caps), sets up Mosquitto, starts Home Assistant, and installs the victron-ble2mqtt systemd runner. See DEPLOY.md for options and troubleshooting.

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Production deployment & tools

Do not commit secrets (ADVKEY_*, MQTT_PASSWORD, etc.). Provide via .env or environment-managed secrets.

VS Code RAM usage on Raspberry Pi

If VS Code Server uses too much memory:

• Use the workspace settings in .vscode/settings.json (already included) to reduce indexers and watchers.
• Kill all VS Code Server processes on demand:
  • bash scripts/kill_vscode_server.sh
• Automatic cleanup runs every 10 minutes and removes stale VS Code Server processes older than 15 minutes: see scripts/vscode_server_cleanup.sh and systemd units vscode-server-cleanup@.service and .timer.

One-shot debug run

Publishes discovery + live states to MQTT (Ctrl-C to stop):

cd ~/victron-ble2mqtt-integration
set -a
. swarm/ha-discovery.env
. swarm/victron-secrets.env
set +a
PYTHONPATH="$PWD/override:$PWD/fixes:$PWD" python3 - <<'PY'
from victron_ble2mqtt.cli_app.mqtt import publish_loop
publish_loop(verbosity=3)  # DEBUG
PY

You should see BLE detections and MQTT “CONNECT/CONNACK” logs, followed by discovery/state publishes.

Quick checks
1) Verify Victron devices are advertising

Close the Victron app on your phone (it can suppress adverts), then:

sudo btmgmt -i hci0 power off
sudo btmgmt -i hci0 le on
sudo btmgmt -i hci0 bredr off
sudo btmgmt -i hci0 power on

# Short scan; you should see your device MACs
sudo timeout 25s btmgmt -i hci0 find -l \
 | egrep 'D4:EF:FB:B3:D7:0C|CB:0D:C2:0A:AE:0F|D7:69:EB:1F:F8:3D' || echo 'NO MATCHES'


If you have a second adapter (e.g., hci1) and don’t want it used:

sudo btmgmt -i hci1 power off

2) Watch MQTT

From the Pi:

mosquitto_sub -h "$MQTT_HOST" -p "${MQTT_PORT:-1883}" -u "$MQTT_USER" -P "$MQTT_PASSWORD" -v \
  -t 'homeassistant/#' -t 'victron_ble/#'


If you prefer Docker tailing + Dozzle, run your own small alpine container with mosquitto_sub and view logs in Dozzle.

Home Assistant

Go to Settings → Devices & Services → MQTT.

The device should appear under your host device.

Entities include: battery_voltage, battery_charging_current, charge_state, solar_power, charging_power, load, load_power, yield_today, and an rssi sensor.

Troubleshooting

Discovery config but no states

Ensure the Victron app is closed.

Re-check VICTRON_DEVICE_KEYS formatting and MACs.

Confirm adverts show up during btmgmt find -l while the publisher runs.

Docker tails show “Lookup error”

MQTT_HOST was a placeholder/comment. Set it to the broker’s LAN IP.

Notes
- The deploy script can repair a malformed `/etc/docker/daemon.json` and restart Docker safely.
- The systemd unit starts bluetooth safely before running the container (no forced restart).

License

MIT (or the project’s existing license).


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