openinverter forum

Posted: **Fri Oct 31, 2025 1:06 pm**

As mentioned here I've always wanted to create an all-in-one energy controller to clean up the mess in my basement. It is based on the popular BeagleBone Black or Green, so it's called a "cape".

Hardware-wise it is mainly communication stuff. The task of the thing is to control various energy conversion equipment such as
- PV inverters
- Batteries (or BMSes to be precise)
- CCS
- Relays

It also talks to web services such as spot market price providers, data loggers and of course has infinite connectivity over Wifi or Ethernet.

I pretty much copied the hardware that I currently use so the interfaces are
- 2x CAN
- 1x PLC for CCS charging, including CP signalling
- 2 relay drivers
- Input for push button with LED (button just shorts out LED current

I might add RS485 as well as I have only used up 10 of 12 screw terminals.

So far this is how it looks

PLC part still to be done.

Source code for control software is here: https://github.com/jsphuebner/esp-egyco ... ry-control

Posted: **Fri Oct 31, 2025 3:32 pm**

RS485 is a good idea for an industrial AC energy meter, or do you have a plan to route those over something like Home Assistant?

Posted: **Sat Nov 01, 2025 8:30 am**

tom91 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 31, 2025 3:32 pm RS485 is a good idea for an industrial AC energy meter, or do you have a plan to route those over something like Home Assistant?

Yes and also for simulating an energy meter e.g. for Huawei inverters that have no other means of controlling their feed-in power.

First cut done, only RS485 missing

SPI flash can be connected to the SPI bus for initial programming by the BeagleBone itself

Posted: **Sat Nov 01, 2025 3:32 pm**

Before ordering I wanted to make sure that I can talk to the QCA with the linux kernel.

It is a bit of a palaver.

Here's the howto running QCA7000 on BeagleBone via SPI

Alternative, quicker method that results in "tainted" kernel: https://openinverter.org/forum/viewtopi ... 982#p72982

Find out which kernel your BeagleBone is running:

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> uname -r
< 5.10.168-ti-r71

Now you need to get the matching kernel. On your desktop PC run

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git clone https://github.com/RobertCNelson/ti-linux-kernel-dev.git
cd ti-linux-kernel-dev/
git checkout 5.10.168-ti-r71
./build_kernel.sh

obviously you need to checkout the version matching your kernel in the 3rd command

The script will now endlessly download stuff (I think the standard linux kernel) and patch it. Then it will open the configuration menu. You need to set

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Device Drivers -> Network Device Support -> Ethernet Driver Support -> [*] Qualcomm Devices -> <M> Qualcomm Atheros QCA7000 SPI support

So once you find Qualcomm Devices you select them with the space key. Then the various devices show up and you select ....QCA7000 SPI and press M.
Then navigate to the Save button and press it, then Exit by selecting "Exit" until the menu exits

Then the build process automatically starts.

Now in the "deploy" directory you will find 5.10.168-ti-r71-modules.tar.gz. Open it and navigate to

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 ./lib/modules/5.10.168-ti-r71/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/qualcomm

Here you'll find two .ko.xz files. Copy them to your BeagleBone

Now back to the BeagleBone console. Extract the xz files and copy them into the kernel tree with

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xz -d qca_7k_common.ko.xz
xz -d qcaspi.ko.xz
sudo mkdir /lib/modules/5.10.168-ti-r71/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/qualcomm
sudo mv *.ko /lib/modules/5.10.168-ti-r71/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/qualcomm
sudo depmod -a

Now create the file

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/opt/source/bb.org-overlays/src/arm/BB-SPI0-QCASPI-00A0.dts

and put the following code into it:

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/*
 * Copyright (C) 2019 Tomas Arturo Herrera Castro <taherrera@uc.cl>
 *
 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 as
 * published by the Free Software Foundation.
 * 
 * Written as part of my master's thesis at PUC Chile,
 * to run the BeagleBone as an OpenThread Border Router w/o an NCP.
 *
 * https://www.sltech.cl
 *
 * Compiled using: make ./src/arm/BB-SPI0-QCASPI-00A0.dtbo
 *
 * Tested on BeagleBone Black Rev. C + REB233-XPRO. Linux beaglebone 4.14.71-ti-r80.
 *
 */

/dts-v1/;
/plugin/;

#include <dt-bindings/board/am335x-bbw-bbb-base.h>
#include <dt-bindings/pinctrl/am33xx.h>
#include <dt-bindings/interrupt-controller/irq.h>

/ {
	/*
	 * Helper to show loaded overlays under: /proc/device-tree/chosen/overlays/
	 */
	fragment@0 {
		target-path="/";
		__overlay__ {

			chosen {
				overlays {
					BB-SPI0-QCASPI-00A0 = __TIMESTAMP__;
				};
			};
		};
	};

	/*
	 * Free up the pins used by the cape from the pinmux helpers.
	 */
	fragment@1 {
		target = <&ocp>;
		__overlay__ {
			P9_17_pinmux { status = "disabled"; };	/* P9_17 (A16) spi0_cs0.spi0_cs0 */
			P9_18_pinmux { status = "disabled"; };	/* P9_18 (B16) spi0_d1.spi0_d1 */
			P9_21_pinmux { status = "disabled"; };	/* P9_21 (B17) spi0_d0.spi0_d0 */
			P9_22_pinmux { status = "disabled"; };	/* P9_22 (A17) spi0_sclk.spi0_sclk */

			P9_15_pinmux { status = "disabled"; };	/* irq P9_15 (R13) gpmc_a0.gpio1[16] */
		};
	};

	fragment@2 {
		target = <&am33xx_pinmux>;
		__overlay__ {
			bb_qca_pins: bb_qca_pins {
				pinctrl-single,pins = <
					AM33XX_PADCONF(AM335X_PIN_GPMC_A0, PIN_INPUT_PULLDOWN, MUX_MODE7)    /* irq P9_15 (R13) gpmc_a0.gpio1[16] */
				>;
			};
			spi0_qca_s0: spi0_qca_s0 {
				pinctrl-single,pins = <
					AM33XX_PADCONF(AM335X_PIN_SPI0_SCLK, PIN_INPUT, MUX_MODE0) /* P9_22 (A17) spi0_sclk.spi0_sclk */
					AM33XX_PADCONF(AM335X_PIN_SPI0_D0, PIN_INPUT, MUX_MODE0)   /* P9_21 (B17) spi0_d0.spi0_d0 */
					AM33XX_PADCONF(AM335X_PIN_SPI0_D1, PIN_INPUT, MUX_MODE0)   /* P9_18 (B16) spi0_d1.spi0_d1 */
					AM33XX_PADCONF(AM335X_PIN_SPI0_CS0, PIN_INPUT, MUX_MODE0)  /* P9_17 (A16) spi0_cs0.spi0_cs0 */
				>;
			};
		};
	};

	fragment@3 {
		target = <&spi0>;
		__overlay__ {
			#address-cells = <1>;
			#size-cells = <0>;

			status = "okay";
			pinctrl-names = "default";
			pinctrl-0 = <&spi0_qca_s0>;

			eth1: qcaspi@0 {
				compatible = "qca,qca7000";

				pinctrl-names = "default";
				pinctrl-0 = <&bb_qca_pins>;

				spi-max-frequency = <12000000>;
				reg = <0>;
				interrupt-parent = <&gpio1>;
				interrupts = <16 IRQ_TYPE_EDGE_RISING>; /* gpio1[16] active high */
			};
		};
	};
	
};

The interrupt line of the QCA chip is connected to P9_15 and the other pins are connected to P9 as well:
SPI0_CS:17 -> CS
SPI0_D1:18 -> MOSI
SPI0_D0:21 -> MISO
SPI0_CLK:22 -> CLK

Now compile the device trees and copy the new file where it is expected with

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cd /opt/source/bb.org-overlays/
make
sudo cp src/arm/BB-SPI0-QCASPI-00A0.dtbo /lib/firmware/

Now in /boot/uEnv.txt enable the new file with

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uboot_overlay_addr0=BB-SPI0-QCASPI-00A0.dtbo

Of course it can be any other addrX, too if you're already using other files.
Now reboot and watch the debug terminal in case something goes wrong.

Ultimately you should see

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[   28.949382] qcaspi spi0.0: ver=0.2.7-i, clkspeed=12000000, burst_len=5000, pluggable=0
[   29.041706] qcaspi spi0.0: Using random MAC address: 56:7b:be:8b:cd:74

Check that you can find the chip with

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> int6klist -v -i eth1

00000000 00 B0 52 00 00 01 AA 38 9F A8 13 32 88 E1 00 00 ..R....8...2....
00000010 A0 00 B0 52 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ...R............
00000020 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00000030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00             ............    

00000000 AA 38 9F A8 13 32 04 65 65 FF FF FF 88 E1 00 01 .8...2.ee.......
00000010 A0 00 B0 52 00 22 25 4D 41 43 2D 51 43 41 37 30 ...R."%MAC-QCA70
00000020 30 35 2D 31 2E 31 2E 30 2E 37 33 30 2D 30 34 2D 05-1.1.0.730-04-
00000030 32 30 31 34 30 38 31 35 2D 43 53 00 CC CC CC CC 20140815-CS.....

Now pyPLC should run as well

Posted: **Tue Nov 11, 2025 12:12 pm**

Super interesting subject ! Could this be used to do bi-directional charging from solar / to house ?

Posted: **Tue Nov 11, 2025 4:56 pm**

This is exactly the topic. However, this is just the control box, it needs an additional power device like a hybrid solar inverter.

Posted: **Wed Nov 12, 2025 5:57 pm**

And it's on the table

Almost worked out of the box, some resistors were not fitted and there ist a minor mistake in the pin mapping of the boost converter that makes +-12V for CP PWM.

With that fixed we have PWM

and the QCA chip is detected and communicates

Currently no firmware on the flash, I'm trying to figure out whether I can flash it via plctools without messing with the solder jumpers. If anyone knows where to find a firmware image for the QCA7005 or how to extract it from uhis binary, let me know
https://github.com/uhi22/Ioniq28Investi ... _33_79.bin

Posted: **Wed Nov 12, 2025 10:26 pm**

Flashed the image directly today, works well with the solder jumpers.

Changed the PIB file for EVSE use and simply flashed with plctool. I had to change more than the 4 items commonly mentioned here, used this script: https://github.com/qca/open-plc-utils/b ... ac/evse.sh

I also changed the MAC address using "modpib -m" as otherwise it's the same as Focccis.

Then started CP PWM, connected to Foccci which woke right up and off we go into CurrentDemand

Analog reading of CP PWM divided value reliably detects states A-C

Also tested CAN which also works. Very suspicious, no mistakes? huh

Posted: **Thu Nov 13, 2025 12:11 pm**

And here's another closeup of the CP PWM slew rate

On V2 will probably change it to TLV1805

Posted: **Fri Nov 14, 2025 4:54 pm**

And it's in

Just a reminder of what it used to look like

The switch became redundant for now because Ethernet is now only needed for inverter comms.

With a bit of consolidation I could go back to my single DIN rail enclosure

Posted: **Sun Nov 16, 2025 3:40 pm**

haha, managed to boot strap the SPI flash without solder jumpers on my second module

All you need is the firmware image from uhis repo (https://github.com/uhi22/Ioniq28Investi ... _33_79.bin) and open-plc-utils.

We start with

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> int6klist -v
< 00000000 00 B0 52 00 00 01 AA 38 9F A8 13 32 88 E1 00 00 ..R....8...2....
00000010 A0 00 B0 52 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ...R............
00000020 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00000030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00             ............    

00000000 AA 38 9F A8 13 32 00 B0 52 00 00 01 88 E1 00 01 .8...2..R.......
00000010 A0 00 B0 52 00 06 0B 42 6F 6F 74 4C 6F 61 64 65 ...R...BootLoade
00000020 72 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 r...............
00000030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00000040 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00000050 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 7C 58 1B 00 00 00 00 00 ........|X......
00000060 01 00 00 00 3F 00 00 00 00 00 00 00             ....?.......    

00:B0:52:00:00:01

See how it says "BootLoader"? That's what we want.

Then do

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nvmsplit -v CCM_FlashDump_SpiFlash_2MB_Ioniq_00_33_79.bin
nvmmerge CCM_FlashDump_SpiFlash_2MB_Ioniq_00_33_79-0* > softloader.nvm
tail -c +65537 CCM_FlashDump_SpiFlash_2MB_Ioniq_00_33_79.bin > firmware.bin
nvmsplit firmware.bin
nvmmerge firmware-* > firmware.nvm
tail -c +917505 CCM_FlashDump_SpiFlash_2MB_Ioniq_00_33_79.bin > pib.bin
nvmsplit pib.bin
nvmmerge pib-0* > evse.pib
setpib evse.pib 74 hfid "EVSE"
setpib evse.pib F4 byte 2
setpib evse.pib 1653 byte 2
setpib evse.pib 1C98 long 10240 long 102400
setpib evse.pib 1F80 byte 0
setpib evse.pib 16D2 byte 0
setpib evse.pib 16D3 byte 1
modpib -M 04:65:65:FF:FF:00 evse.pib
plcboot -F -S softloader.nvm -N firmware.nvm -P evse.pib

First command results in 3 files from the "file system" of the flash. We merge them back together.
Then we splice 64k from the beginning of the file which brings us to the firmware "partition" and repeat the same trick. Same with the PIB file which we modify for EVSE use.

And now we get

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> int6klist -v
< 00000000 00 B0 52 00 00 01 AA 38 9F A8 13 32 88 E1 00 00 ..R....8...2....
00000010 A0 00 B0 52 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ...R............
00000020 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00000030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00             ............    

00000000 AA 38 9F A8 13 32 04 65 65 FF FF 00 88 E1 00 01 .8...2.ee.......
00000010 A0 00 B0 52 00 22 25 4D 41 43 2D 51 43 41 37 30 ...R."%MAC-QCA70
00000020 30 35 2D 31 2E 31 2E 30 2E 37 33 30 2D 30 34 2D 05-1.1.0.730-04-
00000030 32 30 31 34 30 38 31 35 2D 43 53 00 CC CC CC CC 20140815-CS.....
00000040 CC CC CC CC CC 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00000050 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00000060 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00000070 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00000080 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00000090 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
000000A0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
000000B0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
000000C0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
000000D0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
000000E0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
000000F0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00000100 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00000110 00 00 00 00 00 7C 58 1B 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 .....|X.........
00000120 00 3F 00 00 00 00 00 00 00                      .?.......       

04:65:65:FF:FF:00

So the new firmware and the new MAC address from the PIB file.

Posted: **Wed Nov 19, 2025 10:15 am**

I set up a wiki page https://openinverter.org/wiki/FoccciCape

I've also added the precharge supply back in. I connected a 10uF 400V elcap and a 1M resistor to the output. This gives it a pretty deterministic voltage ramp which I think is also slow enough (0-400V in 6s) so that the vehicle will just report precharge completed.

Will start selling it on the shop soon. Hows interest?

Posted: **Wed Nov 19, 2025 5:37 pm**

I'll be interested, quite curious if my old Tesla will let me draw power out of it.

Posted: **Wed Nov 26, 2025 6:53 pm**

PoloLbricolo wrote: ↑Wed Nov 19, 2025 5:37 pm I'll be interested, quite curious if my old Tesla will let me draw power out of it.

What would be the "minimum viable product"?
- Just the cape
- Cape + preprogrammed BeagleBone

Posted: **Thu Nov 27, 2025 8:43 pm**

Early forum release:

Also available in German

Posted: **Fri Nov 28, 2025 9:39 am**

Love how this project combines a whole bunch of open source projects into one.

Would it be possible for you to draw a simple overview diagram of how the energy flows work?

I am not 100% sure how you move the power in and out of the Car and the stationary battery.

Posted: **Fri Nov 28, 2025 11:25 am**

Thanks. Would love to base it on something fancy like HomeAssistent but have 0 experience with these platforms. At least now it's very slim.

Tried to make a diagram. You can see that no energy can be exchanged between stationary and car battery. Perhaps you could connect the stationary to a free PV input if you really wanted that option. Not sure if inverters with 2 battery inputs allow exchanging energy between the two?

Posted: **Fri Nov 28, 2025 11:52 am**

Thank you for the clarifying diagram.

Ah so you are doing a change over between the two. Which is fine really, unless you are looking to do "cheap" EV charging, but could always just use the AC charging for that.

Of course you could look at a DC-DC stage to link the vehicle via CCS to the battery bank.

I am currently working on Battery Intergrated Chargers with multiple power modules AC/DC and DC/DC. Im sure one could get second hand modules or "abuse" a Hybrid PV inverter some more. Key issues with PV inverters is the referencing they do as they are not galvanically isolated so you have a to be extra careful.

Posted: **Mon Dec 01, 2025 2:55 pm**

Did some minor changes for V2

It has a 7-20V 28V power supply now and a comparator for PWM generation.

Removed the Flash SPI for now as it can be programmed from the host.

Posted: **Mon Dec 01, 2025 5:40 pm**

johu wrote: ↑Mon Dec 01, 2025 2:55 pm 7-20V power supply now

Can you not go to 30V make it 24V compatible? Lots of industrial gear is 24V.

Does it have reverse polarity protection?

Posted: **Mon Dec 01, 2025 7:15 pm**

In fact it's the TPS54302 also used on Foccci, so takes 28V. Yes D11 protects against reverse polarity.

Posted: **Tue Dec 02, 2025 7:20 pm**

Hello johu,
is it possible to get the KiCad designe files of your "cape" board?
Thx in advance.

BR
Mike

Posted: **Tue Dec 02, 2025 9:11 pm**

A very blunt question. As always the design will first be published on Patreon. I might decide to go fully open source later on

Posted: **Tue Dec 16, 2025 11:27 pm**

Hi Johannes,

When are you releasing the CAPE board?

So when you have the car DC connected to the inverter, you are sending some special CAN bus commands to inverter to trick it to see an BYD battery? - just so I understand it

Thanks
Felix

Posted: **Wed Dec 17, 2025 7:15 am**

I am also curious what kind of device is the precharge supply?

Just an amazing project

Thank you
Felix

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