Sprinter Van HUD

Live, read-only telemetry from a self-built ESP32-S3 van dashboard. No wires to most of this — see the writeup below.

waiting for data…
server time: --
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Van Layout — Power Flow

In plain terms: the sun charges the battery through the solar controller, and the battery powers everything else in the van. The boxes below show that same chain, left to right.

Roof — 4×100W solar panels  --
1. Sunlight hits the panels
-- W
power coming down from the roof right now
2. Solar controller
--
converts panel power into safe battery charging
3. Things using power
-- A
fridge, lights, fans, etc. right now
4. House battery placeholder
--
100Ah, powers the living area
 
Starter battery (separate)
--
the one that starts the engine, not the house
Green arrows mean power is actively flowing that way right now. "House battery" shows a stand-in number (borrowed from the solar controller, since they're the same physical battery) until its own direct Bluetooth link is confirmed working. "Starter battery" shows "--" until its sensor is wired in. Panel voltage isn't available yet either — that's a different reading than the ones currently being decoded.

Battery Current History

Green = net charging (solar winning), red = net discharging (something's using more than the sun's providing) — colored by the sign of the value, not by whether the line is momentarily wiggling up or down, so it doesn't flicker on every small fluctuation. Real telemetry arrives every 30s; ranges shorter than that will just show very few points, which is correct, not broken. Ranges over 24h use daily averages (min/max within a day aren't kept, just the average), not the raw 30s data.

Devices We're Pulling Data From

Victron SmartSolar photo

Victron SmartSolar MPPT

100/30 · Instant Readout (bindkey)
Voltage--
Current--
Humsienk battery photo

Humsienk 100Ah LiFePO4

Bluetooth BMS · GATT protocol
Voltage--
SOC--
BMV-700 / VE.Direct Smart photo

Victron BMV-700 shunt

VE.Direct Smart dongle · GATT (no bindkey)
Voltage--
Current--
Not wired into firmware yet — showing the MPPT's own reading as a stand-in (same battery bank).
Smart Battery Sense photo

Victron Smart Battery Sense

Instant Readout (bindkey)
Voltage--
Not wired into firmware yet — showing the MPPT's own reading as a stand-in (same battery bank).
These are read independently, from different points in the system (MPPT input terminals vs. the battery shunt vs. the battery's own internal BMS) — small voltage/current disagreements between cards are expected and fine, not a bug.

WiFi

Signal--
SSID--

Bluetooth (SmartSolar link)

Signal--

Location

Approx. position--
Open in Maps
Estimated from the cellular hotspot's IP address (Cloudflare edge geolocation), not real GPS — this is city/region-accurate at best and can be off by miles depending on carrier network layout. No GPS module is installed on the van yet.

Sun & Solar Forecast

Location used--
use device location
Sunrise / Sunset--
Sun position now--
Cloud cover now--
Best solar window today--
Outside temp now--
Today's high / low--
Estimated inside temp--
Sun timing and position are exact astronomy, not a guess. Cloud cover, temperature, and "best window" are forecast data (Open-Meteo) — a real prediction, not a measurement, so treat it as a heads-up rather than gospel. Inside estimate is a rule of thumb (outside high + 10°F) based on this van's insulation, which has kept it from tracking any hotter than that on past hot days — not a live sensor reading.

Door Lock

Sliding/rear door--
Sense-only for now — closed-to-ground reads as locked. Not a control, just a status read.

Battery / Solar (raw feed)

Battery Voltage--
Battery Current--
Solar Power--
Charge State--

ESP32 Board Temp

Internal Temp--
This is the ESP32-S3's own die temperature, not an outside/cabin sensor — it reads a bit warm because it sits close to the MCU itself and the display backlight.

Spare GPIOs password required

Currently unassigned pins, held for future use — either triggering a relay (interior lights, a water pump, a door lock solenoid, the inverter's on/off line) or reading a digital/analog sensor (a tank-level float switch, a temperature probe, a door/motion sensor). Toggling one here just flips that physical pin now, ahead of anything real being wired to it. Everyone can see this page — changing a pin's state asks for a password first, and a wrong guess just does nothing.

Firmware password required

Running version--
Manual-only, no auto-polling — this button is the only trigger, and it can take up to a few minutes to reach the van.

Want one of these in your own van? Read the full writeup, buy a built unit, or grab the code →