Overland Controller

A modular ESP32 and Raspberry Pi Pico based monitoring and control system for overland vehicles, campers, trailers, van builds, and mobile power systems.

The project uses a distributed architecture consisting of:

* An ESP32 controller mounted near the battery and electrical system
* A Raspberry Pi Pico 2 W dashboard mounted in the vehicle cabin
* Local WiFi communication
* Offline-first operation
* Expandable sensor and relay support
* Open JSON APIs for future integrations

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Project Goals

The goal of Overland Controller is to provide a self-hosted alternative to commercial vehicle monitoring systems.

The platform is designed to monitor and control:

* House battery systems
* Temperature sensors
* Auxiliary relays
* Vehicle telemetry
* Overland accessories
* Future automation systems

The system should be:

* Local-first
* Cloud independent
* Vehicle independent
* Easy to troubleshoot
* Easy to expand

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Current Architecture

ESP32 Controller

The ESP32 acts as the primary control and monitoring node.

Current responsibilities:

* JBD/Xiaoxiang BMS monitoring
* DS18B20 temperature monitoring
* Relay control
* Configuration management
* Local web API
* WiFi Access Point
* Dashboard communications
* System status reporting

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Raspberry Pi Pico Dashboard

The Pico dashboard acts as the user interface.

Planned responsibilities:

* Touchscreen dashboard
* Relay control
* Battery monitoring display
* Temperature monitoring display
* Vehicle status display
* Configuration interface
* Alarm notifications

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Current Features

Battery Monitoring

Supported:

* JBD / Xiaoxiang Bluetooth BMS

Available telemetry:

* State of charge
* Voltage
* Current
* Remaining capacity
* Total capacity
* Runtime estimates
* Temperature
* Cycle count
* Cell voltages
* Cell imbalance
* Cell count

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Temperature Monitoring

Supported:

* DS18B20 OneWire temperature sensors

Features:

* Up to 8 sensors
* User-configurable names
* Online/offline detection
* Sensor health reporting
* JSON API reporting

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Relay Control

Features:

* Multiple relay outputs
* User-configurable names
* API control
* Serial console control
* Dashboard control (planned)

Recommended usage:

* Fridge power relays
* Starlink power relays
* Lighting relays
* Inverter enable relays
* Accessory relays

The ESP32 relay outputs are intended to drive automotive relays rather than directly power large loads.

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Configuration System

Configuration is stored locally and survives reboot.

Configurable items include:

Device

* Device name

Relays

* Relay name
* GPIO assignment
* Enabled state

Temperature Sensors

* Sensor name
* Sensor address
* Enabled state

BMS

* BMS name
* Bluetooth address
* Address type

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Communication Interfaces

Serial Console

Used for:

* Initial setup
* Troubleshooting
* Configuration changes
* BLE discovery
* Diagnostic logging

See SERIAL_COMMANDS.md for details.

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HTTP API

Provides:

* Status reporting
* Configuration management
* Relay control
* Dashboard integration

See API.md for details.

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Current Development Status

Completed

* Configuration storage
* Relay control
* JSON status API
* BLE BMS integration
* BMS setup workflow
* DS18B20 framework
* Access Point mode
* Web server
* Dashboard communications framework
* Generic naming architecture

In Progress

* Dashboard software
* Temperature sensor assignment workflow
* Expanded configuration API
* Documentation cleanup

Planned

* Pico touchscreen dashboard
* OBD-II integration
* GPS integration
* MQTT support
* Home Assistant integration
* Historical data logging
* Graphing
* Alerting system
* OTA updates
* Multi-controller support

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Design Philosophy

The project follows several core principles:

1. Local-first operation
2. No cloud dependency
3. Generic hardware naming
4. Open interfaces
5. Modular architecture
6. Expandable hardware support
7. Easy field troubleshooting
8. Vehicle-independent deployment

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Documentation

* README.md — Project overview
* API.md — HTTP API documentation
* SERIAL_COMMANDS.md — Serial console commands
* HARDWARE.md — Hardware overview
* ARCHITECTURE.md — System architecture
* CHANGELOG.md — Project history

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License

Private project currently under active development.