Monitoring setup for Vicron componants
so while looking around on the net for a way to remote monitor the victron with out having to spend 700 bucks for the cerbo and the display, I stumbled across people using a raspberry pi to replace the cerbo. after more digging I found that Victron has open sourced the venus OS which is what the cerbo runs on. so I thought about it and I have a raspbery pi 4B still new in the pakage and though, hmm I could do that.
so off to amazon I go to order the victron VE.direct to USB cables and doing further reading I found out my BMS on my battery is compatable with a usb to rs485 uart converter cable
so while I wait for the cables I decided to get the RPI setup and operating. so here the raspberry pi is finaly flashed with Venus OS and working. took me a bit to figure out how to ssh into it to lood the package manager on it as the venus os changes some of the info, mainly your login name and password 🤔
after I figured out how to enable the wifi and such on it I was able to log on with victron conect.
with the newest version of venus OS they introduced a new ui you can use. you can switch back and forth between the two so if you like one over the other you can use your favorite
here is what it looks like when you have nothing hooked up with the classic UI
I should start getting the cables over the next could days, a 7" screen so I can make it local in the rv also with out having to dig out my phone, but I will still be able to conect from anywhere in the world through the victron conect app. I also have a dc to dc stepdown power supply coming so I can power the raspberry Pi off the battery in my camper and I will be trying to find a way to minimize cables coming up to the display. I have been reading about using a USB hub so you only have one wire coming from the pi for the preferials and another two wires for the display. I could bundle thoes together and live with that.
now I am wondering if the system will conect with off brand inverters as I don't want a multiplus type setup and victron doesn't seem to make a strait 2000 watt inverter.
