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green-monster avatar image
green-monster asked

CANBus interface on GX

I have mainly a Victron system installed in a 5th Wheel RV; 1020W of Solar panels thru a 105V/100A MPPT solar controller, and a 12V/3000W/120A Inverter/Charger for shore side charging with a Bluetooth VE buss smart dongle. I installed it myself and used a MK2-USB to set up the Mulitiplus for the 500 Amps of AGM batteries I have. I also have a BMV-712 to monitor the system. I'm interested in upgrading to Lithium batteries and also adding one of the GX devices to be able to remotely monitor my system (I currently only use bluetooth locally).

I'm looking at Lithionics batteries, their internal BMS models have an output cable that supports RVIA RV-C and CANbus information, specifically it provides battery Voltage and Current data, battery Temperature and SOC data, remaining Ah capacity, desired charger state and charge specs, HVC and LVC status, total Ah capacity and current Power, accepts ON/OFF/Charge-ON commands and a few others. The link for the information specifications and protocols is here.

I've tried asking and looking around, but can't find anyone with answers. I would like to know if any of the Victron Venus GX or Color Control GX or Cerbo GX interfaces can accept this data from the Lithionics GTX12V315A batteries internal BMS using the CANBus data interface. And if all I would need is the Lithionics cable (75-H1FCR-CS2 Ampseal 8 Harness Kit), to plug into one of the GX's.


Also, is specific programming required for the GX?

Venus OSVenus GX - VGXgx device
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4 Answers
banana avatar image
banana answered ·

Any progress on this. I’m also interested in doing this.

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jordanb avatar image
jordanb answered ·

Meanwhile, a year and a half later... I would also like an answer to this question. Not encouraged about my first time using the Victron community forum to find my exact question was asked almost 18 months ago and no answer from anyone.

Is it possible to connect the GTX12V315A CanBUS connector to a CerboGX?
Can anyone from Victron (or Lithionics) address this question?

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bathnm avatar image
bathnm answered ·

@Jordanb Take a look at this link. This has details of which batteries are formally supported by Victron. If not on the list then I would make contact with Lithionics (who are unlikely to be monitoring this forum) and ask them what support if any they have for Victron.

I have done a quick search of teh web and found a YouTube video of someone that has integrated a Lithionics system with Victron, and a few PDF documents. It would seem that it is very dependant on which Lithionics batteries/BMS you go with.

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msmolow avatar image
msmolow answered ·

@Jordanb

"Is it possible to connect the GTX12V315A CanBUS connector to a CerboGX?"

The short answer is no, not until Victron updates the Cerbo to understand RV-C. If that happens then yes.

Keep in mind the Lithionics internal BMS used in the GTX12V315A is their standard BMS providing limited data, useful with a charge profile. If you are also looking to display data on a Cerbo remote display similar to what the SmartShunt provides you would need the Lithionics external BMS which is not compatible with their GTX12V315A. Their external BMS provides much more data.

But at this point it's academic since Victron seems to have no interest in incorporating RV-C.

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