[IMG_3030] Hi all, In the latest release (see attached image), I noticed there’s now an engine integration feature available. My engine and Cerbo are both connected to the NMEA 2000 (N2K) network, and I can already see the engine/battery data on my Raymarine Axiom chartplotter. How can I get this N2K engine data to show up on the Cerbo GX and in the VRM portal? Is any additional configuration needed? Thanks in advance!

The boat page picks up info from an electric motor, but you will not have an electric motor in your devices. The way I have populated my boat page is load the large image, activate Node-RED and create a virtual motor. Then I read in the required info into Node-RED such as engine rpm and output that to the virtual motor. The boat page then picks up my diesel engine rpm.

There is info in the V3.60 slide pack. public - Venus OS v3.60 Release Venus OS 3.60 Release

Creating a digital twin seems like an interesting and promising solution. I have lots of sensors—maybe I should build a digital twin of the yacht as well! :wink: I’ll need to read up on how and what kind of data can be displayed locally on the Cerbo and what can be viewed remotely via VRM. After learning some lessons from (#46 Data partition full), I’m wondering: how much can I really load onto the Cerbo? Would it be possible to run Node-RED alongside the standard Victron software?

There are people who run Node-RED on a separate unit such as a Raspberry Pi and transfer info with the Cerbo rather than on the Cerbo but that is outside my knowledge. There are posts in the Modifications Section on this such as the one below if searched for [image] Import sensors through internal MQTT DIY After much experimentation I find it the best to setup separate Raspberry PI to run Node Red and talk to Cerbo over DBus TCP and to other things via any other available mechanism, WiFi, Bluetooth, whatever you want… That way you can easily follow all Cerbo updates without much added customization and have your playground elsewhere… See here for my project: GitHub - mman/node-red-dashboard-ismove: Dashboard for Niesmann Bischoff iSmove

That only works with NMEA2000 data though, yes? In theory it should also be possible with CANopen data (e.g. from the SEVCON motor controllers which are widely used) but Victron don’t support this… :frowning: (unless this can be done somehow using Node Red?)

What’s missing is how to push the info to a Virtual Device. I have a VETUS E-line electric motor. The motor itself is not NMEA 2000 compatible, but VETUS supplies a bridge device as part of their touchscreen offering, converting some messages from VE.Can to NMEA2000. The screen has an NMEA 2000 input. Unfortunately, it does not work out of the box, perhaps some misalignment in PGNs, who knows? But there is another route; I also installed SignalK on my CerboGX, and I can see the motor data, such as revolutions, gear position, and temperature of the motor and controller. So I first created the Virtual Device and set it to Motor, and marked RPM. I then added a SignalK subscribe node and added the path to the Motor RPM, and then Publish. Unfortunately, in my case, Node-Red becomes unresponsive, but I was able to do some more research in Node Red safe mode. I did find a Victron Input node, I can’t recall the exact name; I need to go back to the boat then. However, I was unable to find the Virtual Motor to push the Signalk data to. Curious to learn how others did it. edit: I think not being able to find the virtual motor may have to do with this thread, I ran into the same issues and warnings with Node Red on 3.6. Will try again this week!

@mpvader We are on our way there, I will have a look at this system soon.

Ha Matthijs, thanks for checking in; Yes, working with @ptrenz on the Vetus E-Line N2K messages. I also did fiddle around a bit more with NodeRed and Virtual Devices but got stuck with this “DBus Connection Closed” message on the Virtual Device (Node Red via SignalK install). See: [BUG]Virtual device: Dbus connection closed on 3.62 · Issue #246 · victronenergy/node-red-contrib-victron · GitHub I was not able to set the environment variable PERSISTED_STATE_LOCATION and will need to check if node-red-contrib-victron 1.6.34 fixes this for me. Will try to check tonight.

Managed to get it all working via SignalK + NodeRed. It did require the fix in 1.6.34. Created some conversions from Hz to RPM, K to Celsius, and Text (Gears) to numbers. Works quite nicely. I use the GPS from Victron’s LTE modem as the speed source on the Boat Page; it’s quite bouncy and can benefit from a filter. I also started working on some efficiency calculations in Node-RED. W/km for the last x seconds, for example. I plan to use KIP to display these. I did run into a new issue, though. I was charging the boat today, and while working on the Cerbo GX at the same time, I kept receiving messages that the connection to the BMS had been lost. I had to reboot a couple of times. I did not make any changes to the wiring. Could a higher CPU load cause these? The ideal situation would be if the N2K PGN’s from my VETUS E-line motor are recognized. Will capture some logs next week with @ptrenz I forgot to take some screenshots, but I will do so in the next few days.

Engine integration

DIY

pwfarnell 17 June 2025 06:36 5

There are people who run Node-RED on a separate unit such as a Raspberry Pi and transfer info with the Cerbo rather than on the Cerbo but that is outside my knowledge. There are posts in the Modifications Section on this such as the one below if searched for

Topic		Replies	Views
Boat Page - got it working just fine…but? DIY marine , diy , nmea_2000_-_n2k	28	532	7 September 2026
Electric boat, propulsion and house battery, Cerbo GX monitoring and MP II AC power supply DIY marine , expert , vrm , multiplus-ii , 3-phase , cerbo_gx	15	366	17 August 2026
CANopen electric motor drive integration into "Boat" page Node-RED marine , vrm , cerbo_gx	129	3088	19 October 2025
Boat page modifications DIY marine , beginner , gx_device , cerbo_gx	4	222	8 August 2025
2x Cerbo GX / Touch devices on 1x network? DIY marine , parallel , professional , display , cerbo_gx	4	161	12 March 2026

Engine integration

Related topics