Is there a victron device that will allow me to monitor my system over ethernet?

Q&A and troubleshooting
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I bought a device that has “VE Bus” but I don’t know what that means. It looks like ethernet but I dont see how it would connect to my system. I am also not even sure it will connect to my system. My system will be a small 2 battery system at 24v. This will be a stand alone system built to power 3 CCTV cameras. It will be connecting via long range wifi bridge (so it does have “internet”) and it will have a small POE switch attached. I would like to use one of those ports to connect a “monitoring” device to monitor the system remotely. In this situation bluetooth will not help. I also do not need LTE because I already have network connection via long range wireless. I would also rather not try to use wifi because I have a switch to connect with a wired connection. So if I am 2 miles away or in another state how would I connect to the system to “see” it?

I am using

Victron Energy SmartSolar MPPT Solar Charge Controller (Bluetooth) - Charge Controllers for Solar Panels - 100V, 50 amp, 12/24-Volt
Victron Energy 250VA 24-Volt 120V AC Pure Sine Wave Inverter, NEMA 5-15R

I have seen the CerboGX device but I can’t tell if it works or not. I have also read as much documentation as I can find and there does not seem to be an answer for this.

Thanks

2

yes, you need a GX device, this could even be a raspberry with adapter cables

Then you have access to Victron VRM Portal, could monitor and adjust everything

1 Like
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I did a little bit of reading and there seem to be a few devices that will allow me remote monitoring and control. This system I am building is very small with 1-2 panels and 2 - 100ah 12v batteries in series. I am only powering 3 CCTV cameras, a switch and the long range wifi bridge to transmit back to the main building. I think my total power draw from the inverter for all equipment is about 50 watts at 110v ac. This would be 24/7 operation.
I have seen:
Cerbo GX
Cerbo-S GX
Cerbo GX Mkii
And a few others that seem to be much more expensive.

Which of these would be the best choice? The first 3 all seem to be within $20 cost.

Thanks

4

Cerbo GX the difference between just cerbo and mk2 is just a hardware revision difference. For your needs either one will be ok.

The S will be ok if you aren’t looking for extra IO and not using CAN connections (just ve direct) for the mppts

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Thank you for the reply. I really appreciate the responses from this community. I will purchase the GX.

I do have another question. I have watched all the videos I can find and I have yet to see anyone monitoring a Cerbo (or anything else) from a PC? All the videos I have seen either use bluetooth and phone, wifi with a phone or a direct 5-7” panel that appears to be touch screen. I am surprised by how difficult it is to find support for really simple questions. Also there is no way to actually contact Victron for sales support. If I could actually talk to someone I could get everything I needed in 1 - 2 min. This exercise has been extremely frustrating.

Is there a windows app for monitoring victron equipment via ethernet or is it browser based? How do I connect to the victron system with a PC over ethernet?

Edit

This is going into an Enterprise environment. There may be multiple subnets involved. I may also need to open ports to allow traffic. I need more support than just use a Cerbo. I need to know how it works.
Is there software for Windows (its Windows 11 if that matters) Is it a client or does it use a browser?
What firewall ports would I need to open if any to allow traffic to pass?
Thanks

6

You could use https://vrm.victronenergy.com/ and then you do not need any FW openings. Even the Victron Connect app is usable through vrm for many devices.

7

each GX has its unique VRM ID

when purchasing the product you automatically have free access to it via VRM cloud

Installing is pretty easy - you just have once to bring the GX to your LAN / WIFI - then “adopt” the fevice in VRM Cloud

You wont find much videos / instructions because it is so easy to do

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Greetings,

I am also using Victron Energy products in an enterprise level production IT environment with multiply layered sub-nets and independent layered networks based on copper, fiber and WiFi6. The strategy we use for connecting the Cerbo device to the network while maintaining network security boils down to this: We connect the Cerbo unit via WiFi to a network implemented for internal WiFi ‘secure’ corporate communication using the correlated sub-net address provided by a DHCP service located on the WiFi controller. (Of course you can also use the ethernet port on the Cerbo unit to connect to an appropriate network as well.) The only forwarding ports you would need to ALLOW (if needed) though the firewall would be port 443 pointed to the IP addresses associated with Victron Energy’s VRM portal. A simple ping shows 13.226.251.5 (if the firewall requires an IP) for vrm.victronenergy.com (if the firewall can use a URL). A little additional research shows this service is hosted on a Cloudfront.net server if you need additional IP address info for firewalls. For remote monitoring and remote control you can use the VRM Portal site functionality to do most of you updates, settings and monitoring using a ‘normal’ internet connection on the browser of you enterprise connected computer. And yes, as stated by previous commenters, the VRM functionality is easy to provision and use.

I hope this is useful insight.

Cheers.