Orion XS, no VE.direct connectivity

DIY
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Just got VE.direct cables run throughout my Winnebago View, and boy to get from the house to the passenger seat was a trip. Sprinter owners have a lot of patience to get that cable up under the driver seat and then across to the passenger.

Anyhow, Orion XS is working fine as a charger, and Bluetooth as well, but the VE.direct connect appears dead as my Cerbo GX never sees it. I have tried another Victron device on the cable as installed and it worked fine, so I mostly trust the cable.

The manual refers to a configuration for the TX port, but I suspect that is a copy/paste error as my MPPT chargers have that config, but not my Orion XS. Searched throughout the app for any possible setting for this but nada.

Has anybody had problems getting VE.direct to connect? Hate to have to uninstall this unit as it is well (deeply) installed.

Thanks
Brad

  • VE.Direct communication issuesTo check if VE.Direct communication is operating correctly, connect the Orion XS to a GX device and check if the controller shows up on the GX device’s list. If it does not show up, check that the TX port function in VictronConnect is set to Normal communication.
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Hi,

What is the firmware version of the Cerbo GX?

Kind regards,
Thiemo van Engelen

1 Like
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Hi Thiemo,

Current Cerbo GX firmware is v2.91. I have gone to the lengths to replace the Orion XS with another copy, and this too is not recognized by the Cerbo over VE.direct.

I have eliminated the possibility of a bad port on the Cerbo by moving cables and confirming all ports are fine. I’ve also tested the cable with another device and it works.

This leaves me at two possibilities: 1) as you hint with the question perhaps the Cerbo firmware does not yet recognize the product. Or 2) Victron has not yet implemented support for VE.direct in the Orion firmware.

Thanks,
Brad

4

Well I went poking a little further and found that the Cerbo could be updated to firmware v3.42. Once it rebooted, voila, the Orion XS was discovered in the device list. I could have saved myself hours of effort if I had noticed that sooner. I had assumed that from the Victron Connect app it would have suggested the update the same way other devices do.

Thank you for the question that led me to investigate.
Brad