I run a LiFePO4 house bank managed by a BMS with DVCC enabled on a Cerbo GX. I also have Orion XS DC-DC chargers maintaining separate lead-acid batteries — engine start and emergency bank. The problem is straightforward: connecting the Orions to the Cerbo via VE.Direct in charger mode puts them under DVCC control. The Cerbo overrides their internal charge profiles and commands them with the LFP profile. Wrong chemistry, wrong voltages — not good for lead-acid batteries. The official Orion XS manual actually confirms this is outside the intended design. It explicitly states that when the Orion is in charger mode with DVCC enabled, the output must be connected to the main battery controlled by the GX system. There is no provision for charging a separate battery bank. Current workarounds are all compromises:
- Switch the Orion to converter mode — loses multi-stage charging
- Disconnect it from the Cerbo entirely — loses monitoring In our case disconnecting is a hard operational requirement, not just an inconvenience — I physically unplug the VE.Direct cables when switching to the LFP bank to prevent DVCC from commanding the Orions.
To be clear, I am not looking for a different implementation of DVCC or any charging logic. The Cerbo already reads the Orion’s data over VE.Direct and displays it via Bluetooth. I need a monitor-only option — receive the data, display it, but don’t send DVCC commands back. That’s a display flag, not a system redesign.
Has anyone found a genuine solution to this? And would a monitor-only mode be useful to your setup?
