Trying to get a comprehensive answer if there are any actual disadvantages to VE.Can over VE.Direct with MPPT’s, a Cerbo GX and other potential Victron products?
There seems to be a lot of heresay going around that VE.Can is somehow “limited” and “not as good”. There was a post about how VE.Can only stores 2 days of data from an MPPT (versus 30) and that seems kind of impossible since it’s just a communications protocol!
Let’s keep it to Victron products and not 3rd-party products that may or may not be compatible, etc.
VE.Can MPPTs cost a little bit more. If you just have two or three VE.direct devices communicating with a Cerbo GX then there isn’t much benefit. However, the more point-to-point serial devices you connect to a Cerbo, the greater the chance of having performance issues. The Cerbo is underpowered (as compared to the Ekrano) and along with GUI v2 it’s easy to overwhelm a Cerbo. If you want to run VenusOS large AND a large number of serial devices then VE.Can is definitely the better choice in my recent experience. The other nice thing about using CANbus, especially in larger system, is easier cabling. We have one system in the field running for nearly two years that has 13x MPPT RS 450/200 solar charge controllers, all daisy chained together on one VE.Can bus.
Amen to all of that. I hate VE.Direct connectors. They’re easy to dislodge and always challenging to get them connected when you’re working upside down trying to connect a VE.Direct cable to a device you can barely see.
Does anyone have an answer to the implied question? Is there any difference in the data which is available and used by a Cerbo GX which depends on whether the connection is VE.Can or VE.Direct?
In my particular circumstances, my 3 Victron MPTTs wouldn’t communicate over VE Can or my Cerbo wouldn’t see them. I suspect there was an issue with the Cerbo or my setup. It’s unlikely that it could be all 3 MPTTs. I never investigated the issue. I switched to VE Direct and the Cerbo saw them instantly. It’s now over a year and I haven’t had any problem with VE Direct. I still prefer VE Can as it gives me the option to daisy-chain and fall back to VE Direct if necessary.
