Anyone else running Victron Cerbo GX with a non-Victron inverter — how are you handling the monitoring gaps?

Just finished wiring up my off-grid shed setup — 400Ah of lithium, 600W of panels on a Victron SmartSolar 100/30, but I've gone with a Growatt SPF 3000TL inverter rather than a Multiplus because of the price difference. The Cerbo GX is picking up the MPPT and the battery (via a Victron SmartShunt) no problem, but obviously it has no idea what the Growatt is doing. So on the dashboard I can see watts coming in and battery state, but the inverter output is a complete blind spot.

I've been looking at whether I can pull data from the Growatt's ShineLan-X dongle and somehow push it into the Cerbo via MQTT or Node-RED on a Raspberry Pi sitting alongside it. Seen a few threads on the Victron community forum suggesting it's doable but they all seem to go quiet before anyone posts a working config. Has anyone here actually got this running, or something similar with another non-Victron inverter brand?

Alternatively, is there a simpler standalone energy monitor — something like an Emporia or a Shelly EM — that people are using just to bolt on and cover the AC output side separately? Not bothered about it being integrated into VRM necessarily, just want to actually see what loads are pulling so I can manage the system sensibly over winter.

FL_Solar | 312 posts

@Taffy73 Nice setup! The Growatt SPF 3000TL doesn't talk directly to the Cerbo GX, but there's a decent workaround — grab a CT clamp energy meter like the Victron Energy Meter ET112 on the AC output. That feeds real power data back into the Cerbo via VE.Can or RS485, so you'll at least see consumption figures in VRM. Not perfect, but it closes the biggest gap.

The SmartSolar will handle your battery SOC reporting reasonably well through VE.Direct anyway, so you're not completely flying blind. Just don't expect the Cerbo to control the Growatt in any meaningful way — it's monitoring only for that part of your system.

Worth also checking if your Growatt has its own ShineServer logging as a parallel solution.

ValleyAmy | 847 posts

@Taffy73 I'm running almost exactly this combo! One thing worth looking into beyond what @FL_Solar mentioned — the Growatt SPF series does have a RS232 port, and there are community-built Node-RED flows that can pull data from it and push readings into the Cerbo via MQTT on the VRM portal. Takes a bit of fiddling but once it's running you get inverter load, output voltage, fault codes, the works all in one dashboard.

Alternatively, a simple clamp meter energy monitor like a Shelly EM wired on the AC output side gives you real consumption figures that feed nicely into VRM without touching the Growatt's comms at all. Less elegant but rock solid reliable.

What's your main priority — full bidirectional data or just consumption monitoring? That'd help narrow down which route's worth your time. 🙂

OffGridDoug | 1,204 posts

Worth adding that the Victron GX Touch 50 will only show what the Cerbo actually knows about — so your Growatt's AC output load figures will appear as a black hole in VRM unless you bridge that gap.

I solved this on my motorhome build by wiring a Victron ET112 energy meter on the AC output side of my non-Victron inverter. The Cerbo picks it up via USB and suddenly VRM has proper load data. Cost me about £45 from Bimble Solar.

Alternatively, if you want bidirectional visibility, the ET340 handles three-phase but also works single-phase — overkill for a shed but worth knowing.

The Growatt does have its own ShinePhone monitoring, so you could run both platforms in parallel if you can tolerate the faff of two apps.

SolarJason | 2,156 posts

Running a mixed setup myself — Victron MPPT feeding into a non-Victron inverter-charger — and the monitoring gap is genuinely the most frustrating part of the whole build.

The piece nobody mentions: a clamp-style energy meter on the AC output (Victron make the EM24, but there are cheaper options) fed back to the Cerbo via RS485 gives you actual load data rather than calculated estimates. Makes a massive difference to how accurately VRM renders your daily consumption graphs.

@OffGridDoug is right about the GX Touch only showing what the Cerbo knows — but once you add that meter, suddenly the picture fills in properly.

I spent weeks thinking my 400Ah Fogstar bank was behaving oddly, turned out it was just the Cerbo's consumption estimates being wildly off without real AC metering. Sorted it completely.