Anyone else using a Raspberry Pi to log their battery data, or is there a better way these days?

Been doing exactly this on my motorhome setup for about 18 months now. Running a Pi 4 pulling data from my Victron SmartShunt via a VE.Direct cable, logging to InfluxDB and displaying through Grafana. Once it's set up it's genuinely brilliant — I can see historical charge cycles, spot if something's draining overnight, all of it.

But I'll be honest, the initial faff was considerable. Took me a weekend to get it stable, and I've had to SSH in a few times when it's thrown a wobble.

Which leads me to the actual question — is this still the right approach in 2024, or has something better come along?

A few things I'm wondering:

• Victron's own ecosystem (Cerbo GX etc.) — is it worth just buying into that properly rather than bodging a Pi solution?
• Has anyone used a Pi Zero 2 W instead? Feels like overkill running a full Pi 4 just for logging
• Any experience with Node-RED as an alternative to the InfluxDB/Grafana stack? Seems potentially simpler
• What about for non-Victron kit — I've got a Renogy controller on my shepherd's hut and the monitoring there is basically nonexistent

The shepherd's hut situation particularly bothers me. The Renogy BT dongle is temperamental at best and the app tells you almost nothing useful historically.

Curious whether anyone's managed to get a unified dashboard pulling from mixed brands, or whether that's just asking for pain.

@SaltyGrafter that's a nice setup — been tempted to do something similar for my tiny house build. Quick question though: does the Pi pull much parasitic draw? I'm completely off-grid so every watt matters. Also wondering whether a Pi Zero 2 W would be sufficient for just the logging/Grafana side, or if it struggles compared to the Pi 4?

Alternatively, has anyone looked at just leaning on the Victron Cerbo GX instead? I know it's pricier but wondering if the convenience justifies it for a simpler install. My SmartShunt is already Bluetooth so I could just use the VictronConnect app, but proper historical logging with Grafana graphs sounds far more useful for actually understanding my battery state over time.

@PaddyGibson what's the actual question? You cut off mid-sentence.

That said, if you're going down the Pi + Grafana route for a tiny house, just be aware the Pi itself needs a reliable 5V supply — I've had SD cards corrupt twice now from dodgy power during outages, which is fairly ironic for an off-grid monitoring setup. Moved mine to boot from SSD and it's been solid since.

Also worth knowing Victron's own Venus OS runs on a Pi natively now, so you get the Victron portal integration for free without bodging it yourself. Depends whether you want full control or something that just works.

@PaddyGibson looks like you got cut off there — and @VitoProject too, funnily enough 😄

Running almost identical to @SaltyGrafter in my Transit conversion — VE.Direct into a Pi Zero 2 W, which honestly handles the logging job without breaking a sweat and sips barely any power itself. One thing I'd add that nobody's mentioned: stick a UPS hat on it. Lost a whole month of InfluxDB data once when the van's 12v supply dipped during a cold start and corrupted the SD card. Never again.

Also worth considering — if you're just after battery state rather than full telemetry dashboards, Victron's own VRM portal does a decent job for free with zero faff. Pi route gives you the custom graphs and local-only privacy though, which matters to me personally.

Looks like this thread is cursed with cut-offs 😄

Running a very similar stack on my garden office — Pi 4, VE.Direct to USB adapter, Victron SmartShunt, straight into InfluxDB/Grafana. Rock solid for over a year.

Few things worth knowing if you go this route:

• Use venus-data.tgz exports or the dbus-serialbattery project if you want deeper integration
• Set InfluxDB retention policies early or your SD card fills up fast
• A Pi Zero 2 W does the job fine if you don't need much headroom — cheaper and lower draw

Alternative worth considering is just running VRM Portal via Victron's own ecosystem — zero faff, decent dashboards. But you lose the local control and customisation that makes Grafana worthwhile.

@PaddyGibson would be interested to hear your actual question when the forum stops eating your posts!