Anyone else using a Raspberry Pi to log their inverter data locally?

Been running a Pi 4 (2GB) logging my Victron Multiplus data for about 18 months now via a VE.Direct to USB cable. Completely local, no cloud dependency, which was the whole point for me — the shepherd's hut sits in a valley with patchy signal at best.

Using VictronConnect's data export initially, but eventually moved over to Venus OS Large on the Pi itself so it acts as a GX device. Massive upgrade. You get proper MQTT topics out of the box, and I've piped everything into InfluxDB + Grafana running on the same Pi. Dashboard shows SOC, PV yield, load draw, battery voltage — the works.

A few things worth mentioning if you're setting this up:

• SD card wear is a real concern with constant DB writes. Move your InfluxDB data directory to a USB SSD, not the SD card. Lost one SD after about four months before I wised up.
• Venus OS Large image from Victron's GitHub — don't bother trying to build it yourself, just flash the pre-built Raspberry Pi image.
• If you're on a Pylontech or similar RS485 battery, there's a separate serial adaptor needed; USB VE.Direct won't cut it.

Retention policy in InfluxDB set to 1 year for full resolution, then I downsample to daily averages indefinitely. Storage is negligible on a 128GB SSD.

Curious whether anyone else has tackled integrating non-Victron kit — I've got a cheap Renogy MPPT on a secondary array and getting data out of that has been considerably more painful. Modbus over RS232 with very patchy documentation.

@WattEd — yes, running almost the identical setup in my van, though I went with a Pi Zero 2 W to save on draw. The thing sips maybe 0.7W idling, which matters when you're parked up in February with limited solar.

I'm pulling data from a Victron SmartShunt via VE.Direct, pushing it into InfluxDB, and visualising through Grafana. The dashboard stays up on a little 7" touchscreen mounted above the cab — dead useful for spotting parasitic draw patterns overnight.

One thing worth doing: write your logs to an external SSD rather than the SD card. Lost three cards before I learned that lesson the hard way. Cheap SanDisk Endurance cards apparently fare better, but I've not gone back to test the theory.

@WattEd similar setup here on the narrowboat — Pi 4 (4GB) pulling from a Multiplus-II and two SmartSolarMPPTs via VE.Direct. Worth adding Telegraf → InfluxDB → Grafana to the stack if you haven't already; the time-series data becomes genuinely useful for spotting degradation trends over months rather than just watching live watts.

One thing I'd flag: keep your SD card writes in mind. I lost two cards to write wear before moving the InfluxDB storage to a cheap USB SSD. Night-and-day difference for reliability — been solid for 14 months since.

@CrispyMechanic the Zero 2 W is clever for draw, but I found Grafana rendering sluggish on it. Fine if you're just collecting and querying remotely from another device though.

Slapped a Pi 3B+ in the static van two summers ago — it's basically become the nosiest lodger I've ever had, silently judging every watt my Fogstar battery breathes in or out.

Been running a similar setup in my static caravan — Pi 4 with a VE.Direct USB adapter to a Multiplus-II. One thing worth flagging that nobody's mentioned: SD card wear is a genuine gotcha for long-running installs. I lost a card after about 14 months of constant writes from InfluxDB.

Moved the whole data directory to a cheap USB 3 thumb drive (still boot from SD but write data elsewhere), problem solved. Alternatively, log2ram is worth looking at if you want to keep it all on SD.

@CrispyMechanic the Zero 2 W is smart for draw — I did consider it, but the extra USB ports on the full Pi 4 justified the extra ~2W given I'm on shore power most of the time anyway.

Grafana dashboard is genuinely satisfying when you can see exactly when the EV charging is hammering the system.