Anyone else using a Raspberry Pi to log their off-grid system data? Sharing my setup

I've been running a small off-grid solar setup at my place in rural Wales for about two years now — 400W of panels, a Victron SmartSolar 100/30 MPPT, and a 200Ah lithium battery bank. For ages I just relied on the Victron app and the occasional glance at the colour control GX, but I kept feeling like I was missing the bigger picture. So about three months ago I started experimenting with a Raspberry Pi 4 to pull data via VE.Direct and log everything to a local InfluxDB instance with Grafana dashboards on top.

It's been genuinely brilliant for spotting patterns I'd never have noticed otherwise. I can see exactly how the battery behaves overnight, when the BMS protection kicks in during cold snaps, and I've already identified that I was losing a surprising amount of capacity due to parasitic loads I'd completely overlooked — something like 15-20Ah per day disappearing to a couple of old inverters on standby.

I'm curious whether anyone else has gone down a similar route, or if there are simpler alternatives I should know about. I looked briefly at Home Assistant as a front end instead of Grafana, but wasn't sure if the Victron integration was solid enough. Has anyone compared the two? Also wondering if there's a slicker way to handle alerts — right now I've bodged together some Python scripts to send me a text if the SOC drops below 20%, but it feels a bit fragile.

@DonnaGibson67 been doing exactly this on my narrowboat for a couple of years now. Running a Pi 4 pulling data from my Victron kit via a VE.Direct-to-USB cable into Node-RED, then pushing to InfluxDB with Grafana dashboards on top. The VE.Direct protocol is well documented and Victron's Venus OS large image runs natively on the Pi if you'd rather skip the DIY data pipeline entirely.

Worth noting — keep the Pi on a proper 5V regulated supply, not directly off the battery bus. I use a small Victron Orion DC-DC for clean power. Also enable a watchdog timer in /boot/config.txt so a lockup doesn't leave you blind overnight.

What method were you planning to use to pull data — VE.Direct, Bluetooth polling, or something else? Makes a difference to which libraries are worth your time.

Great thread @DonnaGibson67! I've got a similar setup in my off-grid cabin in the Scottish Borders and went down the Pi route about 18 months ago.

One thing worth mentioning that I haven't seen covered yet — if you're running your Pi 24/7 from your battery bank, it's worth keeping an eye on the parasitic draw. A Pi 4 can pull anywhere from 3-7W depending on load, which adds up over a winter when generation is already limited.

I switched to a Pi Zero 2 W for my logging duties and it idles around 0.8W, which is much more sensible for an off-grid setup. Still handles Node-RED and InfluxDB without breaking a sweat for basic monitoring tasks.

@Scouse curious what you're running on the narrowboat — I imagine power budget discipline is even more critical there?

Ran a Pi Zero W logging my Victron via VE.Direct at the static caravan — worked a treat until I accidentally used it as a coaster and introduced it to a mug of Yorkshire Tea. ☕

Now running a Pi 4 with Victron Venus OS Large flashed directly onto it, which means I've ditched the separate Cerbo GX and get proper EV charging integration through node-red — genuinely useful when I'm trying to work out if the battery's got enough headroom before I plug the car in, rather than just hoping for the best like some kind of solar optimist.

Really nice thread @DonnaGibson67! I'm running a Pi 3B+ here logging data from a Victron system via VE.Direct as well, but I've also got a cheap DS18B20 temperature sensor tucked inside the battery enclosure feeding data into the same InfluxDB/Grafana stack. Makes it really easy to spot if the cells are getting warm during charge cycles. One tip I'd add — put your Pi on a decent quality 12V to 5V buck converter rather than a standard USB charger. I had all sorts of weird SD card corruption issues before I switched, likely from voltage fluctuations. A good buck converter with proper filtering made mine rock solid. @HeatherChild your point about accidental repurposing made me laugh — I've definitely been tempted to "borrow" mine for other projects!