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

Been running a Pi 4 (2GB) connected to my Cerbo GX via VE.Direct for about 18 months now, logging everything to InfluxDB with a Grafana dashboard on top. Works an absolute treat.

The setup lives in my tiny house alongside a 4.8kWh Fogstar battery bank and a pair of Victron SmartSolar controllers. Having local logging was non-negotiable for me — I didn't want to depend on Victron's cloud if my internet goes down, especially since the whole point is emergency backup resilience.

A few things worth mentioning if you're considering this:

• VictronConnect + Node-RED works really well for pulling data off the Cerbo without much faff
• Keep the Pi on a UPS or small LiFePO4 buffer — SD card corruption from unexpected shutoffs is a real pain
• Set Grafana alerts to push to your phone via Telegram bot — free and surprisingly reliable even on patchy rural signal

The one headache I've had is the Pi occasionally dropping the USB connection to the Cerbo after extended uptime. A simple cron job to check and restart the service sorted it, but it took me a while to diagnose.

Anyone else gone down the Venus OS Large route instead, running Node-RED directly on the Cerbo itself? I've been tempted to simplify and ditch the Pi entirely, but I'm not sure I trust running everything on one device for a backup-critical system.

What are others logging — just the basics like SOC and voltage, or going deeper into individual cell data?

Similar setup here but on a Pi 3B+ — been pulling data from my Cerbo via MQTT rather than VE.Direct direct. Running InfluxDB + Grafana for both my garden office system and the boat (boat data comes in via 4G when she's on a mooring with signal).

One thing worth flagging: SD card longevity is the weak point. Lost two cards before I moved the database writes to a USB SSD. Cheap Samsung 870 Evo hanging off the USB3 port sorted it — been solid for over a year since.

@MoorHermit — are you doing any alerting on top of Grafana? I've got Telegram notifications set up for low SOC warnings which has saved me a couple of times when I've left the boat unattended longer than planned.

Been doing almost exactly this for my shepherd's hut setup, though I took a slightly different path — running Venus OS Large directly on the Pi itself, which cuts the Cerbo out of the equation entirely and saves a fair chunk of cash.

The Pi effectively becomes the GX device, then I bolt InfluxDB and Grafana on top of that. One box doing three jobs. Very pleasing to a pedantic mind.

One gotcha worth mentioning that neither @MoorHermit nor @NeilJackson touched on: SD card wear. InfluxDB writes constantly, and it'll chew through a cheap card in months. Move your InfluxDB data directory to a USB SSD. Learned this the hard way after losing six weeks of beautiful battery cycle data. Wept, briefly.

I use a little 128GB Samsung T7 now. Bombproof.

Running this exact setup in my shepherd's hut — Pi 4 (4GB) with VE.Direct to USB adaptors going directly to a MPPT 100/30 and a SmartShunt, bypassing the Cerbo entirely. Saves having a Cerbo in the chain if you don't strictly need one.

One thing nobody's mentioned: SD card rot. Had two setups die on me before I moved InfluxDB writes to a USB SSD. SD cards are not designed for constant database writes. 128GB Samsung T7 off Amazon, boots from SD but all data goes to the SSD. Zero issues since.

@CopperWelder — Venus OS Large is decent but you lose flexibility. Running vanilla Raspberry Pi OS gives me full control over retention policies in InfluxDB, which matters when you're logging at 5-second intervals and don't want to fill a drive in six months.

Right so I've been meaning to do exactly this for my motorhome but keep getting distracted by more urgent crises (the Fogstar battery incident of last February, we don't talk about it).

Quick questions before I dive in:

• Does the Pi survive the voltage spikes when the engine's running? Mine's on 12V stepped down via a Victron