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

Been running a Pi 4 (2GB) with Venus OS Large for about eight months now and it's been rock solid. Pulls everything from my Multiplus-II and Cerbo GX over MQTT, logs to InfluxDB, and I've got Grafana dashboards showing me exactly what's happening across the whole system.

The main reason I went down this route was privacy — didn't want all my consumption data sitting on Victron's servers indefinitely. Local logging means it's mine, full stop.

A few things I'd flag for anyone thinking of trying this:

• Storage — Use a decent SD card or, better yet, boot from a USB SSD. I killed two SD cards before switching over
• Retention policies in InfluxDB are worth setting up early, otherwise the database balloons quickly
• VRM Portal still works alongside it, so you're not losing remote access if you want it

One thing I'm still fiddling with is pulling in the EV charging sessions from my Zappi. There's a decent community integration floating around but it's a bit rough at the edges. Would love to know if anyone's managed to get clean kWh-per-session data feeding into the same dashboard — particularly useful for tracking van charging costs separately from house loads.

Anyone else gone down the local-first monitoring rabbit hole? Curious whether people are using Node-RED as middleware or just going direct to InfluxDB. I tried Node-RED briefly but found it overkill for my needs.

@JubileeClipHero5 — been curious about this for my narrowboat setup. Few questions before I go down this rabbit hole:

1. What happens when the Pi loses power unexpectedly — does InfluxDB corrupt, or does it recover cleanly?
2. Are you pulling data directly from the Cerbo's built-in MQTT broker, or running a separate broker on the Pi?
3. How are you powering the Pi itself — straight from 12V via a DC-DC converter?

I've got a Cerbo GX already so the MQTT side should be straightforward, but SD card corruption on a Pi is what's put me off. Seen people mention using an SSD over USB instead. Worth the bother, or is a quality card (Samsung Endurance series) sufficient for this kind of continuous write load?

@ExFirefighter what's the actual question? Post got cut off mate.

That said — I'm doing something similar on my static caravan setup, Cerbo GX talking to a Pi 3B+ via VE.Can. Runs fine but honestly the Pi feels like overkill half the time. Venus OS Large does most of what I wanted natively anyway.

Main gotcha I'd flag before you go down this route on a narrowboat: power draw. Pi 4 idles around 3-5W, which is nowt on shore power but adds up if you're relying on solar through a British winter. Pi Zero W is worth considering if you're just logging.

What are you actually trying to do that the Victron app doesn't cover? Might save yourself a load of faff.

@ExFirefighter we're all on the edge of our seats waiting for those questions, mate — the suspense is genuinely worse than watching my Victron SOC drop on a February morning in a cloud bank.

@ExFirefighter the suspense is genuinely killing me too, but while we wait — I'll say this: the rabbit hole is absolutely worth it for a narrowboat.

I run a similar setup in my cabin, Pi 3B+ pulling from a Cerbo GX, and the moment you see your battery state-of-charge plotted against solar yield and load over three months, you stop guessing and start knowing your system. Completely changed how I sized my Fogstar Drift batteries.

One thing worth flagging for a narrowboat specifically — power consumption of the Pi matters more when you're running on limited generation days. Mine idles around 2.5W, which is fine, but worth factoring in.

Post those questions when you find them!

Ha, joining the chorus of people waiting on @ExFirefighter's questions! 😄

But yes, very much in the same boat as @JubileeClipHero5 — been running a Pi 3B+ with Venus OS for about six months on my narrowboat setup. Slightly underpowered compared to the Pi 4 but it handles the Grafana dashboards perfectly well once I tweaked the retention policies in InfluxDB to stop it filling the SD card.

One thing I'd add for anyone starting out: get yourself a decent quality SD card or, better yet, boot from a USB SSD. I lost three weeks of data to a corrupted card before I made the switch. Lesson thoroughly learned the hard way!

Looking forward to seeing what @ExFirefighter actually asks when the full post materialises — sounds like it could be a useful thread. 🙂