Anyone else using a Raspberry Pi to monitor their Victron system or is it overkill?

Not overkill at all — it's one of the better decisions I made with my static caravan setup.

Running a Pi 4 with Venus OS Large flashed onto it. Effectively turns it into a proper GX device for a fraction of what a Cerbo GX costs. Pair it with a VE.Direct to USB cable from your MPPT or BMV-712 and you've got full Victron portal integration, MQTT data, the lot.

What I actually use it for day-to-day:

• VRM portal — remote monitoring when I'm not on site
• Node-RED flows — automated alerts if SOC drops below 20% overnight
• InfluxDB + Grafana — historical logging so I can see exactly what my Fogstar 200Ah cells are doing across seasons

The seasonal data has been genuinely useful. Identified that my south-facing panels were underperforming in November — turned out partial shading from a neighbouring structure I hadn't clocked. Wouldn't have spotted it without the graphs.

Cost me about £60 all-in for the Pi, case, and cables. A Cerbo GX is pushing £200+. The setup took an afternoon if you're comfortable with Linux, less if you've done it before.

Only caveat — if you're not at all technically minded, the Cerbo is genuinely plug-and-play and worth the premium. Venus OS on Pi has the occasional quirk and you need to be comfortable SSHing in to sort things.

Anyone else running Node-RED automations on theirs? Curious what triggers people have set up. I'm thinking about adding a relay output to cut non-essential loads automatically during low-battery events.

@FormerMechanic14 running Venus OS Large on a Pi is solid, agreed. Though I'd push back slightly — for basic monitoring it is a bit overkill for most people. Node-RED and InfluxDB/Grafana stack on top adds complexity that bites you when something breaks at 11pm.

Been running mine on a Pi 3B+ for two years on the static. Works fine but I've had SD card corruption twice now. Would genuinely recommend booting from USB SSD instead — learned that the hard way.

Also worth noting the official Cerbo GX has dropped in price lately. Depending on your setup, just buying one removes a lot of faff. Pi route only makes sense if you're already comfortable with Linux and don't mind tinkering.

My narrowboat's got a Pi 3B+ running Venus OS and honestly it's the best crew member aboard — doesn't complain, doesn't eat my biscuits, and tells me exactly when my Fogstar cells are getting stroppy at 3am.

Really glad this thread came up — I've been doing something similar on my off-grid shepherd's hut for about eighteen months now.

One thing nobody's mentioned yet: if you're running Venus OS Large you get Node-RED baked in, which opens up some genuinely useful automation possibilities beyond just monitoring. I've got mine sending push notifications via Telegram when the battery drops below 20% SOC, and it automatically adjusts my immersion heater schedule based on forecast solar yield from a weather API.

@ThistleVicky the narrowboat use case is interesting — do you find the Pi handles the damp environment alright? I've got mine in a vented enclosure with a small silica gel pack which seems to do the job, but I've occasionally worried about condensation on colder nights.

Total cost including the Pi and a quality SD card was under £60, which seems reasonable for what you get.

@ThistleVicky the "doesn't complain" part is doing a lot of work there — mine absolutely does complain, just via email alerts at 2am when the Multiplus throws a wobble.

Got a Pi 4 doing Venus OS Large on the van conversion, and I've wired it into Node-RED to push notifications before it starts screaming. The real win was when I added a cheap USB GPS dongle — now I've got location logging alongside battery state, which sounds mad but genuinely useful when you're parked somewhere sketchy and want a record.

One thing nobody mentions: get a proper UPS hat for the Pi itself. Learned that lesson the hard way when a voltage spike from the Fogstar battery during a dodgy connection took out the monitor for the whole system. Irony wasn't lost on me.

Been looking at this for my static caravan setup — currently just using the Victron app but I'm aware I'm missing a lot.

Few specific questions before I commit to the Pi route:

1. VRM vs local Venus OS — is there a meaningful advantage to running Venus OS Large on a Pi if I'm already getting data through VRM Portal?
2. My caravan sits unused for weeks at a time. Does the Pi draw enough to matter on a modest battery bank (currently 200Ah Fogstar Drift LiFePO4)?
3. Anyone using it to trigger EV charging based on SOC thresholds? That's my actual goal — only charge the car when the bank is above, say, 80%.

@EwanGreen your shepherd's hut setup sounds closest to what I'm doing — what's your Pi pulling in terms of idle watts?