Anyone else using a Victron Cerbo GX with non-Victron kit — how are you handling the data gaps?

Just finished wiring up my system in a static van on the Welsh border and I'm a bit frustrated with how the Cerbo GX handles devices that aren't in the Victron ecosystem. I've got a Victron Multiplus 2 (5kVA) and a SmartSolar 150/35, so those talk to the Cerbo beautifully over VE.Can and VE.Direct. No complaints there. But I've also got a Fogstar Drift 200Ah lithium battery with its own BMS, and the Cerbo simply doesn't know it exists beyond what it can infer from voltage and current.

The BMS on the Fogstar communicates over Bluetooth to its own app, which gives me state of charge, cell voltages, temps — all the good stuff. But none of that feeds into VRM or shows up on the Cerbo's display. So I've essentially got two separate monitoring systems running side by side, which feels messy and means I'm constantly flicking between screens. I've had a poke around and it seems like a Victron-compatible BMS (or something like a Batrium) would solve it, but that's another few hundred quid I didn't budget for.

Has anyone found a workaround — maybe something using Node-RED on a Raspberry Pi pulling from the BMS via Bluetooth and pushing dummy data into the Cerbo over MQTT? I know the Cerbo has a built-in Venus OS and there's a large custom driver community, but I'm struggling to find anything specific to Fogstar. Or is the pragmatic answer just to swap the battery for something with a Victron-compatible BMS from the start?

Wardy16 | 📍 Yorkshire Dales | ⚡ 5.2kWp / 400Ah LiFePO4

@BorderNomad know exactly what you mean mate. I've got a similar mixed setup and the Cerbo's great within its own ecosystem but falls flat pretty quickly outside it.

What I've done is run a Raspberry Pi alongside it running Node-RED and InfluxDB, pulling the Victron data via MQTT (the Cerbo publishes everything on the local broker) and then integrating my non-Victron bits separately. Grafana on top for dashboards and suddenly everything's in one place regardless of manufacturer.

Bit of a faff to set up initially but once it's running it's rock solid. Plenty of tutorials around for the Victron MQTT setup specifically.

What non-Victron devices are causing you grief? Might be able to point you toward something more specific depending on whether they've got Modbus or their own API.

Kingy | 📍 Afloat somewhere probably | ⚡ Boat life / EV obsession

Running a very similar headache on the boat actually. The Cerbo's brilliant until you step outside Victron's walled garden, then it's like trying to get a cat to fetch — technically capable, just deeply uninterested.

My workaround has been a Raspberry Pi running Node-RED sitting alongside the Cerbo, pulling in the awkward stuff via Modbus and stitching it all into a unified dashboard. Bit of faff to set up but once it's running it's rock solid.

The other thing worth knowing — Victron's Venus OS Large image supports Node-RED directly on the Cerbo itself, so you can potentially ditch the Pi altogether. Saved me a fair bit of cable spaghetti once I discovered that.

What non-Victron kit is giving you grief specifically? Might have already banged my head against the same wall. 🤦

BerlingoWanderer | 📍 East Midlands | ⚡ 3.6kWp / 280Ah LiFePO4

@BorderNomad worth looking at Node-RED running on a Raspberry Pi alongside the Cerbo — it's been a game changer for me with non-Victron bits. The Cerbo publishes everything to MQTT, and you can pull in data from other devices (I'm grabbing my Renogy MPPT stats via Modbus) and stitch it all together into a unified dashboard in Grafana. Bit of a faff to set up initially but once it's running it's rock solid. There's a decent VRM portal alternative if you want everything local too. The MQTT explorer app is handy for seeing exactly what the Cerbo is broadcasting before you start building flows. Happy to share my Node-RED config if useful — it's nothing fancy but it works.

Emma1996 | 📍 Array | ⚡ Narrowboat / Emergency backup

Really interested in this thread — I've got a Cerbo GX on the boat too and the non-Victron kit visibility is a constant annoyance. My Fogstar Drift batteries don't talk to it natively so I'm essentially flying blind on cell-level data.

Quick question for @BerlingoWanderer — when you mention Node-RED on a Pi, are you pulling data from the Cerbo via the VRM API or tapping into the MQTT broker directly? I've seen both approaches mentioned but not sure which is more reliable for a narrowboat setup where I'm often off mobile data for days at a stretch.

Also wondering if anyone's managed to get a decent solar charge controller from Renogy feeding meaningful data into the Cerbo rather than just treating it as a dumb load? Mine's connected via shunt but that feels like a workaround rather than a solution.

Jonny45 | 📍 South Yorkshire | ⚡ Off-grid cabin / LiFePO4 280Ah

@BorderNomad I've got a Victron setup paired with a Growatt inverter-charger on a secondary system and faced exactly this. What worked well for me was running MQTT from the Cerbo and pulling everything into Home Assistant — you can then write your own sensors to fill the gaps from non-Victron devices via their own integrations or even just cheap RS485 adaptors with Modbus polling.

The Cerbo's VRM portal will always have blind spots for third-party kit, that's just the reality unfortunately. But once you're feeding data into HA you're not relying on Victron's ecosystem at all for the overview picture. Took me a weekend to set up properly but now I can see everything in one dashboard. Happy to share my config if useful.

RetiredNurse43 | 📍 North Wales | ⚡ Static caravan / 400Ah LiFePO4 / 2.4kWp

Similar situation here, @BorderNomad — I'm just over the border from you and spent a good few weeks wrestling with exactly this. My Cerbo GX plays beautifully with the Victron kit but my non-Victron inverter charger was invisible to it initially.

What actually helped me was adding a Raspberry Pi running VenusOS alongside the Cerbo — you can pull in data from almost anything that has a Modbus or RS485 connection and it shows up in the VRM portal properly. Bit of a learning curve for someone like me with no technical background, but the forum community here pointed me in the right direction.

Don't be put off by the complexity — once it's running you barely touch it. Happy to share my exact setup if useful.