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

I've been running a Cerbo GX as the brain of my system for about eight months now and overall it's been brilliant for keeping an eye on things. I've got a 400Ah lithium bank, a Multiplus-II 3000, and a pair of 175W panels going through an SmartSolar 100/30 — all Victron, so the VRM dashboard gives me a lovely clean picture of pretty much everything. The problem starts the moment anything outside that ecosystem gets involved.

I recently added a Fogstar 12V compressor fridge and a separate 240V consumer unit fed from the Multiplus, and I'm struggling to get decent visibility on the actual loads. The Multiplus reports total AC output fine, but I can't easily break that down per circuit without adding individual energy meters. I've been looking at the Victron ET112 for the AC side but at £80-odd a pop for each circuit it starts adding up quickly. Has anyone bodged something cheaper in — a Shelly EM or similar — and found a way to get the data into VRM or at least into something like Home Assistant alongside it?

Also curious whether anyone's tackled DC load monitoring beyond just "what the battery says is going out minus what the MPPT says is coming in." That maths works but it's pretty rough. I've seen people fit a proper shunt on individual DC feeds but the Cerbo only natively supports one BMV/SmartShunt. Is anyone running multiple shunts and pulling the extra data in another way?

Fogstar cells talking natively to the Cerbo via a Daly BMS and a cheap RS485-to-USB adaptor — works a treat until it doesn't, then you're debugging at midnight in a field wondering why Node-RED ate itself.

My static caravan setup uses a generic MPPT that has zero Victron integration, so I bodged a Victron Energy Meter on the AC side and just accept the solar figures are "approximate" — like my ex-wife's timekeeping.

Honestly the VRM portal gaps are the real pain; anything non-Victron just vanishes from the dashboard unless you push custom MQTT attributes manually. Not rocket science, but it's extra faff nobody mentions in the glossy brochures.

Node-RED → MQTT → VRM flow sorts most of it if you can stomach the setup time.

Really interested in this thread — I'm in the middle of planning my narrowboat setup and the Cerbo GX is on my shortlist precisely because of the VRM portal.

Quick question for the group: how are you all handling non-Victron MPPT controllers in the monitoring chain? I'm looking at a couple of Renogy units to keep costs down, but I'm wondering whether I'll end up flying blind on the solar side within VRM, or whether there's a workable workaround.

Also @ExFarmer79 — you mentioned the RS485-to-USB adaptor dropping out occasionally. Is that a power cycling fix or something more involved? On a boat I'd really want something that recovers itself automatically rather than needing me to crawl into the battery compartment every time.

Hey @RustyNomad, narrowboat builds are brilliant candidates for the Cerbo — the VRM portal is genuinely useful when you're moored somewhere and want to check things remotely via your phone.

One thing worth flagging for your planning: if you're running any non-Victron MPPT controllers, look into whether they support the VE.Direct protocol before buying. I've got a Renogy unit that I had to monitor separately because it simply won't talk to the Cerbo at all. Bit annoying having two dashboards.

@ExFarmer79 raises a good point about the Daly BMS route — I went down a similar path with a JK BMS and a Bluetooth-to-RS485 bridge. Works well most of the time, but I wouldn't rely on it as your only protection layer. Have physical low-voltage cutoffs as a backup regardless.

@RustyNomad narrowboats are a solid use case — decent wifi on marinas means VRM actually stays connected more than you'd think.

My setup's a mix of Victron and non-Victron gear. The gaps I hit were mainly around my Renogy MPPT — it doesn't talk to the Cerbo natively so I just track it via a current clamp on the SmartShunt instead. Not perfect but good enough for day-to-day.

The bigger annoyance is non-supported inverters. If it's not on the VE.Bus or VE.Direct list you're essentially flying blind on that device specifically.

Node-RED running alongside has helped me fill some of those gaps — pulls data in from other sources and pushes custom alerts. Worth looking into if you're comfortable with a Raspberry Pi sitting next to the Cerbo.

@RustyNomad narrowboat sounds ace — jealous honestly.

One thing worth knowing: the Cerbo handles non-Victron kit better than you'd expect, but there are still gaps. My van setup runs a Fogstar lithium bank and without a proper Victron BMV or SmartShunt in the mix, the Cerbo's SOC readings were all over the place early on. Added a SmartShunt 500 and it transformed the whole picture.

The VRM portal is where it really shines — being able to check in remotely is brilliant when your build is parked somewhere sketchy overnight 😄

If you've got non-Victron solar gear, Node-RED on the Cerbo can fill some monitoring gaps, though it's a bit of a rabbit hole. Worth it if you're nerdy enough.