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

Just finished wiring up my van build and I'm pretty happy with the Cerbo GX as a central hub, but I'm running into a few blind spots. My inverter is a Giandel 2000W pure sine (couldn't stretch to a Multiplus) and obviously that's not talking to the Victron ecosystem at all. Same with my Renogy 40A DC-DC charger — completely invisible to the Cerbo.

I've got a Victron SmartShunt handling the battery side, so state of charge and voltage are solid, and my two 200W panels are going through a Victron 100/30 MPPT so that data's all there. But I've basically got no visibility on what the inverter is actually pulling or what the DC-DC is putting in. I'm considering picking up a couple of Victron Energy Meters or maybe just some cheap inline watt meters to at least get rough numbers — has anyone bodged together something workable?

Wondering if a Raspberry Pi running something like Venus OS large or even just Node-RED could help pull it all together, but I've no real experience with that side of things. What are others doing when you've got a mixed bag of kit and you want a single decent dashboard?

Nobby78 | 847 posts

@RhysGrant know exactly what you mean mate. I've got a similar mixed setup — Cerbo GX with a non-Victron inverter. The honest answer is you're never going to get full integration, but you can plug some of the gaps.

For the inverter specifically, I wired a current transformer on the AC output into a Victron AC current sensor which at least gives the Cerbo visibility of what's being drawn. Not perfect but better than flying blind.

The bigger win for me was adding a Raspberry Pi running Node-RED alongside the Cerbo — pulls data via the Venus OS MQTT broker and lets me log the bits the Cerbo can't see natively. Bit of faff to set up initially but well worth it.

What other kit are you running? Might be able to suggest something more specific depending on your setup.

@RhysGrant same boat here with my cabin setup — Cerbo GX is brilliant but it's basically a Victron loyalty card, isn't it. Anything outside the ecosystem and you're bodging it together.

Couple of things that helped me:

• Shunt on the DC side — Victron SmartShunt sorted out most of my monitoring blind spots regardless of what's upstream
• VRM portal catches a surprising amount even with gaps in the chain
• For the Giandel specifically, has anyone tried running a Raspberry Pi alongside the Cerbo pulling data via MQTT? Seen a few people do this but not sure it's worth the faff for a van

Genuine question though — are you seeing the Cerbo miscalculate SOC because it can't see the inverter load properly? That's what was doing my head in before I got the shunt dialled in properly.

@RhysGrant the Giandel blind spot is a real pain — I've been there. What I ended up doing was grabbing a clamp meter energy monitor (I use a Shelly EM) on the AC output from the inverter and pulling that data into Node-RED alongside the Cerbo's VRM feed. Not perfect but it gives you load wattage at least. For the inverter's own state you're basically relying on voltage inference from the BMV or SmartShunt unless you fancy hacking together an RS232 connection, which I wouldn't bother with personally. The Cerbo's GX Touch display will still show your battery, solar and DC loads cleanly enough for day-to-day use — the gaps only really bite you when you're trying to do proper efficiency analysis. What solar controller are you running? That'll make a bigger difference to how useful the monitoring actually is.

T6Solar | 312 posts

@RhysGrant the gap I'd focus on first is a proper current shunt on the DC side if you haven't already — a Victron SmartShunt integrates natively with the Cerbo and gives you accurate SoC without needing the inverter to report anything. Your Giandel draw shows up automatically as load current.

For the inverter AC side, I run a Shelly EM clipped onto the output cables. Pulls into Home Assistant via MQTT, and there's a decent VRM integration floating around GitHub that bridges it across — not pretty but it works.

My T6 build is fully Victron on the DC side but I kept a non-Victron MPPT on a secondary panel, same problem. SmartShunt sorted 90% of the blind spots honestly. The Cerbo's Venus OS Large firmware also opens up Node-RED if you want to get creative with non-native devices.

MistyTrekker | 847 posts

@RhysGrant one thing nobody's mentioned yet — have you looked at integrating a Raspberry Pi running Venus OS? It won't magically make your Giandel talk to the Cerbo, but you can pull in data from almost anything via MQTT or Modbus and display it all on one dashboard. Bit of a faff to set up initially, but once it's running it's quite elegant.

Also worth checking whether your Giandel has any kind of RS232 output — some of the cheaper Chinese inverters do have hidden comms ports that the community has already reverse-engineered. A quick search on the DIY Solar Forum (US-based but still useful) might turn something up specific to your model.

What's your battery chemistry? That might open up a few more monitoring options depending on what BMS you're running.

EcoFlow_Queen | 1,204 posts

@RhysGrant worth knowing that the Cerbo's GX Touch interface has a "Generic AC Meter" option under ESS which can pull data via a Carlo Gavazzi EM24 or similar Modbus energy meter wired inline with your Giandel's AC output. It won't give you inverter internals obviously, but you'd at least see real-time wattage and cumulative kWh on the VRM dashboard without any Pi faff.

I run a similar hybrid setup in my garden office — Victron MPPT and BMV-712 playing nicely with non-Victron kit — and the Modbus TCP approach has been genuinely solid for papering over the gaps.

The EM24 costs roughly £80–90 from RS Components or Tlantic, which stings slightly, but the clean VRM integration is worth it versus bodging things together.

DodgyHermit | 203 posts

Running a similar setup in my shepherd's hut — Cerbo GX alongside a non-Victron inverter. The workaround I've settled on is using Node-RED via the Venus OS large image to pull in data from a cheap Modbus energy meter (Eastron SDM120 is about a tenner on eBay) and feed it through as a virtual device. Gives you proper AC load figures in the VRM portal without needing a Victron inverter. It's a bit of a faff initially but once it's running it's solid. @MistyTrekker the Raspberry Pi route achieves something similar but the Cerbo can just do it natively if you flash Venus OS Large.

CaddyBuild | 412 posts

@RhysGrant I've got a Giandel running alongside my Cerbo too — the gap I found most useful to fill was adding a Victron Smart Shunt on the DC side. It won't tell you anything about the inverter itself, but at least you're getting accurate battery state-of-charge rather than relying on voltage estimates. Pair it with a cheap CT clamp energy meter on the AC output feeding into Home Assistant via ESPHome, and you've got a surprisingly complete picture without spending a fortune on Victron-native kit. Takes a weekend to set up properly but well worth it.