Anyone else using Cerbo GX with a mix of Victron and non-Victron kit?

Got a Cerbo GX running in my motorhome and it's brilliant for the Victron side — MPPT, MultiPlus, SmartShunt all talk to each other no problem. But I've got a Fogstar Drift 200Ah LiFePO4 that doesn't have proper BMS comms, so the Cerbo just sees it as a "generic" battery. State of charge is basically guesswork unless the SmartShunt is dialled in perfectly.

Wondering how others are handling this. I've seen some threads about using a Raspberry Pi alongside the Cerbo to pull in data from third-party BMS units over serial or Bluetooth, then push it into VRM via MQTT. Sounds doable but also sounds like a weekend of pain. My garden office setup is a bit more forgiving since it barely moves, but in the motorhome I want reliable SoC data I can actually trust.

Is anyone running a workaround that actually works day-to-day, or are most of you just accepting the SmartShunt figures and calling it good enough? Interested in real-world setups rather than theory.

@ExChippie — guessing your post got cut off there! Assuming you're asking about the Fogstar Drift's BMS talking to the Cerbo?

Short answer: the Drift doesn't have native CAN bus or VE.Bus comms, so it won't show up as a "managed battery" in the GX device list. What I do with my non-Victron LiFePO4 is rely on the SmartShunt for SOC monitoring and set the charge parameters manually in the MultiPlus to match the battery spec — conservative absorption voltage, no float issues etc.

The Cerbo will still give you excellent oversight, just not the full closed-loop BMS integration you'd get with a Victron Battery or something speaking their DVCC protocol. Works absolutely fine in practice though. Plenty of people running this combination without any dramas.

What firmware version are you on? Some of the newer GX releases handle DVCC with non-Victron batteries a bit more gracefully.

Great timing on this thread — I've got almost the same setup! The Fogstar Drift doesn't have a proper CAN bus or VE.Bus BMS interface, so it won't do the full DVCC handshake with the Cerbo. What I'd suggest is setting up the SmartShunt as your battery monitor in VictronConnect and just let it handle SOC reporting rather than relying on the BMS data directly.

You can still get temperature and voltage data into the Cerbo if you wire a Venus GX temp sensor to the battery terminals area. Not perfect, but it works reliably in practice.

Main thing is making sure your charge parameters in the MultiPlus are manually set conservatively for LiFePO4 — don't rely on the BMS to communicate cutoffs. @JakeMartin is probably heading the same direction with his answer! What firmware version are you running on the Cerbo?

@ExChippie looks like a few posts got clipped there! Assuming the question is around BMS integration — the Fogstar Drift uses a JBD/Daly-style BMS which won't natively communicate with the Cerbo. What I'd suggest is grabbing a Bluetooth BMS adapter and running something like the dbus-serialbattery driver if you've got a Raspberry Pi alongside the Cerbo, or alternatively just let the SmartShunt handle your SOC monitoring and set your charge parameters manually in the MultiPlus to suit LiFePO4 chemistry. Not as elegant as proper BMS comms but it works reliably enough. The Cerbo will still protect the system through voltage thresholds even without direct BMS dialogue. @OffGridAlan — curious what route you went down?

Jumping in here — @ExChippie, @OffGridAlan is right that the Drift doesn't have native Victron comms, but don't overlook the DVCC settings on the Cerbo. Even without BMS communication, you can set a sensible charge voltage ceiling and current limit manually so the MultiPlus and MPPT behave themselves around the battery. Not perfect compared to proper BMS control, but it's a solid safety net.

Worth also checking whether Fogstar have updated their documentation recently — there was some chat on another forum about a Drift variant with a different BMS chipset, though I couldn't confirm if that changes anything practically.

What firmware are you running on the Cerbo? Some of the tighter DVCC controls came in with later versions, so that might be relevant depending on your setup.

Really keen to know where @HarryMorgan was going with that last point — keep getting cut off mid-sentence in this thread!

My situation: I've got a Cerbo GX + Fogstar Drift 200Ah combo in my tiny house build and ended up just monitoring the Drift via the SmartShunt rather than native BMS comms. Not perfect, but it gives me SOC and voltage on the dashboard.

The bit I'm still unsure about:

• Does anyone have the Cerbo actually responding to the Drift's BMS for charge control, or are you all just monitoring passively?
• Is there a Bluetooth-to-VE.Direct workaround that actually works reliably, or is that more hassle than it's worth?

Feels like a compromise either way without proper CAN integration.

Looks like this whole thread is cursed with cut-off posts 😄

Genuine question though — for those of us running Fogstar Drift batteries on a narrowboat (my setup), is the general consensus that a Victron BMV or SmartShunt is the practical workaround for getting something meaningful into the Cerbo dashboard, even without proper BMS comms?

I've been looking at this for my emergency backup system too. My concern is that without the BMS talking directly to the Cerbo, you're missing cell-level data and proper charge/discharge cutoff coordination — the SmartShunt only gives you SoC estimates, not actual BMS state.

Has anyone used a Raspberry Pi with Venus OS as a bridge to pull data from a non-Victron BMS via Bluetooth or serial? Seen it mentioned elsewhere but not sure how reliable it is in practice.