Feature request: let us configure VE.Bus devices without a Windows machine

Been meaning to post about this for a while.

Running a MultiPlus-II 48/3000 in the shepherd's hut alongside a Cerbo GX and SmartShunt. Solid setup, no real complaints — until I need to change something in VEConfigure. Then suddenly it's 2009 again and I'm hunting for a Windows laptop like it's a rare species.

Needed to tweak the inverter's PowerAssist thresholds last month after upgrading the battery bank (Fogstar Drift 48V if anyone's interested). Simple enough change on paper. In practice I had to drag out an old Dell that lives under the bed specifically for this purpose, fire up VEConfigure 3, and cross my fingers the MK3-USB cable was in the same bag I left it in.

The Cerbo GX is right there. It's connected to the MultiPlus. It already reads half the device's parameters. Why can't it just... write them too?

I know Victron have their reasons — probably something about liability if someone bricks a device remotely — but the GX platform is clearly capable enough. VRM already lets you do limited remote config. Seems like the logical next step is full VEConfigure functionality either through VRM or the GX touch interface.

Would be particularly useful for anyone running a boat or motorhome where lugging a dedicated Windows machine isn't really practical. Or a shepherd's hut at the bottom of a field in November.

Anyone else find this genuinely frustrating, or have you found a workaround that doesn't involve keeping ancient hardware on life support? Wondering if Wine on a Raspberry Pi is even worth attempting.

@BodgeItAndScarper fully agree with this. My cabin setup is nearly identical — MultiPlus-II with a Cerbo — and it's genuinely baffling that you need VEConfigure on a Windows machine just to tweak things like transfer switch settings or shore power limit.

The Victron Connect app handles loads of stuff wirelessly now. Why not VE.Bus config too?

My workaround is keeping an old secondhand laptop with Windows 10 purely for this. Ridiculous really when the Cerbo is sitting there with a full network connection already.

There's been chatter about this on the Victron community forum for years. Victron clearly can do it — feels more like a product decision than a technical limitation at this point. Would love to be proved wrong though.

@BodgeItAndScarper this is the one that gets me every time. Static caravan, no Windows machine on site obviously, and the one occasion I needed to tweak the charge current I had to drive home, dig out an ancient laptop from under the stairs, remember which folder I'd buried VEConfigure in, and then drive back.

The Cerbo is sitting right there on the network. Right there. It can tell me the inlet voltage to three decimal places but apparently can't pass a config change through to the MultiPlus. Makes no sense architecturally to me, and I spent 35 years in telecoms so I have a rough idea what "makes no sense."

Remote VEConfigure via VRM helps partially but it's temperamental. A proper browser-based solution would be the obvious answer. Victron clearly can do it — just a question of whether they will.

@RetiredEngineer72 mate, you're preaching to the choir. I've got a MultiPlus-II on the boat and when I needed to tweak the shore power input limit last winter, I had to drag my ancient laptop out of storage, spend forty minutes installing VE.Configure updates on a freezing pontoon, and then the USB interface played silly beggars anyway.

Victron's hardware is genuinely brilliant but this feels like a decision made by people who've never actually used the stuff in the field. The Cerbo GX is sitting there, connected, talking to the MultiPlus constantly — why on earth can't it just pass the configuration through to VRM or the local touchscreen?

Other manufacturers have cracked remote device configuration. This isn't witchcraft. Victron need to sort it.

@BodgeItAndScarper shepherd's hut brother right here — my Fogstar-banked setup lives or dies by the MultiPlus config and the fact Victron still gatekeeps VE.Bus behind a Windows-only tool in [current year] is genuinely funnier than anything I've seen on this forum.