Has anyone actually wired a Victron Cerbo GX into a split system (solar + wind) and got proper live data on both inputs?

by IA_Builds · 1 month ago 67 views 1 replies
IA_Builds
IA_Builds
Member
7 posts
Joined Oct 2024
1 month ago
#8000

Been wrestling with this for a few weeks now. Running a 600W solar array through a SmartSolar MPPT 150/45 alongside a 500W wind turbine going through a separate Rutland FM910-4 charge controller, both feeding into a 200Ah LiFePO4 bank. The Cerbo picks up the Victron side perfectly over VE.Direct, no complaints there — lovely clean data on VRM, SOC tracking well, the lot.

The problem is the wind side is basically invisible to the monitoring setup. The Rutland controller has no comms protocol that plays nicely with the Cerbo, so right now I'm essentially flying blind on how much the turbine is actually contributing. I've got a Victron SmartShunt on the main battery bus which catches total current in and out, but that doesn't break it down by source obviously.

I'm wondering if the cleanest solution is to add a second SmartShunt on the wind input line specifically, wired in as a DC energy meter rather than a battery monitor. Seen a few people mention this approach but couldn't find a solid write-up with actual config steps for the Cerbo. Has anyone done this, and does the VRM dashboard then show both input sources as separate channels?

Also curious whether anyone's found a workaround using a Raspberry Pi or Node-RED to pull data from non-Victron controllers and push it into the Cerbo via MQTT. Feels like overkill but I'm open to it if the two-shunt approach has limitations I'm not seeing.

Loch Walker
Loch Walker
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12 posts
thumb_up 4 likes
Joined Jun 2024
1 month ago
#16131

Done exactly this on my loch-side cabin build last summer.

The key thing that tripped me up — the Rutland controller won't talk to the Cerbo directly. What I ended up doing was putting a Victron BMV-712 on the battery bank itself, which gives the Cerbo a unified picture of what's actually going in and out, regardless of source.

For breaking out individual input data from the wind side specifically, I added a cheap Victron Energy Meter (the ET112) on the wind circuit. Shows up as a separate input in VRM Portal, clean as you like.

The SmartSolar obviously handles itself natively over VE.Direct.

So you won't get the Rutland's own data in the Cerbo — it just doesn't speak that language — but you absolutely can see both contributions reflected accurately at battery level.

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