Lokale Daueranzeige fuer kleine Victron-Anlagen ohne Cerbo/VRM?

Right, this has been bugging me for a while and I reckon others here must have hit the same wall.

So — small Victron setup, no Cerbo GX (because £350 feels steep when your whole system cost less than a grand), and you want a permanent local display without faff. VictronConnect is brilliant for checking in, but it's not a "glance at the wall and see your SOC" solution, is it?

On my narrowboat I've got a SmartSolar 100/30 and a MultiPlus-C 12/800, and I've been going back and forth on options:

• Victron BMV-712 with its display — decent, but only shows battery data really
• Raspberry Pi + Venus OS — I know, I know, this is the "proper" solution but it feels like overkill for a simple setup, and getting it stable took me ages
• Wandering around the boat squinting at the MPPT indicator LEDs — current solution, not ideal 😅

The bit that frustrates me is that Victron's ecosystem is brilliant once you're in it, but there's this awkward gap between "tiny cheap setup" and "full Cerbo GX with VRM portal." That middle ground feels underserved.

Has anyone found something genuinely simple? I've seen people mention the GX Touch 50 but that still needs a Cerbo. Someone in another thread mentioned a cheap colour display wired to a Pi running Venus — worth pursuing?

Curious whether narrowboaters or tiny housers here have cracked this in a way that doesn't involve either spending Cerbo money or becoming a Linux hobbyist by accident. What's your local monitoring setup looking like?

@WattVicky totally feel this — my Vivaro setup runs a Victron SmartSolar 100/30 and a MultiPlus-C 12/800, and I wrestled with exactly this before committing to a Cerbo.

The sweet spot I landed on was a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W running VenusOS (the "Large" image). Total cost was roughly £18 for the Pi, plus a cheap USB-to-VE.Direct cable (~£12 on Amazon). Victron's own Venus firmware runs beautifully on it, gives you full local touchscreen capability if you add a small HDMI display, and you still get VRM access without paying Cerbo money.

Key steps:

• Flash VenusOS Large onto a decent microSD (Samsung Endurance series recommended)
• Connect via VE.Direct
• Set a static local IP for reliable dashboard access

Runs headlessly fine too — just access the web UI from any phone on your van's local hotspot.

@WattVicky ran into exactly this with my garden office build. Ended up grabbing a Victron BMV-712 — does proper state-of-charge monitoring locally with no Cerbo needed, and the Bluetooth app is genuinely useful when you're pottering about nearby.

But for always-on display without needing your phone, pair it with the Victron Color Control GX — older unit, often goes second-hand on eBay for £80-120 if you're patient. Does everything the Cerbo does for a small system without the price tag.

Alternatively, if you're dead set on keeping costs down, the SmartSolar talks straight to the VictronConnect app via Bluetooth — not a permanent display, granted, but perfectly decent for occasional checks on a van or cabin setup where you're not staring at dashboards all day.

@AndyButler the BMV-712 is solid but worth mentioning you can pair it with the SmartSolar's built-in Bluetooth too — no extra hardware if you've already got a MPPT. The VictronConnect app gives you a decent live view on your phone without needing a Cerbo at all.

On the narrowboat I run a SmartSolar 100/20 and just use VictronConnect for day-to-day checks. Not a permanent display, granted, but for a small system it's genuinely enough 90% of the time.

If you do want something always-on, the Victron BMV-702 is a cheaper alternative to the 712 — loses Bluetooth but has a proper shunt display that's always visible. Picked mine up second-hand for about £40.

@WattVicky @AndyButler both make good points about the BMV-712, but if you want something permanently mounted and visible without fishing your phone out, have a look at the GX Touch 50 paired with a Raspberry Pi running Venus OS. Total cost is well under £100 if you're handy with a Pi, and you get full VRM capability thrown in as a bonus. I've been running exactly this on my narrowboat for two years — sits on the bulkhead, always-on display, proper state of charge, power flow, the lot. The Venus OS image is free from Victron and the community support is excellent. Only caveat is it does need a reliable 12V supply to the Pi itself, so worth adding a small DC-DC converter to keep it stable. Happy to share my wiring notes if useful.