Orion XS on a DVCC system — monitor-only option

Been mulling this one over for a while and figured I'd get some other opinions.

Running a Cerbo GX with DVCC enabled on my van build — LiFePO4 house bank with a Daly Smart BMS feeding charge limits back through the system. Works a treat for the main bank.

The wrinkle is I've got a couple of Orion XS units keeping a separate AGM starter battery topped up from the house bank. DVCC is brilliant at coordinating everything, but it doesn't really distinguish between which chargers it's bossing around. When the BMS pulls charge current back (say, during a cell balancing event or at high SOC), I'd rather the Orion XS units just carried on doing their own thing for the AGM — they're not charging the LiFePO4 at all.

What I'd love is some kind of monitor-only mode for specific devices on the DVCC network — visible to the Cerbo, logging data, but excluded from charge control instructions. Not sure if that's achievable through VE.Can settings or whether Victron just don't support that granularity yet.

Has anyone found a workaround? I've seen suggestions about keeping the Orion XS off the VE network entirely and just running it standalone, which is probably the simplest fix, but then you lose the monitoring side in VRM which is annoying.

Wondering if anyone in the UK van scene has hit this same setup — particularly if you're running dual battery chemistries with a Cerbo managing the whole lot.

PennineDweller | Posts: 847

@JH_Power Your post got cut off but I think I can guess where you're heading — you want the Orion XS to respect DVCC charge limits from the Cerbo without it actually being controlled by DVCC, just monitored?

Worth knowing that Victron's own documentation is a bit ambiguous here. The Orion XS with its VE.Direct connection will receive CVL/CCL data from the Cerbo, but whether it honours those limits in a "monitor-only" sense depends heavily on your firmware version.

My suggestion — set the Orion XS absorption voltage slightly below what the Daly BMS would trigger a protection event at, as a hardware backstop. Then even if DVCC comms glitch out, you've got a sensible fallback rather than relying purely on software coordination.

What firmware are you running on the Cerbo currently?

Boycie25 | Posts: 1,203

@JH_Power Your post got cut off mate, so I'm filling in gaps like everyone else apparently.

If you're asking whether the Orion XS can sit on a DVCC network in a monitor-only capacity — short answer is no, not cleanly. It's a managed charger; DVCC wants to control it, full stop. You can't really tell the Cerbo "just watch, don't touch."

What I did on my narrowboat was set the Orion XS charge profile conservatively enough that DVCC's intervention barely matters in practice — essentially making the BMS limits a backstop rather than active management. Bit of a bodge, but it's been solid for 18 months.

The Daly Smart BMS is also your weak link here — its DVCC comms aren't as reliable as a Victron BMV or Smart Shunt feeding SVS/SCS. Worth considering whether that's causing your actual headache.

PaddyDixon61 | Posts: 312

Had almost this exact setup in my motorhome last year. Orion XS in monitor-only essentially means the Cerbo can see it but DVCC won't actually push CVL/CCL down to it — the XS takes its charge profile from its own settings rather than the BMS limits being fed through.

Worked fine for me day-to-day but I had one instance where my Daly was screaming overvoltage and the Orion just cracked on regardless. Not ideal.

If your Daly supports the Victron VE.Bus BMS integration properly you're better off with full DVCC control rather than monitor-only. Gives the Cerbo actual authority to curtail the Orion when the BMS gets stroppy.

What firmware are you on? There were a few Orion XS updates last year that changed how it handles DVCC handshaking.

CraigLamb | Posts: 156

@JH_Power Yeah the post cutting off is doing my head in but I think we're all piecing it together 😄

Worth flagging — when you run the Orion XS in what Victron loosely calls "monitor-only" on a DVCC system, the Cerbo can still see the current flow but it won't actively throttle the charger based on BMS signals. So if your Daly is throwing a high voltage limit via the GX, that command isn't necessarily being honoured by the XS the way it would with a properly networked Smart charger.

Had a similar head-scratcher on a customer's build last month. The logging looked fine until we realised the BMS CVL was essentially being ignored during bulk.

What firmware is your Cerbo on? Made a difference in my case.