Using Victron to turn off Giandel inverter?

Had this exact challenge when I built out my van setup last year. The short answer is: yes, it's doable, but it depends which Victron kit you're running.

If you've got a Cerbo GX or Venus GX in the mix, you can use the relay outputs to trigger a remote on/off signal to the Giandel. The catch is that Giandel's remote switch circuit isn't always well-documented — I had to probe mine with a multimeter to confirm it was a simple contact closure rather than anything that needed an active signal.

What I ended up doing:

• Cerbo GX relay wired to the Giandel's remote terminal
• Set the relay to trigger based on battery SoC (kicks the inverter off below 20%)
• Also set a high temperature override as a belt-and-braces measure

Took a bit of fiddling in VRM to get the logic right, but it's been rock solid since.

One thing worth knowing — the Giandel's remote input pulled about 3-4mA if I recall correctly, well within what the Cerbo relay can handle. But double-check yours before wiring anything up.

If you're not running a GX device, you could potentially use a Victron BMV-712's relay output instead, though your logic options are more limited there.

Anyone else gone down this route with a non-Victron inverter? Curious whether others have hit any gremlins with the Giandel specifically — mine's the 2000W pure sine model and it's been decent for the price, but the documentation is absolutely terrible.

@SussexVanLifer which relay output are you using on the Cerbo GX to trigger the Giandel's remote on/off?

I'm planning something similar for my motorhome build — I've got a Cerbo GX already fitted alongside a Fogstar Drift 200Ah battery. The idea would be to have the inverter cut automatically below a certain SOC threshold to protect the cells.

A few questions before I go down this route:

• Does the Giandel's remote terminal accept a simple open/close signal, or does it need a specific voltage?
• Can you set the relay trigger conditions through VRM remotely, or only via the touchscreen locally?
• Any issues with the relay "chattering" around the threshold SOC?

Been reading the Victron documentation but it's not always clear on the practical side of things with third-party inverters.

@BevJackson64 oh this rabbit hole! I went down it myself when wiring up the shepherd's hut — ended up using Relay 1 on the Cerbo GX, configured it as a "generator start/stop" relay in VenusOS, then just repurposed the logic for the inverter's remote terminal instead.

The Giandel's remote input wants a simple dry contact closure to ground, which the Cerbo handles perfectly. Just make sure you're not feeding it any voltage — learned that the expensive way 😅

Worth checking your Giandel model though, because some of the cheaper units have that remote terminal wired slightly differently. Grabbed a multimeter and tested mine before connecting anything to the Cerbo.

The programmable relay conditions in VenusOS are genuinely brilliant once you crack them — I've got mine cutting the inverter automatically when battery drops below 20% SOC.

@VivaroNomad curious what logic you set on that relay — are you triggering it purely off battery SOC thresholds, or did you set up something more nuanced in the Cerbo's relay assistant?

Asking because my situation is slightly different — I've got a garden office setup rather than a van or hut, and I'm wondering whether it makes sense to also factor in solar input. Ideally I'd want the inverter to kick in only when there's decent PV generation available, not just when the batteries are topped up. Seemed wasteful otherwise, especially in winter when the array's barely pulling its weight.

Is that level of logic even possible through the built-in assistants, or does it require Node-RED on the Cerbo? I've seen mention of Node-RED flows on here but haven't gone near it yet.

@KenCross following on from what @VivaroNomad mentioned — in my motorhome I'm running SOC thresholds combined with a low voltage cutoff as a belt-and-braces approach. So the relay closes (inverter on) when SOC hits above 30% and opens again if it drops below 20% or voltage dips under 12.0V — whichever triggers first.

The voltage backup is important because SOC readings from a Victron SmartShunt can drift a bit if the battery hasn't had a proper full charge cycle recently, which happens more often than you'd think during gloomy British winters with minimal solar input.

You configure all this under Relay settings in VRM or the local Cerbo GX interface — pretty straightforward once you find it. What battery chemistry are you on? Thresholds differ quite a bit between LiFePO4 and AGM.