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Hi guys, am in the final stages of settling up my power backup(easysolar, bmv 700, 48v battery bank)...for monitoring I have two choices
1. Venus gx with required accessories will cost 520 dollars
2. Raspberry pi 3B+ with 7inch touch display plus required cables will cost 420 dollars
Please help me make a choice...am aware that the Venus offers a more stable solution with support from victron while Raspberry offers a screen though some tinkering is required
Aizen:
I had much the same choice. I have set up a Rpi 3B+ over the last 5 weeks with the touch screen. I was very please with the way it went. I have even constructed and configured Analogue interface (as per Venus GX) and an I2C interface with connected humidity and ambient temperature sensor (for use on my boat).
Next step is to get it mounted onboard ready for the new seasons cruising.
What is best for you depends to an extent on how familiar you are with Rpi and versions of Linux. The main problem is when you are looking for an answer by searching online, you need to know enough linux to tell which answers make sense and which ones are dubious.
The tinkering required is simple and more importantly works as long as you know your way round a Linux command line.
I have posted a few notes in other articles here on what I have done.
Thanks for the prompt reply.....really like the touch screen idea
Is there a way to activate the the touchscreen while using the Venus os...or do I need to use the official os and install the victron packages...prefer the first option
Aiken:
Not quite sure what you are asking. You can’t configure the touch screen from the user interface you have to connect as root using a terminal and configure the touch screen as per instruction in other articles on this forum.
You start from an install of Venus os, and all of the Venus GUI and tools on an SD card so you don’t ever touch raspian or any other Rpi OS.
Once configured, the touch screen works for almost everything you read in the ccgx or Venus GX manual. The differences will be where Victron or the user community have not got round to fixing implementations (such as bluetooth at the moment).
You do have to remember that if you do a Venus OS upgrade at a later date any configurations of the touch screen will be lost unless you run a script to re do the configure after the upgrade. Again there are instructions on this forum under “lost configuration after upgrade”.
All of these things are what you have to be willing to deal with and balance against the money you might be saving.
Start here https://github.com/victronenergy/venus/wiki/raspberrypi-install-venus-image
And follow the instructions there.
Thanks for the reply....does the above take care of the official raspberry 7 inch screen installation?...sorry newbie here
No once you have the image you then need to go through all the steps of configuring the 7" display screen. Installing packages, calibrating the screen etc.
I am working on a script and USB memory stick image that can be used to do all the hard configurationwork but I don't know how conversant you are with Linux ?
Thanks LaurenceH for your guidance.....after 8 hours of fiddling with the board and touchscreen...I have managed to get it to work with Venus v2.51...
Initially it refused to boot showing the blinking rainbow screen....I sorted this by downloading sd card formatter, format the sd card, burnt the image...it worked well
The other parts need knowledge in Linux...which I really struggled but eventually managed... thanks guys once again. Now waiting for victron cables to connect everything...
don't forget to factor in the cost of the MK3 to USB adapter which you will need to hook up your multi, plus the additional cost of the ve.direct to USB vs a standard ve.direct cable for the bmv and mppt. That said if you don't have any CAN devices or tank monitoring then the out of the box image on a Pi should work.
If I could do it over again, I'd do both. A Venus GX and an rPi with the touch screen as a remote for the GX.
Saving $100 or so isn't worth the time I've burned into this. It's enjoyable and been a fun challenge, but the lack of adapters needed is nice, as well as tank sensor inputs puts it over the top for me.
I never did that for saving money. But totally agree that it was a time consuming, but enjoyable project. I've made the switch to a physical GX device, but still playing around with RPi and Venus OS(incl. Signal K).
To make things worse...you can now also choose the Cerbo GX...and use a big HDMI screen on it ;)
Aizen, I realize your post was from 4+ months back, but can you detail how you got to $520 for Venus GX and accessories and $420 for RPi, touchscreen and cables. Are the cable costs so different. Appreciated!
My system uses a mk.3 adapter ($98aud) and 3 ve.direct adapters($49aud ea), a USB hub is required as I have USB storage connected and a GPS. You also need a reliable power supply for your Pi.
In comparison a Venus would require 3 ve.direct cables (@ around $20-30aud each depending on length.
Both systems would require a rj45 cable for the inverter.
The Pi has the advantage of the touchscreen included for that price, whereas the Venus has the reliability and advantage of device ID's staying constant for your data recording.
A basic android tablet can be used to provide the touchscreen capabilities to either system for minimal cost, with the advantage of portability.
It's really hard to beat the Cerbo GX and it's companion display but the combination is around $600 US. Cerbo by itself is in the $300 range. The cost tradeoff depends on what devices you will be incorporating in your system. The PI, power supply, all the USB to VE.Direct and VE.Bus adapter cables and a CANbus interface, analog inputs, digital outputs, etc., costs could be close to what Cerbo costs.
I just discovered Cerbo will work with an HDMI monitor that outputs touch data over USB so you can pick something up for around $70.
I've been running Venus OS on a RPI with the official 7" touchscreen for about a year and have had good luck with and and it's been a fun project.
Venus GX has no option for a local display so you must use a phone, tablet, computer, etc.
Just be careful when ordering products. I indicated to my salesperson that I wanted to do something like this and they sold me the MK3-USB (VE.BUS) version of the dongle interface instead of the required VE.Direct version. So it's basically useless and cost me money. Look at the connections on your products (solar charge controller, inverter...) In my case, it was necessary to use up the inverter's only VE.Direct connector for the Bluetooth module so that the phone app can see it, so you can't also connect the VenusOS-based Pi as well.
