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hoeken avatar image
hoeken asked

Cerbo + VE.BMS control of Multiplus?

Smalle Boat Electronics-12V DC System.pdf

I have installed a system on my boat with Victron Smart LFP batteries, a 120v / 3000w Multiplus, a Cerbo GX, and VE.Bus BMS. I pretty much just followed the schematics on the Victron site, and it is working great. I uploaded my schematic as reference.

Overall, I'm very happy with the system, but I would really like to be able to use my phone to change the Multiplus between Charge/Invert. I can set the current limit, but it won't let me set the mode. That is really annoying and I don't want to have to install the little control panel just to use the switch.

Another thing that seems to be missing is a way to disable the inverter at a certain SOC. I have just enough batteries to run my aircon for a few hours in the evening which is all I need to cool the boat down for a nice sleep. I know I can do that with the MK3 USB interface cable, but its so clunky. Sometimes I would like to be able to turn the inverter off at a different SOC and it would be really nice to not have to use the computer and cable for that.

So, anyone have any ideas on how I could achieve either of these two things?


cerbo gxmultiplus ve.busVE.Bus
smalle-boat-electronics-12v-dc-system.pdf (9.6 MiB)
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JohnC avatar image
JohnC answered ·

Hi @hoeken

Not really an answer, just some thoughts..

There's a remote on/off/charger capability in the MFD app. Designed for N2K kit (I note your diagram has mention), it still works fine on at least a Win pc. Internet or wifi to the Cerbo, and described here.. https://www.victronenergy.com/media/pg/Venus_GX/en/marine-mfd-integration-by-app.html

I haven't tried it on a phone, but the local url is "venus.local/app/".

Switching the inverter off automatically is serious, but if you can live with switching off ac load output at the inverter, you could look at using an Assistant in the Multi to do that (maybe gen-start-stop). Varying the SOC setpoint on a whim is a challenge, and I can't think of a way of doing that easily.

Just thinking aloud here, but might trigger further thought..

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hoeken avatar image hoeken commented ·
Hey @JohnC , thanks for the reply. I checked out the MFD app on my phone, but the option to change the inverter mode is grayed out. I don't understand why this functionality is locked out, when the digital control panel can control it just fine. It was grayed out both with and without that digital control panel plugged into the ve.bus port.
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hoeken avatar image hoeken commented ·

Apparently this is a big problem with the ve.bus bms, and it doesn't look like there is a solution. Really wish I knew that before I dropped a ton of $$$ on this build: https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/66719/venusos-vebus-bms-mqtt-or-modbus-tcp.html

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