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MultiPlus-II 48/3000/35-32 230V GX vs MultiPlus-II with Venus GX


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Posted

Hi all

I'm putting in a few MultiPlus-II 48/3000/35-32s in parallel, and was originally planning to get a Venus GX.

Does it make more sense to replace one of the MultiPlus-IIs with a GX model, and forgo the Venus?

From what I can tell the price of a GX model is roughly the same as a normal model + Venus, so the numbers make sense. So I suppose it comes down to:

1. Performance, I've read that the MultiPlus-II GX is a lot faster than the Venus GX (quad core vs single core), so that's a plus for the MultiPlus-II GX

2. Risk. Is it more risky to have my GX on the inverter, so if that inverter fails my entire control system fails, rather than having a separate component.

 

Thoughts?

Posted (edited)

if you want separate components, the Cerbo Gx is faster and I believe only R500 more than the Vrenus GX and you can buy the touch screen that plugs into it. Also, you only need ONE Venus/Cerbo GX for your whole system.

Edited by Tariq
Posted
1 hour ago, MongooseMan said:

Does it make more sense to replace one of the MultiPlus-IIs with a GX model, and forgo the Venus?

I'm just going to ping @plonkster for this one, but if I remember correctly the 'consensus' was that if the price for the Multi & separate GX compared to the Multi GX is about the same it's worth going for the GX-model.

1 hour ago, MongooseMan said:

1. Performance, I've read that the MultiPlus-II GX is a lot faster than the Venus GX (quad core vs single core), so that's a plus for the MultiPlus-II GX

I think he also mentioned the GX in the Multi being the best GX device and even better than the Cebro GX.

1 hour ago, MongooseMan said:

2. Risk. Is it more risky to have my GX on the inverter, so if that inverter fails my entire control system fails, rather than having a separate component.

This I'm not 100% sure on that. But I guess that it's much of a muchness except that if the GX in the Multi fails that it's not as easy as just swapping out the GX. Similar to a EasySolar where a MPPT fails compared to a standalone MPPT failing. To be honest though, yes, there's a chance of that happening, but if you're going blue I think it's a small chance of it happening.

From my side I would just go with the Multi with the GX included if the price is similar.

Posted

The built in GX is better speed wise, but that should not impact anything on your install. 
You add one GX Multi with the rest being normal Mutli models. They just need to match model wise. This makes for an cleaner install. Else either option will give you the same result. Seperate GX device is nice for if something breaks somewhere.

Posted

Right, let's get technical... 😛

The Multiplus-II-GX (And Easysolar-II-GX) have a built-in board. This is essentially a small ARM computer. All the GX devices are. But the one in the MP-II-GX is based on a quad core 1.2Ghz Nanopi which is the fastest platform of all 4. The Cerbo is the next fastest, followed by the Venux-GX and then the CCGX.

So unless the built-in GX option costs significantly more than the external one, I'd encourage you to go for it.

There is one exception though: If you want to use the fancy analog/digital connections on the Venus-GX/Cerbo-GX, then obviously you have to go for the discrete solution. Also, a Venus-GX has two built-in relays. For the average guy running a residential setup, it makes little difference. Go with what makes the most sense to you.

Posted
27 minutes ago, MongooseMan said:

What does that mean to me as an end user?

You can connect more stuff before the thing becomes overloaded. Especially important if you plan on having multiple MPPTS (more than 3), or multiple PV-inverters, and especially when you have a three phase setup (everything times three). Then you want a Cerbo or the MP-II-GX.

Also, if you want to mess with MQTT or any of those nice IoT things, get one of the faster ones.

For the average single-phase residential install without too much hardware, a Venus-GX is more than sufficient though. Which is why price might be the final arbiter.

Posted

Hi MongooseMan, apologies for poaching on your thread, I had a question on the GX's for Plonkster.

Plonkster, thanks for all the advice on here it is most appreciated. Could you clarify for me, I have seen on the Victron site that they say the Venus Wifi and I think BT connectivity is not very good and the Cerbo is much better?

I am planning to slowly move into the blue route but my install is located in outbuildings, how bad is the Venus wifi ability as to purchase an extra dongle or run a LAN cable might outweigh spending the extra R500 or so on the Cerbo?

Posted

Sorry this is not specific to the devices that you asked about, but:

In general most WiFi devices that do NOT have an external arial will suffer with an outbuilding setup. If you don't want issues I would suggest running an network cable, or use 2 routers as a bridge network (Tenda F9 works well for this at around R500)

Posted
2 hours ago, Louisvdw said:

In general most WiFi devices that do NOT have an external arial will suffer with an outbuilding setup. If you don't want issues I would suggest running an network cable, or use 2 routers as a bridge network (Tenda F9 works well for this at around R500)

I agree with this. The Cerbo is better, yes, but if you don't want issues then run a network cable. Some Wi-Fi extenders have an ethernet plug (eg TP-Link TL-WA850RE), then you can run an ethernet cable to a clear spot and pot the Wi-Fi extender there.

Also very useful, there is an Android App called WiFiAnalyzer that gives you an idea of signal strengths of the various APs, that also helps to get an idea of where to put the extender.

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