Victron Colour Control GX

[bushman10]

Any opinions on this monitoring product? Seems as if one can connect the Quattro and the BMV 700/2 and the charge controller to this one unit for monitoring purposes.

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[Guest]

It was designed by Victron for their products and @plonkster can add some more features here on what you can do more with the CCGX.

And the Victron data will be hosted for free by Victron for you to access and view as you please.

[___]

I will probably have a CCGX in my hand by the end of the week. I have some upcoming development. It is just an Arm Cortex based computer running Linux, with a touch screen, and useful inputs (two ttl level serials and a can bus) that are broken out into easy to use connectors. So let me list some pros and cons, which might be somewhat biased :-)

Cons:

1. It's expensive. Only really bad point I can think of. It's 350 Euro, which would be fine if our exchange rate was better and there wasn't import tax involved.

2. As far as I know, it cannot log to pvoutput.org out the box. It would be easy to add, but it has to be said that it sort of ties you to their own VRM site if you go this way.

Pros:

1. Linux based, using OpenEmbedded.

2. Software is mostly open source (some parts are still closed source)

3. Hardware itself is based on a Texas Instruments development board, so you can DIY if you want.

4. Already supports some non-victron things, eg Fronius, BMS for the Red Flow battery, etc.

5. Software already available for the BeagleBone Black (around R1200, but no touch screen, and you have to do your own connectors until the cape is available).

6. VRM site where you can log your data for free.

7. Yes, this question came up on the mailing list: You can log to VRM with your BBB.

8. If you need support for something, and you are willing to write it (or pay someone to do it), they are usually more than willing to roll it into the main image so future upgrades will always have it.

9. While the CCGX doesn't have an RS485 connection option, you just order ASS030571018 (31 Euro) to get it, very likely just a USB->RS485 converter :-)

10. Powers directly from the battery, no need for external power converters as you would need with a BBB, Rpi or laptop/tablet.

11. Uses dbus for IPC (inter process communication), so you can write extensions in any language that has a dbus library (java, perl, .NET aka C#, etc).

[bushman10]

Thanks@plonkster. Overall seems like a pretty nifty LBB (little blue box).

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