Cerbo-S GX

I read: “Lower cost version, same as normal Cerbo GX but without BMS-Can port, Tank- and Temperature monitoring inputs.”.

Does this mean it does not know anything about the battery? Also, does it use the Venus OS?

The Cerbo-S has only one CAN-bus port (marked VE.Can). You can use that either for other VE.Can hardware (such as some solar chargers), or you can use it to monitor a battery… but not both, you will have to choose. In systems where you have both, this is of course untenable and you want the proper two-CAN Cerbo.

There are some exceptions to this, which gets a bit technical. Basically it comes down to this: VE.Can devices run at 250 kbaud, and most third-party batteries run at 500 kbaud. So they cannot co-exist on the same CAN-bus port. If you have the need for both, don’t get the Cerbo S.

If your solar chargers are connected via VE.Direct, or if you can configure the battery to run at 250 kbaud… then you can get away with the Cerbo S.

(The real reason for its existence is actually the chip shortage… the particular chip used for the second CAN-port was on a long long backorder).

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Thank you. For me the Cerbo-S is then not an option. If you also know what OS it runs, that would be great. Is it Venus OS or something else?

Venus OS

All the GX devices run VenusOS, which is a Linux distribution based on OpenEmbedded, which is also what you’ll find on some Linksys routers (OpenWRT) and if anyone remembers, about a decade ago, the Dreambox (which was a satellite receiver typically used for free-to-air channels).

I still have my old Linksys WRT54G (V2.0 if I remember). :slight_smile:

With a FreedomWon, you can order the battery with CANBus adjusted down to 250kbps baud. Alternatively, it can be done installation.

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Last night, I just retired the last 3 in my fleet (from my parents house). v1.1