Supported devices
Which Victron Energy devices Boardstrom can read, over Bluetooth and over WiFi.
Boardstrom gets your data one of two ways, and you pick whichever fits your setup. It's one or the other, not both:
- Over Bluetooth, directly from your Victron gear. No extra hardware, no Cerbo needed. This is what most systems use, and the device list below applies to it.
- Over WiFi, from a Victron GX device (Cerbo GX, Ekrano GX, or Venus OS). The GX already sees your whole system, so Boardstrom reads all of it at once. Jump to the WiFi section.
Over Bluetooth (no GX device needed)
Over Bluetooth, Boardstrom reads Victron's Instant Readout, small encrypted advertisements that supported devices broadcast every couple of seconds. The app never connects to anything. That's intentional: it's what keeps Bluetooth mode local-only, account-free, and reliable.
The catch is that not every Victron device with Bluetooth supports Instant Readout. The authoritative list of devices that do is on Victron's own VictronConnect manual page. As Victron puts it there: "Products not listed are not supported even though they have Bluetooth."
Fully supported (over Bluetooth)
These devices appear in the app with full live readings on the dashboard and on the device detail page:
- SmartShunt and BMV-712 battery monitors (state of charge, voltage, current, power, time-to-go)
- SmartSolar MPPT charge controllers (solar power, charge state, battery voltage, yield today)
- Phoenix Inverter Smart (AC power, AC voltage, device state)
- Orion XS DC-DC charger (alternator charging state, input voltage)
- MultiPlus and Quattro inverter-chargers (via the VE.Bus Smart dongle): AC in, AC out, shore connected, device state
- Lithium Battery Smart (battery voltage, temperature, balancer status, per-cell voltages)
Detected but parser pending
These devices broadcast Instant Readout, so they will appear in Boardstrom's device list once paired, but live readings aren't decoded yet. They'll get full support in a future update:
- Smart Battery Sense
- Smart BatteryProtect
- Smart BMS 12-200, Smart BMS CL
- Lynx Smart BMS
- Inverter RS, Multi RS, MPPT RS
- Sun Inverter
- VM-3P75CT energy meter
- SolarSense 750
- VE.Direct Bluetooth Smart Dongle (adds Instant Readout to older VE.Direct devices)
If you own one of these and want to help, please email merten@boardstrom.com. Real device data speeds these up significantly.
Not supported (Victron limitation)
These Victron devices have Bluetooth but do not support Instant Readout, so Boardstrom physically can't read them. VictronConnect can still talk to them via its own pairing protocol, which is a separate mechanism.
- Peak Power Pack (any variant)
- Older SmartSolar MPPTs and SmartShunts with very old firmware (update via VictronConnect to add Instant Readout)
- Smart LiFePO4 batteries that are not "Lithium Battery Smart" (different product line)
- Anything else not listed in Victron's official Instant Readout list
If your device isn't on Victron's Instant Readout list, there is unfortunately nothing the app can do in Bluetooth mode. The limitation is on the device's firmware side, not in the app. If you have a GX device, the WiFi path below can often read these anyway.
Over WiFi, from a Victron GX device
If you have a Victron GX device (Cerbo GX, Ekrano GX, or Venus OS on a Raspberry Pi), Boardstrom can read your whole system from it over your local network instead of over Bluetooth. The GX is already wired into your installation, so this path has a big advantage: it sees every device on the system at once, including ones that don't broadcast Instant Readout over Bluetooth at all.
In practice the live dashboard shows your battery, solar, inverter/charger, and loads straight from the numbers the GX publishes, with no per-device pairing or encryption keys to enter. With Pro, you can also turn a MultiPlus, Quattro, or Phoenix inverter on and off right from the dashboard.
This is a great fit if you already run a GX device and want extra dashboards around the boat, van, or cabin. If you don't have one, you don't need one: Bluetooth covers the devices above on its own. See Setup for how to switch Boardstrom to WiFi and turn on MQTT on the GX.
Where the numbers come from
Every value on the dashboard is read straight from your Victron devices. Nothing is invented, and nothing is sent to a server. A few readings are derived from an energy balance rather than read directly, and the source differs between the Bluetooth path and the WiFi (GX / MQTT) path. Here is exactly where each one comes from.
| Reading | Over Bluetooth | Over WiFi (GX / MQTT) |
|---|---|---|
| Battery: state of charge, voltage, power | From the SmartShunt or BMV. Power is voltage × current. | From the GX battery service (the system total). |
| Time to go | The SmartShunt's own estimate. | The GX battery service estimate. |
| Solar | The sum of your SmartSolar / MPPT chargers. | DC solar from the GX, plus any AC-coupled PV (Fronius, SMA) added in. |
| Loads | Derived from the energy balance: solar plus AC input, minus what is going into the battery. | The same energy-balance derivation from the GX totals. |
| Shore / AC input | Not available over Bluetooth. | The inverter/charger's active AC input power. This is whatever is on the AC input: shore power, the grid, or a generator. |
| Alternator | Inferred while an Orion DC-DC charger is running (battery charge minus solar), since the Orion does not broadcast its output power. | From the GX DC-DC service. |
A note for grid-tied and ESS systems: grid-side PV inverters report their power through the inverter's AC input, so the Shore / AC input figure includes the grid plus any grid-side PV. It reads as the net at the inverter's input rather than a pure shore cord.
Questions about a specific device?
Email merten@boardstrom.com. Tell me the device model and what you're seeing and I'll get back to you.