Setup

How to connect Boardstrom over WiFi to a Victron GX device, switch your inverter on and off, and organize your devices into groups.

Connecting over WiFi (MQTT)

Boardstrom can read your whole system over WiFi from a Victron GX device (Cerbo GX, Ekrano GX, or Venus OS on a Raspberry Pi). The GX device already integrates your whole install, so over WiFi you see everything it sees, including devices that don't advertise over Bluetooth, from anywhere in WiFi range.

The exact menu names depend on your Venus OS version. Pick the one that matches what you see:

Venus OS 3.50 and newer (GUIv2)

On the newer interface the local MQTT broker is always running, so there is no "MQTT on LAN" switch to turn on any more. The only thing that gates a local connection is the network security profile.

1. Set the local network security profile to Unsecured. Go to Settings → General → Access & Security → Local Network Security Profile and choose Unsecured. Boardstrom connects over the local plaintext port (1883), and on current firmware that port reliably opens only on the Unsecured profile. Leave the username and password blank in Boardstrom.
   • Weakened won't help: the password it asks for is the GX's own login, not an MQTT password (Venus OS doesn't offer password-protected plain MQTT through the menus), so there's nothing valid to type into Boardstrom, and entering a password there can make the broker refuse the connection. Use Unsecured and leave the fields blank.
   • Secured blocks the plaintext port entirely, so Boardstrom can't connect. Use Unsecured.
   The Unsecured profile only affects your local network; nothing is exposed to the internet and nothing goes to VRM or any cloud. And if you connect remotely over a VPN like Tailscale (see Remote access below), that link is already encrypted end to end, so Unsecured on the GX is no compromise.
2. Point Boardstrom at it. In the app, open Settings, and under your system tap + Add MQTT broker. Enter the GX device's IP address (leave it blank to try venus.local, or tap Scan network for broker), leave the username and password blank, then switch the broker on.

The username and password fields in Boardstrom are only for an authenticated broker (a custom MQTT broker that requires a login, or a Venus OS broker you've set up authentication on manually over SSH). A standard Venus OS broker needs neither, leave them blank.

The Settings → Integrations → MQTT Access switch on the GX controls external access (for example over VRM); you don't need it for a local WiFi connection, and leaving it on does no harm.

Older Venus OS (separate "MQTT on LAN" options)

1. Enable MQTT on the GX. Go to Settings → Services, turn on MQTT on LAN (SSL) first, then MQTT on LAN (Plaintext) (Victron only lets you enable Plaintext once SSL is on). Boardstrom connects over the Plaintext option. No username or password needed.
2. Point Boardstrom at it the same way: open Settings, tap + Add MQTT broker under your system, then enter the GX's IP (or venus.local, or Scan) and switch it on.

Either way, your phone and the GX device need to see each other on the same network (or be joined over a VPN, see Remote access below). The dashboard then fills with your live system. You can switch the broker on or off any time from its settings, and Boardstrom keeps picking up nearby Bluetooth devices alongside it, no restart needed. If you're on Venus OS v3.20 specifically, local MQTT was briefly broken in that one release and fixed in later 3.2x updates, so update the GX if it won't connect.

Remote access, without the cloud (Tailscale / VPN)

Boardstrom's WiFi mode talks to the GX over a plain network connection, so it doesn't actually care whether that connection is your home LAN or a private VPN. If you put your GX device and your phone on the same Tailscale network (or any WireGuard / VPN that gives both a stable address), you can watch your system from anywhere, with no VRM, no cloud account, and nothing leaving your own private network.

1. Get the GX on Tailscale. Many users run Tailscale on the Cerbo / Venus OS device (or on a router that routes to it). Once it's up, note the GX device's Tailscale address (its 100.x.y.z IP, or its MagicDNS name).
2. Run Tailscale on your phone and sign in to the same network, so the phone can reach that address from anywhere.
3. Enter the Tailscale address as the broker host. In the app, open Settings, tap + Add MQTT broker under your system, and type the GX's Tailscale IP (or MagicDNS name) into the host field. Don't use "Scan network for broker" for this; that looks on the local WiFi only, so enter the address by hand.

That's it. The dashboard works the same as on the home network, just reachable from the road. This is a great fit for a boat or van you check on while you're away, and it keeps Boardstrom's no-cloud, no-account promise intact: the link is your own private network, not ours.

Turning your inverter on and off (Pro)

With a Pro license and a WiFi (MQTT) connection, Boardstrom can switch a MultiPlus, Quattro, or Phoenix inverter on and off right from the dashboard. A few things have to line up:

• You're connected over WiFi (MQTT), not Bluetooth. Control commands only travel over the MQTT link to the GX device. Over Bluetooth, Boardstrom is read-only and the control won't appear.
• MQTT on LAN (Plaintext) is enabled on the GX, the same setting you turned on to read the system. The GX accepts the write over that local connection.
• The hardware allows remote switching. The inverter's own front switch must be in the On position (not the physical Off or Charger-only setting). If a Digital Multi Control panel or a VE.Bus BMS is wired in, it holds the remote on/off and will override the app, so set it to allow inverting.
• You have Boardstrom Pro. The control is a Pro feature.

When all of that is true, an On/Off control appears on the dashboard. Every toggle asks you to confirm first, so there's no switching the inverter by accident.

Organizing devices into groups

The rest of this page is about groups, which matter most for boats and vans with two battery banks.

The short version

A group is a logical bucket of devices that the dashboard treats as one system. Most installs have a single group. If you have two isolated battery banks (a house battery and a separate starter or inverter battery, both with their own SmartShunt), you have two options:

• One group, two banks. Put both shunts in the same group. The SoC and Battery Power tiles aggregate across banks, with a per-bank breakdown right below the headline number. Best when you want a single "how much energy in the whole boat right now" view.
• Two groups, one bank each. Put each shunt in its own group, named after the bank ("House Bank", "Battery 2"). Switch between groups from the Settings sheet. Best when the banks are operationally separate and you mostly care about each one on its own.

For most isolated multi-bank boats, two groups is the cleaner setup. Read on for why.

Why two groups is usually better for isolated banks

The SmartShunt counts charge in and out by measuring current through itself. When two shunts are wired to two physically separate banks, each shunt has a complete and accurate picture of its own bank. That maps naturally to one group per bank:

• Each bank's chart is clean. No interleaved SoC lines, no per-bank breakdown text. Just your one bank's SoC, voltage, battery power, and trip totals.
• Per-bank energy balance is exact. Solar produced minus net into the battery equals loads, computed against the right shunt.
• The Energy page makes sense. Daily kWh in / out / net per bank, charted independently.

The aggregate single-group view is still useful when you specifically want a "system total" number, but for day-to-day monitoring of an isolated boat, two groups wins.

When to combine banks in one group

• Both shunts are on the same physical bus (rare, usually a parallel-cell configuration). One group, multi-bank tiles, capacity-weighted SoC.
• You only ever care about the system total, never the per-bank breakdown. One group is fine, and the dashboard still shows the per-bank values in the sublabel under each tile.
• You're running a combined "1/2/Both" switch all the time. Note that combining banks through a battery switch breaks the per-shunt counting (current flowing through Battery 1 doesn't pass through Shunt 2 and vice versa), so the two shunts will inevitably show diverging SoCs until the next sync event. There's no clean fix without isolating the banks again.

Where do other devices belong?

The SmartShunt is the anchor of a bank. Other devices live in whichever group their output serves:

• SmartSolar MPPT: in the group of the bank it charges. If you have two MPPTs both feeding the house bank, put both in the House group; their power will sum in the Solar tile.
• Orion (DC-DC charger): in the group of its output bank. Its draw from the input bank will just appear as a load on that bank's energy balance, which is the right behaviour: from the input bank's point of view, the Orion is consuming current.
• MultiPlus / Quattro (via VE.Bus dongle): in the group of the bank it's connected to.
• Phoenix Inverter: in the group of the bank that powers it.

Example: house bank + inverter battery, with DC-DC

Take a common boat layout:

• Solar panels charging the house bank, monitored by a SmartShunt
• A separate inverter battery (Battery 2) with its own SmartShunt
• A Victron Orion DC-DC charging Battery 2 from the house bank when the engine runs
• An inverter on Battery 2 powering AC loads

The recommended setup is two groups:

• Group "House Bank": SmartShunt (house), SmartSolar MPPTs. The Orion's draw from this bank will show up in the energy balance as a load whenever the engine is running.
• Group "Battery 2": SmartShunt (Battery 2), Orion DC-DC. The Orion's charging output flows into this bank, so it lives here. The inverter and its AC loads also draw from this bank.

Tap the group name in the status banner at the top of the dashboard to switch between them. Each group has its own chart history, its own Energy page totals, and its own trip-reset button.

Switching between groups

Open Settings (the gear icon, top right) and tap the group name in the active group section to bring up the group picker. The group switch is instant and your previous selection persists across app launches.

Renaming groups

In Settings, tap the group name → Rename. Use a name that describes the bank ("House Bank", "Battery 2", "Starter") rather than the boat or van itself.

Still stuck?

Email merten@boardstrom.com with a quick description of your setup and we'll help you decide.