I love data! While not required, once I’d added my battery system, I wanted to see my solar production within the Victron Color GX and the Victron Remote Monitoring Portal (VRM). Without any solar monitoring the color GX looks as below.

To see solar production a energy monitor (ET112 in my case) needs to be added. The ET112 shown below has 2 x RJ45 sockets and 6 screw connectors for data, these need to be connected to a RS485 to USB interface, this then plugs into the color GX. Solar AC LIVE output is connected screw 1, this then flows through the monitor and out of LIVE screw 2, neutrals are connected to the screws at the bottom. Below the monitor is shown just powered up on the bench to test and confirm the RS485 pin out.

The below show the monitor installed in the loft.

To take the data output from the loft to the garage where the Victon Color GX is installed, I us structured network sockets and cable. Below shows the structured cable connecting to the RS485 via chocolate block for testing. Its important to use a twisted pair for the data transmission, in my case Blue/Blue and White.

Once all connected up, the monitor just need to be configured in the Color GX as below:

Solar data will then be available on the GX and VRM: