How to Use RuuviTag Sensors to Wirelessly Measure Temperature and More on Victron Cerbo GX

[@rosslukeman]

Get the Ultimate Van Power Cheat Sheet: www.rosslukeman.com/vanpower

[@mattg8787]

will the app read in F TEMP not just in C

[@rosslukeman]

@@mattg8787 yes you can change it to F

[@MrBigbeee]

Another clear instructive video. Thank you! I’m hoping to get a cerbo soon and these videos are really helping with that decision… 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[@rosslukeman]

Glad you liked the video, thanks for watching! Yes the Cerbo is pretty versatile, I'm glad these videos are showing you a few different ways you can use it.

[@sreekumarUSA]

Thanks!

[@rosslukeman]

Thank you Sree, great to know you got a lot out of this video!

[@kpbarbee]

Very helpful video - thank you! Love seeing the setup on the plywood board--also helpful!

[@rosslukeman]

Glad that was helpful, thanks for tuning in!

[@briangray6461]

Super helpful videos!!! Thank you!

[@rosslukeman]

Glad that was helpful! Thanks for tuning in!

[@mikesteur931]

Very informative video Ross! The RuuviTag sensors will allow me to do some of the things I have been trying to figure out. E.g. sensing motion on a door or window. Thanks.

[@rosslukeman]

Hi Mike, thanks for tuning in and glad that helped you move forward with what you need to do. I will note though, on motion, that at this time it doesn't seem to be imported into the Cerbo GX. That may change but for the motion parameter it looks like it only creates notifications in the Ruuvi Station phone app. I hope that works for you. Thanks again for tuning in!

[@jimsjacob]

Wow, great info here…. I don’t have the Cerbo GX yet, but when I do my solar upgrades, I may add this item. I do have concerns about my battery compartment and temps, so this looks to be a good solution to monitoring and auto activation of temp solutions.

[@rosslukeman]

Hi Jim, great to hear you think this may be a good addition to your system. The Ruuvi tags are definitely easier than running hardwired temp sensors to the Cerbo. Good luck with the upgrades and thanks for tuning in!

[@SVORION619]

Awesome fade cut!

[@rosslukeman]

Thanks! I just changed to the "zero" on the clippers, I like it.

[@alexapostolos]

Good stuff, Ross!

[@rosslukeman]

Thanks Alex!

[@chaselfrantz5882]

This is fantastic! thank you for the informative video. one question, I want to use this same set up to prevent a water tank from freezing when conditions get very cold. However, I think this will draw too much electricity for the relay built into the cerbo. It will be 80watts total. how would I go about doing this? thanks for all your help!

[@rosslukeman]

Hi Chase, thanks for tuning in, glad you liked the video! On your situation, you might get a higher-current relay, say a 40-amp automotive relay (like one of these: amzn.to/49ProHT ), and run the main power to your device through that one. Then the Cerbo's relay would control that other relay. When the Cerbo relay closed its contacts, it would send voltage to the control contacts of the other relay, which would close, and send power through to the heater pad. Hope that helps-

[@chachi5975]

Do you know if I can set alarm parameters and get notifications from the VRM like I do for the Victron equipment? Sorry, I guess I spoke too soon, I'll check out the alarm settings when I pull my camper out of winter storage. Great explanation and thank you 👍😁

[@tomrmalcolm]

Hey Ross, great video on Ruuvi! Can you tell me if Ruuvi has a device that can also monitor water leaks? If no, do you have a recommendation of a water leak sensor that is compatible with the CerboGX?

[@OmmerSyssel]

As Ruuvi also detects humidity your needs should be fulfilled...

[@howard6798]

Well done video!

[@rosslukeman]

Thank you!

[@surlynguyen]

Now that’s a great haircut!

[@rosslukeman]

Haha thanks!

[@cwvandy1]

Has Victron provided a firmware update yet to show Fahrenheit temperature?

[@rosslukeman]

Great timing, I just updated to the latest firmware and it has it now - under Settings --> Display & language. The Ruuvi's are now reading in Fahrenheit.

[@cwvandy1]

@@rosslukeman Thanks! I'll do the update (and throw away my C to F chart). Keep up the great videos!

[@rosslukeman]

@@cwvandy1 sounds good, I have been trying to convert C to F in my head each day. Thanks for tuning in, more videos soon...

[@DIM40STUDIO]

Hi there! Can you activate the relay with humidity instead of temperature?

[@rosslukeman]

Hi there, no humidity is not one of the parameters listed to activate the relay unfortunately, only temperature at this time. This is determined by the Cerbo’s relay menu. Hope that helps, thanks for watching-

[@HellBird2004]

Great video! Is it also possible to connect this way a Victron Blue Smart Charger IP65 to Cerbo GX? Does this also work with Cerbo-S GX? Thank you!

[@PatsTravels]

I was wondering the same as well. The online Cerbo-S manual would seem to indicate it will work with these USB sensors. Did you get a definitive answer elsewhere?

[@hinterlandvans]

Hey Ross, another good video. I would like to be able to turn on a caution light when the temperature in my battery compartment, water tank area and refrigerator fall below certain temperatures. Is there a way to do that? I'm gathering that I may be able to do two by having one relay control another. What about three?

[@rosslukeman]

Hi David, thanks for checking out the video! I believe you can have all 3 temp sensors trigger a relay. Go to the settings menu and then "Relay" and set one of your Relays on the Cerbo to "temperature." Now there will be a section that appears called "Temperature control rules." Go in here and you will see each sensor that has been set up on a list. Click on each sensor and there are up to 2 conditions or things it will do. Go into each sensor, and tell it to set off "Relay 1 under these conditions." It would be handy to rename each sensor beforehand to "fridge, battery compartment or water tank area, etc" so you know which sensor you're dealing with. So the summary is that it goes sensor by sensor for the programming, not relay by relay. Hypothetically you could have tons of sensors and they each set off the same relay when conditions are met. Hope that helps, great question- Thanks, Ross

[@hinterlandvans]

@@rosslukeman Ok, thanks. I think I understand your reply. However, I believe in what you are describing, all three sensors would trigger the same relay and turn on the same light. I want a different "caution" light to go on for each area I want to monitor.

[@hinterlandvans]

Saying it another way, with the method you described, I would not know which tag was triggering the relay and turning on the light. Am I looking at this correctly?

[@kendeemer518]

Great video. DO you know if I can use a RuuviTag with the DVCC function of the CERBO to add temperature compensation for battery charging? The Victron temperature sensor cable is too short to connect it directly. Thanks.

[@rosslukeman]

Hi Ken, great question, however I just haven't set up something like this. I would test it and see.

[@ppi57]

Can we add a powered USB hub to the cerbo?

[@rosslukeman]

Hi Rich, yes you can do that. I haven't, but Victron mentions it if you run out of USB ports.

[@alrude2847]

Nice job. Assume that this will not work for those of us running the VRM from a Rasberry Pie?

[@rosslukeman]

Thanks Al, I haven't run VRM from Raspberry Pi but I assume if it had a bluetooth antenna then it should be able to pick up these sensors as long as you're running Venus OS 2.80 or later. I could be wrong though, just a guess.

[@littlejobby1]

Thanks for that Ross tags installed easily, however how do I put them on a page?

[@rosslukeman]

You just click "menu" and they will be in the device list. That's the only page on the Cerbo they will show on.

[@littlejobby1]

@@rosslukeman thanks Ross, I thought I’d be able to display the data on a page like you can with water levels

[@wilso7235]

Pity you can’t display the temps on the touch screen home page

[@ultratraileric]

Is the light powered by your battery or the relay?

[@rosslukeman]

The battery, the relay just lets the power through.

[@Bonaventure2AK]

I have a 2 year old installation in a boat and want to add a couple Ruuvi sensors. I followed your instructions on setting up the BT in the IO screen. But there is a BT device already detected. I looked at the Device Menu, and I don't see any devices with that name. Could it be on a nearby boat? If I add a Ruuvi sensor, will the "rouge" BT signal mess things up?

[@MojeJmenoje]

Hi can I use another bluetooth sensors or cerbo work only with Ruuvi.

[@rosslukeman]

Hey there, at this time it only works with Bluetooth sensors from Ruuvi and Mopeka as far as I understand. There's a spot in the manual for the Cerbo where they list what it will work with. www.victronenergy.com/media/pg/Cerbo_GX/en/connecting-supported-non-victron-products.html Hope that helps, thanks for tuning in-

[@hinterlandvans]

How many tags can be read on the Cerbo?

[@rosslukeman]

Hi David, I haven't been able to find that info anywhere. In my estimation it would be 10+, enough for most applications.

[@davidpatrick1813]

could you connect a battery switch directly to the fuse holder ... ?

[@ptrsngr]

nice, is there any wireless/lan on/off switch to control with the cerbo, for example to switch on if batttery > 95%?

[@rosslukeman]

No wireless switches yet, the Ruuvi's are the first to work wirelessly with the Cerbo. You would have to wire something to the Cerbo's relay, such as a BatteryProtect or another high-amperage relay.

[@ptrsngr]

@@rosslukeman thats the problem, i use it at home and the cerbo is 70m away, even no LAN solutution? thats really sad

[@peterholtei7018]

Do you know a possibility to also get the moving data from the Ruuvi to the VRM?

[@rosslukeman]

Hi Peter, great question. From what I can tell, the motion data does not show up on the Cerbo GX locally or on VRM. It's like it doesn't exist. Only temp, humidity, and air pressure are listed in either the Cerbo or VRM for a RuuviTag. Even if you set up a widget on the VRM Advanced tab and select the Ruuvi as the device, only temp, humidity and air pressure are listed as parameters to choose from. I have set up the motion alerts on the Ruuvi Station app, and that works well. If you were off-site and wanted motion alerts, you would set up the Ruuvi Gateway, give it an internet connection, and the alerts would come through on your phone. You would also get longer-term monitoring on the Ruuvi Cloud, similar to VRM. Great question, thanks for getting me to dig into this.

[@peterholtei7018]

@@rosslukeman thanks for the quick answer! That means I have to run both clouds, the VRM and The RUUVI one. Allright, then I will go for it 😜👍🏻

[@rosslukeman]

Sounds like it will be a great setup!

[@peterholtei7018]

Ross, another question (don‘t know how to directly PN you): My installation is on a boat, where I have 2 batteries with a 1-both-2-off battery switch. Now I want to a: get rid of this switch and b: get both batteries charged by the alternator when I‘m driving. I also have a Multiplus 12/800/35 installed, with the 4Amps cable charging the starter batterie and the 35Amps connection charging the consumption one when on shore power. Now the question: What would be the best set up - Cyrix Ct instead of main switch or Orion TR 12/12/30 Smart?

[@danielegraff]

Ross, Do you need the touch screen to set these up? Or could use the mobil app? ( I'm just setting up my system, I have the Cerbo GX ordered but not the touch screen) Thanks!

[@rosslukeman]

Hi Daniel, you should be able to turn the Ruuvi's on by launching the Cerbo's remote console with the VictronConnect app. You will see them under "Bluetooth" after clicking on "Menu" and can toggle them on or rename them, etc.

[@LVBRIP]

Doesn't work any more. I bought one and it won't connect. I wanted to connect to Victron GX-cerbo, but the RUUVI is bluetooth, and the bluetooth is deprecated on the Cerbo. On the Victron website it's explicit that bluetooth is only for initial set up. There's no blutooth menu item on the cerbo setup with the latest firmware. There's no bluetooth sensors menu item in the I/O menu From the victron website, Guy Stewart has posted: "The built in bluetooth functionality in the Cerbo GX is limited to the initial configuration of an external wifi network. Due to a limitation with the built-in bluetooth chip only operating at low temperatures, in order to see the built-in bluetooth connection the unit must be cold, such as when it first starts up. The built-in bluetooth availability can then disappear once the unit warms up (depending on ambient temperature and other loads on the Cerbo). This is obviously not ideal, but the work around is that this external wifi network configuration function is also available via the built in wifi hotspot (connection details to this built in wifi hotspot are shown on a sticker on the Cerbo GX, and more details available in the Cerbo GX manual." Will Ruuvi bring out a WiFi version?

[@ppi57]

I use a BT Dongle on a 10ft extension cable connected to Cerbo... rock solid!

[@elliot330]

Thank you for asking this. I am or was struggling to find the B/T option in the color monitor and after much searching, found that its setup to disappear. Seems strange. Reading ppi57 reply below, it seems we need to add a bluetooth dongle to the system. Now I need to research this subject!