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philr-1 avatar image
philr-1 asked

Cerbo, WiFi and internet connection reliability

This problem relates to several different Cerbo installations, including my own in my house, and three other installations I have made for friends locally. Common to all is a set up with Cerbo set to home WiFi network to connect with Victron VRM. In the case of my own home, the router is 50cm away from the Cerbo, so no question of weak signal. In all the cases, the Cerbo shows more than 55% signal strength from the WiFi.

The problem is that the Cerbo occasionally disconnects from the home WiFi and will not reconnect. In the case of my home system, it has been running perfectly for over a year, then one day, it disconnects and refuses to reconnect, despite strong WiFi signal. There have been times when the router has been turned off and back on again, and the Cerbo auto-detects and connects. But on rare occasions, Cerbo disconnects and fails to reconnect even though the WiFi signal is strong

Solution has been to connect a computer or phone to the Cerbo WiFi, go into settings and turn off and on the WiFi connection setting, it then finds the WiFi and connects again.

Currently, I am not in the area, and four systems i have installed all seem to have disconnected themselves and refuse to reconnect all about the same time. This in itself is curious?


Cerbo is a pricey piece of kit for what it is (could do similar with an SBC for a fraction of the cost) and it would be really good if I did not have to drive around to several installations to reconnect them to the internet every few months. Does Victron have a reliable WiFi device that could overcome this issue. Obviously its not the home WiFi because this is common problem to several different installations, common denominator is the Cerbo

Phil

cerbo gxwifi
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8 Answers
JohnC avatar image
JohnC answered ·

Hi @phil.r

There's some discussion of Cerbo wifi issues here..

https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/82877/cerbo-gx-wi-fi-issue-when-having-the-gx-touch-conn.html

You may see something relevant.

I use a Victron-sourced nano usb on a CCGX, with a short extension to get it out of an Easysolar box. At like 7m (and a wall) it reports ~75% signal. Works ok.

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philr-1 avatar image philr-1 commented ·
Hi JohnC.

Thanks for the link, I had read this and a few other posts on Cerbo and WiFi, its interesting, but I dont think applies to my issue.

All of my systems, located within a 30km radius, connect to their respective WiFi networks and work for months without a problem. Turning WiFi off and then back on again is usually not a problem, and the Cerbo autodetects the wifi and connects. However, from time to time, only occasionally, the Cerbo appears to disconnect itself from the WiFi and then refuses to autoconnect. Solution so far has been to drive to the installation, log in directly to the Cerbo where it shows a reconnect failure, and then connect to Wifi from within the settings. This then works just fine and it connects, which leads me to question why auto connect occasionally fails and manual connect still works?

In the case of my home system, it has been working fine for almost a year, not touched, not adjusted, with Fiber internet connection, and very good signal strength at the Cerbo. About 4 days ago, it disconnected and has not reconnected, yet internet and WiFi has been continuous and uninterrupted.

For one installation at home, its not a serious problem, but driving out to several installations all seem to have stopped more or less around same time, this is questionable and should be of concern to Victron.


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nickdb avatar image
nickdb answered ·

Something to consider. Being that close to the router is also not a great idea, some devices can have issues with interference.

In wifi land 55% is terrible and can easily cause timeouts. You need a healthy and consistent signal to avoid issues. Not all routers are equal either.

Set the cerbo to reboot itself if it has been disconnected for longer than 10 minutes. It's a simple fix to a more complicated problem.

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philr-1 avatar image philr-1 commented ·
Thanks for the thoughts Nickdb. Curious thing is, across the four installations, I have one which is very close (although I had previously had a distance of around 5 meters, due to this same problem, I brought the wifi router as close as possible so there was no possibilities of time outs, one other is quite a weak signal, around 55%, and the other two are both in the 73% and 82% wifi strengths. These installations are also on different internet provider networks and all lie within 30 km of each other. All work fine and then one day, all lose WiFi auto connect abilities. Maybe its just coincidence, but it seems to me the odds are against them all developing same problem at same time.

As I have the full variety of signal strengths, I do not think this to be a cause, if it was, then presumably the WiFi reception must be set at a fixed predetermined strength and would be a parameter setting given by Victron. Quite how to move pre-installed routers to meet Cerbo requirements would be another resulting question.

Curious also is that to reconnect to the same Wifi, accessing the Cerbo and simply instructing it to reconnect is sufficient, so issue is with the autoconnect, not the network WiFi


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nickdb avatar image nickdb ♦♦ philr-1 commented ·

There have been issues, reconnection was improved a few months ago with updates so it should be better.

Do yourself a favour and log onto the remote console of each. Go to settings, VRM portal and enable the no-contact reboot, like so:

screenshot-2022-04-25-at-144036.png

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screenshot-2022-04-25-at-144036.png (124.7 KiB)
philr-1 avatar image philr-1 commented ·
the problem is not connectivity, or signal dropping, but failing to auto re-connect



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philr-1 avatar image philr-1 philr-1 commented ·
Hi Nickdb

this last message from you has just appeared on my screen, makes a lot of sense, thanks, i will give it a try, hopefully it will resolve

Phil


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jamesmcclatchey avatar image
jamesmcclatchey answered ·

I gave up on Cerbo Wi-Fi although in my case, it was because it does not connect to 5 GHZ Wi-Fi which was all that was available at my RV storage location. Instead I use a TP-Link AC750 Portable Nano Router in WiFi extender mode. The Nano has an Internet socket and comes with a short cable which I use to hardwire to the Cerbo. This connection has been rock solid.

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philr-1 avatar image
philr-1 answered ·

The best solution has been to enable reboot after disconnect - thanks nickdb

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usernamepasswordbs avatar image
usernamepasswordbs answered ·

I had similar and almost daily connection issues. I added a nano wifi dongle which seemed to improve but still regular issues.

Eventually i ran a cat5e cable from cerbo to router and that has been a massive improvement.


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trabbic avatar image
trabbic answered ·

Try setting a static IP address on the Cerbo, I noticed it was clearing the gateway out when renewing the DHCP address. I set a Static IP outside of my DHCP range and the connectivity has been rock solid.

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nimbl avatar image
nimbl answered ·

Same problem here. It disconnected from my home wifi and will not reconnect even after rebooting. It did the exact same thing to my phones hotspot connection as well. Once it dropped the connection it will not reconnect. So frustrating.

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daza avatar image daza commented ·
Are you rebooting your router too? As sometime the router wont give out an address or response. wifi is ok never something that is a 100% I would try to hardwire if you can or at least powerline adapters for better reliability
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andreas aigelsreiter avatar image
andreas aigelsreiter answered ·

My Cerbo has similar problems whenever my WiFi network loses it's internet connection.

It has nothing to do with the WiFi itself - e.g. when turning my WiFi on/off or rebooting my access point it does

  • whether trigger
  • nor solve

the issue.

Only when my provider shuts down the line (did it in the last weeks several times due to larger maintenance works), the Cerbo drops the WiFi connection and does not recover.

It seems that any of these actions help:

  • Cerbo > Settings > General > Reboot
  • Cerbo > Settings > WiFi > off/on
  • Cerbo > Settings > VRM > Auto reboot when connection lost (i use 15min)


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Related Resources

Cerbo GX product page

GX family product range

Cerbo GX & GX Touch datasheet

Cerbo GX Manual

Venus root access document

Additional resources still need to be added for this topic