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gregoryx avatar image
gregoryx asked

Bluetooth issues with Ruuvi and BT dongles

Basic background: 3 Ruuvi tags were working great on 2.82. Upgraded to 2.84 or 2.85 (can't remember which did it first) and the tags were gone. Let it slide for a while... tried the new betas (2.90~5 first, then 2.90~8) and all still didn't work. In fact, worse: the BT menu under I/O disappeared. Rebooted and the main Bluetooth menu was gone as well. Rolled back to 2.85 and main BT menu and I/O BT were both there. But no Ruuvi tags working.

Got one of the recommended BT dongles (TP UB400) and no luck. Initially didn't disable the main BT (hadn't read that at first); but when disabled, still no Ruuvi tags show up. Upgrade to 2.90~8 (at the time) and both main and I/O BT menus gone.

Okay... maybe wait for another beta?

Also ordered another BT dongle (this one that someone else said worked).

Today, tried 2.90~10 and same response.

Rolled back to 2.85. Plugged in the second BT dongle, rebooted. Disabled main BT. Rebooted. Enabled I/O BT... and the Ruuvi tags showed up! YAY!

Okay... supposed to be better BT control options in the 2.90~XX versions, so upgrade to 2.90~10 again. AUGH! BT menus gone - both of them.

Roll back to 2.85. Both BT menus show up... but no Ruuvi tags.


Okay... please tell me someone who matters is reading thing... I think there's something going on with the OS logging BT devices. I suspect if I were to clear out the relationship with the drivers and/or devices associated with the Ruuvi tags and BT that it would work again. I'm guessing this because when I added the new BT dongle today, everything looked great again. I'd guess that if I order a third BT dongle it will log them and work again. I don't know why the betas are killing it... but I think that's what's happening.


Can someone tell me how to remove these BT devices from the OS and let it re-learn?

Bluetoothruuvi sensorsBluetooth Low Energy - BLE
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mvader (Victron Energy) avatar image mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ commented ·

Hi, besides bathnms question (which GX device) please also add a screenshot of both the main Bluetooth sensors menu as well as the adapates one (which is new). The purpose of the Bluetooth Adapters menu is that as a user you can see that all inserted adapters are actually working and recognised.


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In this example screenshot there is just one adapter visible, which is the built-in one since its the Cerbo GX.

Any extra inserted adapter should lead to more lines showing up. The code will use data received from *all* inserted adapters.


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6 Answers
bathnm avatar image
bathnm answered ·

Please advise what the underlying hardware is you are running this on. Is it an RPI? Is it a CerboGX.

If a RPI is it a 3 or 4? If a 4 what board revision?

This will help as it sounds like there maybe a kernel issue

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gregoryx avatar image
gregoryx answered ·

Thank you for the clarifications. It is a Cerbo GX.

And @mvader (Victron Energy), there is no Bluetooth menu when I go to the 2.90~8 or 2.90~10 versions. I was /hoping/ to see exactly what you posted!

Update: After 2.85 not seeing the Ruuvi tags again, I searched a bit and did an hciconfig reset then rebooted and got the BT back in 2.85. No clue what's going on... but I suspect the kernel idea isn't out of line. I'll try going back to 2.90~10 and seeing if any hciconfig attempts help.

At the moment, I'm hopeful that I may have a way to get them working back on 2.85 now from command line; if so, that makes it easier to test on 2.90~Xxx and roll back for functionality until the issue is figured out.


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gregoryx avatar image
gregoryx answered ·

Wow. Okay... went back up to 2.90~10 and there is no BT in either main or I/O.

And hciconfig from the command line returns nothing. And hciconfig hci0 returns "No such device"

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gregoryx avatar image
gregoryx answered ·

No screenshots since I didn't capture at the right time - who could have known?

Had the BT and Ruuvi sensors all come online at midnight last Saturday. Reporting as expected. But with the Cerbo BT enabled (no way to control that since the menu wasn't present - see above). And no additional BT showed up under the I/O area (when the menu was there). They all went away again.

Well... today I went to look at that data in a history report... and it looks like it's been going on/off line for days now. Green line is wired temp. Other lines are Ruuvi tags.

Was working as expected until doing a firmware update on May 6th. Then dead until I started tinkering more May 18th. Then on/off since then.

ruuvi-on-off.jpg

Zoomed in to the more current period. No intervention at all since May 21st. And coming online around May 18th was when changing firmware between different versions. But with two different USB dongles.

ruuvi-on-off-2.jpg


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junkycosmos avatar image
junkycosmos answered ·

I just ran into something similar when I change the firmware on my Cerbo GX. I have four sensors that were working great on version 2.8.7.

Interesting that this was the original firmware I set up the sensors on the cerbo with. I updated to 2.8.9 and my sensors are gone. I wrote back to 2.8.7 and the sensors are still gone. When I look at my Bluetooth Sensors menu (in io menu) only have enable/disable do not have all of the options posted here.

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junkycosmos answered ·

Found fix for my situation.


Unplug everything from the CerboGX, then plug it all back in. On startup all sensors immedialy showed back up.

Pretty silly that victron has these firmware issues .. BUT .. apperently unplugging power from the Cerobo GX DOES NOT actually reset enough of it, nor does doing a reboot. INSTEAD unplugging ALL PLUGS from the Cerbo GX (USB to Touch), CAN to inverter and 732, and power does the trick


sharing from my thread here https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/149117/ruuvi-temp-sensors-lost-from-firmware-287-to-289.html

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