question

josh-sipma avatar image
josh-sipma asked

Native Victron CONTROL

Hello all,


I have a client looking for a device that can control his devices in their van—turn devices on and off, inverter on and off, lights, etc. Not buried in the settings somewhere, but a day-to-day single panel that can control everything. The Simarine Caravan is his most likely option at the moment. I suggested a Cerbo & Touch GX, but with the Touch GX, you can't really control things easily. Yes, theres a few relays, but to activate them is cumbersome (to my knowledge) and wouldnt be good for day-to-day usage.


Does Victron make such a product?

cerbo gxgx devicecontrol
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Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image
Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) answered ·

@Josh Sipma

No, Victron does not make such products.

However, this can easily be done with Node-RED or Signal K (or both combined), which are part of Venus OS Large. Digital switching comes to mind. I use it on my boat along with Yacht Devices YDCC-04 circuit controller to control almost anything switchable including lights, inverter/charger and other Victron products and switch them either conditionally or manually via a Node-RED dashboard or a Signal K client app from any mobile device.


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josh-sipma avatar image josh-sipma commented ·

Thats great to know! I did some quick research on the YDCC-04 and it seems to be similar to what I'm looking for. I don't quite understand the unit but from what I can tell, you connect loads to one side, and switches to the other and can create a dashboard from the switches? Node RED seems super cool, but far above my pay grade at this point. Do you know of any good tutorials or plug and play solutions?

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Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ josh-sipma commented ·

Yes, exactly. Note that those relays are rated for max current of 10A. You can switch from a physical button (a diy control dashboard) and virtually from a Node-RED dashboard, Signal K client app or a modern MFD, such as B&G, Garmin or Raymarine.

There is a German distributor (Buss Yacht-Shop) who made some nice Youtube videos about digital switching with Yacht Devices and a self-explaining illustration of how they are wired. See https://busse-yachtshop.de/s/Yacht-Devices-YDCC-04-Circuit-Control-fuer-4-Taster-mit-4-Relaisausgaengen-NMEA2000

AFAIK Garmin has also some digital switching devices and CZone of course (kind of a standard).

Though this is not really plug and play and requires a lot of research and learning ;-)



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