question

allswell avatar image
allswell asked

Are there smoke alarms that work with the Cerbo GX > VRM like Ruuvi sensors do?

For people like us who live off grid full time but leave our homes to go to town for supplies now and again, it sure would be great to have smoke alarms connected to the Cerbo GX > VRM dashboard system so that I could get push notifications to my phone that there is an activated smoke alarm at my property while I'm away (or while I'm home for that matter!).

Sure would be a great safety feature of the system. Can anyone please tell me if the Nest or Ring smoke alarms would work, or if there are any other out there that would? If Ruuvi can tell me the temperature of my monitored area, it seems a little stretch for a smoke alarm to do the same if there is smoke?

Thanks Community!

feature requestNot sure - Admin please assign or createsafety
1 comment
2 |3000
Toggle Comment visibility. Current Visibility: Viewable by all users

Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

nesswill avatar image nesswill commented ·
As an off gridder to i would like that too, may-be an opportunity Victron?

Dave.

0 Likes 0 ·
5 Answers
Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image
Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) answered ·

Neither Nest or Ring smoke alarm work with a GX device. The Cerbo GX has 4 digital inputs (see I/O in the settings menu). One of them can be configured as a smoke alarm. What you would need is a smoke alarm sensor with a digital output signal.

3 comments
2 |3000
Toggle Comment visibility. Current Visibility: Viewable by all users

Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

Daniele Calabrese avatar image Daniele Calabrese commented ·
Any sensor we can add via Bluetooth to cerbo for both gas and/or co detection? @Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff)
0 Likes 0 ·
Show more comments
gazza avatar image
gazza answered ·

MQ-135 is a low-cost sensor for monitoring air quality and detecting dangerous gases/smoke. There are many projects around the internet interfacing with Arduino or Pi boards. however, for a simple digital output you should be able to engineer with a transistor or FET driver as a digital trigger to be monitored by the Cerbo? Of course I would not advocate using a DIY device like this as your main source of warning of a fire at home... but it could be used as an "additional" warning to a real professionally produced smoke detector (in the same location).?
The other idea would be to have a sound level detector (set to an appropriate level to avoid spurious alarms), with digital trigger output, monitoring a real smoke detector.
I know both of these options require some design/development effort but they might be the only way unless you can find a product that gives you what you need off the shelf.

2 |3000
Toggle Comment visibility. Current Visibility: Viewable by all users

Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

Laurens D avatar image
Laurens D answered ·

If you got use Venus OS large you can probably make something with node-red and API's for smoke detectors; you might even like to make one yourself there are many DIY projects.


Just an idea, I do not have experience with this yet.

2 |3000
Toggle Comment visibility. Current Visibility: Viewable by all users

Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

Daniele Calabrese avatar image
Daniele Calabrese answered ·

nice but that would be really a lot for me!!

2 |3000
Toggle Comment visibility. Current Visibility: Viewable by all users

Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

Trevor Bird avatar image
Trevor Bird answered ·

@Allswell I know that in Australia I can easily buy a "relay base" for a large number of smoke alarms for sale here. The relay base simply provides a relay contact in the event of a fire alarm. This is so the smoke alarm can easily interface to third part systems in large installations. If you provide that contact closure to a digital input to the CerbobGx it will do what you want. In fact on page 35 of the CerboGX manual it very specifically mentions a fire alarm can be set as one of the four digital inputs.

Also, to be fair to Victron, it would be unusual for a mission critial system such as a fire alarm to be connected using bluetooth. It might be ok for fridge temperatures or LPG sensors but fire alarms have a different level of urgency and hence reliability is of paramount concern. It would be unusual for a fire alarm system to be interrconnected via bluetooth.

I hope this helps.

2 comments
2 |3000
Toggle Comment visibility. Current Visibility: Viewable by all users

Up to 8 attachments (including images) can be used with a maximum of 190.8 MiB each and 286.6 MiB total.

nickdb avatar image nickdb ♦♦ commented ·
iirc sonoff have smart smoke detectors. Sonoff has a node red node so you may be able to integrate it via node red into the GX. I am using tuya based ones and just use their native app for remote alerts.
1 Like 1 ·
Alexandra avatar image Alexandra ♦ commented ·

I agree, bluetooth is affected by too many factors and so is not reliable enough for an important signal such as smoke alarm detection.

It does make better sense on a safety level, since that is what is being aimed for here, to have hard wired signals.

Even further step would then also to have the safety switch assistant on and signalled by the same realy system to stop both the charge and discharge of the system.

0 Likes 0 ·

Related Resources

The feature requests topic tag can help Victron R&D find feature suggestions for products. 

There are many factors that go into the Victron product roadmap, and feedback from end-users can help.

Additional resources still need to be added for this topic