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Peter H avatar image
Peter H asked

Cerbo GX with phone browser

Hi, I’m new with Cerbo GX so please bear with me if this is a basic question. I tried searching before posting with little success.

My GX is installed in a boat to monitor several tanks. No boat wifi or internet possibilities exist, but an offline, stable solution is the ambition.

Is there a way to set up the GX as a wifi hotspot so that a retired iPhone could serve as a remote control panel? Due to the age of the phone it can’t install Victron Connect but needs to use the web browser. Ideally, with the wifi configured on GX + phone, and a phone desktop shortcut to Safari, would allow me and the family to unlock the screen and click the shortcut (which opens the IP address of the GX). Could it be done?

cerbo gx
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wilm avatar image
wilm answered ·

Hi Westpete,

you could switch the hotspot-function in your smartphone to on. Then CerboGX could connect to the phone which acts as a access-point. Knowing the ip-address of the cerbo, you should be able to connect.

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Peter H avatar image Peter H commented ·

Thanks Wilm, that’s an interesting approach. The hotspot function on iPhone I suppose would be ”Internet sharing”? If so it requires the user to enable it several times a day through the phone’s settings. I would love to configure it once and then have them auto connect ever after, so the iPhone is as easy to use as the Touch 50 would be. Any ideas how to do that?

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Michelle Konzack avatar image
Michelle Konzack answered ·

I do not know, how old your iPhone is, but my older Android 4 phone with Firefox does not work and I get a strange webinterface.


However, in Theorie it should work (it works with a Lenovo Tab 4 8 and Android 8)

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Peter H avatar image Peter H commented ·
Thanks! Did you manage to ”tether” your tablet through wifi? How did you configure the setup?
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Michelle Konzack avatar image Michelle Konzack Peter H commented ·
I simply activated the Hotspot on my Tablet and the used a networks canner to find the IP of the Cerbo GX and used it in my Firefox browser.
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seb71 avatar image
seb71 answered ·

Get an Wi-Fi router (you won't use the WAN port - no Internet connection needed.). If possible, power it from DC.

Connect the Cerbo to a LAN port of the router (using an UTP cable). Place the Wi-Fi router close to the place where you want to use the phone (to have good Wi-Fi signal in that place).

In the DHCP setting of the router manually assign a certain IP to Cerbo's MAC (so that the Cerbo IP is always the same). That IP should be in the DHCP range (so that the phone will be in the IP same range).

Configure the Wi-Fi SSID/password etc. in the Wi-Fi router.

Connect the phone to the Wi-Fi from that router.

Now both Cerbo and the phone are in the same LAN.

Open a browser in the phone and at the address bar input the IP address of the Cerbo (the IP you set in the router).


Instead of the Wi-Fi router you could use a LAN switch and an Wi-Fi Access Point (connected with a UTP/LAN cable to the switch).

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Matthias Lange - DE avatar image Matthias Lange - DE ♦ commented ·

Why so complicated, the Cerbo has its own WiFi access point exactly for that.

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Michelle Konzack avatar image Michelle Konzack Matthias Lange - DE ♦ commented ·
I have two customers where I can not connect to the Cerbo GX internal Access Point.


There are also some villages in Estonia, where it is forbidden to use WiFi at all, because military (NATO) orgs claim, it interfere with surveillance operations on Russia. :<{


Welcome to the real world!


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seb71 avatar image seb71 Matthias Lange - DE ♦ commented ·
Better Wi-Fi, at longer distance from Cerbo.
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Peter H avatar image Peter H seb71 commented ·
Excellent advise, will try the built-in wifi first and have a wired router with better wifi as next level solution if needed.
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Matthias Lange - DE avatar image
Matthias Lange - DE answered ·
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Peter H avatar image
Peter H answered ·

Thanks all, all your help is really appreciated! it seems to work reasonably well. Here’s what I learned in case someone else wonders later on:

1. The GX is factory configured as a wifi host.

Note: I was unable to edit SSID and P/W but had to go with defaults physically printed on the unit.

2. To access the remote mgmt page from a device, connect to the GX wifi network, open a browser and type address ”venus.local”. This removes the need to keep track of the GX IP address.

Note: Several devices at a time can connect to its wifi network, while only one at a time can use the browser remote mgmt page.

Note: The remote mgmt web page is not sufficiently displayed in an iPhone 12 + IOS 16, but worked perfectly on an iPhone 6s + IOS 15. On an iPhone 4 + IOS 7 the page is ok, but the screen is bordering too small for the web graphics. iPad works nicely, even old ones. The page doesn’t zoom or scroll on any iDevice.

3. The user experience of the web page is terrible compared to dedicated Touch 50 or 70. It works though, so for now I’ll save the 270-400 EUR cost of the Touch display.

———

Please share if you know how to configure the network name + password, or how to make the page display in an iphone display!

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