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rrgrant avatar image
rrgrant asked

Cerbo GX communication loss

I’ve recently setup a Cerbo GX to monitor my batteries and solar on my boat while I’m away, but it is suffering with fairly regular communication failures - between one hour and four hours every day or two. There is no regular time or pattern to the failures.

The Cerbo is connected via wifi to a cellular hotspot, and I know the hotspot is active because I have a separate monitoring system watching temperature and wind speeds that is still on line when the Cerbo fails. That would indicate to me that that Cerbo connection to the hotspot is hanging for some reason. There is a good connection between the Cerbo and the hotspot. Everything looks normal before and after the comms failure so I don’t know what is going on.

Any thoughts?

cerbo gx
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matt1309 avatar image matt1309 commented ·

HI @rrgrant


My guess was going to be your routers DHCP renewing internal ip on an interval but you'd have thought that would give a more clear disconnection pattern like a fixed time length. To fully rule it out maybe try setting static ip in router/on cerbo.


I've not read up on it recently but venus os used to use conman for managing connections, may be worth ssh'ing into the cerbo and checking the logs. The logs might give you a clue as to what's causing the disconnection, ie is it a drop in wifi or is it IP related or something else altogether

Just out of curiosity when you say connection drop what do you mean/how do you spot it. Is it disconnecting from VRM or is it remote console that's dropping out? Pretty sure VRM data is stored if connection is dropped then sent when connections restored so guessing you mean remote console disconnecting? That might also be a xvnc/websockets connection issue if not connection related.


but these are just my guesses, hopefully one of them narrows your search down a bit


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rrgrant avatar image rrgrant matt1309 commented ·

Thanks @matt1309. When the connection drops, it means that the VRM Notifier gives me a "No data alarm - You are receiving this alarm notification because the VRM database has not received new data from this site since ...", and the VRM app will not connect to installation. I know the cellular hotspot is up and running because the other monitoring system is up and sending real-time data to it's monitoring website while the Victron system is down. That means it's either the Cerbo has stopped talking to the hotspot, or the VRM website is not accepting data (which doesn't seem likely). Similarly, I can't see that it is the cellular hotspot renewing IP addresses or an interruption in the cellular coverage, because then the other monitoring system would also hit a speedbump, which is not happening.

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matt1309 avatar image matt1309 rrgrant commented ·

Could still be hotspot/router not assigning/renewing the cerbo's internal ip address for some reason, maybe some incompatability issue with the routers DHCP server. Seems unlikely but for the sake of setting a static internal IP i'd try that if not already.

The other monitoring device is also wifi im guessing not wired?

Think reading the cerbo logs is your only option. Cant think of any other obvious causes.


Try checking /var/log/messages when the disconnection happens, pretty sure connman logs to there.

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rotevery avatar image rotevery rrgrant commented ·

It's most likely the quality of the internet / wifi. I have two sites with almost identical setup. It is the site with poorer quality internet that gives the no data alarm much more frequently. I find a direct relation between the issue and quality of the internet link per time. I have now bought the dedicated GX 4G/LTE device for the relevant site but I'm yet to install it. I plan to use a sim card from a different internet service provider than the supplier of the wifi / network / router I'm presently using at the site.

You can go to settings > VRM online portal > Reboot device when no contact and set it to ON. On the same screen you can set the No Contact Reset Delay to say, 1 hour. This made things much better for my site.

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digitater avatar image
digitater answered ·

I had similar issues with an off-grid cabin connected to starlink repeatedly dropping off. I went to settings -> VRM online portal > Reboot device when no contact and it fixed it. Also make sure 2 way communication with VRM enabled.

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