question

sam-woolnough avatar image
sam-woolnough asked

Water tank level displayed on GX touch 50?

Hey guys,

I have a Cerbo unit hooked up to a gx touch 50 screen in my 4WD.

I have a 42L water tank and I’m wanting to somehow hook that up to the cerbo hbitto display water level.

is that something that can be done?

cheers!

Sam

cerbo gx
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2 Answers
Kevin Windrem avatar image
Kevin Windrem answered ·

There are options depending on the sender in the tank. If you don't already have a sender in the tank, you will need to add one.

Resistive senders typically mount through a hole drilled in the top of the tank, you can connect them directly to Cerbo's tank inputs. There are some senders that mimic resistive senders that may also work.

The probe type senders that give you 1/3, 2/3 and full readings are not compatible with the Cerbo tank inputs.

Capacitive senders stick to the outside of a plastic tank and are great for adding after the tank is installed. Many of these output NMEA 2000 signals.

A single NMEA 2000 tank sender can also be connected to Cerbo via the Victron NMEA 2000 adapter cable. There are many brands that have this output.

Garnet Instruments makes a NMEA2000 version of their SeeLevel sensor system. This model is not in their catalog so you need to contact Garnet for availability.The model you would need is 709-N2K_NLP.

https://www.garnetinstruments.com

This is a shortcoming in the GX code for any NMEA2000 sender system with more than one tank. A single display element cycling between tanks. This will eventually be fixed. In the mean time, I have a fix:

https://github.com/kwindrem/TankRepeater

Other sensors output a voltage which is probably not compatible with the Cerbo resistive tank inputs. A new device is under development at Victron which should support voltage sensors. Details on that adapter here:

https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/47324/looking-for-input-4-to-20ma-senders.html

3 comments
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luis-gomezcala avatar image luis-gomezcala commented ·

Hi Kevin,

You seem very knowledgable about this devices and hopefully will be able to help me.

I have a Cerbo GX with the GX Touch 50 display then decided to get a couple of VE.Can resistive tank sender adapters powered by a VE.Can Power Cable.

So far, I have been unable to make them work. The instructions are very poor and there is no wiring diagram

By any chance do you have a wiring diagram to cross-check my connexions ?

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Kevin Windrem avatar image Kevin Windrem luis-gomezcala commented ·

I don't have any experience with these adapters. A quick look at the manual here:

https://www.victronenergy.com/live/ve.can:ve.can_resistive_tank_sender_adapter

indicates that you need to power the CANbus network. It sounds like you've handled that

You also need to terminate both ends of the VE.Can bus.

Each sender tank adapter needs a unique tank instance or there could be conflicts.

BTW, Cerbo has four resistive tank inputs so only need the expensive VE.CAN resistive tank sender adapters if you have more than 4 tanks to monitor. If you do, note that the space on the Mobile Overview page for tanks gets overcrowded with more than 3-4 tanks. I have made changes to that to allow around 6-7 tanks to display cleanly:

https://github.com/kwindrem/GuiMods

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Tom avatar image
Tom answered ·

Hi @Kevin Windrem - do you know of a blue tooth sensor that is compatible with the Cerbo and GX touch? I'm using a resistive sensor for my fresh water and looking to a bluetooth/wireless approach with the release of Venus OS 2.84.

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Kevin Windrem avatar image Kevin Windrem commented ·
Tank sensors? No, I do not.

Gx Tank 140 supports voltage and current sensors.

NEMA2000 sensors are also supported.

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