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Old 09-06-2024, 13:33   #1
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Monitoring many tanks with Victron Cerbo ?

Hey Everyone,

i'm trying to figure out how to monitor my tanks while on boat and also remotely.
The idea was to use the Cerbo GX and the Victron VRM, but it's limited to 4 resistance tanks sensors, i know they offer GX Tank 140 but works only with Current and Voltage sensor , which as far i saw are very expensive, so i was looking for a way to connect more capacitive sensors to the Cerbo? is there any way? Can i use two Cerbo GX? are there any cheap but reliable Current/Voltahe Sensors?

I have 6 fresh water tanks, 2 fuel tanks (all with resistance sensor) which i'd like to monitor. Plus i was thinking of a way to monitor remotely the bilge level, so another sensor to connect to the Cerbo, what would you use?

Any alternative to the victron way to achieve this?

Thank you!
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Old 09-06-2024, 13:52   #2
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Re: Monitoring many tanks with Victron Cerbo ?

The cerbo can be connected to a nmea 2000 backbone. But I’m not sure what data it takes / shares. You might be Able to put all the tanks onto a NMEA 2000 bus. Then share to cerbo. But I’m not sure on that.
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Old 09-06-2024, 14:01   #3
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Re: Monitoring many tanks with Victron Cerbo ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by smac999 View Post
The cerbo can be connected to a nmea 2000 backbone. But I’m not sure what data it takes / shares. You might be Able to put all the tanks onto a NMEA 2000 bus. Then share to cerbo. But I’m not sure on that.
That's a good idea, i will look into it to see if it's possible, i am quite ignorant regarding the NMEA system/network
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Old 09-06-2024, 14:37   #4
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Re: Monitoring many tanks with Victron Cerbo ?

What about the VE.Can resistive tank adapter? A few of those should do the job.
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Old 09-06-2024, 15:06   #5
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Re: Monitoring many tanks with Victron Cerbo ?

If you connect the cerbo to N2K network (there is an entire section of the manual on that) you can display any N2k tank sender on the cerbo.
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Old 04-02-2025, 06:38   #6
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Re: Monitoring many tanks with Victron Cerbo ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Statistical View Post
If you connect the cerbo to N2K network (there is an entire section of the manual on that) you can display any N2k tank sender on the cerbo.
Actually, Cerbo GX doesn't support all N2k sensors. As of this writing, here are the supported sensors:
  1. Maretron TLA100
  2. Maretron TLM100
  3. Navico Fluid Level Sensor Fuel-0 PK, partno. 000-11518-001.
  4. Oceanic Systems (UK) Ltd (OSUKL) - 3271 Volumetric Tank Sender.
  5. Oceanic Systems UK Ltd (OSUKL) - 3281 Water Level Sender.

Full list is in their manual.

For example, in our case, EmpirBus sensors from Raymarine were not supported.

There is a more advanced method of integrating N2k sensors with a combination of Signal K and Node-RED. That's how we ended up displaying our EmpirBus tank sensor readings. Details are available in this video tutorial:

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Old 04-02-2025, 07:15   #7
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Re: Monitoring many tanks with Victron Cerbo ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tenedos View Post
Actually, Cerbo GX doesn't support all N2k sensors. As of this writing, here are the supported sensors:
  1. Maretron TLA100
  2. Maretron TLM100
  3. Navico Fluid Level Sensor Fuel-0 PK, partno. 000-11518-001.
  4. Oceanic Systems (UK) Ltd (OSUKL) - 3271 Volumetric Tank Sender.
  5. Oceanic Systems UK Ltd (OSUKL) - 3281 Water Level Sender.

Full list is in their manual.

For example, in our case, EmpirBus sensors from Raymarine were not supported.

There is a more advanced method of integrating N2k sensors with a combination of Signal K and Node-RED. That's how we ended up displaying our EmpirBus tank sensor readings. Details are available in this video tutorial:

I have the Maretron FPM-100 for 6 tanks and I’m pretty sure it will work because it’s just about the PGN’s that are transmitted on the network. I will find out as I will install it soon.
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Old 04-02-2025, 07:17   #8
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Re: Monitoring many tanks with Victron Cerbo ?

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Originally Posted by s/v Jedi View Post
I have the Maretron FPM-100 for 6 tanks and I’m pretty sure it will work because it’s just about the PGN’s that are transmitted on the network. I will find out as I will install it soon.
That will be interesting to see, they state in the manual that "A single function reporting multiple Fluid Levels is currently not supported".

Please keep us posted.
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Old 04-02-2025, 07:37   #9
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Re: Monitoring many tanks with Victron Cerbo ?

There is a section in the Cerbo GX install manual that covers connecting multiple GX devices for the sole purpose of extending the number of tank senders.

5.6. Increasing the number of tank inputs by using multiple GX devices
https://www.victronenergy.com/media/...e-b3dbbdc973ae
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Old 04-02-2025, 08:06   #10
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Re: Monitoring many tanks with Victron Cerbo ?

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That will be interesting to see, they state in the manual that "A single function reporting multiple Fluid Levels is currently not supported".

Please keep us posted.
Yes, I find that very confusing language. The PGN has data like tank number, fluid type, fluid level and tank capacity. For each tank, a separate PGN is transmitted. If they don’t support multiple tanks (which is different from multiple levels) then it isn’t NMEA compliant and needs to be fixed.

Tank levels can be displayed on most displays and like someone posted, there are ways to patch code to enable displaying anything on a Cerbo.

I have very limited time to spend on this so will probably just use another display until it gets fixed
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