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

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allswell asked Nov 27, '22

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 request Not sure - Admin please assign or create safety

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nesswill commented · Feb 17, 2023 at 06:29 AM

As an off gridder to i would like that too, may-be an opportunity Victron?

Dave.

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Modifications Space

Node Red Space

Answer 1 · 2022-11-27T18:58:18Z

Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) answered · Nov 27, 2022 at 06:58 PM

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.

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Daniele Calabrese commented · Feb 16, 2023 at 12:55 PM

Any sensor we can add via Bluetooth to cerbo for both gas and/or co detection? @Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff)

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Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ Daniele Calabrese commented · Feb 16, 2023 at 04:21 PM

No. Currently the only supported Bluetooth sensors are RuuviTags (temperature, humidity and barometric pressure) and Mopeka Pro Check (LPG and water).

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allswell Stefanie (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented · Mar 29, 2023 at 04:56 PM

Thanks Stefanie, do you know if there are any plans at Victron to support bluetooth smoke detectors like the Nest system? Seems a natural fit!

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Answer 2 · 2022-11-27T19:49:06Z

gazza answered · Nov 27, 2022 at 07:49 PM

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.

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Answer 3 · 2023-02-16T16:26:40Z

Laurens D answered · Feb 16, 2023 at 04:26 PM

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.

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Answer 4 · 2023-02-17T03:13:30Z

Daniele Calabrese answered · Feb 17, 2023 at 03:13 AM

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

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Answer 5 · 2023-03-30T02:25:41Z

Trevor Bird answered · Mar 30, 2023 at 02:25 AM

@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.

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nickdb ♦♦ commented · Mar 30, 2023 at 05:55 AM

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.

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Alexandra ♦ commented · Mar 30, 2023 at 05:38 AM

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.

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