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tripleg avatar image
tripleg asked

Can't make local ethernet connection to Cerbo GX

I'm trying to make a local connection to my Cerbo GX. It works fine with Bluetooth but I want to make that connection to my Win10 laptop with ethernet. I've tried resetting the network, rebooting both laptop and Cerbo to no avail. Does anyone have any thoughts?

cerbo gx
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5 Answers
grahamwood avatar image
grahamwood answered ·

If you are hooking your laptop directly to the Cerbo then you will need to create a local network over ethernet. You will need to manually set the IP address in the Cerbo like 192.168.2.1 and set the IP address on your laptop to 192.168.2.0 then they will talk. Wifi is easier because the router will use DHCP but if you want to direct link then do what I said above.

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tripleg avatar image tripleg commented ·
Thanks so much...I figured it had something to do with the IP configuration!
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tripleg avatar image tripleg tripleg commented ·
Well I thought that was going to resolve the issue for me but seems I got tangled up trying to figure out the subnet mask and gateway and DNS settings. Any thoughts you might have on this??
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grahamwood avatar image grahamwood tripleg commented ·
Sorry, just got up. If you use the IP addresses I said earlier the Subnet Mask should be 255.255.255.0. You don't need Gateway or DNS IP's because you are not connecting to external networks.
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Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) avatar image
Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) answered ·

There is a chance it might just work plugging it in via a protocol called Link-Local. The GX device supports this, but your laptop may or may not.

It's easy to test though, you can get the details in this section of the manual - https://www.victronenergy.com/media/pg/Venus_GX/en/accessing-the-gx-device.html#UUID-175c12a7-0108-018c-11d2-b135c7add3c7

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tripleg avatar image
tripleg answered ·

Okay...between Grahamwood's answer and Guy Stewart's answer I was finally able to connect to the Cerbo with my laptop thru the ethernet connection. However, all I can access is the Remote Console which doesn't give me the wonderful array of historical data that I get with VRM. My ultimate goal is to be able to get access to this data. Any comments or thoughts about that??

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grahamwood avatar image grahamwood commented ·
By what method are you connecting your Cerbo to the internet?
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grahamwood avatar image grahamwood commented ·
All you will get on a local host connection is the Remote Console. If you want to access your VRM account then connect your laptop to the internet.
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tripleg avatar image tripleg grahamwood commented ·
Okay...that explains it. I'm trying to use the Cerbo in an off-line mode since this location does not have easy access to the internet. I guess I'll need to get historical data from the SD card. Thanks again for your on-going interest in helping and your responsiveness!
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kevgermany avatar image
kevgermany answered ·

Are you just plugging into the laptop instead of through a router?

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tripleg avatar image tripleg commented ·
Directly into laptop
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JohnC avatar image
JohnC answered ·

@Tripleg

What you could also try is using ICS in Win10 (Google how to do it). This will allocate an IP to Cerbo of '192.168.137.xxx'. Useful if you have no router and only using a wifi hotspot for the Win device. The Cerbo can then access the internet too.

The xxx can change on a Win reboot (and fail connecting), but if you have Cerbo set to 'Automatic' IP Configuration when you set it up, then change it to 'Manual' once connected, it will retain the same address. (don't ask me why this works, dunno).

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