Cerbo in Motorhome

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chickennuggets asked May 7, '24

Cerbo in Motorhome

Hello Friends, first post! woo hoo!!

I work for a company that manufactures motorhomes, ones that go remote. not much time in caravan parks(nothing wrong with parks, just not what our customers do)

we use the cerbo and a seperate gps donlge for tracking. it is essential for when things go wrong so we can see where they are, and what is around them when we need to help organise parts and support.

generally they use a simple usb powered wifi dongle with a simcard... problem is when they go remote, there is no reception so we get no feedback.

this is fine though, because after that, they use starlink.

our issue is, due to the fact that the little usb powered dongle is still broadcasting wifi(with no data due to no reception) the cerbo wont switch over to the starlink wifi..

2 possible solutions that i can think of,

1, easiest is, wifi priority... can you make it so the cerbo will be connected to the starlink wifi as a priority?

so connected to usb dongle, then when starlink network appears, it switches to starlink?

2nd way, something that once, starlink is powered on(240v) it will then cut power to the usb dongle.

sorry for the long story, sometimes i think its important to know the reason someone wants to do something.

-Matt

cerbo gx wifi

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matt1309 commented · May 08 at 10:07 AM

Hi @ChickenNuggets

My first guess for a complete setup would be a low powered router/fail over network switch that has down detection built it that will swap between 4g and starlink.

Or you go the route you plan and add a script on the cerbo that periodically checks the connections to an external site. If that fails then connection is confirmed down and the script changes connection.

I've not looked recently but think cerbo uses connman as it's network manager.

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djsmiley answered · May 31 at 08:51 AM

You might be able to use the starlink power socket. Assuming the starlink power injector is mounted in a fixed setup and the user power this only when using starlink you can use the same switched power to switch a small relay which just cuts the 5V line of the wireless dongle. (or disconnect the power on another way)

So basicly: Swithing on the starlink cuts the power supply to the usb powered dongle

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chickennuggets answered · Jun 06 at 09:01 PM

@DJSmiley great idea. relay is a great idea, im thinking....

usb dongle will be contant powered by a changeover relay on pin 87a,

use a, ac to dc converter(aliexpress $10au). connect that to the power switch for the starlink, this will be the feed in/signal wire going to pin 86 on relay.

once the starlink power supply is on, (powerpoint) then the relay switches from 87a to 87, but nothing is connected to 87 so usb will stop working. perfect.

you could if you wanted to, connect a small led to 87 terminal to let you know its working.

nice.

i think your idea was great, but i dont like the idea of ac voltage going to a relay. must use the converter to be safe.

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Modifications Space

Node Red Space

Answer 1 · 2024-05-08T23:47:39Z

xxn5ac answered · May 08 at 11:47 PM

This is exactly what I do in my 5th wheel and mine seems to switch effortlessly between cellular and Starlink. I use a cellular USB dongle with a MVNO SIM card (data only, 1GB/mo) and thenI have logged in over my Starlink with WiFi on the Cerbo so it knows both and uses whichever. I don't know that there's anything I did that was different to enable this.

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Answer 2 · 2024-05-31T02:50:41Z

chickennuggets answered · May 31 at 02:50 AM

@xxn5ac ours will connect to both, but, cerbo is not smart enough to realise, "ohh there is no data transmission i better look for another network"

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nickdb ♦♦ commented · May 31 at 07:03 AM

It just isn't designed for that. It can failover (terms and conditions apply) between its wifi connection and LAN port - this is documented in the manual.

For proactive network failover, you need an external method of changing over, typically a router which does the mobile/broadband cutover.

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