The only piece of Victron equipment I currently have on my system is the BVM712 and this is for the system out in my shop wich is 500-ish ft away from my house. I do have network out to the shop but obviously Bluetooth wont reach that far. What is the most cost effective way for me to be able to connect to my BMV712 with the Victron Connect app over my network instead of Bluetooth? I see things like the Cerbo GX which seems overkill. Is the LoRaWAN the device that I am looking for?
500ft ish is a long way the only way but the below may work and this is a BIG MAYBE
move the BMV712 head unit ONLY up to the house. then cut the grey cable that comes out of the shunt and connect it DIRECTLY to the network cable, and at the other end connect the other half of the grey cable (yes you can shorten it). keep the same twisted pairs that are in the grey cable connected to the same pair of twisted pairs in the network cable. The network cable MUST NOT BE CONNECTED TO anything else, basically you are extending the grey cable for all intents.
there maybe two much lose over that distance and you may have to also calibrate the amps so that they read correctly.
otherwise its a venus or Cerbo unit and a ve Direct connection to them, I am afraid.
yeah I guess I should provide more info. My shop is connected via a p2p ubiquity litebeam bridge connection. Since it is not a physical cable, I would need this solution to be IP routable. So at this point, is it only a Venus or Cerbo as my option or can I use the LoRaWAN adapter?
Hi,
Careful, the Lorawan requires TTN Lorawan network to exist; or you’ll need to add a lorawan gateway as well see manual for details..
In case its just that, a single BMV, and self install and you don’t mind tinkering a bit: install a raspberrypi3 and run Venus OS on that. And get a USB to vedirect cable. And some simple DC to DC converter of amazon to power the pi
or, if there is cellular coverage, get a GlobalLink 500; but for similar cost you’ll have a Cerbo, then I would go for the cerbo, even though its overkill indeed.
I would leave an old android or iphone or tablet in the garage and set up remote login for that device. Then you are not limited to just local bluetooth.
Mike
