I have the same issue trying to use Relay 1 in an Ekrano as the Alarm Relay. I have set Relay 1 to type Alarm in the console settings. I am reading the relay status in Node Red using the Relay Node, and it is always Open. I have set up some alarm rules in the VRM, and these have triggered generating an alarm in the VRM. But the Alarm Relay is not closing. Is some other step required to configure Relay 1 as an alarm relay that will automatically respond to alarm rules?
The Alarm relay function is for alarms generated on the Cerbo, it will also report things like loss of mains, BMS comms lost etc. See the Cerbo manual for what alarms you can set. The purpose of the relay is to have a buzzer where you will hear it if the Cerbo is mounted out of earshot. I have no idea of you could use the VRM API in Node-RED to read VRM alarms and activate Relay 1.
Thanks - I didnt understand the difference between local alarms generated on the Ekrano and cloud-based alarms generated using alarm rules on the VRM. For my application I need to use cloud-based alarm rules, so that I can see alarms remotely via web page etc. It turns out that its quite easy to read the VRM alarm status in Node Red using the VRM API node - set to ‘get alarms’. This pulls over all the VRM alarm status information, which can then be used locally to set a Relay and make an external buzzer sound. If you use Relay 1 make sure it’s set to type ‘manual’ not ‘alarm’ otherwise you will fight with the Ekrano for control.