Victron Cerbo GX Boat Monitoring and Control - Product Review with Jeff Cote - Part 1 of 2

Part 1 looks at the different components of the system and how they work with your existing gear, and Part 2 provides some tips and tricks for the installation.

The Cerbo GX allows you to monitor and control the electrical system on your boat. Either remotely via the Victron Remote Management (VRM) portal on the boat via the GX Touch screen or your smartphone.

You can instantly monitor the battery state of charge, power consumption, power from solar panels, generator, and mains, or check tank levels and temperature measurements. Easily control the shore power input current limit, (auto)start/stop generator(s) or change any setting to optimize the system. Follow up on alerts, perform diagnostic checks and resolve challenges remotely. The Cerbo GX turns any power challenge into an effortless experience.

Read our Tech Talk Article from Pacific Yachting Magazine "Vessel Monitoring"

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[VABrowns]

Great video Jeff. I installed my Victron GX, Lynx shunt, and MultiPlus a couple months ago and LOVE it! The remote monitoring is excellant. Thanks for the video! Lookinf forward to seeing Part 2.

Another very nice application is that you can connect a basic float switch to the system so that it actually emails you if the bilge is filling up. Very nice for peace of mind!

[romeobravo]

Yup. I had my Princess retrofitted with exactly the same kit: Victron inverter/charger, batteries, shunt, touch 50 screen and Cerbo GX. I’ve been using the system for almost a year now and I absolutely love it. Also added a few Ruuvi temperature and humidity sensors in the engine bay, saloon and fridges, which all flawlessly connect to the Cerbo. And thanks to Digital Yacht’s 4GXtream 4G router I’m always on top of what’s happening to my boat in real time, anywhere in the world. It’s fantastic.

[johnknie]

I've had my setup for about a year now and it's been a really great system. I started a few years back with a Victron BM712 battery monitor and Victron solar controller but they were not "integrated" and available for remote monitoring. The Victron does a great job of both tasks so problem solved! The one niggling issue is that because I don't have a Victron charger, I don't have an easy way of telling what my AC/shorepower is really doing. People on the forum talk about installing ET112s etc but those aren't readily available and frankly, the cost of replacing a perfectly good battery charger for a Victron unit just to get the connectivity isn't worth the money. In a perfect world, the Cerbo would be able to accept data from other manufacturer's equipment. Sounds like a NMEA2000 solution would be a great add on.

[toddcarlson]

Thanks for doing these videos Jeff, very helpful. I thought I had questions before I bought the boat... steep learning curve... 🥴I just had the Victron Energy Cerbo-S GX, Smart Shunt Battery Monitor 500 amp, Touch 50, and GX LTE 4G-A Cellular Modem installed on my Tolly 44 CPMY. So far I can only "see" on the Touch 50 the battery state of charge and the watts coming in from my Victron MPPT Solar Controller (2x300 watt panels). That is nice. But, I'd also like to see what either the Gen Set or shore power are doing as well as the AC loads. I have a Xantrex 2500 Watt/120 Amp inverter charger - what is required to get this connected to the Cerbo? Cheers

[perimeletiou]

Hi, great presentation of the system, you mentioned Jeff that it can be used as a standalone device. What if you have a Mastervolt inverter/charger, is there a way you can be able to monitor that one too?

[scottfuller]

Great video! Could you demonstrate/illustrate how you, ight remotely start a boats older generator that is 2 or 3 wire start? Victron only provide details for newer Jxxxx computer interface gensets.

[scottpoeppel]

Seems like a sweet device. Wish it had nmea2k to re-transmit all sorts of other sensor data already on the boat.

[robtheplod]

I use the Cerbo GX on my narrowboat. It connects to the boats WiFi/4G router allowing me to check battery condition/solar etc all from my phone. I've added alerts so if something occurs it will email me, such as low battery etc. It's also got remotely controllable relays so my next project is for me to turn on my Webasto heating

[jasonhutchinson]

Actually just purchased this last week. I looked at the manual before I purchased but still didn’t realize that the Cerbo cannot connect to other Victron devices through Bluetooth.

I have been using Victron Smart Battery charger and Smart Shunts with Bluetooth and love them and the interface I get on my phone and tablet. Plus they connect to each other over Bluetooth so the charger can see the info at the battery without running wiring!

I wanted the Cerbo to tie everything together but even though it also has Bluetooth, it is only used to connect to the phone.

Since it can only connect to the other devices through wired connections it completely negates the benefit of the Bluetooth!!

I really hope they change this.

Really hoping the

[mr.alanbrown]

Great Video,
Don’t forget you can connect the cerbo to most newer MFD. I’ll be connecting mine to my simrad this weekend. I’m curious to see how much data will be available to me.
I have a question about the battery alarms: do you know if hooking a smart shunt upto the cerbo will allow audible battery alarms to come through to your phone remotely?

[mrdrfuldude]

Great product and informative video... On a separate topic, what has happened to the Firefly battery in the last year or so? I've heard rumors but have not seen them readily available in the states.

[nataloo]

Thanks Jeff - We have been working on a complete electrical replacement for our boat. We have purchased the VE Quattro 5K with the Cerbo and Cerbo touch. Can’t wait to see it go live! Two questions. We are finishing the design for our NMEA2k and plan to attach the Cerbo to the backbone but we cannot find the LEN listed anywhere. We want to make sure we have a well balanced NMEA2K system. Have you come across this info? Also, we purchased the Balmar with a smart shunt before deciding to go with the Victron system. Do you know if we need the VE shunt to utilize all the monitoring capabilities? Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge with us all.

[klmams]

Hello Jeff, very good video. I am using the cerbo, my boat is in Grenada, and I am in Los Angeles. I have real good solar, victron inverter, etc so the house batteries are well taken care of. How can I wire the engine batteries to the cerbo? Also, if I could monitor the engine batteries with the cerbo, can the cerbo turn on and off my generator to charge the engine batteries if necessary? I also have someone coming on the boat 3x/week to check on things. Going back to Grenada real soon! Thanks