Victron widgets on iPhone and Apple Watch
Yes, you can see your Victron system in a widget on the iPhone and on your Apple Watch. Deeck puts small, medium and large widgets on the Home Screen with the state-of-charge ring, autonomy, sources and the weekly balance, and ships a native Watch app with a complication on the watch face. The widgets are free; the Watch app is part of Deeck Pro.
Everything comes from the same place: the Bluetooth Instant Readout broadcast of your SmartShunt, MPPT and chargers, received by your iPhone. Below: what each widget and Watch page shows, how to add them, how fresh the numbers are and what is free.
What you see, and where
| Where | What it shows | Free or Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Home Screen widgets (small, medium, large) | State-of-charge ring, autonomy, sources and the weekly balance | Free |
| Watch: Deck page | Colour tiles for battery, solar, engine, loads and autonomy, readable at arm’s length | Pro |
| Watch: Energy page | Autonomy as the hero number, today’s yield, the last seven days and the forecast | Pro |
| Watch: Devices page | Your devices in a flat list; tap one for a two-column grid of its key numbers | Pro |
| Watch face complication | The state-of-charge ring, grey when the data is older than 30 minutes | Pro |
| Alarms on the wrist | Battery alarms, delivered like any iPhone notification | Basic alarms free, advanced alarms Pro |
The widgets and the Watch show the same numbers as the deck in the app, because they all read from it. Deeck is plug & play and everything stays in sync: set your devices up once on the iPhone, and the widgets, the Watch and CarPlay follow without any setup of their own.
Add a Deeck widget to the Home Screen
First set up your devices in Deeck: open the app near your system, tap each Victron device that appears and type its Bluetooth PIN once. Then:
- 1
Touch and hold an empty area of the Home Screen until the apps start to jiggle.
- 2
Tap Edit at the top left, then Add Widget. On older iOS versions, tap the + button at the top left instead.
- 3
Search for Deeck and swipe through the sizes: small, medium or large.
- 4
Tap Add Widget, drag it where you want it and tap Done.
A small widget is a quick state-of-charge check; the larger sizes leave room for autonomy, the sources and the week. You can add more than one, for example a small one on the first page and a large one on a second.
Install the Apple Watch app and the complication
The Watch app needs watchOS 10 and Deeck Pro. Its values arrive from the iPhone over Watch Connectivity, so the Watch shows exactly what the deck shows; there is nothing to pair with your Victron devices.
- 1
On the iPhone, open the Watch app, go to My Watch, scroll to Available Apps and tap Install next to Deeck. If automatic app install is on, the app is already there.
- 2
On the Watch, open Deeck once and swipe between the three pages: Deck, Energy and Devices.
- 3
For the complication, touch and hold the watch face, tap Edit, swipe to the complications, tap the slot you want and choose Deeck. Press the Digital Crown to save.
Battery alarms need no extra step: they reach the Watch the way any iPhone notification does, and you feel the tap.
How fresh are the numbers?
Inside the app, the deck updates several times a second, straight from Bluetooth. Widgets work differently. On iOS an app does not draw its widget continuously: it hands the system a snapshot, and iOS decides when the widget may refresh, spreading reloads over the day within a budget it manages itself (Apple: keeping a widget up to date). Deeck keeps updating in the background, but the moment a widget redraws is up to iOS.
In practice a widget is a glance, not a live gauge. For a battery that is usually all you need, because state of charge moves over minutes, not seconds. When you want the live value, tap the widget and Deeck opens.
On the Watch, the complication protects you from stale data in its own way: the ring turns grey when the data is older than 30 minutes, so you never trust an old number.
Near the system, and away from it
Over Bluetooth, the iPhone has to be within range of your Victron devices to receive new readings, typically aboard a van, a camper or a boat. Away from the vehicle, the deck can follow your system through your VRM account or through Deeck Bridge on a Raspberry Pi, without a Cerbo GX. How that works: monitor your Victron system remotely without a Cerbo GX.
VictronConnect, Victron’s own app, documents home-screen widgets for Android (source). For settings and firmware it remains the app to use alongside Deeck: VictronConnect and Deeck: what each app does.
Questions people ask
Is there a Victron widget for iPhone?
Yes. Deeck has small, medium and large Home Screen widgets with the state-of-charge ring, autonomy, sources and the weekly balance, read over Bluetooth with no GX needed. The widgets are part of the free version.
Is there an Apple Watch app for Victron?
Yes. Deeck has a native watchOS app with three pages, Deck, Energy and Devices, plus a complication and battery alarms on the wrist. It needs watchOS 10 and is part of Deeck Pro.
Can I see my SmartShunt on my Apple Watch?
Yes. Once the SmartShunt is set up in Deeck on the iPhone, its state of charge appears on the Watch pages and in the complication.
Why does my widget not show the latest value?
iOS decides when widgets refresh and limits how often, so a widget can lag behind the app. Tap it to open Deeck with live values.
Why is the ring on my watch face grey?
The complication turns grey when the data is older than 30 minutes, for example when the iPhone has been out of Bluetooth range. It comes back to green as soon as fresh readings arrive.
Do I need a Cerbo GX for Victron widgets?
No. Deeck reads your devices’ Bluetooth Instant Readout broadcast directly through the iPhone. A GX or Deeck Bridge is only needed to follow the system from far away.