Many small VictronConnect issues

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Dave van Dongen asked Jul 6, '19

Many small VictronConnect issues

Ever since the redesign of the VictronConnect app (v4.0) it has many small issues. (So since January 2018) I just want to report them so that Victron is aware and can try to fix them. This all applies to the Android version of the app.
- The most obvious issue is that many times switching screens ("Status", "History" and the recently added "Trends") sometimes doesn't work very well. It either doesn't work at all or it only works with swiping to the next screen or it only works with clicking on the screen title at the top. See this YouTube movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQ498dEqoVA

In text: Click on 'History' and nothing happens. Only when you swipe left, you go to "History", When you swipe right in "History", sometimes nothing happens, Click on "Status and nothing happens, Then when you swipe right you now go to "Status", etc.

Futhermore over time I have noted down these issues:
- 20190324 Sometimes when pushing a bar of a day in the "History" overview, you don't get the break down into "Bulk, absorption and float". Sometimes it works, sometimes not. I didn't find a pattern.

- 20190324 Sometimes nothing happens when you push on the "Battery" in the Settings menu.

- 20190324 Victron Connect report had wrong name: "Victron Connet report", so without the "C".

- 20190324 It is possible to get the status screen of VC back from the previous used apps or from the lock screen, while the Bluetooth is off. The status screen then shows old info, but doesn't tell you that you are disconnected. This can cause confusion.

- 20190324 In this state the screen also messes up sometimes. The yield screen stays on top of the numbers when you scroll the screen up.

- 20190324 And the status screen stays frozen when you reconnect the Bluetooth and return to the Status screen. Have to exit the Status screen to refresh the Status screen.

- 20190325 No break down of 'Bulk, absorption, float' in the first 'graph' (of today). The other days do break down. The break down of the graph of this day did work earlier in the day.

This all makes me actually wonder if Victron has a person that tests all the software before it is released, (this used to be my job at another company, that's why I am asking) because these issues are very easy to catch and some of these issues have been present for almost 2 years now.

VictronConnect

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Dave van Dongen commented · Jul 06, 2019 at 12:11 PM

And another one: as you can see in the YouTube video, all the icons have messed up graphics. I am not sure what is the cause of this state. I haven't seen this before, only last week for the first time, when I made this screen recording. So maybe the screen recording app itself has something to do with this.

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Answer 1 · 2019-07-06T12:29:53Z

Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) answered · Jul 06, 2019 at 12:29 PM

Hi @Dave van Dongen,

Thanks for reporting,

There are active alpha and beta testing groups for the VictronConnect app. You can find out more about the beta testing here:

https://www.victronenergy.com/live/victronconnect:beta

I will pass on your notes to the developers.

Are you reliably able to re-create the bugs? What version are you using, and on what device?

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Dave van Dongen commented · Jul 06, 2019 at 02:23 PM

No, I am not able to reliably recreate the bugs. The happen on and off... (Race conditions in the software?) I am now using the latest release which is 5.7, but as mentioned I have these problems for over 1 year. Ever since the release of the new design on the app. (v4.2) That's why I am wondering if it's being tested properly. It been a long time and on many subsequent versions/releases. With every new version I expected the issues to be ironed out, but that never happened.

I have used the app on a Nexus 5 with Android 5 and OnePlus 2 with Android 6 in the past. Last weeks I am using a OnePlus 5T with Android 9. I see the same issues in all of these phones.

I will look into the beta, thanks.

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Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) ♦♦ Dave van Dongen commented · Jul 07, 2019 at 12:07 AM

It can be difficult to fix the bugs when they can not be reliably reproduced by other testers and the developers.

When making reports, please provide as much info as possible, what you were doing, versions of phone and software, etc.

If they test the same procedure and same phone but the bug does not occur, it could be something specific to your device.

Often turning it off and on again will fix the problem.

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Dave van Dongen Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) ♦♦ commented · Jul 07, 2019 at 09:19 PM

Check this new video that I recorded today:

https://youtu.be/c0iN-c5NS5w

Before I started recording, the app functioned normally. Then I exported the history data to WhatsApp. When I came back in the VC app, the switching screen buttons didn't respond anymore. Then I started the recording. In the recording you can see the buttons are not working. But then suddenly switching screens works again. I then export to WhatsApp another time, to see if I can reproduce the issue, but then the issue doesn't happen... Turning something on and off had nothing to do with this, as you can see in the vitro above. First the app worked fine, then the app had this issue, then the app works fine again. All without turning things on or off...

As I mentioned before, this issue has been happening for more then a year, on all versions of the VC app since v4.2, up until this version (the latest beta of V5.8), on 2 different phones (OnePlus 2 and 5T) and 2 different Android versions (5 and 9). I have also seen this on the Samsung Galaxy S6 of my girlfriend.

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Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) ♦♦ Dave van Dongen commented · Jul 07, 2019 at 11:48 PM

Yes, I see the problem.

One of the issues with fixing reported bugs is when they are not able to be reliably reproduced. The developers see what is happening, have an idea where it might be occurring. They perform the same steps that you say, but it does not occur for them.

So what did cause it? Once we know that, it is a lot easier to fix. In this case we know that it wasn't exporting to WhatsApp.

I have reported it to them anyway, perhaps they can find something.

Closing the app and relaunching it again makes this problem go away. That is usually the case for these intermittent issues.

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Answer 2 · 2019-09-15T13:01:49Z

Dave van Dongen answered · Sep 15, 2019 at 01:01 PM

See attached screenrecording. It is not possible to switch between screens in the app. I didn't solve itself this time, so I couldn't use the app AT ALL. :-(

This has been an issue for many months now. It doesn't seem like something that is very hard to fix...

19-07-01-20-19-11.mp4

19-07-01-20-19-11.mp4 (10.8 MiB)

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Guy Stewart (Victron Community Manager) ♦♦ commented · Sep 15, 2019 at 02:32 PM

Hi Dave,

I am a bit confused, did you upload the right video? The one you attached shows you on a Dutch website? There is nothing to do with Victron in it?

Is anyone else experiencing issues like Dave that is preventing them from using the app?

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