Venus OS v2.66~1 available for testing

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mvader (Victron Energy) asked Apr 8, '21

Venus OS v2.66~1 available for testing

This post is intended for all people participating in the Venus OS Beta test program.

Good afternoon,

The previous version v2.65 has been released officially. Change-log available in https://professional.victronenergy.com. And I'm working on the blogpost but so far unfortunately haven't found the necessary moment of quality time.

Meanwhile, v2,66~1 was made available to test:

Change log

Split the error messages out in more detail as well as reword them, to better guide the user/installer. (mk2vsc-45, 46, 47, 48 and 49, and also 60, 61). All the relevant ones have been documented and added to the manual: https://www.victronenergy.com/live/venus-os:remote_ve.bus_firmware_updates.
Increase robustness of the process, mostly by simply letting it retry in more (read: all) situations.

The "what to test" for this one is clearly the Remote VE.Bus firmware update mechanism.

Planning for this release is to be officially released early next week.

All the best, Matthijs Vader

Venus OS

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aegir commented · Apr 08, 2021 at 06:48 PM

Upgraded to 2.66-1, tested and everything was fine.

Then i did firmware upgrade of the multipluss through vrm. from v460 to v483 or something like that.

After multiplus had rebooted ( gave a beep) i got a notification to save the downloaded file and uploaded it to the multiplus.

And here i am stuck

I went here:

https://vrm.victronenergy.com/installation/xxxxx/remote-configuration

selected the multiplus from the drop down

and pressed upload file and selected the newly downloaded *.rvms file.

Im stuck at:

Configuring

Status: Waiting for status updates

Did i do something wrong with these steps?

Edit: i downloaded the configuration from the multiplus and edited it back to my preferences and uploaded. so everything is back to normal.

I didnt find any logs for you to look at, but let me know if you need anything to investigate this.

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Warwick Bruce Chapman aegir commented · Apr 08, 2021 at 08:06 PM

@Aegir did you convert the downloaded file using the latest system configurator before re-uploading it?

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aegir Warwick Bruce Chapman commented · Apr 09, 2021 at 07:45 AM

When i tried open the automatically downloaded *.rvms file in veconfig i got corrupted file error.

edit: i see now that by double clicking on the rvms file it worked, i tried using "fake target from file previously"

But i totally missed the step you mentioned, so i should probably have troubleshooted a bit more. So this was clearly a user error and not a bug.

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mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ aegir commented · Apr 09, 2021 at 10:58 AM

Thanks both!

FYI there was also a bug on our end, which made for an error message to not be clearly visible. Next time someone uploads the file without first converting it, he/she will see a message telling him to convert (or perhaps we call it merge or something similar) it first.

have a good weekend

Matthijs

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Warwick Bruce Chapman aegir commented · Apr 09, 2021 at 07:07 PM

This file corrupted error is because you are not running the latest version of the Ve.Bus tools.

@mvader potentially worth adding to the instructions that if they get this error they must make 100% sure they are running a version of system configurator > x or latest.

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mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ Warwick Bruce Chapman commented · Apr 09, 2021 at 07:19 PM

Hey both, Wareick did you see the “edit: i see now that by double clicking on the rvms file it worked, i tried using "fake target from file previously"?

probably there are many ways to get an error like that. I’ll add something to the manual.

thanks!

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Warwick Bruce Chapman mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ commented · Apr 09, 2021 at 07:33 PM

Yup, I did see that. But, in my testing of the process, I got that error when I was running a not up-to-date version of the VE.Bus tools.

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mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ Warwick Bruce Chapman commented · Apr 09, 2021 at 07:38 PM

Top. manual changed. Welcome to fix it further.

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mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ aegir commented · Apr 08, 2021 at 07:32 PM

Hi! Thank you for the report; we'll find out what happened and contact you if needed.

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Rune Eilertsen commented · Apr 10, 2021 at 01:22 PM

Any plan for the config is saved and updated in the Venus device instead for on the computer and then put back in place ( converted and uploaded ) ?

This way it can be initiated from VRM, but executed only on Venus device on the system.

So if want to update 10 system, or 100 systems, it would be possible only mark each system in VRM and choose action from an dropdown menu.

That would make no need for a Windows client and app, and would make it possible to do from an iPad or what ever client that access the VRM.

Anyway, I have update it from both Mac safari and ipad then updated config from PC with download config in VRM and then replace the inverter config with our central stored config file. Worked fine as well. (But need open each inverter one after another.. takes little time.. when is local on machine and MK3 is more easy to send config to all inverters. )

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mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ Rune Eilertsen commented · Apr 10, 2021 at 01:24 PM

Hi, having that would be nice, but too much work and maintenance going forward. We won’t be making that.

The next generation of inverter/chargers will have it.

Just like our solar chargers have now.

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k2aab commented · May 09, 2021 at 03:40 PM

All seems to be working on v2.66, but I'm still seeing battery draw in my ESS system when I'm running large loads (charging my car), even though the MultiPlus II is in Scheduled Charge mode.

I want to swap to a lower night time energy tariff but currently can't as I can't charge my ESS battery and the car at the same time.

I'm having to limit the time I charge the car to make sure the ESS battery reaches my required SOC before I my current low tariff period ends.

Can we please have an option to stop any battery drain during Scheduled Charge please.

Thank you.

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schsharge.jpg (33.9 KiB)

Modifications Space

Node Red Space

Answer 1 · 2021-04-16T09:59:17Z

ed1380 answered · Apr 16, 2021 at 09:59 AM

rp3 with rp 7" screen

brightness slider does not show up in gui. adjusting value in brightness file changes the brightness, so that works. screen timeout timer also works.

granted I am new to linux, but I spent 7 hours messing with it and reading everything I could on here and the google groups regarding the issue.

tried 2.64 and it worked right away. I'll try 2.65 later

edit- problem was auto brightness being enabled.
here's the instructions on how to disable

https://community.victronenergy.com/comments/78548/view.html

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mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ commented · Apr 16, 2021 at 10:04 AM

hi, thanks for the report. Please try v2.70~5 as well, I posted a message about that just now.

Note that I have no idea how the backlight works for rpis, so once you know which version works and which doesn't please post a new question (not answer or comment) about this in the Modifications space. Then I'm sure some people around here that do know more can help, at a minimum by confirming if they have the same issue.

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ed1380 mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ commented · Apr 17, 2021 at 10:14 AM

I'm having an issue updating firmware to 2.70

I've placed both of the swu files from here on a flash drive. it doesn't find them when I click to check for firmware on usb. but when I insert the usb it says that firmwares have been detected on the drive

I burned the image from the first file and it booted to the logo. The file size also looked small. Am I supposed to combine the images from first 2 files somehow?

I ran /opt/victronenergy/swupdate-scripts/check-updates.sh -swu http://updates.victronenergy.com/feeds/venus/candidate/images/raspberrypi2/venus-swu-2-raspberrypi2-20210415094932-v2.70~5.swu and it downloaded, flashed, and rebooted. but on boot it is stuck here

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20210417-061034.jpg (825.2 KiB)

mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ ed1380 commented · Apr 17, 2021 at 10:22 AM

yes, you need to reinstall / re-image your sdcard to be able to use the v2.70 build. You can't go from v2.65 to v2.70 without that. Also not by forcing a v2.70 on it, like you did with the above command; then the result is that you'll have incompatible binaries/u-boot/kernel, all three or some of them; I'm not sure what exactly but the result is that it won't boot any more.

I think a comment about this is in the v2.70 thread also.

Do you need to recover anything? Then you'll need a serial console cable, interrupt the boot process while u-boot is booting (by pressing a key) and change the u-boot version variable to make it boot the other rootfs, aka the "backup firmware".

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mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ commented · Apr 17, 2021 at 10:22 AM

for any more discussion about above, please use the v2.70 thread, as it might benefit others as well.

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powerace commented · Apr 16, 2021 at 11:12 AM

Hi @ed1380,

Please have a look here: https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/59646/rpi-3b-with-touchscreen-dimming-and-display-off-no.html

It works with all RPI 3 versions released up to now. There are also scripts available here on the forum/github that helps you to (re)enable all modifications/tweaks after a firmware update was done. There is indeed lots of info on the google groups but i think most of it is quite old.

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ed1380 powerace commented · Apr 17, 2021 at 09:51 AM

I did see that. He had everything in the menu, but was missing a file on the back end. I think it was a driver or kernel file. My issue is the slider not showing up in the gui. It works perfectly in 2.64, but doing the same exact steps in 2.65 and 2.66 gets me the issue I have. I did some more testing and I'll be making a separate post.

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laurenceh powerace commented · Apr 24, 2021 at 05:30 PM

I have the same problem I have all the scripts to automatically install the backlight slider on a clean Venus OS install. They worked fine while I was developing my application on many versions between 2.30 and 2.60. Now I am trying 2.66, and the same scripts dont work and the slider will not appear.

The backlight display timer is working fine.

My production system on my boat is on 2.60 (slider working) and I am running a test system to try out a new version before I install it live on my boat.

I suppose I can try some other intermediate releases 2.60 and 2.66 and see when it stopped working.

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powerace laurenceh commented · Apr 25, 2021 at 09:33 AM

@laurenceh, @ed1380,

That is strange, I've got 2.66 (20210411203709) working and the script worked flawless. Also the dim slider works as it should. I'm on RPI3 + and upgraded from 2.56.

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laurenceh powerace commented · Apr 26, 2021 at 01:26 PM

Well that is interesting. I have all my scripts in a tarfile and running smoothly so trying things out on a new version take only a couple of minutes. the slowest part of the process is blowing the images onto sd cards.

Summary so far

Clean 2.66 - cant get dimming slider to start

Incidentally I confirmed that the dimming interface to the screen was working on this install by manipulating the files which provide the interface to dim the screen manually.

Clean 2.65 - ditto could not get it installed

Clean 2.60 - installed dimming slider and it worked

Online update 2.60 -> 2.66 Slider went away (I think)

So re-ran scripts and the dimming slider is working on 2.66.!!

So it appears there is something different between a 2.66 that has been upgraded from a 2.60 and a 2.66 that is a clean install.

So now it is not a problem for me - but it would be nice for the community if we could sort out what was different and move on - and not have to keep re-fixing old problems to support new users.

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powerace laurenceh commented · Apr 26, 2021 at 03:45 PM

@LaurenceH

It is very well possible that the rpi-backlight-overlay.dtb file is not available in the 2.66 version, at least it wasn't in the past (2.3x not sure about this) when i started to use the script. The script i'm using is automatically downloading this file from an internet source when it isn't available on my system. If it is available it will skip the download.

I just didn't notice if it was downloaded this time during the update -or- that it was still there from before the update.

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laurenceh powerace commented · Apr 26, 2021 at 04:00 PM

Nope not that, my script does the same if the overlay does not exist

wget https://github.com/PiNet/PiNet-Boot/raw/master/boot/overlays/rpi-backlight-overlay.dtb 2>&1

Laurence

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Answer 2 · 2021-05-01T18:06:16Z

powerace answered · May 01, 2021 at 06:06 PM

Hi developers,

I found a minor issue, a misspelled word in the message that appears when you want to change the AC mode via the gui of a Multiplus when you have a digital multi control connected.

dsc-0480.jpg (8.7 MiB)

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