Android GX Display v1.2 released

[jperez]

GX Android Display v1.2 available

Hi all,

Version 1.2 of the GX Android Display app is available. It is the first release since
v1.01, and it is mostly about reliability.

How to get it

Displays with automatic updates enabled will install it by themselves during the night.
To update straight away, open the configuration menu by pressing and holding the lower
left corner of the screen for five seconds, then use the manual update check.

Highlights

• While powered from the charger, the display keeps its connection to the GX with the
  screen off and shows live data immediately on wake. On battery the display is still
  allowed to sleep, to save power.
• Improved Wi-Fi connection handling
• Several fixes to finding and following the GX on the network.

Detailed changes

Display

• Fixed the page reloading when no reload was needed. It now reloads only when the
  display fails to redraw.
• Fixed the connection to the GX being dropped when the screen is turned off on a
  display powered from the charger. On battery, the display is still allowed to sleep.

Networking

• Fixed the display not following the GX to a new IP address after a restart.
• Fixed device discovery stopping after a Wi-Fi drop or a network change, until the
  display was restarted.
• Added reconnection to saved Wi-Fi networks that have no internet access, as needed for
  a GX access point.
• Added retrying each saved Wi-Fi network in turn when the first one does not connect.
• Disabled IP tracking for GX devices that publish no serial number, since two such
  units cannot be told apart.

Updates

• Added an opt-in beta update channel, disabled by default. A beta with new features will be available soon.

Setup

• Fixed the screen timeout not being applied during first-time setup. Displays already
  in use keep their configured timeout.

Other

• Removed permissions and device administration policies that were never used. This
  reduces the chance of Google Play Protect refusing installation during QR
  provisioning.

[Diessel]

1.2 is installed, but when checking for updates, the app says that a newer version, 1.4, is available, but it won’t download. By the way, I can’t see a separate folder for Android GX Display in the main Victron repository where all Venus images and device firmware are available for download, with the full version history. Could you point me to where you keep this build archive?

[jperez]

Hi,
There is no version 1.4, the notification was an error that has been already corrected.

[OGPS (Ed @ Off-Grid Power Systems - offgridps.com)]

Does this version solve the problem of the GX Display device dropping its connection to the assigned GX device every time a new one comes on the network? This is really annoying in a shop that does a lot of new GX device installations. I had to segment the network just to stop this behavior. Thank you.

[jperez]

Yes it is fixed now.

[OGPS (Ed @ Off-Grid Power Systems - offgridps.com)]

Thank you for the update!

[B51-technician (SunMachinist)]

Great update Thank you!

It now immediately shows the the status page after wake-up without all the messages and waiting time until the network connection gets re-established. Huge improvement

Just two additional comments:

• Although it might be useful for some use cases to get reminded “Touch is on”, I find this message after each wake-up a little bit annoying
• My Android GX is now always starting in “Brief” and not in “Overview”. I set my start page to “Overview”. See screenshots attached. The display attached to the GX still shows “Overview” after wake-up - which I personally prefer. I tried it with the Timeout sending “on” and “never”.

Galaxy Tab A9, SM-X110, Android 15, One UI 7.0

[mtnbrit]

Reporting a bug in v1.2. If I have the long-press settings tab slid open, I change the 'keep screen on" setting, then I accidentally click outside of it instead of clicking the X to close it, I get an android ‘back’ triangle on the screen and it essentially locks out any further screen taps on the lower menu bar of the screen, including the long-press settings dont open. Swipes still work. Tapping the back triangle does nothing, I have to restart the tablet to get rid of it.

[maikel]

Another long app user here with a bug report.
I am using the app since being in beta so for quite some time now on an old android tablet being a Galaxy Tab A (model SM-T510) running on Android version 11 kernelversion 4.4.177-22626479.

On the previous version (I have auto update enabled) I used a short push on the power button to “pauze” / shut down the screen of the tablet. Just like normal android operation. Pushing it shortly again to awake the tablet again. This caused mostly a restart of the Victron app as it reported back a lost of connectivty.
I was used with this behaviour and most of the time it took max 5 to 10 seconds and the app was back up and running showing the overview display which is my default view.

After the update this does not work anymore, the short push does switches of the tablet display, and if I wake it up within a few minutes all is well (as the app is still running).
If I do this and wait for over a longer period approx 5 to 10 minutes the screen turns on, but the app does not start anymore I just get a bright screen without any messages.
Only option that I have is pushing the power button for a longer period so I get the shutdown / restart options on screen.

My tablet is ALWAYS powered / connected to the charger so the new function :
While powered from the charger, the display keeps its connection to the GX with the
screen off and shows live data immediately on wake

Is not working on my tablet, even worse, as I need to restart the whole tablet to get the Victron application back up and running.

So I am wondering if the Victron developers are able to test this / reproduce the issue by testing on older Android tablets (asuming that with this new version Android 11 is still supported).
For now I would appriciate it if there is a rollback procedure to go back to the previous version as this rebooting the tablet every time is not wanted behaviour.

@jperez feel free to contact me directly if you need more info to debug this issue.

[edit]
To make things a bit more clear I am adding some pictures of what I see now when I try to wake up the tablet after approx 5 to 10 minutes.
No matter how long I wait (hours) nothing happens, nothing reconnects it just stays like this.

I used to get this screen in the previous version, and without any action the application initiated a reconnection, pushing reload speeds that up but the pushing of the reload button was optional after a few moments the app would reconnect anyways automaticly. This was fine.

But the only option when having the white screen is to push the power button untill I get this :

When I restart it takes a minute or 2 and the application starts again is fully functional.

The white screen stays, no matter how long I wait (initialy I expected to recover and waited overnight so at least 8 hours) but the next morning the screen was still on, no change whatsoever.

[beder]

Hi, I’m getting exactly the same behaviour with a Lenovo Tab 8. It works as it should with a Motorola moto e15.

[Saibotretevlis]

Workaround without restarting.

Press and hold the bottom-left corner, then select Reload from the menu.

I have a Lenovo Tab too.

[Jeroen2 (Jeroen Kuijf)]

Good evening,

We tested on some old Ulefone tabs and tels, all A13, perfect, no issues, this is mine I use for work.

Buy Chinese…

Regards, Jeroen.

[jperez]

Hi, thank you for the detailed report! It helped us a lot finding the bug causing it.

It should be fixed in v1.3 which was released a couple of hours ago.

Can you update and let us know if the issue is fixed?

[maikel]

@jperez wow thanks for doing this much appriciated.
I got the “new version” message so was happy to see this and installed it right the way, but other priorities kept me from reporting back to you.

I do see different behaviour now but issue is still not 100% fixed / or I got a new bug here.

Sometimes the tablet now behaves like it should be, so I switch of the screen (tablet is at my desk (allways connected to a charger) but when I expect to be away for longer than a few hours I switch of the screen) sometimes I get when switching it back on directly the overview screen (my default screen) fully up to date.
I understand this should be default behaviour now.

But most of the times, and there seems not to be a specific reason / time intervall that I was able to detect here I get the white screen again BUT I noticed since 1.3 when having the white screen when I swipe up from the bottom of the screen I get a bottom bar with a < sign just on the right of the middle of the sceen.
This made me aware that the program still seems to run or I get access to default Android behaviour.

Being curious I tried to enable the reload menu by pushing long on the left bottom corner and that works, so gives me the option to reload the app / util preventing me for having to do the reboot routine like in the 1.2 version.

I am not a developer but my guess is that the victron app is using the OS browser (Chrome) to visualise the Cerbo GX (I have a Cerbo GX MK2 running on 3.80) console. Having an old tablet a Galaxy Tab A (model SM-T510) running on Android version 11 kernelversion 4.4.177-22626479 might be the cause of the issue here due to the older version of my OS / and native browser Chrome.

So long story short now intermittend behaviour with 8 our of 10 times still the white screen, but now able to do the left bottom long push and get the Android settings menu and able to do a reload.
The reload allways works.

Here again a few pics :

The white screen this was by disabling the screen during the typing of the message above (approx 5 to 10 minutes tops) and enabling it.

When I swipe up from the bottom this now apears since 1.3 (or I missed it in 1.2 not 100% sure)
By the way I can press the < sign but other than seeing it’s a button nothing happens.

But I am now able to do the long bottom left push getting the menu like this and choose reload

Hope this helps, and if needed I am willing to share my old Galaxy with you guys (can send it to you) if you need a device for testing probably speeds things up a bit more.

Bit extra info my Cerbo GX is connected via an Ethernet Cable, the Tables (obviously via WiFi) both on the same VLAN this is a direct layer 2 connection (no firewalls / routers or whatsoever in between) Network is Unifi based and never shown any behaviour that could lead to this issue.