How to unbrick a VenusGX after 2.70->3.70 upgrade

Q&A and troubleshooting
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1

Hi all,

After having kicked the upgrade can down the road for a long time I decided that today was a good day to … :slight_smile:

Prompted by the exiting new features of 3.70 I started the upgrade process from a long running VenusOS system from v2.70 (or thereabouts) to 3.70 on a VenusGX using the following command from the commandline (as the web interface just said “Checking …” and then went back to “Press to check”:

/opt/victronenergy/swupdate-scripts/check-updates.sh -swu file:///tmp/venus-swu-einstein-20260224155852-v3.70.swu

The writing process completed successfully and then the power went down as the Multi lost communication with the (REC-)BMS.

I’ve tried the following:

  1. Power cycle the VenusGX and wait - hoping it would revert to 2.70. It remained silent . Gave it 10 minutes or so. Faint red LED.
  2. Power cycled it once again. Remained very silent. Faint red LED.
  3. Wrote venus-install-sdcard-beaglebone-20260224155852-v3.70.img (didn’t work), then venus-install-sdcard-beaglebone-20241029202109-v3.50.img (also didn’t work) and finally venus-install-sdcard-beaglebone-20230412212730-v2.94.img (also didn’t work) to SD card and booted the VenusGX device. In all cases, it boots (as indicated the bright green LED), but then starts cycling forever: faint red for a few seconds, bright red for one second, bright green for a bit longer (maybe 30-60 seconds), then repeats. Unit does not request an IP address via the wired Ethernet port. No Wifi AP.
  4. Removed the SD card and powered it up. Just a faint red LED.

I’ve run out of ideas - does anyone of you know to unbrick this device?

Regards,
Jan

2

I got confused about “einstein” and “beaglebone” and couldn’t find a clear answer to which one I needed so relied on my memory from years ago thinking I saw the “einstein” prompt on this VenusGX when I installed the system but it looks like I need the “beaglebone” image. In other words, I initially used the einstein swu file with /opt/victronenergy/swupdate-scripts/check-updates.sh and the beaglebone sd image for my subsequent attempt to revive the device. I also tried the einstein sd image after trying the beaglebone sd images: the device does not boot from the einstein sd image (LED remains faint red).

3

As far as i know VenusGX is not supported by Victron anymore (also the CCGX). Last working Version war 3.50

4

Follow this process. It is easier on a cerbo.

5

Hi Nick,

Many thanks - got it back up!

Jan

6

Excellent.
I would start budgeting for a Cerbo.
The newer OS, especially the large image, is getting heavier, so if you like to fiddle, the Venus is a bit light on resources.

I swapped mine out a while back once nodered got a bit busy.

7

Yep, that’s all fair enough. I’m using a mix of external applications integrated with VenusOS via MQTT and Node-Red flows.These flows haven’t grown too complex though. I’ve now successfully upgraded to 3.70 (albeit on the normal image for now). Thanks again for your help!