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Blue Smart IP65 conecting issues with Connect App

Hello,

My Blue Smart IP65 12/15 charger does not connect reliably to the Victron Connect App. Three off five connecting attemps fail! The App does not find the charger. That's anoying and disappointing. According to the comments at the app store, many users do have such issues!

The App developer recommended to switch the phone to airplane mode, wait +10sec, switch airplane mode OFF, and try to connect. That helps sometimes, but often not. Sometimes I have to do that up to 10 times to get a connection! Clearing the app memory cache seems to help, but not always.

The App developer also recommended to disconnect mains and battery when the connecting issue occurs. I tried that, the app connected, but trying to reconnect after an hour did not work. Connetion issues again. The App did not find the charger
The charger is built into the cabinet of my camper car and therefore hardly to reach. At such applications bluetooth makes really sense! Always diconnecting wires to get a BT connection is not an option,

I like the charger and the app, as long as it works. But the connecting issues suck! I bought Victron especially for the bluetooth funtionality. But with regular connecting issues it is not worth the money!

Disconnecting wires to get a bluetooth connection can't be a permanently workaround. 10 attemps with fiddling at the android settings only to get the app to connect, is also pain in the ass!

Phone is Motorola G5 with Android 8.1, distance to Victron is less 2... 3 meters, other BT devices are not connected, Victron firmware and App are the newest versions.

Please advice for a reliable solution. Will there be a firmware update to fix that issue?

Regards,

Michael

Bluetooth
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Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) avatar image Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) ♦ commented ·

Hi @Mike_O.

We are sorry to hear that you are experiencing these problems. Could you please answer the following questions? This might give us some more insight on what could be the problem.

  1. Is the firmware version of the Charger indeed 3.21, as this is included in the latest VictronConnect (v5.48)?
  2. Is the problem always that the charger is not visible in VictronConnect or are there also problems when connecting?
  3. Does the charger become visible when starting a new scan by pressing the orange circle in the bottom right?
  4. When VictronConnect tries to connect and then fails, what is the percentage that it fails?

Kind regards,

Thiemo van Engelen

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mike-o avatar image
mike-o answered ·

Hello Thiemo,

a week ago I got you're reply directly by email and did sent you all answers to the above questions, plus some App screenshots. Did you get that? Didn't hear any since then.

Regards,

Michael

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Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) avatar image Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) ♦ commented ·

Hi @Mike_O.

I did not receive the answers. Could it be that you replied to an email address that is a generic email address of this forum?

I think the more reliable way is to put the answers in a comment/reply on the forum.

Kind regards,

Thiemo van Engelen


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mike-o avatar image
mike-o answered ·

Hello,


here is what I sent by email at Oct, 12:

Hello,

and thanks for the quick reply.

To your questions:

Ad 1. The firmware is v3.25 . The app says it is the latest version. The app itself is v5.48 (see screenshot attached)
You’re asking for firmware v3.21. That is confusing. Should I use an older version instead of v3.25?

Ad 2. As already mentioned at the forum thread, the charger connects sometimes well. But if I try later again it does not connect. Then the charger is visible at the app but grey and the app does not connect.

Today I tried with the charger at my desk and it connects well, but twice the connection stopped at 60% and at 20% without any progress. (screenshot). I had to switch off the app and to clear the cache to get it to connect again. The charger was in front of me, 1mtr away!

Ad 3. No. When the charger is visible but grey at the app, the orange button doesn’t help. Than I have to try all the workarounds like clearing cache, closing app, go to airplane mode, disconnect charger….

Ad 4. Most times when the charger was newly connected to mains, BT connected well at first attempts. But after charging for a while issues started when trying to reconnect i.e. to check charging status. Last week it was around 3/5 attempts which failed (60%).

Today my camper is not at mains and the charger is not connected to a battery load. Though, I can’t simulate charging at my desk, just connect/disconnect to mains. Maybe load at the output might have an influence, too..

When I bought the charger it worked well and I was happy. After updating the firmware in summer the issues started. That points to a bug at the firmware and/or the app.

Please, see all the comments about the Victron Connect App at the app store. It is not only me with that issues! So many users complain about the annoying BT issues since last updates!

My phone is a Motorola Moto G5, Location service (GPS) is activated, Android 8.1, all patches up-to-date, etc.. With other BT devices the phone works well and I do not have any such issues!

I bought the Victron charger especially for that BT feature! I thought I’ll get a quality product from a well reputed company. What I have now is disappointing. The product doesn’t work reliably on that key feature! And the promoted workarounds are annoying and time consuming! That sucks!

Can you fix the issues with a functional firmware or an app which will work reliably?

  1. Will you replace the charger with a reliable one if the problem is the charger?
  2. Will I get refund for the unreliable functionality if you can’t provide a reliable solution?

Please, advice how Victron will fix that.

Regards,


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Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) avatar image Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) ♦ commented ·

Hi @Mike_O.

Ad 1: No need to use an older version. I forgot that we have multiple version of the IP65 12/15 charger. You have the type that has v3.25 as the latest version.

Ad 2 & Ad 4: It seems that there are 2 problems. One is that the charger is greyed out. The second is that the charger is not greyed out, but does not connect beyond 20 or 60%.

Ad 3: Clear. This is also expected when the charger is greyed out.

Then regarding the 2 problems:

We are working on the issue of devices being greyed out. For some products, a new firmware will be released in short notice, for other products, this will take more time. When a new firmware will be released for your type of IP65 12/15 charger is unknown at this time.

Regarding the issue that the connection progress gets to 60%, I am not sure where this problem comes from. To provide us with some more information, can you please create a service report when this happens and attach it to a comment? The procedure for a service report is described here: https://ve3.nl/VictronConnect_How-to-create-a-VictronConnect-Service-Report

Kind regards,

Thiemo van Engelen

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kevgermany avatar image kevgermany ♦♦ Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff) ♦ commented ·

@Thiemo van Engelen (Victron Energy staff)

I often get similar issues trying to connect over Bluetooth. Seems to be related to multiple devices trying to connect simultaneously, then locking each other out. Today easy solar locked out the attempt to connect to the MPPT inside it.
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mike-o avatar image
mike-o answered ·

Thanks for the answer Thiemo!

Thanks for confirming that there are known issues with Victron products! It took a long time to get that information.

" We are working on the issue of devices being greyed out. For some products, a new firmware will be released in short notice, for other products, this will take more time. When a new firmware will be released for your type of IP65 12/15 charger is unknown at this time. "

That confirms that Victron sells knowingly products which does not fullfill the promissed functionality!

Up to now I had contact with the Victron Sales department. They sent me to the Victron Connect App team.

The Victron Connect App team send me to this Victron Community. Here I got an answer, but not a solution.

Now I'm asked to go back to Victron Connect do fill a Service report about a known issue!

That is frustrating and far away from customer friendly.

Thiemo, I do understand that you might be at a point where you can't help further. But if Victron can't deliver a product which works reliably, and if Victron is not able to tell the customer when a solution will be available, I do have customer rights such as compensation, replacement or refund.

Please advice how to proceed. Is there a department to escalate the case? I am fed up to be pushed around in circles and to explain again and again the issue, without getting an answer!

Please, don't take my frustration personally. It's not about you!

Regards,
Michael


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nickdb avatar image nickdb ♦♦ commented ·
Mike, I don't think it's a case of selling defective products. Software and firmware is a moving target in an ever growing ecosystem.

Unfortunately many of us have run into issues introduced with code changes in the various moving parts, from GX to Victron connect, blueteeth, MPPT's, multi etc etc.

Perhaps Victron need to polish their QA a bit more and be more proactive in notifying users of known issues.

Many of us understand, and at times have shared, the frustration.


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mvader (Victron Energy) avatar image mvader (Victron Energy) ♦♦ commented ·

Hi Michael, to add to Thiemo, I hope to have a new firmware version for you within a approx. two weeks.

In case you instead prefer to return the product for a refund, then we can discuss that separately, let me know and I’ll send you an email.

I understand that its a rather frustrating and time consuming issue; its quite frustrating on our end as well.

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mike-o avatar image mike-o commented ·

@mvader (Victron Energy) Thanks for the information about the scheduled firmware update and for the refund offer. Refund or swap to a more reliable charger might be options if the firmware update will not fix the issues.
Now I regained trust into Victron and hope they get the problem solved. Let's wait for the update and see further.

Regards,
Michael

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mike-o avatar image
mike-o answered ·

Thanks to the Victron team for the great third-level support and for providing a beta-firmware which should solve the issues. With your help I got it installed and hope the problems are solved now.

You guys make the difference!

Regards,

Michael

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