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xzv avatar image
xzv asked

Bricked my Multiplus II GX during downgrade

Hi,

because I'm investigating a potential bug, I tried to downgrade my Multiplus II GX to a previous version.

I followed this guide which says it's okay to do this:

Note that while backporting is no problem in general, it may be that some settings are reset to their default values. Be sure to check this.

I loaded the .swu file (venus-swu-nanopi-20181016100243-v2.20.swu) from the nanopi folder onto an USB stick and started the downgrade via the Remote Console from v3.14 to v2.20.

After a while the screen went blank and this is the situation I'm stuck in.

screen.png

The GX is not reachable in the network via Wifi or Ethernet. Pushing the reset button didn't help either.

The Inverter card is still accessible through VE Connect.

Any chance to force an upgrade from an attached USB drive? How can I recover from this state where the GX is "broken"?

Multiplus-IIfirmware update
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3 Answers
nickdb avatar image
nickdb answered ·

As Matt said, that was a bad idea. With dependencies between the GX and the Multi leaping that far back was unwise.

A reflash may well resolve it for you.


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xzv avatar image xzv commented ·

Now I know that :)

How do I reflash it? Providing the GX with the venus-data.tgz file as Matthias suggested didn't change the situation.

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Alex Pescaru avatar image
Alex Pescaru answered ·

Hi @XZv

For recover: https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/204255/cerbo-gx-bricked-how-to-recover.html

I've also written to you in the other thread with CAN dropped messages what to do.

Alex

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xzv avatar image xzv commented ·
Will the flashing also work with an USB drive, as the MP II GX doesn't have a SD card slot?


Once I've unbricked the device I will continue investigating on that CAN issue :) Thanks!

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Alex Pescaru avatar image Alex Pescaru xzv commented ·

I suppose so...

Maybe we can ask Matthijs if it's the case. @mvader (Victron Energy)

Thank you!


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xzv avatar image xzv Alex Pescaru commented ·

I got it to work. :) Maybe it can help someone else later on how it worked:

Because it's a Multiplus II GX, I downloaded the nanpi image from here and flashed it to a USB stick. The device seemed to do something, but it didn't work, the display remained blank. What helped was to open the device and insert an SD card into the SD card slot of the nanopi.

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Alex Pescaru avatar image Alex Pescaru xzv commented ·

Any SD card?

Because if this is the case, the firmware, in some conditions, may remain stuck on SD card detection step and maybe it's room for improvement on this.


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Alex Pescaru avatar image Alex Pescaru xzv commented ·

So, regarding your question, it seems that it updates the firmware correctly only from SD card, right?

Here's what I've also find:

https://community.victronenergy.com/questions/77486/fixing-dead-multiplus-ii-gx-applying-nanopi-instal.html

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Matthias Lange - DE avatar image
Matthias Lange - DE answered ·

2.20 is a huge step, it's over 5 years old!
Why did you do such a big jump?

You could try a factory reset:
https://www.victronenergy.com/media/pg/CCGX/en/reset-to-factory-defaults-procedure.html

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xzv avatar image xzv commented ·
Thanks for the hint. The .tgz file didn't seem to help, I see no display content and it's not creating its Wifi access point.
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