Previous updates for the past week had introduced connection issues where Local Monitoring could not be found. I've just installed v3.1.24.3149 and for me the 'Home' connection problems seem to have been resolved. I've added this thread for others to say 'Yay' or 'Nay'.
Seems fine for me. It also seems to be lightening fast too! I barely have time to read the "getting things ready"
Seems to work for me too, on Android. Only took a couple of attempts to find the Inverter on "Home".
Both my Android devices (Amazon Fire 7 and POCO X3 Pro) do not connect local any more, did on the previous version but didn't update every 10 seconds like it used to do.
Both are set to manual connect via IP. Now both just show "Offline" for local connection.
Intermittent - didn't connect at first. Re-started app and it connected. Now it's not connecting again.
It's still polling all ports in the subnet regardless of manual configuration. The issue seems to be when another device in the subnet is listening on port 8899. [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ALV_dYITbTdp2gWqalMFD5rfwNKmjLDy/view?usp=sharing]. Then it's a race, if the inverter responds first it works else it fails.
TonyHayden
It sounds like GE could do with some expert network advice.....
ToothyChris I think manual configuration needs to, a) assume data entered is correct b) only connect to the addresses configured.
TonyHayden
I'm no network specialist, but that sounds perfectly logical and probably not what is hapening now!
TonyHayden I think manual configuration needs to, a) assume data entered is correct b) only connect to the addresses configured.
Its a no brainer...
In an ideal world it wouldn't attempt to locally connect and show a failure banner when WiFi is turned off.
But maybe that needs extra permissions or something.
I've done some more analysis and it looks like the response packets get back to the application too late. For it to be reliable with my dongle and network the receive timeout on the socket needs to be > 7 seconds
GE has issued a questionnaire for this:
https://community.givenergy.cloud/d/1303-givenergy-app-local-monitoring-questionnaire
TX200 In an ideal world it wouldn't attempt to locally connect and show a failure banner when WiFi is turned off.
But what about those accessing their network through mobile internet?
Before the latest update mine sometimes worked. After the latest update, it never works.
Not working again now!
cluelesscris if you're not using WiFi it can't connect locally so should not even attempt local connection
Cdent I say again. What if you are using mobile internet and therefore by definition not wifi? I do this all the time so I can keep an eye on my system out and about - I use th portal for reports but the app for monitoring and control.
cluelesscris if your device is not in the same subnet as the inverter, i.e. on WiFi, it cannot connect locally. Your device will be reliant on GE server data and the 10minute refresh snapshot cycle.
cluelesscris What if you are using mobile internet and therefore by definition not wifi?
You have access to two sets of data, "Away" is using data from the portal, the 5 minute snapshots. The "Home" data is a live direct connection to the inverter which updates every 10 seconds when on the same network (not mobile data, has to be same WiFi/local network).
TonyHayden Not if you connect through a VPN. Your mobile device is effectively attached to your home network with a local IP. I use teleport on my ubiquiti router with a fall back to wireguard if teleport fails (seems to be in Scandinavian countries teleport to the UK has issues).
cluelesscris when @TX200 posted to say if WiFi is off it should not even attempt to connect to the local connection, you never suggested in your response that a VPN was in place, therefore my reply was based on that. Now I see further down you've clarified this, that addition changes your response and ultimately my reply to you.
I use homeassistant over cloudflare to connect to my local network rather than the GE app because of this when out and about.
Cdent Sorry, shouldn't have assumed people would know how you can connect 'locally' over mobile internet or external wifi service. My real point was that just using 'wifi on' to decide whether to try to 'Home' connect or not is too blunt an instrument.
Also, before anyone suggests it, you can't rely on being on the same subnet either. All my IOT devices, which includes the dongle, are on their own subnet. When I connect through the vpn I connect to a different subnet but my router is set up to allow my device to access the IOT subnet.
I've changed nothing and still on same version and now it works, local connection and 10 second refresh is back... odd.
cluelesscris from the packet captures I've taken I would assume the app implementation is not going to work. If the manual address entry actually used the address input I can't see why your setup wouldn't work. If the devices traffic can route to the inverter and the inverter's back to your device it has the potential to work.
I connect via wifi from my iphone, which has a VPN running, also through via wifi extender. Works fine. But at the core, it is the same wifi network the inverter connects through.
On Android, v3.1.24.3149 is no better than the previous (3148) variant. I strongly suspect that the problems I'm seeing relate to data not clearing off the Android platform when the App is uninstalled - when I uninstall then re-install, the app either knows my username, or some settings (like Smart Tariff) on the Home Page, or I get a red banner with "Session ended".
All of these bits of information should be cleared off the platform on uninstall. If they aren't on the platform they should not be associated with my device at the time of a fresh app installation, as the means to do that are not pretty.
If anyone knows of a set of demo site credentials for the mobile app, I'd appreciate knowing these. Just in case they act to purge residual data in such a way that the problem is fixed.
chris_p I've changed nothing and still on same version and now it works, local connection and 10 second refresh is back... odd.
But it stops working and I get the ??? values if you leave it open for a bit. How can they keep getting this so wrong?!
So I grabbed an old Android phone this morning, made sure it was clean, logged in with a Google account, downloaded Givenergy from the Play Store. It works perfectly, especially with the Home view and local updating.
I'm convinced that the app does not handle local storage as it should and there is some residual aspect of local storage with my normal phone which causes these Home Dashboard problems for subsequent application installations.
x5toledo
You may well be correct, but I'm assuming that your 'old' phone may also have a different version of Android, which introduces other variables into the mix.
ToothyChris
Yes, you are correct, another variable set introduced with that experiment. The alternative is to root my regular phone and find and delete whatever is not being purged OR delve into Android backups and see whether the fresh install is recovering backed up data. When a freshly installed app knows my username these are the only two ways I can think it gets that information. If I could download the APK and dismantle it and check the manifest I might learn something about backup data (android:allowBackup might be set to 'yes', for instance) but I am just too tired of this app to put the effort in. It'll probably change again in the next week or two anyway!
TonyHayden
Good find. I wonder what else on my network has 8899 open for business, likely my MQTT server and every other smart plug on the network.
Polling 8899 is not the best idea for sure, as its used by so many IoT devices. Might be better looking for the web page at port 80. Less chance of that being on a hoe LAN
TheDragon (GivEnergy) In my opinion, and if I had limitless time and resources, I would change the dongle firmware so it could report it's local address to the servers. The app could then query what the local address is.
Funny you mention this, I was discussing just this ide with Dan (Tech Director) yesterday and also being able to set it static from within the App/GUI. Instead of having to log onto the Dongle directly
TheDragon (GivEnergy) wish you all the best in that although It's been asked before to no avail when we were trying to make GivTCP inverter discovery less scattergun / just ping everything you can...
(Yes I know the API works differently now, it was a long time ago)
The new version, v3.1.25.3150, isn't polling the subnet when manually configured address for inverter is entered. App is working reliably once again.
TonyHayden
Ok. You've saved me firing up AirShark. To do packet capture and confirm the flooding has ceased once the inverter address is known.
TheDragon (GivEnergy) couldn't help myself.
Confirmed. App running and updating. Fired up AirShark capture.
I see 2 packets of data, then I did a scan for myninverter.
I see the scan begin at .1 .2 .3. .4 then contain data.
It it found it 1st time ant stopped scanning.
All on TCP 8899
Not working for me. Just get a flash of getting data or setup - not quite sure it’s so fast - then box with can’t read config.
Deleted the app and reinstalled - logged back in and it found the inverter automatically and then worked.
Same here, v3.1.25 working on Android OK again now (until the next update!)