Latest Android mobile app won't start if no internet

My internet went down big time so I went to fire up the mobile app so I could do quick buttons in home mode but, because there was no internet, the app wouldn't load. It got stuck on the getting ready screen. It always used to fire up in home mode if there was no internet but it doesn't anymore. 🙁

Luckily I have the "BBC Micro" inverter program that will happily run on my PC in local mode without the internet and talk to the inverter. It offers the mobile app quick buttons too.

I also paid the £10 to get the mobile Inverter monitor app upgraded to control the inverter. That also works without the internet.

alan_johnston I think its the way the mobile app works, it makes a connection to the GivEnergy cloud to obtain your security login details, and if it can’t connect to the internet at all then the givenergy app won’t work.

The Rubik cube app or the BBC micro app (which is also available for Android) both work fine with direct local only control

@alan_johnston
l'm fairly sure the app used to default to home and then away but now it defaults to away and you have to tap home to get the 10 second time data update.
Can't remember exactly when it changed but it's a few months ago.

Robgy
Yes. The app used to try HOME first then AWAY, so if there was no internet you could still do stuff with the inverter using HOME mode. Now you can't. 🙁

I did trick the app by using mobile data to get the app started up. Then turned on local wifi and switched to home mode. This allowed me to get the local data updates but when the quick controls were used (like charge now), they failed with an 'inverter is offline' message even though the inverter was online via the home network.

I guess the app now issues commands to the inverter via the internet and not direct to the inverter. 🙁

alan_johnston Glad I stopped updating it.

It definitely commands the inverter via the online portal. If you reset the inverter to defaults in 'local' mode, you need to wait until the next successful online update (5 minutes) before it will accept new commands.

alan_johnston I did trick the app by using mobile data to get the app started up. Then turned on local wifi and switched to home mode. This allowed me to get the local data updates but when the quick controls were used (like charge now), they failed with an 'inverter is offline' message even though the inverter was online via the home network.

I guess the app now issues commands to the inverter via the internet and not direct to the inverter

All GivEnergy commands are always sent to the inverter via the GivEnergy cloud portal and never locally. That’s how the portal know what state the inverter is in.
Until recently when GivEnergy introduced the ‘remote change detected’ which you see in the event log in the portal, any local commands you issued (eg via the BBC App, Rubik Cube App or Home Assistant) would not get reported.

The local mode was only ever for querying the inverter data, never for issuing commands.

For me I don’t think anything has changed, this is the behaviour its always been

geoffreycoan
Interesting, I have used the GE app in the past to change inverter settings while connected directly to the GE dongle and the inverter could not connect to the internet.

Somehow my app managed to update itself. It couldn't of happened at a worse time because I only use it control the battery for saving sessions. So it delayed the start with the new stupid login and then was in Away mode because it forget the inverters IP address and the scan never works.