Victron connect appimage - won't connect

[Don B. Cilly]

I have a SmartShunt. I use Victron Connect on Android to monitor it. All it's really good for is giving me a rather precise (I guess) voltage and amperage reading, but it's OK.

Problem is, I rather dislike pocket computers (smartphones). I'm old, my eyesight is not what it used to be, I like the precision of pointing devices (mice), I don't like my fingers' much. Etc.
So I use a "dedicated" phone (an old semi-dead one), velcroed very close to the shunt, and scrcpy to it on my big screen.
It works. But then, I realised that Victron have a Linux appimage. It runs, exactly like the Android app. Except, it does this:



As you can see, Bluetooth level is just fine. I tried multiple times. No other devices are connected to the shunt.
Any ideas?
.

 

[rmaddy]

The following may be useful:

VictronConnect for Linux - download & instructions - Victron Community

community.victronenergy.com

 

[Don B. Cilly]

It isn't, I'm afraid. The appimage works just fine, it sees the shunt, the signal is strong, it just won't connect. It keeps "resetting" the connection.

 

[rmaddy]

There are sections in that link that specifically address Bluetooth issues. The end of the instructions at the top cover it and some of the posts further down also address it.

 

[PerryB67]

You should have purchased the BMV-712 with the screen to view. Ours is cut into an overhead cabinet, but I use the app, so rarely use the screen.

Enjoy,

Perry

 

[Don B. Cilly]

Hahahaha :·)
This was so funny I really laughed out loud.
So I tried with bluetoothctl, told it to use default-agent.
In the midst of hundreds of fast-scrolling lines, I sort of vaguely managed to get a tinge of doubt that it might be asking me for a passcode.
So I restarted the fast-scroll, and told it it was 000000. No luck. I then remembered that the first time I connected it insisted that I change it. Since this was months ago, and then never asked for it, and I moved house, it could have been... anything.

So I found out where to "reset the code". It asked me for a PUK one. I almost PUKed. Then, thanks to uncle G., I found out the PUKE code is "on the back of the thingy". So I put on my jacket, got a flashlight and magnifying glass, went into the cupboard, it wasnt on the back, it was on a side, the only one that I couldn't reach. I considered using a mirror (as if the code wasn't difficult enough to copy) then - at this time I was already laughing - I remember my phone has a camera and could just about fit in there.

Got the pic, entered the PUK, it gave me "impossible error", found out how to "remove the pairing", did that, on the 3rd try it let me reset the code, switched the phone off, went back to the appimage, entered 6 0s, pointedly refused to heed any warnings to change the PIN or else - you're all very welcome to come to my house, within short bluetooth range, and hack into it - and... it works. I can now see my shunt on a big screen without remote phones and crap.
.

 

[Don B. Cilly]

Yeah well, it was funny.
It's not so much that to make a graphical app work I have to jump to and from a terminal window, which scrolls useless information too fast to guess what you should be doing. It's Linux, we're used to it ;·)

It's that after all that, you have to find a PUK code, in order to do which you have to go out in the dark (it's past 9PM here) and cold - hey, at least it isn't raining :·) - use your bloody phone to read it (the whole point of the operation being to not have to use it, mind you), spend half an hour trying to make it work... oh well, at least I had a good laugh :·)