Hey everyone,
Some context to the problem. I have not made any firmware updates in a long time since everything was running fine. Decided to invest in a new Dyness Powerbrick that forced me towards firmware updates. Updated the Venus GX to V2.73 without issues. Multiplus II 48/3000/35 firmware was update to the latest V552. Then updated the Venus GX to V3.54 and received a MK3 upgrade message.
I was not sure what that was and updated the Multi settings for the new battery. When I wanted to upload the configuration the ESS assistant gave me this error.
I had to roll back to V2.73 on the Venus GX and managed to get the old ESS loaded.Is this related to the MK3 error? Which I now know how to fix after searching online. I was in a bit of a hurry last night to get everything set up.
Victron support information is not clear about the relationship between the MK3 firmware update and the ESS compatibility.
Any wisdom on this issue? My thinking is that the Venus on the latest V3.xx firmware and the MK3 firmware updated, I should be able to load the latest ESS assistant. I used a MK3 USB cable for the uploads.
As a side note:The Powerbrick connected without issues to the Venus GX and seems to be working fine. Just waiting to see a full charge cycle to confirm the voltage profile.
Venus/Cerbo was updated, inverter was updated and the MK3 needs updating too for all to be able to communicate again after all the cool upgrades Victron did on their firmware’s.
Probably already sorted, but since I already read the thread…
The VE.Bus products have their own internal “networking” hardware, so to speak. It’s based on RS485, but you are not allowed to directly connect to it. It must always be done through an mk2 or mk3 interface. There is such an mk3 chip built into every GX device, and it is a microcontroller. It runs firmware. The message you got, is about updating the firmware on that mk3 chip inside the GX device. It’s completely harmless and has nothing to do with a firmware update on the inverter.
Normally the firmware on the mk2/mk3 is updated automatically without even asking you. On every reboot, if the firmware is outdated, it is automatically updated. The only reason it asks, is because this particular upgrade has a small risk of causing a momentary power outage.
As for the ESS assistant thing, first it probably helps to understand what an assistant is. An assistant is like an extra “app” that runs on top of the base system. The firmware you load, is like the base OS. The ESS assistant is something extra that runs on top of it. Just like with all software, you occasionally have software requirements. Newer software don’t run on older versions of Windows, for example. And old software often don’t run on new versions of Windows. Similarly, some ESS assistants needs the firmware to be new enough, and newer firmware cannot run with an old ESS assistant.
When you’re upgrading from a very old version to a very new one, it is sometimes best to redo everything from scratch. Migration is always built in, but when you upgrade over such a large chasm of other versions, there might be unintended bugs too.
Thank you Plonkster for the detail on the inner workings of the Venus and Inverter communication. Let me spend some time with the upgrade and check if I can get it working. Crossing fingers
I was in a bit of a hurry last night to get everything set up.
