Open Testing

GivEnergy Products GivEnergy Mobile App
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I wanted to see what people think about the idea of having an open testing version of the app.

It’d basically be a much earlier look at what’s being worked on, with regular updates, possibly close to daily. You’d get to try new features and changes before they make it into the main app.
Just to set expectations, there wouldn’t be a promise of daily updates, and the testing version may not always work as expected. Some features or changes also might not make it into the live app.

I’d set up a separate email address for feedback, bugs, suggestions, and anything else people want to share. I wouldn’t be able to promise replies to every email, but I would read through them. The main reason for that is so feedback doesn’t take too much time away from development and testing.

Is this something people would actually use?

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Interesting idea but not sure if I would use it much. I’m interested in restoring the original arc of controls below the circular display of energy movements, where one tap takes you to the various graphs which currently are accessed via the 3 horizontal lines menu. It takes at least 2 taps to access the graphs and/or the controls now. Why change a perfectly good interface design for one that is worse?

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This is the problem with your team, you are not prepared to listen, You have just deleted 3,200 emails from users many of which would have been useful suggestions and observations. We are sick to death of hearing about you are only three people. You accepted the job so get on with it. So far the App you have produced is abysmal quality to say the least. Personal I will not trust any GE Software for scheduling as there are far better alternatives available which are much more reliable, with support that listens and acts, you have a lot to learn.

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Because they have NO IDEA how to design a good UI

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TooMuch: I don’t really see how criticizing DevDavid in the way that you are doing is going to help the situation. At least he is making proposals that might result in a better GivEnergy app. I get that you are resentful about GivEnergy going bust but that is hardly DevDavid’s fault. I for one am thankful that someone is prepared to keep the app going. Constructive criticism is helpful, angry rants are not helpful. I am happy to support DevDavid’s proposal and would try to contribute ideas for improvements to the app.

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I am calling it as I see it, What I wrote above has nothing to with GE’s demise. Face facts the App is worse than it was before, support is none existent, no testing before release, full of bugs and un thought of consequences. They have no intention of listening, which they proved by deleting all the emails. Every time we receive an email from them we see them attempting to use that “there is only three of them” as an excuse for unacceptable performance. They are a business and we are the paying customers. They are so unprofessional, arrogant and frankly quite useless in every respect, as far as I have experienced so far.

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Certainly happy to lend a hand if that would contribute something to getting things back on track and users feeling supported once again.

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App wprking perfectly for me including scheduling. Transition from old app was painless and trouble free.
AIO 1, PV panels and Gateway hard wired. No EV charger but use granny charger
Happy to lend a hand if needed.

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I’d be happy to use it.
I don’t actively export, only when excess solar and battery full, as on FiT with deemed export. Do watch the forecast and enable overnight charging when required.

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I’d settle for the app being able to find my inverter locally, reliably. It’s never been brilliant and now it’s just tragic. Get the basics working before you do anything else.

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Yes would be happy to be a beta tester; you could always start a bug tracker type thing I suppose rather than sifting though 100 emails?

Appreciate the work you are doing and I hope this all works out for the team; the last few months can’t have been much fun.

Cheers

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This is a good idea and I’m happy to help…

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Yes, good idea, I’d support it.

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I would certainly put it on a spare tablet to assess new features and workability.

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Would be great to help develop a user friendlier app.

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Firstly I am astonished that toomuch has go so hot under the collar about the UI of the app.

I am just grateful that the team came together to keep the software supported.

But to the subject: Personally I would not really be likely to sign up for this Open Testing option.

I actually don’t think the software needs much further development, but then I am more of an average user than an enthusiast.

If there are instances where the software does not work for some users then (which seems to be the case reading other posts here) then that of course would be a prority for development - making the system robust.

From my point of view a bit of effort on simplifying terminology and a more comprehensive help page would be the next priority. I did find it quite hard to understand what was making my system behave in ways I had not intended.

I don’t really like utility software to be continuously developed, there are enough things to worry about in life without having to keep up with software changes on every d*** thing I own in my house. :slight_smile:

Thanks for your offer of Open Testing, not for me, but others may be keen.

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Which app you talking about - free or premium?

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Dear DevDavid,

Our world produces a rich tapestry of characters. Some take a nuanced and positive attitude to dealing with the problems they face. Some don’t!

Well done. Keep up the good work.

Richard

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@DevDavid thanks very much for running this by the community. and thanks for sticking your head above the parapet to engage with users; I think some of the commentary here is a bit unfairly-directed, so try not to take it to heart.

Nightlies sounds like a good idea. It would be a great way to reduce the blast radius of big changes such as those that came in with the introduction of premium – there were unintended gaps in that release, like free-tier functionality’s becoming inaccessible.

So I think the motivation for users to use this isn’t just “try new functionality early whilst it’s being developed and tested”, it’s “some users should be daily-driving the nightlies, so that if there’s a break it can be reported before it gets mainlined”.

As for “would I use it”: I’m generally happy to daily-drive bleeding-edge software and navigate around bugs, but it depends on how much install friction there is (I’m on iOS btw), like does this mean I have to login more often or do I have to re-pair my inverter every time it updates.

“Would I benefit from the functionality”: I think I wouldn’t. I don’t think GivEnergy’s roadmap is at all aligned with the functionality I want.

For me I have one primary ask, and that’s reliability.
The Modbus / GivTCP connection is incredibly unreliable, like unbelievably, unusably unreliable. It is the most normal thing in the world for me to check my GivTCP dashboard and see it hasn’t been able to connect to the inverter or scrape the registers in days. My inverter is connected over Ethernet, I don’t know of any other clients (unless the cloud connection counts as a client) competing for use of the modbus. This can be resolved temporarily by rebooting the inverter, but it breaks again within a day. It’s no stretch to say I don’t have local control of my inverter.
The GivEnergy app is extremely unreliable. Almost every time I apply inverter settings, it says that it failed. And sometimes that’s not true, it succeeded.
The GivEnergy Cloud SaaS is extremely unreliable. Just like in the app: almost every time I apply inverter settings, it says that it failed. And likewise, sometimes that’s not true, it succeeded.

This has downstream repercussions for Axle’s automation also. Almost every time there’s a grid event: they either fail to enable my automation, or fail to restore it afterwards. I find on most grid events that my inverter either exported nothing, or that I’m importing grid power during peak hours afterwards.
There’s a chance this is just a problem on their end, but my own experiences seeing so many of my actions in the GivEnergy Cloud SaaS fail, do not fill me with confidence.

There are so many things I’d like to automate with my GivEnergy Gen3 Hybrid Inverter 8kW and my 4x Stackable Battery 1-phase. But everything I try fails, and now I have pared back my ambitions to just the most boring charge schedule because I don’t trust the inverter firmware, the modbus, the app, the SaaS, or Axle’s automation.

I have feature requests for how I would want battery automation to work, and how to make it better serve Axle grid events, but I think none of that matters until automation reliability can be fixed.

So I would say: yes do nightlies. Even if there’s not many users, you only need a couple to get early warning that a release has a break in it. But I worry that the roadmap is “more features” or “more reasons to buy premium” when I would say all feature-development is moot until local control and configuration of inverter can be made to work reliably.