FoxESS Community - Owners & Installers Forum

Thought I'd share my experience of doing a firmware upgrade this evening, also, see if anyone has any feedback, suggestions.

I wanted the ability to force export during the Octopus Saving Sessions, I also wanted control of doing the upgrade (and downgrade if needed) so I purchased a new wifi datalogger from eBay and set about seeing what I could do.

I got the new datalogger plugged in and setup a new account, I think I incorrectly setup as an installer to start, so I then setup an agent account and linked the 2 and once I got the datalogger online I eventually got access to doing an upgrade through my new agent account.

I was on Master Version 1.54, Slave Version 1.02 and Manager Version 1.68 and started by upgrading to Master Version 1.63, then Manager Version 1.70. I got the ability to Force Discharge but I lost access to MODBUS via the LAN port, which I was expecting, and I have a RS485 to Ethernet adapter on standy by just incase, but as it was the Manager Version that took out LAN access I thought I'd downgrade.

I couldn't find version 1.68 though, not sure if this was a custom or test version I was given at some point (I had a long standing issue with Fox with the battery capacity/charge/discharge that resulted in various updates). I could see Version 1.63 so I tried to downgrade to that, but it failed, which I was a bit annoyed about, worried that maybe I couldn't actually downgrade, but upon trying again, it did work and I now have LAN port access again, but, I have lost the forced export option now, so looks like I might have to get the RS485 adapter setup and reconfigure my HomeAssistant setup (which I was hoping to avoid, as it has been fine and stable since I set it up last year).

So, I'll be upgrading the Manager again to 1.70 to get the Forced Export as that will be quite a nice little earner, so worth the hassle and time to convert over from the LAN port.

I'd only say that moving from LAN port to RS485 is pretty painless from the HA end of things, and you get access to a lot more data, as well as the ability to control charge periods and more, in return. So well worth the effort even before you take into account the force-discharge aspect.

I thought I'd read that it was possible to set charge periods via RS485 so this will be great, as it is about the only reason I have to use the 'cloud' now.

I ran out of time to progress the RS485 to Ethernet adapter today however.

Is there a guide somewhere on how to upgrade/downgrade firmware?

vladimirus wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2023 8:59 pm Is there a guide somewhere on how to upgrade/downgrade firmware?

Sadly no, it’s recommended to let your installer or Foxess do the upgrades as some firmware versions have to be upgraded to as matched pairs - unfortunately they don’t currently provide release notes, although they have agreed to do that in future.

How did you link agent account with your user account, to be able to manage your own installation?

I have created an agent login, but unable to link my site to it. If anyone can help?

Simon_Ashley wrote: ↑Fri Dec 29, 2023 1:52 pm How did you link agent account with your user account, to be able to manage your own installation?

I have created an agent login, but unable to link my site to it. If anyone can help?

It's not easy to do this as you need to get Foxess involved to transfer the account from your installer which can take quite a few emails to resolve and they may not agree to it if your installer is still the responsible agent.