Not Your Average Software Bug
When I used to write technical manuals for medical devices, I discovered a bug in a new version of software and showed it to the engineer who wrote the software.
The engineer said “That can’t happen”.
I haven’t had any more of these alternative reality encounters until today when I discovered a bug in my RV’s Victron equipment, in particular the Victron Touch 50 display.
First off, the Touch 50 is a remarkable piece of engineering. At a glance, its display shows where and how much power is flowing in your RV:
However, after doing some work in our RV today (chassis grounding the inverter case), the Touch 50 display looked similar to this:
After powering on several electrical devices in the RV, nothing changed – the display still showed 0W in and 0W out.
I reset the display and inverter several times, but to no effect. What the hell?
Time to Google . . . I found this on the Victron Support web site:
Multiplus II – AC Input Suddenly 0And then I discovered the “fix” . . .
Is Anyone Working on . . .The fix is to shove a 3.5 mm headphone jack in and out of the Victron’s Current Sense jack:
Aside from the sexual overtones, this work around seems just absurd, like trying to fix a flat tire by turning on the windshield wipers. Nevertheless . . .
After jacking the Current Sense hole several times, I checked the Touch 50 display:
rvSeniorMoments 