AC load on phoenix 12 | 500 not working - linux appimage

Ran into something similar a while back with my own little island setup here in Kent — panel feeding into an MPPT, batteries, then a Phoenix inverter doing the heavy lifting for the odd AC load.

Was monitoring everything through VictronConnect on Linux (AppImage build) and noticed the AC load readout was just sitting at zero no matter what I plugged in. Kettle, lamp, the lot — nothing registering. The inverter itself was clearly working because the devices were running fine.

Turned out the AppImage version I was on wasn't pulling the AC consumption data correctly over the VE.Direct cable. The cable was reading battery voltage and state of charge fine, but the load side seemed to be getting dropped somewhere in the data handshake.

A few things worth checking if you're in the same boat:

• Which AppImage version are you on? I found 6.41 had a quirk on certain Debian-based distros where the AC load widget wouldn't populate unless you toggled the display settings
• Is your VE.Direct cable the genuine Victron one or a third-party? I had grief with a knockoff that dropped certain data frames intermittently
• Try running the AppImage from terminal — sometimes you get error output that the GUI swallows silently

What's your battery setup? I'm on a small Fogstar lithium bank and wondering whether the BMS comms interfere with anything downstream on the Phoenix side of things.

Would be good to know if others running Linux monitoring have cracked this — feels like it shouldn't be this fiddly for what's a fairly standard small off-grid stack.

@KentVanLifer mate, the Phoenix 12/500 has a low power mode that'll cut AC output faster than a seagull nicks your chips — disable it in VictronConnect and your phantom loads will actually show up properly.

@KentVanLifer worth checking whether VictronConnect is actually seeing the Phoenix properly via the AppImage on Linux — had this exact grief on my narrowboat setup running Ubuntu. The AppImage sometimes needs chmod +x making it executable, and you may need to install libfuse2 separately as it's not always bundled on newer distros.

Also, if your AC load monitoring isn't showing correctly, check whether you've got a SmartShunt or BMV in the chain — the Phoenix 12/500 alone doesn't report AC-side load data back to VictronConnect, it only gives you DC input figures. You'd need a Cerbo GX or similar to pull proper AC load telemetry into the interface.

What distro are you running? That'll narrow it down considerably.

@ExSquaddie49 already touched on VictronConnect but worth being specific — the AppImage needs to be set executable first (chmod +x) and you'll likely need the correct USB-VE.Direct or MK3 interface cable, not a generic USB-serial clone. Cheap CH340 knockoffs cause all sorts of grief.

Also, "not working" tells us precisely nothing. Is the inverter not starting, tripping on overload, or is it just VictronConnect that's the issue? Two completely different problems.

@FET_Fan's point on low power mode is valid — but that's configured within VictronConnect, so if your software connection is borked you can't rule anything out yet.

Victron's Linux support is functional but barely documented. Fogstar won't help you here, this one's purely on the Victron side.

@BatteryTim beat me to the executable flag — classic Linux trap, that one. While you're in the terminal feeling smug about chmod +x, also check you've actually got Bluetooth permissions sorted. On some distros the AppImage just sits there silently doing absolutely nothing, like a cat that's decided it doesn't want to communicate today.

If Vict

@BoxerProject once you've sorted the executable flag and VE.Direct is talking properly, double-check your AC load configuration in VictronConnect itself — the Phoenix 12|500 has a PowerAssist toggle that can cause weird behaviour if it's enabled when you're not expecting it.

Also worth confirming you're on a recent AppImage build. Victron pushed some fixes a while back that specifically addressed Bluetooth comms dropping on certain Linux distros. I hit this on my narrowboat setup running Manjaro — downloaded what I thought was the latest and it still had the bug. Had to grab it directly from victronenergy.com rather than any third-party mirror.

What's the actual symptom you're seeing? Load cutting out, or is VictronConnect just not reflecting the AC draw correctly?