Overview
Software Updates are delivered in a different way depending upon the type.
System Updates
How system updates reach you depends on how your system was set up.
Nomad Appliance
On the Nomad Appliance, Sensa looks after updates for you. By default your system keeps itself up to date automatically, so there is usually nothing to do. Updates are delivered by us, so they need a live support plan.
If you would rather decide when updates happen, manage it in Settings, System, under Software updates:
- turn the automatic updates off and use the Update now button when it suits you,
- pick a maintenance window, a time of day when updates are allowed to run, so they never interrupt you on the road. One window covers both your Sensa updates and your system's operating system updates, because the question you are really answering is when you are not using the van. An update that appears outside the window waits, and goes in once the window next opens, and Update now ignores the window entirely, because you pressing it is you saying now is a good time,
- read the release notes and see the download size before you apply an update.
- see which release stream your system follows, on the Update channel row. It is there for information rather than as a control: moving a system between streams is something we do, so speak to support if you think yours is on the wrong one. See Release Streams.
Your system will not show you a version it has not confirmed. If it could not reach the release registry, usually because the van has no signal, the Latest version available row reads Not available offline and Update now waits until it can check again. Check now still works, so you can try again the moment you are back in signal. If something is genuinely wrong instead, say the update service has lost its access to the registry, the row reads Couldn't check and says why underneath. Either way you are never shown an old figure as though it were the current one. See Working offline.
Updates move forward only. If you ever need to go back to an earlier version, you restore from a backup, see Rollback.
Automatic updates did not reach systems running any 1.0 version, whatever the switch said. If yours is on one, press Update now once to bring it up to date. After that it looks after itself as described above, and there is nothing further to do.
You can see which version you are on in Settings, System, under Software updates.
At the foot of the same panel, in small print, is a line reading Flashed from image and a number such as 2026.8.1.
That is the memory card your unit was built from, recorded once when we made it. It is not what your system is running now: the first update you take moves you past it. It is kept because it is the one fact about a unit that cannot be worked out any other way, so quote it if you ever contact us about the hardware.
It sits apart from the version rows above it deliberately, because it is not one of them. Its numbering also happens to look like a Home Assistant version, so read the label rather than the shape of the number.
Your system backs up first
Every update starts with a backup. Before anything is installed, your system takes a full snapshot and waits for it to finish, so there is always a recent point to return to. On the hardware we ship this takes several minutes, and the update panel says Backing up before updating while it runs.
Press Update now once and let it work. There is nothing to watch: the update carries on by itself, your system restarts at the end, and the page reconnects on its own.
If a backup is already being written, the overnight one for example, the update waits rather than starting alongside it, and tells you to try again once it has finished. See Backups.
Enthusiast and DIY
On an Enthusiast or DIY system you look after updates yourself. When a new update is available it appears in Home Assistant, and you download and apply it there in the usual way. On Enthusiast you also look after your own backups.
Device Firmware Updates
All devices are configured in the firmware to check every 12 hours for new firmware in the stable stream on our Sensa Cloud system. If a new firmware is detected, this will be shown in Home Assistant and you will be given the option to download and update the firmware.
Equipment that is not ours
Three pieces of third-party equipment can now be updated from Sensa, rather than from their own apps:
- a Victron Cerbo GX, which runs Venus OS,
- a Teltonika router, which runs RutOS,
- a Teltonika managed switch, which runs its own firmware, separate from the router's and on its own numbering.
Each one is offered the same way as a Sensa device: you are told the version it is on and the version waiting for it. A router update is refused while a remote support session is open, since the reboot would cut the engineer off mid-job, and it goes in once the session ends.
Routers are offered the stable stream rather than the newest build. Teltonika promote a build to stable only after several weeks without a serious fault being found in it, and a van's router is not the place to be first.
Keeping them up to date, or doing it yourself
Each of the three has its own Automatic updates switch in Settings, and all three start switched on, so a van left alone keeps its equipment current.
Switch one off and that piece of equipment is paused, not hidden: you are still told when a new version is waiting, and the Update button still works, so you can take it at a moment that suits you rather than one that suits the van.
Managed switches are offered updates through the same route as the routers, but we have not yet run one on a real switch. If yours reports nothing available, or an update will not start, that is the reason, and nothing is harmed by it. Leave the switch's automatic updates off until we say otherwise if you would rather wait.
Everything plugged into a Cerbo stays with Victron. Your inverter, your solar chargers and your Bluetooth-only kit are updated from Victron's own apps and from VRM, because Victron provide no way to start those from the van. Sensa shows you the version each one is on so you know where you stand, and that is as far as it goes.