The Internet of Things

Hi, I have a Growatt SPF5000 inverter with a Pylontech US3000 battery installed. I'm looking to introduce more stable monitor capabilities by using a Raspberry pi and Solar assistant. The problem I have is that, ironically, I don't have any outlets near where the installation is. Has anyone managed to find a suitable way to power a Raspberry pi from the dry contacts or something similar? Not sure whether that would work.. it would save me a LOT of effort. TIA

Hi guys Other than Tuya compatible that can talk to Home Assistant. Anyone know of a Wifi capable breaker that talk mqtt direct or that has a ESP32 that can be flashed with Tasmoto. 20, 32, 40, 50 amp options, G

Hi! This is my first post here! I have made a module for the Victron Color Control (CCGX) that reads data from the Tristar MPPT 60 charge controller. I case anyone is interested the source code is on GitHub: https://github.com/osaether/dbus-tsmppt Regards, Ole

I had one of these fitted a few months back to automate one task for me. Today I had four more fitted. Now my life is remotely controllable, automated and complicated. But well, I have to have something to keep me busy in retirement. Now, the usual digital timer switch that one can buy has four modes 1) On - irrespective of the timer 2) On and paying attention to the timer 3) Off - irrespective of the timer 4) Off and paying attention to the timer. So in the case of my guest geyser, which I only want to run when we have guests, I could program it, then leave it in the third mode and it would just be off and stay off until I put it into mode 1 or (more likely) 2. When the…

So very rapidly I have 11 smart devices that I am ultimately controlling with Google Home. This includes my TVs, or probably the Chromecast devices that we have attached to them (Google Home knows about these). So I have five CBI smart controllers. These are registered on the CBI app (I presume in their cloud). I have two controllers for water isolators, no-name brand devices that I bought from GeeWiz. These are registered on SmartLife, as are the two CBI smart adaptors (basically plug in timers) that I recently got. I use Google Home to tie every thing together. This is at least one app too many. I want to consolidate everything. Note that CBI do not prevent their device…

I registered and email and linked dongle to it. Now it says email unknown. This is second email. First one that was unknown is now knonw ut cant link dongle to it because it's linked to other email that is now unknown

Hi guys, Just wanted to present to you a new Windows' software tool that we prepared for monitoring of PIP/Axpert inverters and Pylontech batteries. It supports many compatible inverter models. It can work with parallel configurations as well. This was actually the main reason to write the software because a few months ago I upgraded my system from single to 3x inverters and the "pi" solution did not work correct anymore. The software can control switching between battery/grid mode based on Pylontech SOC, and also can control Pylontech max charge current based on the request coming from its BMS. The software can also upload data to emoncms server. Currentl…

Hi all, Thought I'd share my journey in creating an accurate water level measuring system for my Jojo tanks. I've finally managed to find a solution which is about 99.6% accurate. This equates to a water height difference of +-5mm between the actual height in the tank vs what the probe is reading. I'd call this a success 🙃 Some of the other ESP32 + sensor solutions which I've tried and given up on: Waterproof ultrasonic sensor - difficult to implement as the minimum distance between the sensor and the water level is +-20CM if I recall correctly. This meant that I would need to 3D print a cone to raise the ultrasonic sensor and cut a large hole in th…

Hi Guys Been lurking for a while and installed an Esener 5.5k inverter which is pretty much a rebadged Axpert and Mecer unit from what I can tell. Coupled to that I have a Esener 5.1 Lithium battery. Both being Esener it was pretty much plug and play and so far even stage 6 has been n breeze and without solar panels yet. I did the install myself and so far my only issue is the Wifi dongle that must talk to the SmartESS "server". I connected the Wifi Plug Pro data logger to the inverter as per instructions. I can then connect to the data logger via my phones wifi. So far I have managed to : Create an SmartESS account Connect to the wifi datalogger …

Hey folks, In the past week or so I've noticed that Solarman keeps going offline for various lengths of time. Today has been particularly lengthy - since about 4am it's been offline. Is there anything that can be done to change to a different server or something? Its not my wifi connection but the servers that they connect to...

For my Sunsynk5.5 Simple Local Monitoring and Graphing Solution I use a single RPi4 2gig + 1 terabyte external HDD + Official RPi4 Power-supply. The comms between my RPi4 and the Sunsynk 5.5 inverter is done using the Sunsynk BMS RS485 port wired to a standard (RS485 to RS232 Converter) and then to a standard (RS232 to USB converter). This comms setup gave me the most stable and fastest/reliable way to get the data from the Sunsynk. You can still use your Solarman or Sunsynk dongle at the same time. Credits Shout out again to @Bloubul7 who has an awesome post going about using nodered and Sunsynk That was the foundation for setting up my own dashboard runn…

Be warned, I am very new to this and may need a lot of hand holding... I'm busy building a home automation system using Openhab on a Raspberry Pi. One of the rules I want to incorporate is switching the pool pump on or off depending on the SOC and total load readings from the Goodwe. I can get these from the app when I'm on the home wifi so it should be possible for OH to ask for the information but I can't seem to find any information on how to do this. I found some guidance on pulling this from the SEMS portal but I'm concerned about delays. I want the pool pump to switch off as soon as total draw reaches 4kW or higher. Has anyone tried something like …

Hi everyone, I woke up this morning and found that one of the 2 inverter's data logger is blinking green while the other one is blinking blue. Please also note that nothing has been changed in terms of configurations. To find the root cause of the issues, I have done the following steps: Removed the logger from the mobile app (Shinephone) Reset the data logger but could not connect using the standard mode while noting that the first time it was installed I used the standard mode. Tried the hotspot mode after clicking on the "key" button with a short press and was able to connect to it but the light is still blinking green. I Tried also rese…

Hi folks, I was given a ShineWifi-F dongle by @Demo after his Growatt inverter was water damaged. There are a few threads about reprogramming the Shine-Wifi-F dongles (e.g. https://diysolarforum.com/threads/hacking-the-new-growatt-wifi-f-modules.43231/), but one of the constant problems is programming it, because of the RS-232 transceiver connected to the ESP07 modules RX and TX pins. Some folks desoldered the transceiver, others cut traces, etc. Some had success with particular USB-TTL adapters, but the CP2102 that was said to work there didn't work for me. Others had problems providing enough power. I approached it somewhat differently, starting with a USB-RS232 dongle,…

Hello everyone

I want to connect with Rasbery Pi to this inverter i have https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002328132162.html It works with provided WiFi Dongle and SmartESS application but Solar Assistant does see incorrectly the devices when connecting both usb and rs242 cables together or independently. when plugging in the inverter via USB it's showing up as a "Exar Corp. XR21V1410" serial device which is different from normal. This USB device is also not accepting connections.

Any suggestions on something that can give a reasonable daily chart/graph of geyser kwh usage? Efergy looked like they have with their "engage" but they seem to be dropping off here for anything available & overseas stock also looks like their about to close their doors. Ewelink + Tuya - I really thought there would be something better but doesn't appear so unless I'm not looking in the right place. IamMeter - seems expensive @3k for a single CT Feeding to Victron VRM looks like also a $ story & maybe a chart but no totals either. Any other suggestions to look at? Edit: Deeper look at the iammeter got me a bit keener on that one seen as the cloud…

Don't make the same mistake I did when buying your smart devices that you want to run on your own network away from the cloud. Make 100% sure that the devices you buy can be flashed with your own firmware or tasmotised BNETA devices which are being pushed all over SA at all the major retailers are NOT flashable, they are now using the new tuya proprietry chips which cannot be flashed with your own firmware or tasmotised. Ask your retailer if the devices you are interested in are using TUYA chips and if they are, walk away These companies want to force you onto their cloud systems so that they can sell your usage data to big tech and who knows else. If TU…

I have a technical question and I'm counting on some advice. I've already updated my new inverter Voltronic VM IV 3600 to the latest available versions 61.03+22.21 and I was hoping to be able to turn on the Eco mode - unfortunately the inverter draws 18W at rest and after switching on the converter without load it draws 75-80W just to maintain operation. Can i turn on the Eco mode in it?, or is there a firmware that will slow down the fans? I think it would be possible to reduce a good 10W by muting the fans. Maybe you have some other methods? I don't hide the fact that energy efficiency in offgrid is very important to me. I realized that I will probably ne…

Need some advice with Wifi app please. Deye 5kw inverter. I’m rather disappointed with the basic Solarman Smart App compared to what I’ve seen for Sunsync. Is Solarman smart app the only option?

A few days ago my Luxpower app on my phone and laptop stopped working. When i tried to log on it gave a message...Network may have trouble. I uninstalled the app on my phone and am trying to download it again but its not working. Any answers out there.

Gents, Don't worry. I don't even open the DB board's see-through cover, so I won't go fooling around with the electrical system in the house. My question is, Do you get a WiFi switch that can be installed on the Eskom supply on the house DB?

Hi I would highly appreciate it if someone could assist with getting view power running on Pi I have installed but have been away from linux for quit a while

I am interested in upgrading to the Luxpower SNA6000, is the app/remote access useful for configuring? Also, can it be configured so that it can work with the Smarthome or Tuya platform, or what is recommended? Example: automatically adjust charging profiles from solar based on weather forecast? Or turn non-essential loads onto mains supply instead when sun time is reduced by weather conditions?

Wow, I got ICC-Solar on Pi running yesterday. This is absolutely brilliant. Awesome piece of software. Is Manie no longer on these forums - havent seen his posts since about Jan 2018. Anyway thanks Manie. Just had to comment on it.