Supergeek

Hello @JO+eand @Rid00.
I have literally just completed my conversion from a Growatt SPF5000ES to 2 x Lux SNA5000's.
I am successfully pulling stats from the inverters into Home Assistant / Grafana using lxp-bridge and a little bit of Node-Red-fu. 
What I am curious about is how you guys are using the stats, what you have done, what you have graphed out and visually presenting and how you guys are using these stats for automation (if at all). Bonus points for pictures.   
I am planning on doing a quick little guide on how to achieve what I have done and posting it on the forums here somewhere for other people to use. Would be nice to have some additional insights / ideas.
Thank you!

Hello @uncappedshady,
I used to have the same issue running firmware 04x.04 and things seem to be a bit more "sane" with firmware 04x.06. I can now use the PV+UTI mode to blend those two sources to charge the battery, whereas 04x.04 simply refused to use ANY UTI while there was still some PV available.
 
I can most certainly help you to achieve this in an automated way.
Yessir. I got this working using ModBus and a USB cable plugged into the inverter. Then using NodeRed to automate this process and exposing it to HomeAssistant (In fact, all the inverter stats are displayed on HA / Grafana using this neat little local-only method). I have to note that I am not using any of the Growatt datalogging features (I actually think the datalogger blocks physical access to the USB port because of its size), and all of this is done on your local network with local devices.
I can walk you through this process and hopefully with a little nudge from your side we can publish it on a thread here for use by anyone else interested. So far I have just been lacking the motivation to actually publish the guide here.

Hello @JO+eand @Rid00.
I have literally just completed my conversion from a Growatt SPF5000ES to 2 x Lux SNA5000's.
I am successfully pulling stats from the inverters into Home Assistant / Grafana using lxp-bridge and a little bit of Node-Red-fu. 
What I am curious about is how you guys are using the stats, what you have done, what you have graphed out and visually presenting and how you guys are using these stats for automation (if at all). Bonus points for pictures.   
I am planning on doing a quick little guide on how to achieve what I have done and posting it on the forums here somewhere for other people to use. Would be nice to have some additional insights / ideas.
Thank you!

Hi @Supergeek
 
Thanks for the reply, do you have comms with your Lux inverter with Canbus ?
Did you do any firmware upgrade on your inverter ?
 

Hey bud, so glad you sorted it's a pain when BMS doesn't work. 

Hi @JO+e
Thank you! I really appreciate this. I will give it a shot as soon as I have a bit of time. I will definitely give you a shout if I get stuck along the way. This does look very promising and opens up a world of possibilities. Issuing commands would just be a bonus. I like that this can also be run in docker if desired. Once again, Thank you! 

Hi Rid00,
Not sure if you've come right, but I'm busy toying with this exact situation (for my father-in-law). You can have a look at GitHub - celsworth/lxp-bridge: A bridge to MQTT for communications with the LuxPower range of inverters. So far I've managed to get it running on a Pi Zero W 2 and was able to retrieve info from the inverter and publish via MQTT during a quick test over the weekend. I haven't set up anything with the automation (via OpenHab) yet (in progress) so I can't yet comment beyond that, but so far it looks pretty promising.
You can have a look at the list of pulled and published metrics here lxp-bridge/inputs.md at master · celsworth/lxp-bridge · GitHub. Seems you can also issue some commands at present, but for my current use-case I'm not really interested in that (yet, anyway).
Happy to field more questions if you get stuck. I should be in a much better position after commissioning the little system over the weekend and then keeping an eye on what it's up to.
Cheers
Joe

This bit me earlier this afternoon. I assumed it would be straight through. Thank you, this helped.

Looks like I did not follow pin outs properly, its 4,5 to 4,5 but battery side is slightly different. BMS is now up and happy!
 
Hope the below helps someone one day 
 

Guys and girls
Do NOT Underestimate the power of proper testing of your system.
The last 2 weeks doing all these off-grid tests has been super valuable with regards to my setup and all the settings.
My system is now so nicely dialed and tuned in that I did not even notice that we went onto real loadshedding today

Hi just a warning don't flash the SPF 5000 ES with the latest firmware as the chip and board has changed on the the newer model...which has the latest update July 22 for it.older models the firmware  version number s start with
40.   .....41.  .
the newer inverter model  starts  with 61 or 67 that's how you tell the difference.
for the old versions like mine there is only a febuary 2022 firmware update.
I take no responsibility for the updates and / or failure. you do it out of your own volition and accept the consequences (bricking) of a failed update!
if it's not broke don't fix it is best policy.
Here is the link for ALL the Growatt SPF 5000 ES firmware updates and the windows drivers for the usb ports.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1x8mgSmzBQGLIUetqfzshZwu1JZuIXICi?usp=sharing
It helps to be slightly IT orientated if you do the update yourself.
And don't forget to hard reset the inverter after the firmware update(very important).
The file contains the flashing software, and the updates ( .bin files ) for the two versions of the old model inverter firmware ..

Hi there all
Made the leap to solar with backup power in the last week so far very happy with the system performance.
Inverter: Mecer Axpert MKS IV 5.6Kw
Battery: Dyness BX51100
Solar: JA Solar 8 x 455w
Having some teething issues with the battery to inverter comms - will raise this in the other threads where applicable.

Personally, I'd be happy to feed back at any rate above zero as long as we don't have the BS about having to pay to have the smart meter and the "net consumer" BS too...

Pretoria's current official rate 11c

Almost made 3 days off-grid, then the rain came...
Going to have to buy those extra batteries.
And then would have to get more panels to charge the extra batteries.
Something tells me this never ends 🤣

Ok some more tweaks to happen today.
I am moving the geyser back to the non-essentials side.
The sunsynk 5kw just not suited to have that heavy load connected. It leaves way too little room for other appliances like my kettle and toaster which is essentially my essentials
Also trying to finish the frame for my 2 missing panels to be added into the east string I really need that extra 1000watts for the battery charging.

Self Loadshedding Is Becoming a thing at our home
If you cannot go fully off-grid then at least aim for 12 hours or more per day if possible
You WILL save a load of cash to then spend on further upgrades

Correct, most of the time for the average user it is what they are comfortable in trusting/relying on.
Myself being a big DIY enthusiast and tinkerer of note, I prefer the trial and error method to find what works best for me.

I am also a BIG fan of Andy's Off Grid Garage and he has shown, by demonstration, a massive amount of info on how these LiFePo4 batteries work and how to get the most out of them without destroying them

Yeah, this side pushing 62A-ish (Centurion). But remember that he will probably be pushing 60A at 16:00 this afternoon when we are at 5A.

Yeah, this side pushing 62A-ish (Centurion). But remember that he will probably be pushing 60A at 16:00 this afternoon when we are at 5A.

Yeah, this side pushing 62A-ish (Centurion). But remember that he will probably be pushing 60A at 16:00 this afternoon when we are at 5A.

The perks of living in a city that has sun until 11PM.  I am down to 50ish watts.
On a serious note though - In Cape Town, optimal summer conditions, until what time can you get PV production?

The Sunsynk Portal Stats just don't do it for me anymore
Misses a lot of detailed stats. It is more for averaging than anything else.
Supposedly a premium brand but still the same chineesi style el-cheepo energy portal
All it's really good for is firmware upgrades.

It is currently on the non-essential side, that's why I said I need to rewire it to the essential side. Already using tasmota to control all the timings

@JacquesBrittz I don't see any solar production on your dashboard, something is very wrong, you said you have 4 X 540 W panels, at 10 Am you should be getting close to 1500 W of PV power.