<Okay just a rant>  I've been happy with their batteries so far. But their logger and software update process however is a full on disaster. One basically can't rely on SolarMD for meaningful stats and logs. Also I don't think they test before doing software updates - i've last summer's data/logs (three months worth) basically disappear when they did an update. Also no warning or notice to customers before said software updates. Currently now the dashboard is showing wonky data, ie +-90 kilowatts continuous draw (wtf?).... and I apparently consumed 5.3k worth of electricity today.. hahaha. guess their devs been playing on the live environment again 🙄.

Luckily I have SolarAssistant plugged in to the second inverter and am able to see system's status. Oh yeah - had  to purchase SolarAssistant  as SolarMD doesn"t have API I can use for HomeAssistant/NodeRed.

Sorry for the rant. I'll relax now.

I'm in same boat here.. I feel for the sales speel.. Logger cost over 4k and just works for battery.. Not inverters, not weather stations etc like they state. That's a very over price bms. 

This morning the bms allowed the lithium battery to deplete to 0%!  Even though inverter was set to 15%.

No response from solarmd CEO. 

Very disappointing. 

I have 2x 7.4 SolarMD batteries and the V2 Logger which I use with MicroCare's inverter and MPPT's. It works well although I get an inballance between the 2 batteries i.t.o. battery capacity % from time to time with both battery voltages very close to each other. A quick WA to them and problem is sorted. The longest I have waited for a response was 3 hours. I get support 24/7. 

Edited October 14, 20214 yr by LouisT

...yip i've no qualms with the battery itself. the issue is the interface.  for example i like to tinker a bit with home automation (nodered/hass) and their logger doesn't provide a straightforward interface or APl. luckily I can pull stats from my 2nd inverter using a Rpi. i was using an opensource alternative but i've now purchased solar assistant just to be able to poll/log stats reliably. more importantly now if my internet link is down i can still at least check figures - with the solarmd "cloud" your basically s.o.l, if the internet link or their server is down. well thoretically you *can still* access your logger on the local network but that frontend has not been updated in yonks and its simply broken.

On 2021/10/22 at 9:43 AM, MockTurtle said:

...yip i've no qualms with the battery itself. the issue is the interface.  for example i like to tinker a bit with home automation (nodered/hass) and their logger doesn't provide a straightforward interface or APl. luckily I can pull stats from my 2nd inverter using a Rpi. i was using an opensource alternative but i've now purchased solar assistant just to be able to poll/log stats reliably. more importantly now if my internet link is down i can still at least check figures - with the solarmd "cloud" your basically s.o.l, if the internet link or their server is down. well thoretically you *can still* access your logger on the local network but that frontend has not been updated in yonks and its simply broken.

Hi @MockTurtle, want to apologize first about all this issues, LoggerV2 above version 8* has built in MQTT client that you can configure easily.

On 2021/10/13 at 11:23 AM, Martd said:

I'm in same boat here.. I feel for the sales speel.. Logger cost over 4k and just works for battery.. Not inverters, not weather stations etc like they state. That's a very over price bms. 

This morning the bms allowed the lithium battery to deplete to 0%!  Even though inverter was set to 15%.

No response from solarmd CEO. 

Very disappointing. 

Please give us info about your system.

Regarding the logger cost there is few factors why the price is 4k, first is the global chip shortage. Most of the component are not available and those that are available got price increase in in the range of hundreds percent. SolarMD LoggerV2 uses special isolated transceivers for every coms port except USB. This is required in most of the European countries. This is why the cost is 4k.    

 

On 2021/10/11 at 7:03 PM, MockTurtle said:

<Okay just a rant>  I've been happy with their batteries so far. But their logger and software update process however is a full on disaster. One basically can't rely on SolarMD for meaningful stats and logs. Also I don't think they test before doing software updates - i've last summer's data/logs (three months worth) basically disappear when they did an update. Also no warning or notice to customers before said software updates. Currently now the dashboard is showing wonky data, ie +-90 kilowatts continuous draw (wtf?).... and I apparently consumed 5.3k worth of electricity today.. hahaha. guess their devs been playing on the live environment again 🙄.

Luckily I have SolarAssistant plugged in to the second inverter and am able to see system's status. Oh yeah - had  to purchase SolarAssistant  as SolarMD doesn"t have API I can use for HomeAssistant/NodeRed.

Sorry for the rant. I'll relax now.

Hello @MockTurtle,

Regarding the lost data, the Afrihost server crashed. Even with the storage configured in RAID the data was not recoverable. From there, a lot of server reconstruction has taken place, including the DB now running in a cluster on three separate servers, all synchronized. This makes it really robust and also increases performance.

With all the changes in server infrastructure there were some growing pains along the way, and most likely there will be some going forward. But client feedback is really helpful and will help with fixing bugs that aren't caught before release. 

You can recover the lost data since it's stored on the logger too. If you contact support they will help you out.

Extending on @platar86 comment on MQTT client, you can enable it when you navigate to the logger device and it's there in System Settings. There are people using it with Home Assistant from what I understand.

Regards, Henry

On 2021/11/11 at 11:06 AM, henry-t said:

Hello @MockTurtle,

Regarding the lost data, the Afrihost server crashed. Even with the storage configured in RAID the data was not recoverable. From there, a lot of server reconstruction has taken place, including the DB now running in a cluster on three separate servers, all synchronized. This makes it really robust and also increases performance.

With all the changes in server infrastructure there were some growing pains along the way, and most likely there will be some going forward. But client feedback is really helpful and will help with fixing bugs that aren't caught before release. 

You can recover the lost data since it's stored on the logger too. If you contact support they will help you out.

Extending on @platar86 comment on MQTT client, you can enable it when you navigate to the logger device and it's there in System Settings. There are people using it with Home Assistant from what I understand.

Regards, Henry

Really glad there is now an mqtt interface! I have configured it and it seems to work... albeit its only one way at the moment - see suggestion below.

...however I wouldn't have known of these developments (and what the story behind the 'lost' data was) had I not logged on these forums... one should not have to rant on a public forum to get meaningful feedback 😐  ...also i have noticed lately there are broken image/logo links - so i know something has changed.

some suggestions:

- maybe add a notice functionality on the mypower24 dashboard. you can notify users of system changes/updates/issues/new features. heck you can even plug sales pitch on there...

- ability to send mqtt commands as well? ie to toggle loadshedding prep mode, set discharge levels etc.  that would be really be icing on the cake.

In any case, once again I really appreciate the response and the new features ...am really hoping things improve.

 

 

@MockTurtle - I've been trying to figure out how to enable MQTT and integrate the data into Home Assistant. For the life of me I cannot find the setting on the SolarMD logger page. Please can you help out and point me in the right direction here. Also, when it came to HA - have you got any pointers for me. I've got a very basic understanding of these things. I managed to load a HACS integration for the old Solarman logger I initially used, but I'd prefer to use the new Sunsynk logger I have on the inverter (as this allows for remote access to setting changes etc) and then just pull data from the SolarMD logger to monitor (seeing that you cant send commands via MQTT) 

INFO

Software ver:8.322

Hi @TanyaP,

You can enable it by going to My Devices -> Logger myPower -> System Settings then enabling the MQTT Client switch.

After enabling you just need to configure the broker URI, username, password, and select the topics you want to broadcast.

Kind regards,
Henry

On 2022/01/30 at 9:15 PM, TanyaP said:

@MockTurtle - I've been trying to figure out how to enable MQTT and integrate the data into Home Assistant. For the life of me I cannot find the setting on the SolarMD logger page. Please can you help out and point me in the right direction here. Also, when it came to HA - have you got any pointers for me. I've got a very basic understanding of these things. I managed to load a HACS integration for the old Solarman logger I initially used, but I'd prefer to use the new Sunsynk logger I have on the inverter (as this allows for remote access to setting changes etc) and then just pull data from the SolarMD logger to monitor (seeing that you cant send commands via MQTT) 

INFO

Software ver:8.322

Thanks for this question and thanks Henry for your reply. 

 

Now I have the same question. Hiw do I link the V2 logger to HA? 

I'm not really familiar with HA, but I'm guessing you will need to set up an MQTT broker and then another Client on HA which will subscribe to the topics broadcast by the logger. Never played with HA myself though. 

Solar MD has a forum, maybe someone who has had success with the integration could share their experience there? Then everyone interested can discuss and ask questions there too. The technical team also keeps an eye out for posts on the forum.

On 2022/02/07 at 8:42 AM, henry-t said:

I'm not really familiar with HA, but I'm guessing you will need to set up an MQTT broker and then another Client on HA which will subscribe to the topics broadcast by the logger. Never played with HA myself though. 

Solar MD has a forum, maybe someone who has had success with the integration could share their experience there? Then everyone interested can discuss and ask questions there too. The technical team also keeps an eye out for posts on the forum.

Please share a link to the solarmd forum

Anybody a clue how the MQTT Broker works? What port does it use?

 

What I don't like is, that there is no documentation available at all....

Edited March 20, 20224 yr by Joerg

Hi,

 

If this helps anyone, feel free to use it to get SolarMD MQTT sensors into Home Assistant.

I just enabled the MQTT function on the logger and told it to send data to my MQTT broker on HA.

I then used MQTT explorer to go into the broker and see what data I was getting from the logger. With that, I created these sensors in HA:
 

#SolarMD Inverter

  - platform: mqtt
    name: "SolarMD Battery Bank Capacity"
    state_topic: "solarmd/energy/outputEnergy/bank1"
    unit_of_measurement: "%"
    value_template: "{{ value_json.capacityP | round(0) }}"

  - platform: mqtt
    name: "SolarMD Inverter Grid Power"
    state_topic: "solarmd/power/outputPower/grid"
    unit_of_measurement: "W"
    value_template: "{{ value_json.powerW | round(0) }}"

  - platform: mqtt
    name: "SolarMD Inverter Load Power"
    state_topic: "solarmd/power/outputPower/load"
    unit_of_measurement: "W"
    value_template: "{{ value_json.powerW | round(0) }}"

  - platform: mqtt
    name: "SolarMD Inverter Solar Power"
    state_topic: "solarmd/power/outputPower/pv"
    unit_of_measurement: "W"
    value_template: "{{ value_json.powerW | round(0) }}"

  - platform: mqtt
    name: "Battery Raw Power Out"
    state_topic: "solarmd/power/outputPower/bank1-dischargingPower"
    unit_of_measurement: "W"
    value_template: "{{ value_json.powerW | round(0) }}"

  - platform: mqtt
    name: "Battery Raw Power In"
    state_topic: "solarmd/energy/outputEnergy/bank1"
    unit_of_measurement: "W"
    value_template: "{{ value_json.powerW | round(0) }}"

  - platform: mqtt
    name: "Grid Available"
    state_topic: "solarmd/power/outputPower/grid"
    value_template: "{{ value_json.available }}"

  - platform: mqtt
    name: "Solar Available"
    state_topic: "solarmd/power/outputPower/pv"
    value_template: "{{ value_json.available }}"

  - platform: template
    sensors:
      solarmd_inverter_battery_power_out:
        friendly_name: SolarMD Inverter Battery Power Out
        unit_of_measurement: "W"
        value_template: >-
          {% set solarmd_inverter_battery_power_out = ((states('sensor.battery_raw_power_out'))) | int %}

          {{ ([0, solarmd_inverter_battery_power_out,]|sort)[1] }}

  - platform: template
    sensors:
      solarmd_inverter_battery_power_in:
        friendly_name: SolarMD Inverter Battery Power In
        unit_of_measurement: "W"
        value_template: >-
          {% set solarmd_inverter_battery_power_in = ((states('sensor.battery_raw_power_in'))) | int %}

          {{ ([0, solarmd_inverter_battery_power_in,]|sort)[1] }}

I also created these template sensors to clean up the data a bit so I could make better gauges and use it better in the HA energy dashboard:

 

  - platform: template
    sensors:
      battery_raw_power_in_kw:
        value_template: "{{ states('sensor.battery_raw_power_in')|float(0) / 1000 | round(1) }}"
        unit_of_measurement: 'kW'
        friendly_name: Battery Raw Power In KW

I have noticed that the grid power used reported by the logger is about 10-12% lower than my meter is reporting, but it's ok and helps me keep an eye on energy usage. I also have several automations that only trigger then I'm making enough solar to cover it (like pool pump, geyser in summer) etc. Super cool!

Let me know if you need more help.

On 2021/12/06 at 6:20 PM, MockTurtle said:

 

- ability to send mqtt commands as well? ie to toggle loadshedding prep mode, set discharge levels etc.  that would be really be icing on the cake.

 

 

 

Since I got the City of Cape Town Load Shedding Schedules into Home Assistant (https://github.com/tinuva/ha-coct-loadshedding for anyone interested), being able to automatically start Load Shedding Prep via MQTT or any kind of API would be a MAJOR win. Literally the only issue I have left is when Load Shedding comes on at 5am and the batteries don't have much charge left. I either have to wake up at 4am to start load shedding prep (and it has happened that the internet was down once and I couldn't via the MyPower24 site coz the Logger wasn't connected, or the house goes dark which is a major pain in the @$%.

 

Anyone at or with contacts at SolarMD, PLEASE add this!!!  PLEASE!!!