There are multiple ways you can link up a Home Assistant box to your inverter and I thought it might be a good idea to have one thread with a list of the options so as to make it easier for forum members looking for info. This is a list of integrations that started on this forum.

There are a number of other integrations on Github.

I have listed forum members who started of these solutions but it really has been a group effort with a lot of other people on the forum contributing to moving these projects along, adding new features etc.

@Bloubul7's Node Red Project - the granddaddy of all them all and Bloubul7 who first cracked the way to speak to the inverter directly

 

@kellerza 's Home Assistant Integration - works very nicely with excellent documentation. 

No node red required and you can query the inverter directly from your HA box or remotely using a raspberry pi on the network.  

https://github.com/kellerza/sunsynk

 

@jacauc 's ESPHome solution - Uses a separate ESP32 for inverter queries with results then being sent back to the HA box.

There has recently been some very interesting development of a dashboard for writing values back to the inverter

 

Thanks @Sc00bs!

It might be slightly opinionated, but when it comes to ease of use + features the Home Assistant addon should be the place to start

• Reconfigure your inverter settings with the Home Assistant UI (dropdowns & sliders) or automations
• Automatic updates in HASS & maintained by a couple of community members
• Data filters to reduce the number of updates & writes to low-cost SD cards, but still have 1 or 2 second automation response to big changes in load
• Various options to connect to the inverter wireless or wired (preferred, since it updates every second)

I'm very happy with my setup using Solar Assistant for effortless communication with my newly installed Deye 8kw Inverter with my pre-existing Home Assistant Setup. 

I bought the preinstalled Pi from Solar Assistant with a cable and a DC power supply, and got it running within 10m, with another 30m to get the MQTT integration working following the Solar Assistant guys documentation. It exposes 76 sensors and switches over MQTT which thus far does everything I easy automations.

I calibrated the Grid usage kWh meter from Solar Assistant with my Prepaid electricity meter, and I can keep track of my remaining prepaid credit. Various automations set up to switch off high load appliances when the battery power is getting low, and I've integrated the EskomsePush API data feed to automate around loadshedding events.

The solar panels are only going up this week - but I look forward to be able automatically minimize my grid electricity purchases by balancing my battery SoC with load shedding schedule and weather forecast stats that would allow me to always have power at the lowest cost. 

 

 

@Multiform I also have solar assistant but in energy dashboard i cant add any sensors.

 

There are non available.

 

Any help would be appreciated .

@Multiformwhere do you get "It exposes 76 sensors and switches over MQTT".

I have only a few.

 

 

@kellerzaI tried to use your add on thanks but couldn't get battery readings and got timeouts and data became inconsistent.

Since started using solar assistant. All works fine now.

Glad you got it working with Solar Assistant!!

If you are someone who expects support, you are doing the opensource devs a favor by simply buying a product with support 😉

On 2023/01/29 at 2:21 PM, Multiform said:

Really nice 👍

What do you use for the 'Minutes to next Loadshedding' ?

On 2023/01/10 at 10:47 AM, kellerza said:

Thanks @Sc00bs!

It might be slightly opinionated, but when it comes to ease of use + features the Home Assistant addon should be the place to start

• Reconfigure your inverter settings with the Home Assistant UI (dropdowns & sliders) or automations
• Automatic updates in HASS & maintained by a couple of community members
• Data filters to reduce the number of updates & writes to low-cost SD cards, but still have 1 or 2 second automation response to big changes in load
• Various options to connect to the inverter wireless or wired (preferred, since it updates every second)

Hey @kellerza

I've been pondering switching over to your HA addon, currently I'm using the Node Red flows (for reading) and have finally become brave enough to get the Node Red UI to write settings back to the inverter. I'm wanting to "upgrade" to the HA addon so that I can use HA to easily send settings back to my inverter.

My question: I've got 2 inverters in parallel, how does the HA addon handle this? Currently I've got 2 USB cables (1 from each inverter) going to the RPi and I duplicated the flows.

On 2023/02/07 at 4:08 PM, crash said:

I've got 2 inverters in parallel, how does the HA addon handle this? Currently I've got 2 USB cables (1 from each inverter) going to the RPi and I duplicated the flows.

You can run two copies of the addon, the normal and the dev version, very similar to what you'd do today. There is an open issue on the sunsynk GitHub repo discussing this. For a third you can run a local copy.

I've got some beta code to run multiple inverters (and the 12k) but probably won't be able to spend much time on it before May.

On 2023/01/10 at 8:13 AM, Sc00bs said:

There are multiple ways you can link up a Home Assistant box to your inverter and I thought it might be a good idea to have one thread with a list of the options so as to make it easier for forum members looking for info. This is a list of integrations that started on this forum.

There are a number of other integrations on Github.

I have listed forum members who started of these solutions but it really has been a group effort with a lot of other people on the forum contributing to moving these projects along, adding new features etc.

@Bloubul7's Node Red Project - the granddaddy of all them all and Bloubul7 who first cracked the way to speak to the inverter directly

 

@kellerza 's Home Assistant Integration - works very nicely with excellent documentation. 

No node red required and you can query the inverter directly from your HA box or remotely using a raspberry pi on the network.  

https://github.com/kellerza/sunsynk

 

@jacauc 's ESPHome solution - Uses a separate ESP32 for inverter queries with results then being sent back to the HA box.

There has recently been some very interesting development of a dashboard for writing values back to the inverter

 

Hi Scoobs

Im quite novice however have just setup Ha on an old laptop. I have a voltronic vm 1000 inverter and diy 12v battery with Daly bms(not smart old one). 

I would love to connect each one to HA. I saw some stuff on the ESP website to possibly monitor the battery however first prize would be to start with the inverter and get HA to read it. Will save me lots of trips outside to view what's going on. 

Do you know of any integrations  for this type of inverter? 

Many thanks 

Hi @sunset1

 

I am no expert on Voltronic inverter but from a quick look on Github it looks like there are a number of people with software to connect the 2 

https://github.com/ned-kelly/docker-voltronic-homeassistant 

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/programmatically-read-data-from-your-solar-inverter-voltronic-axpert-mppsolar-pip-voltacon-effekta-etc-and-interface-with-home-assistant-via-mqtt-works-with-rs232-usb/119053

 

12 minutes ago, Sc00bs said:

Hi @sunset1

 

I am no expert on Voltronic inverter but from a quick look on Github it looks like there are a number of people with software to connect the 2 

https://github.com/ned-kelly/docker-voltronic-homeassistant 

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/programmatically-read-data-from-your-solar-inverter-voltronic-axpert-mppsolar-pip-voltacon-effekta-etc-and-interface-with-home-assistant-via-mqtt-works-with-rs232-usb/119053

 

Thank you 🙏🏽 

I am very new to github. How did you go about locating these files? Simple search for voltromic? 

Easiest would probably be to install ESPhome onto your home assistant and then connect an ESP32 to the inverter as there is support for the Voltronix inverters in ESPhome now from what I can see. 

https://esphome.io/components/pipsolar.html 

Where are you based, I am in Kyalami Joburg, message me if you are close and maybe I can give you a hand.  

That would of been awesome I'm in knysna though. I did have a look the other day at the ESP way. Looks fun I however don't have much experience in coding and worried I might put myself down a rabbit hole. 

Another one option I thought was buying solar assistant software for R700 and a raspberry Zero W 2 for R350. 

Would this option be easier in your opinion or should I just try out the esp route? 

 

Have a great day 

Andrew 

I think it depends on whether you enjoy tinkering or not. 

I would try out the ESP32 and if you can't get it to work get Solar Assistant and a Pi Zero.

ESP32's are dirt cheap so wouldn't be a major risk

You will have tro watch some Youtube video's but isn't reeally rocket science stuff 🙂 

https://www.robotics.org.za/DFR0575?search=esp32&sort=p.price&order=ASC&limit=100

or 

https://www.robotics.org.za/ESP32-C3-MINI?search=esp32&sort=p.price&order=ASC&limit=100

Code isn't that complicated from the looks of things:

esphome:
  name: voltronix_inverter
  platform: ESP8266
  board: d1_mini

wifi:
  ssid: "YOUR_WIFI_SSID"
  password: "YOUR_WIFI_PASSWORD"

# Enable logging
logger:

# Enable Home Assistant API
api:
  password: "YOUR_API_PASSWORD"

# Enable OTA updates
ota:
  password: "YOUR_OTA_PASSWORD"

# Define the UART component to communicate with the inverter
uart:
  rx_pin: D5
  tx_pin: D6
  baud_rate: 2400

# Define a sensor to read the inverter's DC voltage
sensor:
  - platform: voltronix_inverter
    name: "Voltronix Inverter DC Voltage"
    id: voltronix_dc_voltage
    register: 0x0000
    data_type: float
    unit_of_measurement: "V"

# Define a sensor to read the inverter's AC voltage
  - platform: voltronix_inverter
    name: "Voltronix Inverter AC Voltage"
    id: voltronix_ac_voltage
    register: 0x0002
    data_type: float
    unit_of_measurement: "V"

# Define a sensor to read the inverter's AC frequency
  - platform: voltronix_inverter
    name: "Voltronix Inverter AC Frequency"
    id: voltronix_ac_frequency
    register: 0x0004
    data_type: float
    unit_of_measurement: "Hz"

# Define a sensor to read the inverter's AC power output
  - platform: voltronix_inverter
    name: "Voltronix Inverter AC Power"
    id: voltronix_ac_power
    register: 0x0006
    data_type: float
    unit_of_measurement: "W"
 

 

Thanks for those links. Tje esp32 I found was R300. 

Saw a few YouTube vids and got some questions answered by chatgpt so going to give it a try. 

One question, which I guess I'll. Find out when it arrives, is how does one power the unit? Via USB? 

 

Off topic.

After I have searched and evaluated ancillary and supervisory software platforms far and wide, including developing my own (which i have done to a certain extent), I have come to a definitive conclusion that HomeAssistant is feature rich and future proof. I look forward migrating to HA and very happy that there are much support and presence on this forum for HA. 

Edited March 10, 20232 yr by BritishRacingGreen

On 2023/01/29 at 2:21 PM, Multiform said:

I'm very happy with my setup using Solar Assistant for effortless communication with my newly installed Deye 8kw Inverter with my pre-existing Home Assistant Setup. 

I bought the preinstalled Pi from Solar Assistant with a cable and a DC power supply, and got it running within 10m, with another 30m to get the MQTT integration working following the Solar Assistant guys documentation. It exposes 76 sensors and switches over MQTT which thus far does everything I easy automations.

I calibrated the Grid usage kWh meter from Solar Assistant with my Prepaid electricity meter, and I can keep track of my remaining prepaid credit. Various automations set up to switch off high load appliances when the battery power is getting low, and I've integrated the EskomsePush API data feed to automate around loadshedding events.

The solar panels are only going up this week - but I look forward to be able automatically minimize my grid electricity purchases by balancing my battery SoC with load shedding schedule and weather forecast stats that would allow me to always have power at the lowest cost. 

 

 

Hi, for my lack of understanding as I'm to take on this very same project your assistance will be appreciated. On my side I've done the full SS installation and downloaded HA. I'm saving up for the orange PI with Solar Assistant pre-loaded. My question is what do I do from there to get SA speak to HA. I've also started with some automation on my geezer and swimming pool pump with CBI Wi-Fi switches. Then some few sonoff basic switches in between just for the fun. Do have a step by step guide or SA 101 module I can somehow get. Thanks a lot for your help. 

4 hours ago, Flappie said:

Hi, for my lack of understanding as I'm to take on this very same project your assistance will be appreciated. On my side I've done the full SS installation and downloaded HA. I'm saving up for the orange PI with Solar Assistant pre-loaded. My question is what do I do from there to get SA speak to HA. I've also started with some automation on my geezer and swimming pool pump with CBI Wi-Fi switches. Then some few sonoff basic switches in between just for the fun. Do have a step by step guide or SA 101 module I can somehow get. Thanks a lot for your help. 

Their resources are pretty good on the website. Once you get the Pi and connect the cables and your SA is working fine, you'll need to amend a few settings to open up MQTT comms between the inverter and Solar Assistant. You also have to enable MQTT on Home Assistant then the data should flow seamlessly

On 2023/01/29 at 2:21 PM, Multiform said:

I'm very happy with my setup using Solar Assistant for effortless communication with my newly installed Deye 8kw Inverter with my pre-existing Home Assistant Setup. 

I bought the preinstalled Pi from Solar Assistant with a cable and a DC power supply, and got it running within 10m, with another 30m to get the MQTT integration working following the Solar Assistant guys documentation. It exposes 76 sensors and switches over MQTT which thus far does everything I easy automations.

I calibrated the Grid usage kWh meter from Solar Assistant with my Prepaid electricity meter, and I can keep track of my remaining prepaid credit. Various automations set up to switch off high load appliances when the battery power is getting low, and I've integrated the EskomsePush API data feed to automate around loadshedding events.

The solar panels are only going up this week - but I look forward to be able automatically minimize my grid electricity purchases by balancing my battery SoC with load shedding schedule and weather forecast stats that would allow me to always have power at the lowest cost. 

 

 

How could a complete noob get to this point? Just being able to monitor my available units would be a bonus

On 2023/04/01 at 5:14 PM, mzezman said:

Their resources are pretty good on the website. Once you get the Pi and connect the cables and your SA is working fine, you'll need to amend a few settings to open up MQTT comms between the inverter and Solar Assistant. You also have to enable MQTT on Home Assistant then the data should flow seamlessly

@mzezman now this makes sense. Can you perhaps share some wisdom on how to amend the MQTT settings? Thank you. 

1 hour ago, Flappie said:

@mzezman now this makes sense. Can you perhaps share some wisdom on how to amend the MQTT settings? Thank you. 

I did a write up on it but am unable to find it. Try these 2 resources and see how far you gt. If you get stuck i will send you the write up(once i find it)

https://solar-assistant.io/help/home-assistant/adjusting-solar-settings

https://solar-assistant.io/help/integration/mqtt#adjusting-settings

Hi guys.

I am using a RPi Zero W with CAN HAT and got it communicating using Node-red installed on the Pi Zero with the flows from here - https://powerforum.co.za/topic/8451-sunsynk-inverter-monitoring/

While it is great work, I think it is a bit of a "bloated" setup and it's hard to keep track of any updates amongst the hundreds of JSON flows attached all over the forum.

I would prefer to use the Pi0 as a simple modbus over TCP and simply interface with this using @kellerza's integration and let that handle the decoding of the modbus data, or look into something like ESP Home as @jacauc does. I also have an ESP32 which i can use if needs be.

Not sure if @kellerzaintegration will support something like that? as it looks like it only supports physical Modbus over USB connection to me and not to specify an IP of a Modbus tcp server of sorts.

How would I go about setting something like that up? Then I can let my HA machine do all the work.

What would you guys recommend?

 

The node-red flows worked for  a few hours then now just times out when connecting to the inverter on the ModBusRead flow and I can't recall changing anything and can't seem to get it connected again now.

Thanks for any advice!

Edited April 20, 20231 yr by aaelex

1 hour ago, aaelex said:

Not sure if @kellerzaintegration will support something like that? as it looks like it only supports physical Modbus over USB connection to me and not to specify an IP of a Modbus tcp server of sorts.

RTFM 😉

• https://kellerza.github.io/sunsynk/guide/deployment-options
• https://kellerza.github.io/sunsynk/reference/multi-options#inverters