Goodwe Wifi setup

[PaulinNorthcliff]

Hi all... noob here.

Jumping on this bus late.

I went at this whole thing arse about face. Got a little cash from an inheritance and bought a pallet of Solar World 250W glass panels. Sat with them for a year before I put a string (only found out a month ago that they are called 'a string') of 8 up to replace a thatch on the side of my house - they are NOT ideally mounted but still get to better that 100% of rated capacity on a good day... briefly. Mostly they will happily put out 1.6KW or 9KWh in a day. Last year I bought a 2KW GTI (only learned THAT abbreviation today).

A month ago I bought a Goodwe 5048ES and the first two of a planned 8 PylonTech batteries. Setting stuff up (technically) takes me ages because I am not inclined to or skilled in RTFM.

I am busy felling trees to build the structure that will hold my remaining 2 strings of 11 panels. Got the damned chainsaw trapped in a treetrunk and snapped the chain when I got it freed... 5 days later. Another day to find a replacement chain... Anyway... this is how my projects go.

Plan is to plug these additional 2750W strings into the 2 PV connections on the Goodwe, and return the extant 8 panel 2KW string to the GTI.

My home can happily exist on 400-500W overnight (it's mos cheaper to save power than make power!). Fridge, freezers, some LED lights, fibre router, Netflix, alarm, camera system, etc, etc.

So. I have the Goodwe EzManage wifi app working, but only when at home, I am a bit too stupid to get the rest of the stuff up and operating.

What next oh wise ones?

How do I get the wifi on the Goodwe accessible via my fibre network on the web.

[Chris Hobson]

Not quite the same as a Goodwe ES but the process is the same. You look at the WiFi LED rather than the power LED.

[PaulinNorthcliff]

Thanks Chris. I'll give that a bash later.

I managed to configure the EzManage local login, but can't remotely log in when away from the property and out of wifi range.

It was quite a mission to find EzManage because it's not on the Google Playstore anymore. Also the manual makes no mention of the Installer password.

 

P

[Chris Hobson]

There is a new app called PV Master

[Fuenkli]

3 hours ago, Chris Hobson said:

There is a new app called PV Master

PV Master has been discontinued. Goodwe is forcing you to use the SEMS portal app instead. It is a pity because PV Master was far superior than the SEMS portal app .

[PaulinNorthcliff]

I have a copy of PV Master. How do I set it up?

 

[PaulinNorthcliff]

PV Master seems to do EXACTLY what EzManage does... but screws with some of the settings.
 

[Fuenkli]

5 minutes ago, PaulinNorthcliff said:

PV Master seems to do EXACTLY what EzManage does

you are right. I did not know that you can also use PV Master to adjust the inverter settings using the local configuration option of the app. I never used PV Master to do that. I will try today and see if it works with my inverter or if it also screws with some of the settings.

[PaulinNorthcliff]

36 minutes ago, Fuenkli said:

you are right. I did not know that you can also use PV Master to adjust the inverter settings using the local configuration option of the app. I never used PV Master to do that. I will try today and see if it works with my inverter or if it also screws with some of the settings.

What it seems to do is cycle the batteries at least once a day... which is... unideal!

Mind you, I have not restarted the Goodwe since I discovered this and deleted PV Master. Maybe I should do that and see if the settings I had before with EzManage return???

I'm still feeling the need for more insight into what the PV and Inverter is actually doing. Maybe a third party monitoring system???

[___]

44 minutes ago, PaulinNorthcliff said:

What it seems to do is cycle the batteries at least once a day... which is... unideal!

That's generally how self-consumption systems work? I was just looking at the manual for EzManage, and it seems to do many of the same things as Victron's ESS. You have a minimum SoC, and it generally takes the batteries down to that level every day. The remaining capacity is reserved for unexpected outages.

Self consumption generally means you run the full load of the house as much as possible from solar, or from battery, falling back to the grid if the battery is too low. If your battery isn't very big (as is the case for many people including me), that means it goes down to the MinSoC every day, and back up the next. I have my setup balanced more or less to the point where I have enough PV in the day to power most of my loads and recharge 50% of the battery. Then at night I take 50% out of the battery again (but this isn't enough for all the night time loads).

[Fuenkli]

2 hours ago, PaulinNorthcliff said:

What it seems to do is cycle the batteries at least once a day... which is... unideal!

Plonksters explanation is spot on. Why do you not want to cycle the batteries? If you only want to use the batteries for back up you can change the inverter setting to back up mode. In this mode the inverter will keep the batteries at 100% SoC as long as there is Grid supply.

 

2 hours ago, PaulinNorthcliff said:

Maybe I should do that and see if the settings I had before with EzManage return???

I just did a test to see how PV Master (instead of EzManage) works to change the inverter settings. I could not see any difference between the two apps. They both look the same and the both work in my case.

 

2 hours ago, PaulinNorthcliff said:

I'm still feeling the need for more insight into what the PV and Inverter is actually doing. Maybe a third party monitoring system???

Are you using the Goodwe SEMS portal? It is far from perfect but it will give you enough information to manage the system safely. I tried to upload the Goodwe portal data with a Raspberry pi to PVOutput (a better monitoring platform). Unfortunately (even with Plonksters guidance) I never managed to get it going. My Linux and Python knowledge is just not good enough at the moment . 

[PaulinNorthcliff]

Thanks Plonkster. Yeah that makes sense and I'm happy with the explanation. I don't as yet have enough batteries 2x2.4KW Pylons at the moment. Will add another 2 by end of next month.

What concerns me is that I have the feeling (as yet unconfirmed by decent monitoring software) that I am cycling more than once a day. This concerns me.

[PaulinNorthcliff]

12 minutes ago, Fuenkli said:

Plonksters explanation is spot on. Why do you not want to cycle the batteries? If you only want to use the batteries for back up you can change the inverter setting to back up mode. In this mode the inverter will keep the batteries at 100% SoC as long as there is Grid supply.

OK, got it.

I just did a test to see how PV Master (instead of EzManage) works to change the inverter settings. I could not see any difference between the two apps. They both look the same and the both work in my case.

Yeah. Probably correct. I'm new at this.

Are you using the Goodwe SEMS portal? It is far from perfect but it will give you enough information to manage the system safely. I tried to upload the Goodwe portal data with a Raspberry pi to PVOutput (a better monitoring platform). Unfortunately (even with Plonksters guidance) I never managed to get it going. My Linux and Python knowledge is just not good enough at the moment . 

Nope. Too dumb to figure out how to make that talk to me.

 

[Fuenkli]

3 minutes ago, PaulinNorthcliff said:

Nope. Too dumb to figure out how to make that talk to me.

without any monitoring system you are flying blind and you will not be able to maximize your systems performance and react to problems. To set up your station on the Goodwe portal is very easy. There is a lot of step by step instructions available on the net. It is also well documented in the user manual.

[Greg Lee]

Hi There

I have installed a Goodwe 5048 ES at my house and used PV master to link to my router. I can see and set inverter locally but cant view remotely.

I have registered my plant on Goodwe SEMS but shows my system as offline. Tried to reset wifi using the reset button as explained in the manual

but nothing happens. Do I have to power down the inverter completely in order to reset the wifi or is there another way?

 

Thanks in advance 

Greg

[PaulinNorthcliff]

I think I may have figured out why my Goodwe can't reliably connect to my wifi... the damned thing is unable to process special characters in the password!

Like that exclamation mark!

Stupid damned thing!

[SilverNodashi]

On 2019/02/26 at 2:34 PM, PaulinNorthcliff said:

I think I may have figured out why my Goodwe can't reliably connect to my wifi... the damned thing is unable to process special characters in the password!

Like that exclamation mark!

Stupid damned thing!

So perhaps change the password, not to have an exclamation ?

[___]

1 hour ago, SilverNodashi said:

So perhaps change the password, not to have an exclamation ?

In my house I have a separate access point for the kids and their friends to connect to with devices. The password is my cell phone number. That way... the kids will learn your phone number.

[SilverNodashi]

2 minutes ago, plonkster said:

In my house I have a separate access point for the kids and their friends to connect to with devices. The password is my cell phone number. That way... the kids will learn your phone number.

You'd be surprised how many people do this! My wife printed and laminated some pages on the kitchen with our phone numbers, address and other vital info to learn.

For Wifi I use strong passwords with MAC authentication. The kids know how to use WPS, which is on a guest network to add their phones / friend's phones if needed.

[Roarty]

Hi @PaulinNorthcliff, I am battling to get any BMS Status from my GOODWE GW5048D-ES and BYD 5.0. There is no way to change anything in the PV Master app! Any suggestions?

What is the Basic & Advance Settings that require an installer password?

I have a GOODWE GW5048D-ES with 2 x 2.5 BYD LiOn batteries and 2 x 10 - 330W JA Solar panels.

I have connected it all correctly and took measurements before and after every connection and everything is as it is supposed to be...just the communication between the inverter and the batteries is the problem...anybody...PLEASE...I want my own power...

 

[PaulinNorthcliff]

the installer password is goodwe2010

[Octerain]

To help out on why the phone app will not work when you are not within your own home (and own Wifi cover). The app makes a direct Wifi connection to the inverter. It could be that you connected the inverter AP to your Wifi AP as well. Irrespective, you will need to emulate being at home if you wanted the phone app to functions. For that you will have to configure your WiFi Router to accept an inbound VPN, and load a VPN client on your phone, to connect to your router. Your phone will then believe that it is inside the home WiFi coverage, but keep in mind that some other apps may not what to play so well at that time, like Outlook Email or WhatsApp, depending on your routing skills and VPN functionality. 

In the end I will default to using SEMS portal and live with having to configure things when at home.  (the bad part is you may be traveling and an outage needs attention. do you have a spare tablet or phone so you can talk the kids through the needed steps (not the wife = female partner).

PS I live in the IT security world!

[Roarty]

47 minutes ago, Octerain said:

configure your WiFi Router to accept an inbound VPN

Thanks @Octerain, I totally forgot about the VPN way. I work in Zambia and the wife is not so technically inclined, or so she say, to help me over the phone.

I have a "Asus RT-AC88U AC3100 Dual Band Gigabit WiFi Gaming Router" which is very "open" to configuring...I'll try and set it up over Teamviewer this coming weekend.

[Rene@groenkloof]

I was very disappointed by the new PV master app. The new app is ok for configuration but not for daily monitoring. Poor service from Goodwe.

 

I wanted to use the KstarMG app instead, which looks similar like the old PVmaster app but what is the required password for this app.

 

Does has anyone experience with this app or other Goodwe apps? I have Goodwe 5048ES operational?

 

Regards,

Rene de Klein

[David Norton]

Hi Rene,

I have a similar issue, but mine relates to the wrong info been shown on the App because I have some micro-inverters on my grid side. When I look at the app on the phone it shows the incorrect load. When I use a previous version on the app (search for StorageMate on the play store), I do see what I need to see, and can still see my house exporting to the grid even while there is a load on the inverter. 

Admittedly, I cant see this when I am not at home, but I dont need to connect to the inverters wifi when at home, I connect to my home wifi and the router does appear. This is the same on both apps. I use a VPN when I am at work, but the app does not always see the inverter when on a VPN.

With regards to configuration via the portal, according to Goodwe, if you are a "dealer" or "installer" there is a configuration button which will let you do everything from the Portal, but I can neither confirm nor deny this works.

When connecting via the SEMS portal, the correct information is shown when clicking on devices, but not the correct info on the screen. The load on my backup side is 2654W. This is been fed by my other panels which are producing 3400Kw at the moment.

So the portal shows that, which is only partially correct. It is not show the backup output separately, where it does have the correct data for this. It knows the total export is 807W (as per the meter) and does have the total backup load (2654W). It would be nice if the portal showed this as per the old version of the app.