I thought I’d start a thread where other users can help with support for new users in getting their sunsynk inverters setup correctly and any issues they might experience.
This could be helping them setup time of use settings, different configuration options, options for the aux and basic trouble shooting.
Other users might have direct access to the official sunsynk support channel and could request firmware upgrades.
Issues with the Solarman app can also be raised here to confirm its a general problem or specific for one user.
My issue this evening is that the Solarman app does not have the production and consumption values for today 2 July 2021. It was there early today but disappeared this evening. This is not the first time this happened and Solarman support was able to restore the data. I have contacted them again now.
Anyone else with this issue in Solarman for 2 July 2021?
Can’t wait for the sunsynk dongle to be launched.
(upload://7SWw39kZAXCR9keHclL8ozAzvFY.jpeg)
@Achmat , Just on this point. I received a update from Kieth of Sunsynk that the interface of the Time of use has been updated. It now includes a start time and end time. before it just had a time. Its on the 419 update for the 8kw model currently. About solarman. It hardly covers any battery monitoring. When I see some on the posts on this forum on battery information a monitor gives, I can only marvel how nice it can be.
Hoping to be included in the beta testing of the sunsynk dongle so I can dump the Solarman dongle. If not then I’ll probably read up on all the node red stuff and using the Canbus or buy new the SolarAssist software and pi.
Changing settings remotely is not a top priority due be, just live and accurate data logging with no missing data.
Not sure if I will be able to import all the current data from Solarman into a new setup so as not to lose the historical data.
@Vassen is there a way to import historical data if I decide to go with a node red and home assist setup
Nope. Well at least not so straightforward. I suppose if one can extract all the data from Solarman there could be a way to convert it into influx dB. Just need to get the data into the correct format.
I’m however still very much starting off with the whole node red / influx dB stuff so very much inexperienced. I’ve got the actual real time monitoring from both inverters working now. Playing around with influx dB and grafana now.
So I just checked the Solarman pro website and I can get the following daily data exported which I think should be enough. I can export the 5 minute data in the daily graphs but that might just be a bit of an overkill.
I will check the IOT threads when I’m ready.
What’s the basic list of what’s needed?
Raspberry pi (which model)?
Any specific cable?
Software to be installed on the pi?
Can the same pi be used to connect directly to the pylontech bms?
So I have 1 raspberry pi 3 (it’s what I had) with 1 485 hat that I had on the original inverter and now I added a usb to 485 adapter from micro robotics for the 2nd inverter on the same pi. The cheapy R30 one doesn’t really work and I get timeouts.
If you don’t have a rj45 crimping tool you can just buy a network cable and cut off 1 end to expose the wires. That’s connects to the usb to rs485 adapter. On this pi, there isn’t any fancy software. Just need a standard raspian os and node red. This will basically query the inverter registers and then send the data to a home assistant.
For home assistant, I use another raspberry pi 4 but you could use a pc that you have that’s on 24/7. Just need to install HASOS. I have lots of other smart switches, irrigation, etc that I also control so it makes sense for me.
I’ve seen the post on the other side about pulling the battery info and I think it should be possible to use the same PI fir this as well. Just need to create a seperate node red flow for it. I’m sure I should have it figured out by the time you decide you want to do it.
Can you link to specific items I need to buy to get the minimum monitoring up and running on that site. Hopefully buying everything there would be easier and on one order.
Raspberry pi x 2
Cable already linked above
Link to Raspian OS
Link to HASOS
Link to Node Red
I have a crimping tool i bought years ago when I ran network cables through my ceiling. Might need to go look where I buried it as I’ve not needed since doing my home network.
Any other specific cable to link to the pylontechs?
Sync time on the inverter settings was ticked and the inverter time was one hour ahead even though I know it was set correctly when I installed the system.
I reset the time and unticked the sync option so will check what it does tonight.
Check timezone. When time syncing is used, it often syncs on UTC, and then applies the configured time zone on top of that.
Also check the timezone set on your router. Some stuff is clever enough to figure out their timezone from DHCP, so an incorrectly configured router can cause selected devices (those who understand timezone settings in DHCP) to move whenever there is daylight savings in that timezone.
On this topic… I was quite amused the other day when configuring the setup of a Nintendo Switch. Among the timezones, it doesn’t have Africa/Johannesburg… but it does have Africa/Windhoek. So one might think: Hey, that’s in the same timezone, right? Yes. But until recently, Namibia had DST, and some software still hasn’t caught up to the fact that they abolished it recently. This is a prime example of how this stuff happens
Disabling the sync time option on the inverter seems to have solved it for now.
Will monitor it over the next few days. Solarman sorry will try and manually put in the consumption and generation data for the missing 4 days.
Not a software guy but it makes no sense to me at least that simply having the time incorrect it would delete the data everyday at 23:00 instead of simply just moving to a next day.
Yeah, it sounds like a bug alright. It very much has a timezone feeling about it. One part of the code thinks it is in UTC+2, another thinks it is in UTC+1. It is also common to keep more detailed information of recent history, but to compile and aggregate it as it ages to save on space. So if I had to take a wild guess, maybe the “today” buffer is cleared prematurely before it is properly aggregated and moved into “yesterday”.
Getting a pi 4 8gb and will set everything up again. Let me see if I can make a guide for you. I will also be migrating from an an as card to a ssd. Apparently it’s a lot more stable in the long run.
There are lots of YouTube videos that explain how to set up homeassitant.
You basically burn the HASSIO image onto an SD card. Plug the SD card into the PI and power up, then everything is done from a browser.
For the inverter node red setup I use a pi 3b. For this you need to log in to the pi either directly or through something like RealVNC. You just need to configure the ports correctly once and then node red is also just done from a browser. Don’t need to log in to the pi again.
Some of the users on the other side have created new flows that publish directly to influxdb and grafana so the home assistant configuration becomes a little easier to set up. Will try it out and see.
Give me a few days and I will then get back to you.
Regarding the pylontech cable, I’m sure the same pi can be used. I’m using 2 interfaces on my one to get the data from both the inverters. It’s just another serial port that is configured.
So I ordered my new 8GB pi on 2 July and was supposed to be delivered within 4 days.
Few days later and still nothing. Apparently the courier didn’t have my details to confirm I was available to collect on Friday and now they are all shut down because of the protests.
Now I just have to sit and wait for it to be delivered or for news that it has been looted / burnt.
I think you have hit the nail on the head with your rough guess. I had the same issue with dissapearing data. From 2 April 2022 most of my monthly and yearly data was going missing. I discovered that a) The app timezome was set to Namibia +2 and my router Timezone was set to +3. After I changed to Pretoria +2 on both of them, and restarted everyting, it fixed the problem. I initialy se the “sycn time” option on the inverter on to get it to resync with the updated timezones, but now that it is working will disable the sync… there is a theory that somewhere something does not recognize that SA does not use DST.
