I am trying to get my system back online so I can monitor what's happening WRT solar production, solar charging, utility charging, utility bypass, battery SOC, etc. Very important to me so I can time when I charge my EV from the off-grid system and when from the utility. I am trying to make the most of my solar exposure when I have it, i.e. use it so I don't lose it.
All was working pretty well with the Shine WiFi dongle and app until I bricked the inverter (following Growatt and Signature Solar's instructions to upgrade the firmware). Only reason I did this was to fix the weird spikes reported by the WiFi dongle. Long story short, I finally got a new controller board and instructions to replace it and now the system is up and running, but the dongle is not reporting data. The US Growatt rep told me the inverter serial number needs to be written to the new board, and gave me instructions (attached) to do so, but I am not able to establish communication with the server. I've spent a good bit of time trying different PCs (Win 10 and 7) and COM port drivers/emulators, but no luck. She says the cables shown in the instructions, which appear to ba a USB-A -> serial connected to a serial -> USB-A can be replaced with a standard printer cable, which does not really make sense as a USB printer cable is USB-A -> USB-B. I was about to start looking for USB -> serial adapters, but at this point wondered if another monitoring system would be the way to go. And I stumbled on some posts about Solar Assistant.
Question is, will Solar Assistant give me what I need and will the fact that my controller board will not have the inverter serial number written to it make a difference?
Alternate question: does anyone have experience with the Growatt Write SN tool referenced in the attached?
All replies much appreciated!!!
All was working pretty well with the Shine WiFi dongle and app until I bricked the inverter (following Growatt and Signature Solar's instructions to upgrade the firmware). Only reason I did this was to fix the weird spikes reported by the WiFi dongle. Long story short, I finally got a new controller board and instructions to replace it and now the system is up and running, but the dongle is not reporting data. The US Growatt rep told me the inverter serial number needs to be written to the new board, and gave me instructions (attached) to do so, but I am not able to establish communication with the server. I've spent a good bit of time trying different PCs (Win 10 and 7) and COM port drivers/emulators, but no luck. She says the cables shown in the instructions, which appear to ba a USB-A -> serial connected to a serial -> USB-A can be replaced with a standard printer cable, which does not really make sense as a USB printer cable is USB-A -> USB-B. I was about to start looking for USB -> serial adapters, but at this point wondered if another monitoring system would be the way to go. And I stumbled on some posts about Solar Assistant.
Question is, will Solar Assistant give me what I need and will the fact that my controller board will not have the inverter serial number written to it make a difference?
Alternate question: does anyone have experience with the Growatt Write SN tool referenced in the attached?
All replies much appreciated!!!
