diy solar

diy solar

Monitoring software for Growatt-MPP Solar inverters

This thread looks interesting. I just got a Growatt, and am doing some presswork for the install. It will probably be a couple of weeks before I can get to my boat and really do the install. I am interested to learn that there is a Raspberry Pi package that can track the data- I already have one to run the openCPN navigation software.
 
@apctjb try changing your PC settings to Never go to sleep. Just let the screen time out after a few mins and keep the program running in the background.
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Will give that a try. Have you been able to get the Wifi app installed and registered so you can view data from your phone remotely?
 
No not yet, I think I’m going to order the dongle Monday. In the meantime I’ll keep messing with PV Keeper and see how it goes. That software seems to have all the info needed to know how well things are working. Plus I like that I can save The daily stats to Excel.

The software needs to be running in the background 24/7 to be able to log the stats. I’m going to dedicate an older PC for this. I should be able to remote into it whenever I want so maybe I won‘t need the WI-FI app.

I have a Victron battery monitor that I ordered for my Van’s system, but since I’m still waiting on the DC-DC charge controller, I’m going to install it on the growatt system and see How it works with it.
 
I’m going to dedicate an older PC for this.
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I have an older laptop I was thinking of doing the same with. Hoping that I can then access that via the WAN using remote PC software of setting up a VPN
 
apctjb said:
I have an older laptop I was thinking of doing the same with. Hoping that I can then access that via the WAN using remote PC software of setting up a VPN
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You Definitely can. And the program doesn’t eat up any resources, it just stays connected to the device and takes a snapshot of the data every whatever you have it set to. I have mine set up for every 5 mins.
 
If you guys are thinking of using an old PC/laptop it might be worth having a look at using something like Home Assistant (Hassio) to make more use of the PC/Laptop. It is a bit more work but would allow you to record the data into DB's and graphs etc as well as give you a home automation system.

The other option could be to look at integrating into PVOutput.org which is awesome but it doesn't look super simple with the growatt.

forum.pvoutput.org

Help Required Uploading Growatt Inverter To PVOutput

I’ve recently had a Growatt 1500-S inverter installed and would like to upload the data to PVOutput. The inverter is “on-line” via an Ethernet dongle (ShineLAN) and is uploading 5 minute data to the Growatt cloud monitoring service Shine Server (https://server.growatt.com/). I see that there is...
forum.pvoutput.org forum.pvoutput.org

I am using home assistant to pull my data from my inverter and then using nodered to push that data up into PVOutput.org.
 
apctjb said:
The 64bit version. Glad its working for you, mine keeps crashing on my Lenovo laptop windows 10.
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Just installed the software here too. Can't run for more than less than a handful of minutes without crashing. My unit doesn't have the wifi dongle thingy so I'm stuck with this none functional software for now. Where can you buy one of these dongles? My unit which I just installed is a 6000T.
 
vincei said:
Just installed the software here too. Can't run for more than less than a handful of minutes without crashing. My unit doesn't have the wifi dongle thingy so I'm stuck with this none functional software for now. Where can you buy one of these dongles? My unit which I just installed is a 6000T.
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I ordered my unit and dongle from the link below. The Dongle is 85 bucks shipped.

Growatt Wifi dongle
 
CompMan2020 said:
Don't feel too bad, I'm still waiting on a response from Tuesday asking how to get the software loaded to my PC without having to use the baby cd. ?‍♂️
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The software on the CD is what I installed. In a word: Trash.
 
vincei said:
Just installed the software here too. Can't run for more than less than a handful of minutes without crashing. My unit doesn't have the wifi dongle thingy so I'm stuck with this none functional software for now. Where can you buy one of these dongles? My unit which I just installed is a 6000T.
Click to expand...
do u have the 48v split phase inverter?
 
Can't run for more than less than a handful of minutes without crashing. My unit doesn't have the wifi dongle thingy so I'm stuck with this none functional software for now.
Click to expand...

I have the same problem. PV Keeper appears stable for @CompMan2020 so not sure if crashing is caused by conflicts with other apps..
 
mwilson79 said:
what battery system are u using? I have the same and haven't been able to decide on batterries yet
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I currently have 8 battleborn batteries 4s2p connected to the inverter. Plenty of $$$$. I discovered that the battleborns (in another thread on this site https://diysolarforum.com/threads/battleborn-batteries-inverter-startup-issues.11535/ ) go into current limit if you don't charge the capacitors in the inverter first before turning things on. I just bought this $280 device from battleborn to combat this issue: https://battlebornbatteries.com/product/current-surge-limiter/ so that I can turn the inverter off and on with a breaker without the need to disconnect anything.

I also have 8 Solar rated lead acid batteries which were about a 1/6 of the cost of the Battleborns and another 56 Lithium batteries that I will use to make a 14s4p 48volt powerwall with 4x 14s 100A Daly BMSs as shown by David Poz on YouTube:
part1
part2

Too many projects on the go at the moment so will stick with the Battleborns for now but I will build something that allows me to select the battery source for the inverter as long as I can figure out how to change the battery parameters on the inverter easily and programatically.

Hope this helps.

-Vince
 
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