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New PV Keeper 2.0 for Growatt Inverters

That about the only option Joe. Its a shame they didn't make the window maximize (full screen) function work. All and all, PVkeeper is pretty crude but its still useful. Thanks God the firmware in the inverter is more professional !
 
Found something interesting about PVkeeper today. The silicon labs usb driver is ancient !! I went to the silicon labs website, there are a ton of updated drivers since the one included with PVkeeper (Ver 6.7.5.1893 dated 9/27/2017) Without counting, I would say that driver is at least 10 versions behind the current one, its considered a legacy driver.

Here is a link to the revision history for the driver https://www.silabs.com/documents/pu...10x_Universal_Windows_Driver_ReleaseNotes.txt

Now I am wondering if updating to the current driver would cure the crashing problems of PVkeeper ??? I will probably give it a try.
Current drivers are on the Silicon Labs website linked above.

Update: I successfully uninstalled the old driver and installed the Win 10 64 bit driver (Jan 2021). Device manager is reporting the new driver as installed for the Com port. It crashed randomly so it might take a couple days to tell.
 
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Hi everyone,

I have just installed a Growatt 5000ES and paired it with 2x 3.5kWh Pylontech 3000C batteries. I don't have solar as yet.

I want to find out how to access realtime data from my Growatt - I have the wifi dongle installed but as you may know, it only uploads data to the Growatt server at 5min intervals. I thought of removing the wifi dongle and just connecting the inverter to an old pc but I don't know what software to run and then how to access this live data? Ideally, I want the data ported into my Home Assistant so that I can incorporate automation based on inverter status. E.g turn off device X if inverter load is > 4000w.

Any help would be great!
 
jarrod said:
Hi everyone,

I have just installed a Growatt 5000ES and paired it with 2x 3.5kWh Pylontech 3000C batteries. I don't have solar as yet.

I want to find out how to access realtime data from my Growatt - I have the wifi dongle installed but as you may know, it only uploads data to the Growatt server at 5min intervals. I thought of removing the wifi dongle and just connecting the inverter to an old pc but I don't know what software to run and then how to access this live data? Ideally, I want the data ported into my Home Assistant so that I can incorporate automation based on inverter status. E.g turn off device X if inverter load is > 4000w.

Any help would be great!
Click to expand...
This thread is about PVkeeper, which is local monitoring software included with your inverter. Its on that mini CD. You connect to the inverter with a usb cable, the software records the data and can output it in Excel format if desired although not automatically.

A software that claims to be compatible with Growatt is PVbeancounter. It can output data automatically. https://www.pvbeancounter.com/

Lastly, the Growatt inverter has a RS485 port and that could be used to gather data for use in various ways. The RS485 modbus protocol used by growatt is documented. A higher level of tech ability would be needed for this approach but it would be the most versatile.
 

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Sparky_SC said:
Found something interesting about PVkeeper today. The silicon labs usb driver is ancient !! I went to the silicon labs website, there are a ton of updated drivers since the one included with PVkeeper (Ver 6.7.5.1893 dated 9/27/2017) Without counting, I would say that driver is at least 10 versions behind the current one, its considered a legacy driver.

Here is a link to the revision history for the driver https://www.silabs.com/documents/pu...10x_Universal_Windows_Driver_ReleaseNotes.txt

Now I am wondering if updating to the current driver would cure the crashing problems of PVkeeper ??? I will probably give it a try.
Current drivers are on the Silicon Labs website linked above.

Update: I successfully uninstalled the old driver and installed the Win 10 64 bit driver (Jan 2021). Device manager is reporting the new driver as installed for the Com port. It crashed randomly so it might take a couple days to tell.
Click to expand...
Time for a update. PVkeeper crashed twice since I updated the driver, both times in the late morning after a extended time (20+ minutes) with the battery PV charging at 40+ amps. This is what I seen before and I am thinking it may not be the software but rather the inverter dropping connection to the USB during high charge rate periods. It has never crashed during the night or after the batteries are pretty well charged which makes me suspicious. I am thinking the crashes are related to high duty cycle charging periods and the problem may lie in the inverter, not PVkeeper software. I will keep testing.

On the good side, updating to the latest win10 driver (64bit) DID have a positive effect. Before, when a crash happened the only way to recover was to pull the USB cable out and reconnect, then relaunch PVKeeper. PVkeeper would not relaunch unless the cable was pulled first. NOW when it did crash, you could restart PVkeeper without pulling the USB cable.
 
Sparky_SC said:
I am thinking the crashes are related to high duty cycle charging periods and the problem may lie in the inverter, not PVkeeper software. I will keep testing.
Click to expand...
Do you keep a laptop permanently plugged into the inverter to collect statistics over time with PVKeeper? Or do you go and plug it in when you want to view the inverter, then it has history data?
 
denarius said:
Do you keep a laptop permanently plugged into the inverter to collect statistics over time with PVKeeper? Or do you go and plug it in when you want to view the inverter, then it has history data?
Click to expand...
Its a desktop type right next to the inverter which is always on and always connected to the inverter with the usb cable. PVkeeper is left running, except when it crashes.
 
Thank you for tha fast response. Are there any extra connections required connected to battery bank or all data collected via Growatt connection to battery bank?
 
Thanks Joe, not finding where the SA version is. Pierre said the Modbus data looks different than any Growatt inverter he has seen. I will see if I can find another cable to try.

Coal
 
iSwannie said:
Thanks Joe, not finding where the SA version is. Pierre said the Modbus data looks different than any Growatt inverter he has seen. I will see if I can find another cable to try.

Coal
Click to expand...
Version is the date in pic, at bottom of Config tab.
1639837348989.png
 

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