Shine Phone App For Growatt

[B-Mod]

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Rev 1.2 I bought it from SA about a year and a half ago. I just bought another one, a orange PI for my second system that will have 4 inverters. I was going to try the orange on the 6 inverter system just to see if it was better at staying connected to the inverters. I have not seen any voltage warnings.

 

[Brett V]

You have all the bases covered. My only other suggestion from a troubleshooting standpoint would be to pick an inverter and connect it with a PC running the Growatt monitoring program. See if it times out. That would confirm if it’s the communications board in the Growatt. You probably have already done this, but make sure your install SA is running the latest release. I’m in the beta release program and there have been quite a few updates in the last few months.

 

[Pierre]

I have 1 x Growatt SPF 5000 ES running on a Pi Zero W. Connected to the ‘printer’ type port which you can only access by removing the Growatt dongle. There is also a RS485 port available but SA recommends the ‘printer’ to USB cable ( came with inverter ) . I access SA on both my iPad and on an Android (Samsung) phone - no problems at all. Next is to integrate SA into Home Assistant but seems quite technical ( no problem for an IT person , which I am not ) . I find the staff at SA ( South Africa) very helpful and patient.

 

[B-Mod]

You have all the bases covered. My only other suggestion from a troubleshooting standpoint would be to pick an inverter and connect it with a PC running the Growatt monitoring program. See if it times out. That would confirm if it’s the communications board in the Growatt. You probably have already done this, but make sure your install SA is running the latest release. I’m in the beta release program and there have been quite a few updates in the last few months.

I am in the beta also, and install updates asap. I am hoping they figure this out.

 

[automatikdonn]

I have solar assistant,but it has issues every day, sometimes more often. And I can not get it to work with one of my inverters at all. So I use the shine app to see all 6 inverters. And I like data, so more data is always good, lol.

That is super strange I use it for 4 inverters and have two sites. Never ever do I have an issue with it. I used it on my GW units without issue.

I would ask how many devices are on your wifi. Most APs shouldn't have more than 12 devices per AP. I know people will say this is not correct, but wifi is junk technology. Everything works till it doesn't and then weird stuff starts happening.
If you keep the device per AP ratio to 12 to 1, you will never have a problem. It's mostly to due with how wifi does over the air keying.

 

[B-Mod]

That is super strange I use it for 4 inverters and have two sites. Never ever do I have an issue with it. I used it on my GW units without issue.

I would ask how many devices are on your wifi. Most APs shouldn't have more than 12 devices per AP. I know people will say this is not correct, but wifi is junk technology. Everything works till it doesn't and then weird stuff starts happening.
If you keep the device per AP ratio to 12 to 1, you will never have a problem. It's mostly to due with how wifi does over the air keying.

No issue with wifi, I have a mesh system, devices are spread out. It is an issue with inverters communicating with SA. I never loose com with SA, SA just has an error with inverters. Most of the time it has no issue with my smart shunt.

 

[magnet creek]

Not sure on the pc to usb, but the key to hooking up the inverters online is to use a pc to configure them, there are videos of this on youtube, it is actually very easy on a pc, and then when setup you can use the shine app, or use their website to view on a pc. If you need help on the youtube video let me know I probably have it saved.

Hi B-Mod, I have looked around for some instructions on how to configure the Growatt inverters via a PC but not really getting good info. Could you share the youtube link if it is not too much trouble?
thx!

 

[B-Mod]

Hi B-Mod, I have looked around for some instructions on how to configure the Growatt inverters via a PC but not really getting good info. Could you share the youtube link if it is not too much trouble?
thx!

I followed these instructions and everything worked great. I have six inverters running now, and will be adding 4 more very shortly.

 

[magnet creek]

I followed these instructions and everything worked great. I have six inverters running now, and will be adding 4 more very shortly.

Awesome! thanks for sharing, I'll try this weekend.

 

[magnet creek]

By the way, for what it is worth. I did just get a "manual" in 50% English that pretty much describes everything as per the Youtube Video. Why this is not properly translated and included as a manual is beyond me, but I have attached it here for reference. In case anybody runs into the same issues as I did.