Voltronic Inverter Home assistant Monitoring

[JNBCpt]

Hi everyone,

I know this topic has been posted and discussed at length, but I am pretty new to this and would like input from the seasoned guys.

I am a sparky by trade, and have installed countless Voltronic inverters. Obviously one of the first questions clients asked is "can I monitor this from my phone?"

I know the newer models with built in Wifi is a tad easier to monitor Via watchpower/solarpower app, but is that really the solution? I've seen some projects guys have designed on Home assistant, which to me look like the obvious choice, but my question is: Can a Solution be designed that is more of a plug and play type of thing (on the user side) that can be given to the buyer of the inverter? Something in the lines of ICC, but that is more attractive to look at. I know solar assistant will your answer, but I am sure there can be a more cost effective sollution with something like an ESP8266?

Lastly, direct coms to the battery BMS will require a PI, has someone gone down that rabbit hole?

 

[wattmatters]

but I am sure there can be a more cost effective sollution

Yes, the answer is Solar Assistant. It's US$56 + Rpi.

It just works. Remote monitoring on phone if you have internet.

It also opens up the ability to control the inverter remotely and/or via automations, be that with Home Assistant and/or via Node Red.

 

[jpimlott]

I have solar and home assistant and they work great.

Solar assistant talks to my batteries for state of charge and can make decisions when to go to grid and back.
Using voltage sucks as a big load will temporally lower voltage when bounces back when the big load is gone
but the inverter will switch to gride because it sees the lower voltage.
All the date is sent to home assistant and be logged and dissected by the energy panel.

 

[Texican]

I have solar and home assistant and they work great.
function
Solar assistant talks to my batteries for state of charge and can make decisions when to go to grid and back.
Using voltage sucks as a big load will temporally lower voltage when bounces back when the big load is gone
but the inverter will switch to gride because it sees the lower voltage.
All the date is sent to home assistant and be logged and dissected by the energy panel.

in Solar Assistant use the "maintain battery state of charge" to auto switch to grid and back.
dont use voltage

 

[jpimlott]

That is what i Do but poorly said.

At 40% i switch to the grid and at 50% it back to battery.
Only 2 transfers per day
In March or sooner there will be none as the solar can fully feed the house.
I just finished installing this weekend. The last screw in the last panel (load center cover) feels good.
Now the 4 growatts can power even the clothes dryer off grid.

 

[Acuario]

I have designed a box that works with the Voltronic range of inverters (any that support Watchpower - that uses the MAX communication protocol).
It is totally standalone - it uses an ESP32. It plugs into, and is powered from, the comms port on the inverter.

It controls and monitors auto start for a generator (or a relay to connect the grid if the grid is used instead of a generator.
It controls charging based on either state of charge (if lithium batteries are used) or voltage for other battery types.
It also has a feature to stop charging when solar generation exceeds load power to help optimize charging.
It can monitor up to 3 sets of solar panels (2 from the inverter plus 1 using a current clamp)

There is also a remote wireless display so you can see the battery charge etc. at a glance.

It can be used with inverters that don't support the Pylontech BMS as there are 2 inputs, one for the inverter and another for the BMS connection to Pylontech batteries.

It can also be used in systems that have inverters that don't support the Max protocol but have Pylontech batteries.

There is also an internal relay that can be configured to operate when the batteries are over a certain % charge or have gone to float. This lets you use excess power to run other devices (electric water heater, washing machine etc...)
There is also a smart socket (I use the Sonoff socket with custom firmware) that activates on float/soc and/or when the charging source is connected.

The monitoring and programming is via a web browser. There is also an Android app for remote monitoring.
The unit has its own logging and reporting graphs for various parameters.

 

[houseofancients]

I have designed a box that works with the Voltronic range of inverters (any that support Watchpower - that uses the MAX communication protocol).
It is totally standalone - it uses an ESP32. It plugs into, and is powered from, the comms port on the inverter.

It controls and monitors auto start for a generator (or a relay to connect the grid if the grid is used instead of a generator.
It controls charging based on either state of charge (if lithium batteries are used) or voltage for other battery types.
It also has a feature to stop charging when solar generation exceeds load power to help optimize charging.
It can monitor up to 3 sets of solar panels (2 from the inverter plus 1 using a current clamp)

There is also a remote wireless display so you can see the battery charge etc. at a glance.

It can be used with inverters that don't support the Pylontech BMS as there are 2 inputs, one for the inverter and another for the BMS connection to Pylontech batteries.

It can also be used in systems that have inverters that don't support the Max protocol but have Pylontech batteries.

There is also an internal relay that can be configured to operate when the batteries are over a certain % charge or have gone to float. This lets you use excess power to run other devices (electric water heater, washing machine etc...)
There is also a smart socket (I use the Sonoff socket with custom firmware) that activates on float/soc and/or when the charging source is connected.

The monitoring and programming is via a web browser. There is also an Android app for remote monitoring.
The unit has its own logging and reporting graphs for various parameters.

nice project

 

[ubombi]

I have designed a box that works with the Voltronic range of inverters (any that support Watchpower - that uses the MAX communication protocol).
It is totally standalone - it uses an ESP32. It plugs into, and is powered from, the comms port on the inverter.

It controls and monitors auto start for a generator (or a relay to connect the grid if the grid is used instead of a generator.
It controls charging based on either state of charge (if lithium batteries are used) or voltage for other battery types.
It also has a feature to stop charging when solar generation exceeds load power to help optimize charging.
It can monitor up to 3 sets of solar panels (2 from the inverter plus 1 using a current clamp)

There is also a remote wireless display so you can see the battery charge etc. at a glance.

It can be used with inverters that don't support the Pylontech BMS as there are 2 inputs, one for the inverter and another for the BMS connection to Pylontech batteries.

It can also be used in systems that have inverters that don't support the Max protocol but have Pylontech batteries.

There is also an internal relay that can be configured to operate when the batteries are over a certain % charge or have gone to float. This lets you use excess power to run other devices (electric water heater, washing machine etc...)
There is also a smart socket (I use the Sonoff socket with custom firmware) that activates on float/soc and/or when the charging source is connected.

The monitoring and programming is via a web browser. There is also an Android app for remote monitoring.
The unit has its own logging and reporting graphs for various parameters.

is it by any chance OpenSource?

 

[alyn304]

I have designed a box that works with the Voltronic range of inverters (any that support Watchpower - that uses the MAX communication protocol).
It is totally standalone - it uses an ESP32. It plugs into, and is powered from, the comms port on the inverter.

It controls and monitors auto start for a generator (or a relay to connect the grid if the grid is used instead of a generator.
It controls charging based on either state of charge (if lithium batteries are used) or voltage for other battery types.
It also has a feature to stop charging when solar generation exceeds load power to help optimize charging.
It can monitor up to 3 sets of solar panels (2 from the inverter plus 1 using a current clamp)

There is also a remote wireless display so you can see the battery charge etc. at a glance.

It can be used with inverters that don't support the Pylontech BMS as there are 2 inputs, one for the inverter and another for the BMS connection to Pylontech batteries.

It can also be used in systems that have inverters that don't support the Max protocol but have Pylontech batteries.

There is also an internal relay that can be configured to operate when the batteries are over a certain % charge or have gone to float. This lets you use excess power to run other devices (electric water heater, washing machine etc...)
There is also a smart socket (I use the Sonoff socket with custom firmware) that activates on float/soc and/or when the charging source is connected.

The monitoring and programming is via a web browser. There is also an Android app for remote monitoring.
The unit has its own logging and reporting graphs for various parameters.

with the software created by you I could control an easun smg inverter of 5.6 kw? the inverter uses the modbus-rtu over rs 232 protocol

 

[Texican]

I have designed a box that works with the Voltronic range of inverters (any that support Watchpower - that uses the MAX communication protocol).
It is totally standalone - it uses an ESP32. It plugs into, and is powered from, the comms port on the inverter.

It controls and monitors auto start for a generator (or a relay to connect the grid if the grid is used instead of a generator.
It controls charging based on either state of charge (if lithium batteries are used) or voltage for other battery types.
It also has a feature to stop charging when solar generation exceeds load power to help optimize charging.
It can monitor up to 3 sets of solar panels (2 from the inverter plus 1 using a current clamp)

There is also a remote wireless display so you can see the battery charge etc. at a glance.

It can be used with inverters that don't support the Pylontech BMS as there are 2 inputs, one for the inverter and another for the BMS connection to Pylontech batteries.

It can also be used in systems that have inverters that don't support the Max protocol but have Pylontech batteries.

There is also an internal relay that can be configured to operate when the batteries are over a certain % charge or have gone to float. This lets you use excess power to run other devices (electric water heater, washing machine etc...)
There is also a smart socket (I use the Sonoff socket with custom firmware) that activates on float/soc and/or when the charging source is connected.

The monitoring and programming is via a web browser. There is also an Android app for remote monitoring.
The unit has its own logging and reporting graphs for various parameters.

Very nice, is this avbl to the public ?

 

[porzioev]

I have designed a box that works with the Voltronic range of inverters (any that support Watchpower - that uses the MAX communication protocol).
It is totally standalone - it uses an ESP32. It plugs into, and is powered from, the comms port on the inverter.

It controls and monitors auto start for a generator (or a relay to connect the grid if the grid is used instead of a generator.
It controls charging based on either state of charge (if lithium batteries are used) or voltage for other battery types.
It also has a feature to stop charging when solar generation exceeds load power to help optimize charging.
It can monitor up to 3 sets of solar panels (2 from the inverter plus 1 using a current clamp)

There is also a remote wireless display so you can see the battery charge etc. at a glance.

It can be used with inverters that don't support the Pylontech BMS as there are 2 inputs, one for the inverter and another for the BMS connection to Pylontech batteries.

It can also be used in systems that have inverters that don't support the Max protocol but have Pylontech batteries.

There is also an internal relay that can be configured to operate when the batteries are over a certain % charge or have gone to float. This lets you use excess power to run other devices (electric water heater, washing machine etc...)
There is also a smart socket (I use the Sonoff socket with custom firmware) that activates on float/soc and/or when the charging source is connected.

The monitoring and programming is via a web browser. There is also an Android app for remote monitoring.
The unit has its own logging and reporting graphs for various parameters.

Is there any chance to have it?

 

[Mreeves78]

I have designed a box that works with the Voltronic range of inverters (any that support Watchpower - that uses the MAX communication protocol).
It is totally standalone - it uses an ESP32. It plugs into, and is powered from, the comms port on the inverter.

It controls and monitors auto start for a generator (or a relay to connect the grid if the grid is used instead of a generator.
It controls charging based on either state of charge (if lithium batteries are used) or voltage for other battery types.
It also has a feature to stop charging when solar generation exceeds load power to help optimize charging.
It can monitor up to 3 sets of solar panels (2 from the inverter plus 1 using a current clamp)

There is also a remote wireless display so you can see the battery charge etc. at a glance.

It can be used with inverters that don't support the Pylontech BMS as there are 2 inputs, one for the inverter and another for the BMS connection to Pylontech batteries.

It can also be used in systems that have inverters that don't support the Max protocol but have Pylontech batteries.

There is also an internal relay that can be configured to operate when the batteries are over a certain % charge or have gone to float. This lets you use excess power to run other devices (electric water heater, washing machine etc...)
There is also a smart socket (I use the Sonoff socket with custom firmware) that activates on float/soc and/or when the charging source is connected.

The monitoring and programming is via a web browser. There is also an Android app for remote monitoring.
The unit has its own logging and reporting graphs for various parameters.

Did you ever make this available to the public or available for purchase?