• Have you tried out dark mode?! Scroll to the bottom of any page to find a sun or moon icon to turn dark mode on or off!

diy solar

diy solar

Wifi Friggin' Dongle, etc - EG4 12kPV

quantum`

New Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2024
Messages
83
Location
Seattle
I ran across this comment with respect to Chinese spying through cloud connections on some inverters: "First job I do on my Chinese Solax inverters is install an ESP32 in place of the wifi dongle which disables the cloud data function and replaces it with an MQTT output to my Pi MQTT server where I collect the data locally. Solar Assistant would be MUCH better."

I'm all about having my own control. Has anyone done RS-485. and if so does it require special programming? What's involved in getting it onto SA?
 
Last edited:
Actually my inverter is the EG4 12kPV (major props to Will), which has a wifi dongle. There is zero information on the connector for this dongle, but in the crude drawings it looks like some kind of D-connector, and I presume it's MPPT since the only other connector is RS-485. Inside the inverter there is an RJ-45 connector labelled "INV485", so that must be the RS-485 connection, although it's anyone's guess whether that would give the same level of control as the wifi connector.

I build concrete houses (ICF) and wifi will never make it through the garage wall to the AP, so my preference is either ethernet or powerline communications. Chlicon sensibly uses powerline which I really like, but ther micros are geared to smaller panels.

I do not want the LAN (nor even just the inverter) connecting to EG4's or anyone else's 'cloud', not least due to the actions of other Chinese mfgrs cutting off inverters and/or spying LANs with them. I am not having the inverter connecting to their cloud except in the extremely limited instance to upgrade firmware. I will arrange my own remote monitoring (WireGuard/SA), thank you.

Unfortunately the only two official ways to update firmware is either through their friggin' app, or through The Internets and their Monitor Center, but I'll worry about that another day.

Does anyone have technical info on this friggin' wifi dongle?


Another question: In the Quick Start they say, "When sizing strings for each MPPT, they MUST be the same model, brand and number per string (series and parallel)." Huh? I thought the whole point of MPPTs is for differing locations, angles, string lengths, etc. They will be the same model and size, but I can not size my two strings the same. I won't believe the two MPPTs correspond to the two split-phase legs.
 
I built my own home with ICF, talk about being tougher than a brick shit house LOL
The same number and type of panels is only if you are paralleling more than one set onto one mppt, in other words mppt-1 on the 18 kpv. The other two strings can be totally different panels and sizes.
 
looks like some kind of D-connector, and I presume it's MPPT since the only other connector is RS-485. Inside the inverter there is an RJ-45 connector labelled "INV485", so that must be the RS-485 connection
It is actually an HDMI connector weirdly.
The INV485 might be connected to the Wi-Fi dongle port as well but there is another one called meter 485 which I believe is on a separate data bus and can be used along with the dongle.
 

Quattrohead, indeed with the Hambro D500 interfloor decks, these houses are a 'box of rock'. Ideal for a seismically active area like Seattle.​


Ah, thanks for the clarification on the MPPTs.

It's hard to believe that the wifi dongle plugs into HDMI. I think it's more likely to be RS-232, given the still-legacy nature of many of the internals.


Speaking of legacy, I am not impressed with Solar Assistant. There has got to be something better now, in the 21st Century.

(What is wrong with this forum's text formatting?)
 
It's an HDMI connector, but obviously is not using any HDMI signaling. Pretty sure it's RS-485, probably globs some pins for power, or some other control signals. It shares a 485 port on the inside I believe. There should be a gigabit Ethernet port on these things but the engineers are either too inept or to cheap to spend the extra $2 to put the port on the box. Never fear, for a mere $200 you can swap the wifi for ethernet.

Just dedicate a ESSID for the thing and put it on it's own VLAN or something if you are that paranoid.
 
Download the EG4 18kv manual. I believe it has the same internal RJ5 jacks and the manual indicated that the INV485 Port is an RS485 port that is shared with the WIFI dongle connection.
 
Download the EG4 18kv manual. I believe it has the same internal RJ5 jacks and the manual indicated that the INV485 Port is an RS485 port that is shared with the WIFI dongle connection.
It does, I use them to do my own modbus polling. There are two, one is shared with the dongle I think, one is wire, the other an RJ-45.
 
As others have said, it’s an HDMI connector, but it has nothing to do with HDMI. If I recall correctly (which I rarely do) it’s just power and RS485. This shares the RS485 port with the INV 485 RJ45 connector on the inside. The Meter485 connector inside is different, it’s push-in connectors, that’s the one that I use for all of my communications with the inverter. I switched to the LAN adapter, discovered that it broke Solar Assistant, and ended up writing my own code in Python. Solar assistant is great, but it’s got some limitations that are difficult or impossible to work around, and with my own code I can do pretty much anything I want.
 
Happened to be at the laptop in the power room, I just looked. . . The 'Wifi' dongle uses an HDMI fed from a 4 wire cable. . . Label is 'Wifi' on the control board. Probably USB, pinned out to the HDMI connector to make it proprietary.

1737842003316.png
 
Happened to be at the laptop in the power room, I just looked. . . The 'Wifi' dongle uses an HDMI fed from a 4 wire cable. . . Label is 'Wifi' on the control board. Probably USB, pinned out to the HDMI connector to make it proprietary.

View attachment 273128
It’s been documented elsewhere to be power plus the INV485 bus. I think it uses an HDMI connector because they purchased that subsystem from somebody who already used an HDMI connector for that. There are several inverters out there that use the same connection.

And yeah, 200 bucks for whatever’s in there is a bit over the top, either for the WiFi or the LAN adapter. I bought two of each, so I collected the set!
 
Ok RS-485 is master-slave, so the wifi dongle and internal port prob shouldn't be used concurrently. My preference is to not crowd the wifi air and have a reliable connection, so I'll prob use the internal connection with an ethernet converter and wire to the equipment room switch. No drywall is in place yet.

HOWEVER, it's probably going to try to phone mama and I have to block that somehow with the switch or appliance firewall, while allowing myself remote access. That prob means adding an Odroid nano in there so I can find and change the port, which is more for the homeowner to mess up. The switch will have PoE and will drive an AP on each floor for internet and phone calling over wifi (since the homes are 100% concrete). It could also power the RS-485/ethernet dongle. The concrete walls mean the inverter's wifi dongle outside will be useless, and it's unsecure anyway.

I want to mount a tablet in some central location so the homeowner can monitor solar and maybe circuit-by-circuit if I have the time/inclination to put that in.

And wpns' github repo is empty. :cry:

We anxiously await your contributions to the open source community. 🤓
heh, that will be a while. First of all I'm 70yo, and second I'm just a real estate developer, not a code developer. I'll be dead soon (what a relief) so it'll never come from me.
 
Last edited:
Ok RS-485 is master-slave, so the wifi dongle and internal port prob shouldn't be used concurrently. My preference is to not crowd the wifi air and have a reliable connection, so I'll prob use the internal connection with an ethernet converter and wire to the equipment room switch. No drywall is in place yet.

HOWEVER, it's probably going to try to phone mama and I have to block that somehow with the switch or appliance firewall, while allowing myself remote access. That prob means adding an Odroid nano in there so I can find and change the port, which is more for the homeowner to mess up. The switch will have PoE and will drive an AP on each floor for internet and phone calling over wifi (since the homes are 100% concrete). It could also power the RS-485/ethernet dongle. The concrete walls mean the inverter's wifi dongle outside will be useless, and it's unsecure anyway.

I want to mount a tablet in some central location so the homeowner can monitor solar and maybe circuit-by-circuit if I have the time/inclination to put that in.

And wpns' github repo is empty. :cry:


heh, that will be a while. First of all I'm 70yo, and second I'm just a real estate developer, not a code developer. I'll be dead soon (what a relief) so it'll never come from me.
I'm 65, get over it. There are two RS-485 ports.. One is direct wire, works fine with a USB to 485 doodad, Struggling a bit with my USR-N540.
 
Ok RS-485 is master-slave, so the wifi dongle and internal port prob shouldn't be used concurrently.
This is true, and a well-known limitation. If you don't have an RS485 meter, you can use the Meter485 port connector.
My preference is to not crowd the wifi air and have a reliable connection, so I'll prob use the internal connection with an ethernet converter and wire to the equipment room switch. No drywall is in place yet.
My preference also, WiFi only fails when you need it, I think the WiFi Standards have a Critical Need Detector if you read the standards carefully. 🤓
HOWEVER, it's probably going to try to phone mama and I have to block that somehow with the switch or appliance firewall
Lots of hints on how to do that from more clever. folks here, but if you have no WiFi or LAN/Ethernet dongle, it won't even try. It's not the _inverter_ that phones home, it's the _dongle_.
And wpns' github repo is empty. :cry:
You're assuming you know where my GitHub repo is. You'll also not hear me complaining about SA software quality, or hoping someone else will fix all my software issues for free. I bought SA, it seems to work well, doesn't do what I want, so I stopped using it when I rolled my own.

Anyone who wants my code, or fragments thereof for talking to EG4 18Kpv, PowerPro WallMount, Acrel, or other related devices is welcome to open a dialog.

heh, that will be a while. First of all I'm 70yo, and second I'm just a real estate developer, not a code developer. I'll be dead soon (what a relief) so it'll never come from me.
So you don't want to contribute, nor do you have the skills or know how hard it is, you just want someone else to do it for you. "How Hard Can It Be?" said every non-software-developer ever.
 
So you don't want to contribute, nor do you have the skills or know how hard it is, you just want someone else to do it for you. "How Hard Can It Be?" said every non-software-developer ever.
Well that's a pretty harsh interpretation. Eaasy big fella.
{This is a not very friendly Earthling}

I don't underestimate how hard it is after (decades ago) trying to learn Java.

And I can only infer that your account is https://github.com/wpns since I can't cast my mind out in a swirling vortex to sweep up and query your mind, thousands of miles away. (yet)

Don't worry, I won't ask.
 
Last edited:
Well that's a pretty harsh interpretation. Eaasy big fella.
{This is a not very friendly Earthling}
Sorry, don't mean to get snarky, but I see a lot of "Why doesn't someone write the software I want for free? How hard can it be?", and it's not.
And I can only infer that your account is https://github.com/wpns since I can't cast my mind out in a swirling vortex to sweep up and query your mind, thousands of miles away. (yet)
A logical conclusion, but wrong, no idea who that is, but it's not me. I use different usernames on different systems, and my solar code isn't on GitHub anyway, because I can't be bothered to clean it up enough to post it, and it's arguably not very good, and life's too short. 🤷‍♂️
 
All I can do the hardware all day long but my Asperger brain can't do software, so I am screwed 🤣
 
Last edited:
I posted some code on my website, but I haven't updated it in a long while. I don't like python, and the USR box is weird, still trying to get it working with the 18's. Did all of it in php, built a function library from scratch, not posted. Original code was in C.
 
Actually my inverter is the EG4 12kPV (major props to Will), which has a wifi dongle. There is zero information on the connector for this dongle, but in the crude drawings it looks like some kind of D-connector, and I presume it's MPPT since the only other connector is RS-485. Inside the inverter there is an RJ-45 connector labelled "INV485", so that must be the RS-485 connection, although it's anyone's guess whether that would give the same level of control as the wifi connector.

I build concrete houses (ICF) and wifi will never make it through the garage wall to the AP, so my preference is either ethernet or powerline communications. Chlicon sensibly uses powerline which I really like, but ther micros are geared to smaller panels.

I do not want the LAN (nor even just the inverter) connecting to EG4's or anyone else's 'cloud', not least due to the actions of other Chinese mfgrs cutting off inverters and/or spying LANs with them. I am not having the inverter connecting to their cloud except in the extremely limited instance to upgrade firmware. I will arrange my own remote monitoring (WireGuard/SA), thank you.

Unfortunately the only two official ways to update firmware is either through their friggin' app, or through The Internets and their Monitor Center, but I'll worry about that another day.

Does anyone have technical info on this friggin' wifi dongle?


Another question: In the Quick Start they say, "When sizing strings for each MPPT, they MUST be the same model, brand and number per string (series and parallel)." Huh? I thought the whole point of MPPTs is for differing locations, angles, string lengths, etc. They will be the same model and size, but I can not size my two strings the same. I won't believe the two MPPTs correspond to the two split-phase legs.
RE: MPPT strings - I was told by Current Connected support that the two MPPTs can be completely different. I'm currently building my second 3Kw string. I have the first string feeding MPPT1, nothing on MPPT2. It works fine, so I'd imagine a different PV input level on MPPT2 will not be an issue.
 
On page 6 of the "EG4 12kPV – Device Monitoring & Settings Guide v1.2.3"

Use the INV485 if you do not install the WIFI Dongle. With an RS485 to USB converter this port can be used to monitor the inverter.

3.3 THIRD-PARTY RS485 COMMUNICATION
Ports 485B and 485A (pictured below-right) can be used
when an electrical meter is not connected. These two ports
can be used to communicate with the inverter using the
RS485 Modbus protocol.
INV485: This interface (pictured below-left) is shared with
the Wi-Fi module. If the Wi-Fi module is not in use, this
interface can be used to communicate with the inverter.
Please contact the distributor to get the Modbus protocol
for third-party app development

This is the same setup as the EG4 18kPV.
 

diy solar

diy solar
Back
Top