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New PV Keeper 2.0 for Growatt Inverters

Joe BoyKey

Joe BoyKey

Watts, Watts, more Watts
Joined
Sep 11, 2020
Messages
534
Location
Austin Texas
Loaded the new 2.0 version of PV Keeper this morning and wanted to share-'
1st Win10 flags this PVKeeperV2.0.exe as a Trojan Virus, per Ian and victor its ok to disable
Win Defender and load, researched on Google and loaded it - works.
2nd PV Keeper no longer interfere's with Bms Tools for my Gyll Batteries - YEA. Both programs
use usb dongles and were interfering with each other, fix was to make sure Usb-Serial CH340 (Gyll) has
a lower com port #, this way when You open BMS Tools it scans the lower ports 1st. Silcon Labs is PV Keeper
driver. You will need permission Ian at Watt247 to download the new version.
Watts247.com/manuals/gw/ - software cd - pvkeeper 2.0, Joe.


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Do you leave PVkeeper running 24/7? I read a lot of reports that the program shuts itself down occasionally and I can confirm that. Its a decent little program but I wish it would stay running.
 
Not familiar with Solar assist software. Does it communicate with the Growatt inverter over the usb bus or using modbus? I am guessing you have the specs on the communications protocol the Growatt uses. PVkeeper is nice but leaves some to be desired.
 
Update - Solar assist is working on adding "Popular Growatt" to there list, (4 months) hooked up my SPF-6000T-DVM to raspberry pi4b and let them capture data, also sent them the Growatt - Growatt PV Inverter Modbus RS485 RTU Protocol doc, also am testing the new PV Keeper 2.0a - received from Growatt today, so far so good, stable and shows more data than v2.0 from 2 months ago, waiting for sun to come up to see if "charge current/amps" populates, will keep you posted, can send you file whatsapp me search Joe Boykey or pm me for attachment here, Joe.
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Got the new 2.0a from Joe, thanks much !! Be interesting to see the reports on it. Hopefully it cures the random crashing everyone seems to experience with the other versions. I did all the suggested fixes, running as administrator, win7 compatibility mode, COM port FIFO disabled etc but it still crashes randomly a few times a day. (running 2.0)

Any idea what is different in PVkeeper 2.0a vs 2.0 ?
 
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It crashed within a couple hours, same as 2.0 ver. When it crashes it will not reconnect unless I unplug the usb cable and plug it back in. The 2.0a ver had something interesting I noticed, there was already a bunch of data in the storage filesdated late 2020, of course I just deleted it. Also, there was no install file in the zip file, I had to use the old install file. It was like they just copied the directory from a installed copy. Other than those things I cannot see any difference at all from ver 2.0
 
Mine has the .exe in the zip file- pvkeeper.exe (see below), does your screenshot look different like this?
mine crashed once about 2 hours after startup, but has run all day since??
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Yes, identical to what you posted. The original PVkeeper 2.0 had a install batch file to handle the installation. There is no such file in the zip file you show. Further, as I said, look at the data log files, there was a bunch of data already there from 2020, the earlier 2.0 started out clean as you would expect.
 
FYI - I used ccleaner and wiped registry after uninstalling the 1st pv keeper 2.0, no data in Observation from install date 9-1-20 to 12-31-2020
The screen shot above is where i unzipped it, antivirus quarantined the .exe, turn off anti-virus, re-unzip and run pvkeeper.exe????
Just a thought, Joe.
 
same, win defender warned about the exe file. My directory looks identical to yours, same with the screenshot. It crashed after a couple hours but has been running since, same behavior as the earlier 2.0 Have you seen anything noticeably different in this 2.0a from the normal 2.0 ? I can't see anything different. The file properties lists it as ver 2.0, no reference to 2.0a You said you got this from growatt????
 
They took away Battery Discharge and moved Load percent to the left 1 Colum AND i still have a 0 for Battery charge current, still seems way more stable here, running 25' usb extension cable w/repeater and was losing com port 2 to 3 times a day, usually after waking up from sleep mode, we will see, already messaged victor@growatt that it's not working right, Joe.
 
WHOA !! Somethings not right, my load percent is still in same place ! I went back and looked at your screenshot and see yours is now in the left column ! I uninstalled the old version, even deleted all the files from the trash then installed YET for some reason it appears I am still on the old version ! Will have to play tomorrow with it. At least now I know how to tell if I have the newer version.

On second thought.... I may just wait a bit. Not seeing the charge current is a big problem ! It shows on mine as is.
 
Is it Utility charge current or battery charge current? I used utility to charge batteries 1 time the day I got my growatt, never since then??
 
Its charge current into the battery, only the one readout, no way to know if the charge current is coming from solar or utility except by watching the other readouts.
 
I messaged you, Joe.

This app leaves a lot to be desired. Even the UI is hard to see, with the light colored text on light grey background. It can't be changed, it seems, or maybe it's just the program closing before I can find the option to change it.
 
There is no option to change the text color or size, I sure wish there was because I agree with you 100%
 
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