Will Solar Assistant work with Growatt hybrid tl-xh inverter when gridtied ?

[Texican]

I am using home assistant to monitor my 3 solar systems

for my off grid system I use Solar Assistant and also mqtt the data to HA
for my antique SMA sunnyboy gridtied system I use emporia vue and its HA integration, nothing else avbl

for my new Growatt 7.6 tl-xh I am now also using emporia vue data sent to HA, as the growatt integration in Home Assistant, I have found the data even more delayed than emporia

the issue is my impatience / ocd issues. the HA data sent from emporia is the 1 minute sampling and then takes another minute to get to HA.
when you look at my HA display with all 3 solar systems, the solar assistant data is constantly updated and the emporia data is 2 minutes old.
This does not make me happy.....

possible solutions
I have an extra PI4b, I could buy another Solar Assist license, if I could at least get data on current PV data from the gridtied Growatt

I have looked at this Grott program on Home Assistant where the growatt inverter sends its data to Home Assistant and it is then forwarded on to the growatt server. This seems a bit over my head to setup in home assistant

I could buy another emporia vue and do the hack to make its data local only and then it sends to Home Assistant, this would allow for 1 second sampling rate, again I think maybe beyond my experience

so the solar assistant license would be cheapest, easiest and I am familiar with it.

can I use SA on a growatt hybrid with no batteries and send PV data to home Assistant ? can I use a second solar assistant data in home assistant and will HA know which is which ?

any better ideas ??

here is my Home Assistant dashboard
S is data from Solar Assistant
E is data from Emporia vue
C is data that is calculated from other values

 

[MaikaiLifeDIY]

Growatt works with Solar Assistant in any configuration (grid tied/off grid/hybrid), so there is no problem there.

To get multiple SA connections into Home Assistant (HA) you would want to run the mqtt broker in HA and configure SA to report to the broker.

Home Assistant broker setup with SolarAssistant

Configure Home Assistant to run an MQTT broker with a bridge reading from SolarAssistant.

solar-assistant.io

Then in each SA use a different “topic_prefix” so each SA looks different so your mqtt integration in HA will show all the devices.

There are probably a few little things I’m overlooking but it absolutely should be possibly to get multiple mqtt feeds from multiple SA installations into HA.

 

[MaikaiLifeDIY]

By they way I would recommend standing up a virgin instance of HA and get it working there since trial and error on your production HA instance will muck up your entities . ?

 

[MajicDiver]

Growatt 7.6 tl-xh

SA only gets/displays data for the first 2 mppt inputs. Battery charge/discharging power is improperly scaled (grossly). Other stuff really goofy also. IMO, SA is not ready for use with the Growatt MIN-xxxx-TL-XH-US

 

[1201]

Solar assistant is working well for me with my growatt min. I don't have a battery connected to it so I'm not seeing the issues @MajicDiver is seeing.

They had a recent update so all 4 mppts are showing.

It also shows grid import and export data if you connect the acrel meter to the growatt

Overall it improves the monitoring of the growatt 1000%


Btw, this is how you connect it

 

[MajicDiver]

SA only gets/displays data for the first 2 mppt inputs. Battery charge/discharging power is improperly scaled (grossly). Other stuff really goofy also. IMO, SA is not ready for use with the Growatt MIN-xxxx-TL-XH-US

The Beta version released yesterday properly gets data from the batteries. Currently it will only communicate with a single Growatt MIN-xxxx-TL-XH-US but they are working on fixing that and several other issues. When I first got it a few weeks ago was very disappointed in its lack of functionality on this inverter but I am glad to find him responsive and fixing/adding stuff that should be there

 

[1201]

The Beta version released yesterday properly gets data from the batteries. Currently it will only communicate with a single Growatt MIN-xxxx-TL-XH-US but they are working on fixing that and several other issues. When I first got it a few weeks ago was very disappointed in its lack of functionality on this inverter but I am glad to find him responsive and fixing/adding stuff that should be there

Wow. That's cool. They move fast with update requests.

 

[lapsmith]

Solar assistant is working well for me with my growatt min. I don't have a battery connected to it so I'm not seeing the issues @MajicDiver is seeing.

They had a recent update so all 4 mppts are showing.

It also shows grid import and export data if you connect the acrel meter to the growatt

Overall it improves the monitoring of the growatt 1000%


Btw, this is how you connect it

I just bought Solar Assistant and I am having trouble connecting to my MIN11400 inverter. I am using pins 3 and 4 of the RJ45 jack on the Orange PI and connecting to the inverter as you show in your picture. I tried reversing polarity but still no communication. Should I be connecting to the USB port on the PI instead? I would ask Vince at SA, but he actually asked me to post a link to this thread since the SA installation web page is out of date for our inverters.

From the SA install page



My wiring:

 

[1201]

I just bought Solar Assistant and I am having trouble connecting to my MIN11400 inverter. I am using pins 3 and 4 of the RJ45 jack on the Orange PI and connecting to the inverter as you show in your picture. I tried reversing polarity but still no communication. Should I be connecting to the USB port on the PI instead? I would ask Vince at SA, but he actually asked me to post a link to this thread since the SA installation web page is out of date for our inverters.

Hi. Yes, it goes from the growatt to a USB port. So you need a USB rs485 adapter

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B081NBCJRS?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

 

[MajicDiver]

I’m using a different usb converter, also note I’ve got two inverters connected

 

[lapsmith]

Thanks guys. I ordered the Waveshare model since it was a bit cheaper.

 

[lapsmith]

I installed the USB adapter and it connected within 10 or 15 seconds, no sweat. There are some things about the app I'm not sure about so I emailed Vince at SA. For example, it only shows two of the four MPPT strings. I imagine you have either already figured out how to get the other strings, or your have pointed it out to SA.

But overall, it is nice to have 'live' data from the inverter anywhere.

 

[1201]

I installed the USB adapter and it connected within 10 or 15 seconds, no sweat. There are some things about the app I'm not sure about so I emailed Vince at SA. For example, it only shows two of the four MPPT strings. I imagine you have either already figured out how to get the other strings, or your have pointed it out to SA.

But overall, it is nice to have 'live' data from the inverter anywhere.

You may need to update the software.

I see 4 strings

 

[MajicDiver]

For example, it only shows two of the four MPPT strings.

You need to load the beta version, there are a myriad of problems for this inverter in the non-beta version. Massive improvements have been made in the beta, the automations are lacking a lot but better than nothing

 

[lapsmith]

You may need to update the software.

That did it, thanks!

You need to load the beta version, there are a myriad of problems for this inverter in the non-beta version. Massive improvements have been made in the beta, the automations are lacking a lot but better than nothing

I downloaded the latest software, but not sure if it is the beta version. It is version 2024-01-23.

Also, don't know what it does, but should I have MQTT enabled?

 

[1201]

That did it, thanks!

Nice

I downloaded the latest software, but not sure if it is the beta version. It is version 2024-01-23.

Also, don't know what it does, but should I have MQTT enabled?

The beta version is from April 16 iirc. You'll need to sign up for beta testing and then you can download it

SolarAssistant Beta Program

How to join the SolarAssistant Beta program.

solar-assistant.io

I don't use mqtt so I'm of no help there

 

[lapsmith]

The beta version is from April 16 iirc. You'll need to sign up for beta testing and then you can download it

Thanks, but this statement on the beta page got my attention: The risk of damaging your solar hardware is generally very low as the hardware doesn't allow setting invalid settings. Even though it sounds like you have had good experience, with my luck, I'm afraid I'll damage my new inverter again. But after a month or so, I will probably try it.

 

[1201]

Thanks, but this statement on the beta page got my attention: The risk of damaging your solar hardware is generally very low as the hardware doesn't allow setting invalid settings. Even though it sounds like you have had good experience, with my luck, I'm afraid I'll damage my new inverter again. But after a month or so, I will probably try it.

If you're happy with the current version no need to update

 

[MajicDiver]

don't know what it does, but should I have MQTT enabled?

No, not unless you need to send commands to your inverter from home assistant or something like that

 

[MajicDiver]

Thanks, but this statement on the beta page got my attention: The risk of damaging your solar hardware is generally very low as the hardware doesn't allow setting invalid settings. Even though it sounds like you have had good experience, with my luck, I'm afraid I'll damage my new inverter again. But after a month or so, I will probably try it.

The latest beta is dated 1-May, since you are not using Automations and have only one inverter you won’t notice a difference from what you have, I didn’t realize they had the fix for all 4 mppt’s in the 23-January release