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    SunGrow Inverter and Solarinfobank.com

    Hi,

    Does anyone have solar panels installed and use a SunGrow Inverter?

    I just had it installed last week, knowing that the inverter has a wifi interface. Unfortunately the wifi interface simply posts the information to a central server in China and I can't find a way to intercept this data or pull the kWs direct from the inverter.

    What I did manage to do however, was work out how to programatically log into www.solarinfobank.com using VB.NET and pull the kW output from there.

    So,
    Question 1) Does anyone know how I could work out how to get these readings direct from the inverter on my LAN without having to log into the external database? I've attempted to use wireshark but I'm a bit of a noob in this area.

    Question 2) Does anyone else have one of these inverters (or anything that posts to Solarinfobank and would be interested in me turning my code into a very simple plugin (for free)?

    Cheers.
    Matt.

    #2
    Hi Matt,
    I'm in the same boat. Did you manage to work out how to upload data from your Sungrow inverter to the PVOutput.org website?
    Cheers,
    Brendon

    Comment


      #3
      Not really.

      In the end I was able to work out how to extract the data from solarinfobank.com and bring it back to my home server where I use it for a bunch of calculations and store the history in an access database. I pull in the current kW and the daily total kWh.

      This used to work really well originally, however the last month or so it's been dropping out a lot lately - lots of gaps in information. In the last two days, it seems they've changed something so now it only reports either 0W, 1000W, 2000W or 3000W. It's basically become useless and I'm planning on installing a seperate zwave or arduino current sensor on the line to use that instead.

      I use my solar output to schedule my spa heater and pool pump so I need a reliable signal.

      I did eventually write a simple plugin but its tailored just for me - If you're interested I can give you the source code if you're proficient in visual studio (or I can compile a version for you if you give me your username and password).

      Comment


        #4
        Hi Matt,

        That's exactly why I want accurate data too! We're getting a swim spa with heat pump soon so makes sense to have it running at the right times.

        I'm not a programmer but can edit scripts, etc. I'm happy to give you my username and password for solarinfobank. Please let me know how to get it to you. Thank you very much.

        Cheers,
        Brendon

        Comment


          #5
          Matt, I forgot to mention that I've been having a bit of a discussion about this on the PVOutput forum. Someone there has offered a bit of advice here:

          https://getsatisfaction.com/pvoutput...o-pvoutput-org

          Cheers,
          Brendon

          Comment


            #6
            That github post was actually quite helpful. It proves that there is an API for solarinfobank, however I can't find any documentation for it.

            I managed to trial and error and eventually found a http call which gives the real-time output as part of a json string. This is in Watts not kW so has the resolution I need and is hopefully a lot more reliable and stable.

            http://www.solarinfobank.com/aapp/UnitDevices?uid=xxxx.

            Where to find uid you may ask? Not easy. You can work out your device id, and I noticed that uid and device id seemed to be relatively sequential. So keep experimenting with the above call using different uid's until you find a uid which returns the correct device id.

            I've managed to update my personal plugin and it seems to be a lot better already.

            Now, onto your needs. You say you want to use the data to schedule spa heaters? How are you controlling this? Why do you need pvoutput.org? and most importantly are you using homeseer? If the answer to the last question is no then my compiled code won't be of any use to you and the code in github is as close to what you want as you will get.

            Comment


              #7
              Hi Matt,

              I've tried with a few different uids but can't get it to work. My device id is 91869 (I get this from the status bar in my browser when I hover over the social media sharing links). What would you suggest I try for the uid?

              What would I do with the http call when I find the correct uid anyway?

              I don't use HomeSeer (not yet anyway). It looks interesting and definitely something I'll be looking into. I have just found that the Sungrow Solarinfobank website and app are not showing data accurately. The iPhone app is hopeless and, as you say, in the last few days they have changed the website and it only reports kW. I believe that they only keep historical data for a short amount of time too. I'd like to be able to upload my data to PVOutput.org as it's a better monitoring platform.

              Cheers,
              Brendon

              Comment


                #8
                You are uid=2644.

                I use a script within homeseer (plugin) to poll that exact url with my uid every minute. I use a regex search in my script to extract the Power output in Watts. I then write this into the homeseer program which then does a whole bunch of stuff based on the value. I also write it into a database on my home server (much more secure than the cloud).

                I can't help you push this into pvoutput.org. You would need some basic scripting knowledge to be able to do what you need. It would take someone too much time to try and explain it all to you. I could help you get in into homeseer but thats about it. Or I could show you the code that writes it to a database.

                Cheers.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Hi Matt,

                  I understand. Thank you very much for your help. I'll get back to you if I decide to go with HomeSeer.

                  All the best,
                  Brendon

                  Comment

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