Growatt Inverter Data Capabilities

Inverters Growatt
#1

Hi,

I am looking to replace my existing faulty inverter. Currently looking at Growatt or Solax but thinking Growatt is maybe the best choice. What I want to know is some information about interfacing.

I currently have a rpi4 which runs Home Assistant and also various other servers and data scrapers and am wanting to add power into the mix.

I have in my meter box 4 meters which have pulse output which I am planning to connect up to an ESP32 / 8266 to monitor usage. I am assuming I can use a python script to upload this data to PVOutput (Grid Usage, Home Usage, Controlled Load Usage & Solar Export).

In looking to use Growatt the downside for me is it appears data is harvested from the server.growatt.com site and not direct from the inverter and also it is only polled every 5 minutes. As such if the server is down or my internet connection is down (unfortunately it isn’t the most stable) then script would fail however I would like to know if it is possible to pull data direct from the device at any moment (in particular Vpp and va of each MPPT, current output, Daily output and Total Output) and then upload this data (or at very least current output and Daily output) to PVOutput and store the rest of the data likely in InfluxDB with Grafana dashboards (want inhouse option also due to the internet stability mentioned above). As such the question is can data be pulled direct from inverter and not from the server.growatt.com portal and if so what data can be pulled direct

Also to be clear the growatt inverter I am looking at has Wifi and I would like to use this protocol to pull the data and ideally not RS232 / 485 as my rpi is a fair distance away and cabling between the two could get very difficult. I have found already a couple of scripts that do this via RS485 but as stated want to avoid that due to the cabling issues. If that is the only way would likely look to have a ESP8266 do the RS485 communication and send it to the rpi & pvoutput but feel that is overly complicating it perhaps unnecessarily but if that is the only way I can work towards it but just need to know that is the path I need to take.

Appreciate any advice

#2

Hi, so I installed a new Growatt (with the Oled display) and am very happy with the RS485 interface, it works independently from the wifi stick (so you can choose not to send data to China and simpy poll the GW every second or so), I have that working on a Pi3 with some Python code that I got from the internet…
I read all the parameters from the inverter, and it is pretty complete with all the various voltages/amps/powers and temperatures and including power per string…

Cheers, Ton

#3

Thanks for the reply. Does it plug into the same port as wifi or can you run the wifi and RS485 at the same time. Would like the best of both features ideally. Where did you get the RS485 connector from? Do you have a link at all?

#4

You can edit the settings in the Growatt Wifi module to send data to Grott server instead of Growatt. Grott server can send your details to pvoutput, and also forward on the data to Growatt as a proxy. You would still have to run Grott on a PC or DiskStation or pi, but no need for RS485 interface and direct wiring, the program can be anywhere on your network.