Getting data from inverters via an RS485 connection

Simon,

The cable/connector is an Exceedcon

EC04681-2014-BF

It is almost impossible to find in small quantities online.

Depending on what you want to achieve and how much effort you want to go to

  1. Leave what you have in place - posting up to the Internet on the Solis/Ginlong portal - this happens every 6 minutes.

  2. You can then run a query against the online database - extract all the details you want and then put them into a local database for further manipulation - this will give you a maximum resolution of 6 minutes. The online portal is a rebadged one from SolarMan/Igen - the Rest API is now freely available.

  3. I have a docker image that i pulled down from the Internet that does this for me and then outputs MQTT to play around with

  4. If you want to get more into the weeds - you can disassemble the Wireless Dongle - it just pops open

In there is a 4 pin connector that you can then seperate the processing board (which is a just a rebadged ESP8285) and you can either replace that board completely and just patch into the 4 wires (+ve, -ve, RS485 A+B) - or you can make a daughter board/splicer to sit in the middle - essentially the ESP8285 duaghter board is just talking to the inverter using Modbus - so you can sit your own device in the middle and send your own Modbus commands to the inverter - this gives you the best of both worlds - the online portal still whilst you get going and then local querying and control.

My plan was to use another ESP8266 unit and interface into modbus - however one of the other users i have been in touch with has already done this using a Rpi Zero and gotten the whole thing to fit back into the wireless shell - so it looks like new

Craig