Support MQTT

[ZuinigeRijder]

@playbackandrewind asked a question:

You're supporting Domoticz, which is not so common here.
Is there a chance to see an MQTT connector or similar to store the data in a SQL Database (Homeassistant, ioBroker etc)?

Currently I do not have experience with implementing MQTT, but of course I can figure out the best way to support this. Therefore this discussion topic is opened.

[ZuinigeRijder]

I assume you want to run a MQTT broker on Raspberry Pi or another server. Question of course, which MQTT Broker should be used.

I found this article: Getting started with MQTT on Raspberry Pi using Python.

The following questions arise:

• Is "Mosquitto" a good choice? Or another implementation? Or configurable broker?
• Or should the python script just connect to an existing MQTT Broker, e.g. configured in HomeAssistent, ioBroker, etc? So script only needs to connect to a MQTT boker and assumption (if configured) that it is available?
• Probably for the MQTT client Paho MQTT library dependency is the best client library for Python implementation?

Any other ideas?

[ZuinigeRijder]

I have played around locally in python to be possible to send data to a MQTT broker.
Following configuration added to soliscloud_to_pvoutput.cfg:

[MQTT]
send_to_mqtt = True
mqtt_broker_hostname = test.mosquitto.org
mqtt_broker_port = 1883
mqtt_main_topic = soliscloud2pvoutput
mqtt_power_generated_id = power_generated
mqtt_ac_volt_id = ac_volt
mqtt_inverter_temp_id = inverter_temp
mqtt_volt_id = volt
mqtt_solarpower_id = solarpower
mqtt_energygeneration_id = energygeneration
mqtt_batterypower_id = batterypower
mqtt_gridpower_id = gridpower
mqtt_familyloadpower_id = familyloadpower
mqtt_homeconsumption_id = homeconsumption

And the output when running:

20240112 14:13:31: INFO: body: {"id":"12345678912345","sn":"12345678901234"}
20240112 14:14:32: INFO: data=20240112,14:12,300,50,,240.1,21.9,164.7
20240112 14:14:32: INFO: topic: soliscloud2pvoutput/ac_volt, msg: 240.1
20240112 14:14:32: INFO: topic: soliscloud2pvoutput/inverter_temp, msg: 21.9
20240112 14:14:32: INFO: topic: soliscloud2pvoutput/volt, msg: 164.7
20240112 14:14:32: INFO: topic: soliscloud2pvoutput/solarpower, msg: 50
20240112 14:14:32: INFO: topic: soliscloud2pvoutput/energygeneration, msg: 300
20240112 14:14:32: INFO: topic: soliscloud2pvoutput/batterypower, msg: 0
20240112 14:14:32: INFO: topic: soliscloud2pvoutput/gridpower, msg: 0
20240112 14:14:32: INFO: topic: soliscloud2pvoutput/familyloadpower, msg: 0
20240112 14:14:32: INFO: topic: soliscloud2pvoutput/homeconsumption, msg: 50

Not sure how the MQTT topic should be for HomeAssistent or ioBroker. And of course mqtt_broker_hostname will be probably localhost, but now used a test MQTT Broker server.

[playbackandrewind]

My MQTT is password protected, so we maybe need additional parameters for mqtt_username and mqtt_password

[ZuinigeRijder]

If you have multiple inverters, then you want to distinguish them, so I added the soliscloud inverter serial number as subtopic.

Example output:

20240114 16:01:31: INFO: body: {"id":"1308675217946123456","sn":"1001020218123456"}
20240114 16:02:32: INFO: data=20240114,16:01,200,20,,237.4,22.0,158.2
20240114 16:02:32: INFO: topic: SolisCloud2PVOutput/1001020218123456/last_update, msg: 20240114 16:01
20240114 16:02:32: INFO: topic: SolisCloud2PVOutput/1001020218123456/power_generated, msg: 20;200
20240114 16:02:32: INFO: topic: SolisCloud2PVOutput/1001020218123456/ac_volt, msg: 237.4
20240114 16:02:32: INFO: topic: SolisCloud2PVOutput/1001020218123456/inverter_temp, msg: 22.0
20240114 16:02:32: INFO: topic: SolisCloud2PVOutput/1001020218123456/volt, msg: 158.2
20240114 16:02:32: INFO: topic: SolisCloud2PVOutput/1001020218123456/solarpower, msg: 20
20240114 16:02:32: INFO: topic: SolisCloud2PVOutput/1001020218123456/energygeneration, msg: 200
20240114 16:02:32: INFO: topic: SolisCloud2PVOutput/1001020218123456/batterypower, msg: 0
20240114 16:02:32: INFO: topic: SolisCloud2PVOutput/1001020218123456/gridpower, msg: 0
20240114 16:02:32: INFO: topic: SolisCloud2PVOutput/1001020218123456/familyloadpower, msg: 0
20240114 16:02:32: INFO: topic: SolisCloud2PVOutput/1001020218123456/homeconsumption, msg: 20

Tested with MQTT-explorer and the ouput there:

SolisCloud2PVOutput
    10010202182123456
        last_update = 20240114 16:01
        power_generated = 20;200
        ac_volt = 237.4
        inverter_temp = 22.0
        volt = 158.2
        solarpower = 20
        energygeneration = 200
        batterypower = 0
        gridpower = 0
        familyloadpower = 0
        homeconsumption = 20

To add the new data to Home Assistant, new MQTT sensors should be added to the configuration.yaml, e.g.:

# Start SolisCloud2PVOutput 

- platform: mqtt
  state_topic: "SolisCloud2PVOutput/1001020218123456/solarpower"
  name: "Solar power"
  unit_of_measurement: W
  scan_interval: 60

- platform: mqtt
  state_topic: "SolisCloud2PVOutput/1001020218123456/energygeneration"
  name: "Energy generated today"
  unit_of_measurement: W
  scan_interval: 60

- platform: mqtt
  state_topic: "SolisCloud2PVOutput/1001020218123456/volt"
  name: "Panel Voltage"
  unit_of_measurement: V
  scan_interval: 60

- platform: mqtt
  state_topic: "SolisCloud2PVOutput/1001020218123456/ac_volt"
  name: "AC Voltage"
  unit_of_measurement: V
  scan_interval: 60

- platform: mqtt
  state_topic: "SolisCloud2PVOutput/1001020218123456/inverter_temp"
  name: "Inverter temperature"
  unit_of_measurement: °C
  scan_interval: 60

....

I do not have a Home Assistant installation, so not actually tested.

[ZuinigeRijder]

Anyone interested in the code and willing to test it with HomeAssistant and/or another MQTT aware implementation.

[playbackandrewind]

Yes, of course! Please publish a beta when you're ready ...

[ZuinigeRijder]

@playbackandrewind See release R1.15.0
Let me know if it works for you and if other improvements are needed.....

[playbackandrewind]

Works ! But i had to change the MQTT-Topic from random to fixed:

// f"{MQTT_MAIN_TOPIC}-{SOLISCLOUD_INVERTER_SN}-{random.randint(0, 1000)}"
f"{MQTT_MAIN_TOPIC}-{SOLISCLOUD_INVERTER_SN}"

The object-name must be fixed. If we add a random number, it creates every start a new device name, that's uncommon.

I grab now some data from the MQTT and forward them into a SQL database, tomorrow we know more how it runs.

I think it will run perfect ...

[playbackandrewind]

Aaahhhhh .. i see there a litte problem ....

386: If datetime_now.hour < 5 or datetime_now.hour > 22:

MQTT should run 24/365 - only the posting to pvoutput.org could/should be limited to 2-22 I think.

[ZuinigeRijder]

There are good reasons to start this once a day, with a crontab or something else:

• Between 22:00 and 5:00 the inverter will not have updates
• if somehow the script aborts, it will at least start the next day fresh
• you have to make sure the script starts automatically anyway when the system reboots
• the logfiles/output can be written once per day and removed afterwards
• if there is a memory leak (python garbage collection problem?), this will not be a problem because of the restart
• the today string is now only fetched once

So I would still suspect, that you start the script once per day, also when it writes to MQTT only.

What system/OS are you running the python script?
And are you using Home Assistant, ioBroker or something else?

[playbackandrewind]

Win2k22 Server running ioBroker etc.

[ZuinigeRijder]

Works ! But i had to change the MQTT-Topic from random to fixed:

// f"{MQTT_MAIN_TOPIC}-{SOLISCLOUD_INVERTER_SN}-{random.randint(0, 1000)}" f"{MQTT_MAIN_TOPIC}-{SOLISCLOUD_INVERTER_SN}"

The object-name must be fixed. If we add a random number, it creates every start a new device name, that's uncommon.

I grab now some data from the MQTT and forward them into a SQL database, tomorrow we know more how it runs.

I think it will run perfect ...

Ok, makes sense to remove the random number, especially because the inverter serial number is unique.

[ZuinigeRijder]

@playbackandrewind I removed the random number, see this release R3.15.1

[playbackandrewind]

Thanks, works perfect!

Is it possible to add some battery data to the MQTT output? Like charging/discharging state/voltages/level and so on?

It would be useful for many people to store this data into a SQL database for monitoring and comparing the whole system.

[ZuinigeRijder]

I do not have a battery, so it is more difficult for me to test it. Maybe you could make a proposal, based on the SolisCloud API in this PDF and test something. Thereafter I can incorporate these in the official version.

You have to look for page 21-27, some battery related information, e.g.:

3.6. /v1/api/inverterDetail (Inverter Details)
....
batteryCapacitySoc          Battery SOC
batteryHealthSoh            Battery SOH
batteryVoltage              Battery voltage

You can get the data with for example:

inverter_detail["batteryCapacitySoc"]

I do not see directly for all the battery related information you asked for, e.g. charging/discharging, although this would mean a positive or negative batteryPower, which is already reported?

[ChriWoPS]

Thanks for the grade work, I'm using SolisCloud2PVOutput for 2 months now. I currently need one more parameter this is "batteryCapacitySoc" (SOC). I'm not a programmer so I don't know how to implement can you please implement this?
Thank you in advance.

ChriWo

[ZuinigeRijder]

@ChriWoPS I added support, see this release R1.16.0. Can you test if this is what you expected and that it works? And give feedback of what values are returned for Battery SOC in your case?

[ChriWoPS]

Dear ZuinigeRijder,

it works perfectly, thank you for your work.

ChriWoPS