Anyone here got the new single phase HV inverter?

Hi folks,

I've recently upgraded to the above system (10kW inverter) from a Gen1 3.6 system. Whilst it works well, I'm having trouble maintaining local monitoring, cloud connection is (usually) fine but I'll lose local (along with home assistant access) anywhere between a couple of hours or several. A remote reboot (or sometimes I have to physically reboot) the inverter and everything comes back.

I'm just wondering if anyone else who owns such a system has had these issues? I've got a support case in with GE but was hoping there might be some insight here.

Many thanks for any input into this discussion.

Sarge

Givenergy have history on releasing products that don't work fully with their own app or portal - I believe the 3 phase kit that has been out nearly a year still doesn't have full app support for all its settings? (and I think local monitoring was one of the issues from memory) - although this does sound a lot like a dongle firmware bug if it does actually work for a while and then fall over. The EV charger has/had similar quirks with local access.
Do you know what it shows up as in your router (all the other kit has a chip made by HiFlying and shows up as something like HF-A21... but the EV charger is something else so I'm wondering if they've changed who they get the wifi guts from? Possibly to whatever the EV charger one is?)

Bear in mind local access (via the likes of GivTCP in Home Assistant) is comminity driven & not coded by Givenergy themselves. As such it's maintainer is entirely at the mercy of Givenergys generosity to tell him how the new kit works. He'll have no way to test it without volunteers.

I have 3phase with no local access - I'm told it's probably because I'm on a mesh. Interested in your comment that it doesn't work with 3phase systems - I suspected that but don't have the data to confirm or otherwise.

Do they work on the 2.4Ghz or 5GHz channel (or either)? I suspect only the former ... I have tried being on 2.4GHz with my phone and on the same node but still no joy ... far too much effort for no reward...

hoggy Hi hog, yes, noted on the GE software issues. Local monitoring does work via the app, GivTCP etc sometimes for several hours, then it will fail. The GE app will simply show a red exclamation next to the static IP that I've set in the app and then GivTCP shows multiple communication issues as it tries to reconnect. I can still ping the inverter on the network and it's still communicating with the cloud, it just seems to quietly stop allowing local monitoring/connections. I've actually changed the name of the inverter within my router so I can't see what it was originally called, however I think it was something along the lines of HF-HV21 or some such.

I don't think this is a GivTCP issue being that it replicates across the GE app as well, plus it does work for a while and can be reset simply by either a remote inverter restart or a physical one.. Sometimes a remote restart will end up causing the inverter going offline completely and then a physical restart has to happen.

Bit of a pain, gutted really as I had it all working beautifully with the Gen1 inverter but it was underpowered for my home needs, the HV system is great other than what seems to be the GE software/firmware issue,
I'll report back with any further findings, I'd of course be more than happy to be a volunteer test subject!

OK, so that narrows things down if the portal updates still, then the dongle isn't locking up/hanging- so something is stopping local access only.
If its not after a predetermined, repeatable period then we can rule out that it's some sort of security feature where it times out after X.
So that leaves is with -
1- some sort of internal network issue with your WiFi. (If your on mesh is it hopping access points?)
2- Some sort of internal dongle bug.

I would imagine we can rule out 2 with a few more users input (does theirs do the same)

I realise this doesn't really help (unfortunately the HV inverter is quite new so not many other users to confirm if theirs does the same)

It's a bit of a fudge but I think you can setup givtcp / phone app to connect direct to the dongle WiFi hotspot? I.e bypass your home router and just have your phone/HA connect through the inverters hotspot. Leave it running and see if it falls over still (which would discount home network issues)

Is your DHCP server/router set to give the inverter a fixed address? If not, then set up a reservation.
Portal access with unreliable local access would tend to point to the inverter's IP address changing from what your program/app thinks it is.

If you have an Android device, you could try this app and see how well it connects. It has an error rate indication that may help.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.rubikcube.invertermonitor

I would be interested to know if it works with the new models.

hoggy I've got an Asus XT8 mesh and I've set the inverter so that its IP is bound along with the mesh access point so it can't hop. What's the process to access the inverters hotspot? It's not broadcasting as far as I can tell, is there a way to set it to do this? I've tried to access the inverter directly through a webpage but can't get past the login (just using standard admin/admin user/pass combo).
Thanks again for advice, really appreciated.

mrand31 Hi - yes IP is bound along with the access point. Doesn't help sadly.

Rubikcube Hi Rubik - thanks, gcoan suggested I try this as well. I've downloaded the app, it does connect and seems to maintain a relatively solid connection (although I've only been able to try this for the past twenty minutes or so). I've set GivTCP to run in parallel and whilst GivTCP was able to initially connect, it has started to error out with various script errors (as is the usual case) where as the inverter monitor seems to maintain the connection. However, in the app I note there is an "Errors" report at the top left of the page - this is currently at 2 / 26 and rising. Is there anyway to breakdown what these errors are? It definitely seems like the rubik app is still connected as the numbers it's reporting reflect basically what the ge cloud says.
Any help deciphering the errors would be great!

Just as an update, I tried different versions of GivTCP (v3.1.6 and 2.4.9) and both can connect but then both drop out relatively quickly. 3.1.6 dies with attribute and connection errors whilst 2.4.9 would simply timeout. I also noticed that when the GivTCPs connected it would then make the rubik monitor lose connection, so potentially there's an issue with multiple connections going onto the GE modbus? Is that expected does anyone know? i.e. does the inverter only support one modbus connection at a time?

Potentially this is a GivTCP issue as others are reporting it on github -- https://github.com/britkat1980/giv_tcp/issues/380

Rubikcube Just as an update, the app ran well for an hour but has since lost connection and now can't reconnect. Errors at 13/12 at the moment but slowly increasing.

The error figures in my app are just a count of errors against cycles. The first number is the number of times the app hasn't received an acceptable response from the inverter. The second number is the number of times the app has asked for data. In theory the first number is always less than the second number, but in practice it can be one or two higher. Over time you can calculate a percentage. I would say anything below 10% is good enough, below 2% is great.

In the apps settings there is an option called "persistent". This changes the way the app connects with the inverter so you could play with turning it off or on to see if it makes any difference.

In theory the inverter should be able to support up to 32 simultaneous connections.

[unknown] Morning - thanks for the information. I did find the persistent setting although to no avail. It wouldn't reconnect at all yesterday but this morning it has (without any input from me). Odd behaviour, just wish there was more detailed logs coming from the inverter in terms of it's network connection status etc.

Rubikcube Hi Rubik, just a quick update for your information, inverter monitor has kept a consistent connection over the past twenty four hours or so, as I'm I haven't been using GivTCP to query the inverter which I'm starting to think may be the cause of the local disconnect. I'm going to try the GivTCP beta version today to see if it helps.
Great app by the way, thanks for the help with this.

All the best,

Sarge

lukesarge Great. Thanks for testing my app. I am surprised it works so well, the new kit must be similar in design to the old, just more powerful.

In an ideal world, persistent mode should have no effect at all. However if you are having difficulties with network connection, one mode may work better than the other.

If you have a device that can stay at home (ideally a tablet), it is worth turning on "collect stats" in settings to get minute-by-minute logs and graphs, plus all the daily and monthly stats.

Rubikcube You're very welcome.

A couple of things I've noticed when using the app, firstly it's reporting "No Solar Battery" at the bottom however is able to give a discharge summary and current value for the discharge. Secondly, none of the "controls" work, so if I tap say "Solar" it will take me to Solar Controls and it hangs on "Just a Sec .." - this occurs with all of the controls. It eventually drops out with "Sorry, No connection". However, I'm not sure if this is a problem with the app or (more likely) an issue with my inverter - as my inverter seems to struggle most when its controls are being accessed via a local connection rather than cloud.

I've activated the stats on a tablet, it's very useful as it's giving me good detail on when the app is able to access the inverter and when it isn't. I had a good period of twenty plus minutes of minute by minute updates, but this then went to every 15 to 20 minutes. Could be the app is being managed by the tablet (battery optimisation), so I've made sure it can run in the background etc. Will keep an eye on this.

Happy to take this discussion privately if you'd rather talk outside of the forum.

Cheers,

Sarge

I guess the basic stats from the inverter have to work the same or the GE app would need changing. The battery is very different so no surprise there. Seems something has been changed with how the controls work. The GE app never accesses the controls directly, it manages them indirectly via the portal. Since the portal knows what equipment you have it can send the right format of messages for your inverter.

My app works well with the original (Gen1) hybrid and AC3, but I cannot keep up with the changes in the new equipment.

Have you made progress on improving the reliability of the local network connection?

I think you are a bit of a pioneer here. Not many have the new kit yet. Hopefully others following you will find the information in this thread useful.

Rubikcube Morning Rubik - apologies for the delay in responding.

I'm still struggling with the local connection, I've had a chat with GivEnergy and they're suggesting a full reboot of the internal WiFi dongle plus setting it up again. I've got my installer coming back soon and I'm going to try and connect the inverter up via ethernet rather than rely on the WiFi to see if that improves it (one would hope it does otherwise it means there's something very wrong with the internal network chipset).

I've found that if I stop using your monitor and stop any other device (like my Home Assistant instance) from trying to access the inverter locally, it actually improves the connection and the inverter remains online consistently. It's as if the constant requests to the inverter for information cause it to close connections... I'm just guessing obviously but it would seem something like that is occuring. It's been online now for about 7 straight days since I stopped all my direct connections to it and that's the best it's done since install.

I'll keep you all posted if anything changes.

Thanks again for the advice and support gentlemen, much appreciated.

Sarge

lukesarge It's as if the constant requests to the inverter for information cause it to close connections..

The original dongle is quite flaky, the listener on port 8899 often crashes for no apparent reason, but it automatically restarts itself within about 30 seconds. It's quite easy to crash the original dongle by sending it bad data.

For something designed to be connected to the internet, I think this is quite poor, but unfortunately common in IoT stuff. I think the networking interface/chipset has had a bit of a redesign for the new kit, maybe to include some kind of encryption (?). Maybe they forgot to improve data validation and reliability.

Hopefully it can be fixed with a firmware upgrade. Just keep on to GE that their own app isn't reliable, and if they fix that, hopefully it will fix GivTCP too.