[Feature Request] Backflow/Export Setting - Solis

[J14111]

Thanks for all the amazing work, I have another request when you have the time, would it be possible to have this as a slider:

I have had a look but I cant figure out which register it is, it would help my stop my hot water diverter kicking in when I dont want it to as I can disable any export.

Thanks.

[wills106]

What's the Min - Max it will allow you to set it to? I guess it could be 43051 or 43081?

[J14111]

Min is defo 0w and I think max is 10000w on my inverter (even though it cant do that much) but I can double check the max tomorrrow if needed.

[wills106]

Looks like in the docs they can be + / - so might not be them? I can add the sensors in to see if they alter when you change them on the LCD / Cloud portal?

[J14111]

ok sounds like a good plan

[wills106]

If you want to experiment with just the sensor, you could easily add the following into plugin_solis As long is it's within the 'SolisModbusSensorEntityDescription' section it doesn't matter on the order, but I prefer to keep them in register order. As I find it easier to keep track of them.

To try a different register just change the register number.

    SolisModbusSensorEntityDescription(
        name = "Backflow Power",
        key = "backflow_power",
        native_unit_of_measurement = UnitOfPower.WATT,
        device_class = SensorDeviceClass.POWER,
        state_class = SensorStateClass.MEASUREMENT,
        register = 43051,
        allowedtypes = HYBRID,
    ),

Edit: Just make sure it's all inline with the correct spacing from the 'EntityDescription' above and below and you shouldn't go wrong.

[J14111]

ok will have a look thanks

[wills106]

The register you are after should be in section 5.4 as they are the read / write ones. Registers in section 5.2 are read only and need the addition of register_type = REG_INPUT,

Once you look at the code in any plugin_x it becomes quite easy to workout what's going on. Most if it is just defining what a register is and how it needs to be displayed (Icon, unit type etc)

[wills106]

If you want to add in an aditional sensor using a different register make sure the following are unique to other sensors.

name = "Backflow Power",
key = "backflow_power",

I always try to keep the name and key the same, bar case and replacing spaces with _

So:

name = "New Sensor",
key = "new_sensor",

[J14111]

I got lucky its the second one I tried!, I think its

SolisModbusSensorEntityDescription( name = "Backflow Power1", key = "backflow_power1", native_unit_of_measurement = UnitOfPower.WATT, device_class = SensorDeviceClass.POWER, state_class = SensorStateClass.MEASUREMENT, register = 43052, allowedtypes = HYBRID,

[J14111]

Its the only thing I think that is set to 10000w on my inveter but I can double check by changing it tomorrow so we know 100%

[wills106]

Yea changing it on the Inverter will let you know for sure. As the docs indicate that register should be a % But docs are not always accurate!

[J14111]

Yeah they were translated from Chinese I believe so a mistake could have been made, I will check it tomorrow morning, thanks!

[J14111]

thats not the right setting, it has a different value, the ranges on my inverter are 0-9900 I will try some others

[J14111]

I have tried quite a few and cant find it, I think its a newish feature in more recent firmware, mine also has the option for on/off that is not in that screenshot from the manual, I might try speaking to Solis support to see if they will tell me.

[wills106]

Would be nice to have a document that isn't 5 years old! They have most on their site bar the one we need. Last time I looked there was just a dead link.

[J14111]

Yeah, I have logged a ticket I will also ask them if they have a document.

[J14111]

If they wont provide the info is there an easy way to get a dump of all the registers, I should be able to spot it fairly easily?

[J14111]

I managed to figure it out buy dimping the degisters, changing it and then dumping and comparing, it seems to be 43074, however it doesnt store the plain value:

0w is stored as 0 100w is stored as 256 9900w is stored as 25344

so it seems each w is multiplied by 2.56 then stored? that may make more sense to you?

But im 99% sure this is the correct register.

[J14111]

43073 seems to be the on/off switch, on being 4096 and off being 0

[wills106]

How are you extracting these registers? Are you using a tool like Gmodbus?

[J14111]

yeah, a note for the slider it only lets you change it in 100w increments

[wills106]

I think the endian is swapped. Is there an option in Gmodbus to swap the Endian? Not used it in a while. Like if it's reading Little endian can you select Big.

Edit: I think 25344 is backwards for 99 or 9900

[J14111]

Im getting really confussed now, 3 different programs, 3 different readings lol

HA:

[wills106]

So is Backflow Power 1 the on off switch? 16 = on and 0 = off? Or could it be something else? Backflow Power 2 matches your LCD but only representing first two digits (hundreds, 99 hundreds = 9900w). So 1 = 100w, 5 = 500w, 50 = 5000w

Edit: Just so you know some Modbus tools start at 1 and not 0. So registers can be offset by one compared to pyModbus

[J14111]

Ah yes I think you are right, I set it to off and 100w on the LCD and I got:

[wills106]

They are probably setting individual bits then.

This is what's going on with "Energy Storage Control Switch" (43110) 43110 is setting bit's 0 - 2

I think with 43073 they are setting bit 4, if I have got it correct.

Edit: With 43074 we can still have the slider 0 - 9900w with steps of 100. Then within the Integration we can scale it 0 - 99 when it writes to the Inverter. We have similar on SolaX when we write the Battery Charge Current. Gen3 & 4 are scaled 0.1 and Gen2 is scaled 0.01 Solis will be 0.01

[J14111]

Ok sounds good

[wills106]

Out of curiosity do you have a second or more blocks where you get set Charge / Discharge Periods on your Inverter in addition to the one in the Integration?

• Timed Charge Start
• Timed Charge End
• Timed Discharge Start
• Timed Discharge End

[J14111]

Yes I think there are 3 or possibly 4 blocks, this was included in recentish firmware I beleive from what I have read.

[wills106]

Are you on that firmware or not?

[J14111]

yeah I have the 3 or 4 blocks I believe I am on the latest

[wills106]

Can you try 2023.01.5b17

I'll disable sensor "Backflow Power" in the future as it isn't needed going forward. But for now can you see if it's scaled correct. If it's 9900 on the Inverter, does "Backflow Power" read 9900?

If that's correct you can then try the Number associated to it. You also have the select switch for it.

[i-jk]

Vaguely offtopic but... @wills106 have you seen the modbus doc from the Solis site? https://ginlongsolis.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/36000340158-modbus-communication-for-solis-inverters

Not sure if it's newer than what you presently are using as reference?

[wills106]

Unfortunately, despite being a newer doc. That is actually for plugin_solis_old

[J14111]

Yes it read 9900 in HA but I cant change it, I get this error if I move the slider:

[wills106]

I left the copied code as a float by mistake instead of an int 2023.01.5b18 Edit: Might be worth skipping to 2023.01.5b19 if your Inverter is a 6kW model.

[J14111]

Thanks mine is the 3.6 model I moved to b19 but still seeing:

[wills106]

If you change: https://github.com/wills106/homeassistant-solax-modbus/blob/6138e69c7c7b94c30608ac3999946ac8794ca114/custom_components/solax_modbus/plugin_solis.py#L276-L289 to:

    SolisModbusNumberEntityDescription(
        name = "Backflow Power",
        key = "backflow_power",
        register = 43074,
        fmt = "i",
        native_min_value = 0,
        native_max_value = 9900,
        native_step = 100,
        scale = 100,
        native_unit_of_measurement = UnitOfPower.WATT,
        device_class = SensorDeviceClass.POWER,
        allowedtypes = HYBRID,
        entity_category = EntityCategory.CONFIG,
    ),

does it work?

[J14111]

No error now with that change, I will have to confirm it changes the setting on the inverter a bit later

[wills106]

Could you also confirm some sensors for me. "Battery SOC" = The live battery SOC, it's not you minimum SOC you want it to discharge to.

On your Inverter do you have two more Battery SOC you can set.

Solis Backup Mode SOC & Solis Overdischarge SOC or something like that?

[J14111]

Yes battery SOC is live and correct

There are two settings one is the SOC it stops using the battery at and the second is the force charge setting where the inverter will force a charge if it hits that level.

I will check the others but I think this is still current:

[i-jk]

Thanks for sharing @J14111. Be aware that timed charge seems to be it's own mode even if it's in the self-use menu on the inverter.

I'd say that the 'Energy Storage Control' in HA is good but not quite a match.

• Auto in HA is "self use mode" and works fine
• Timed charge/discharge is correct and works fine
• Off-grid mode is also correct
• battery awaken and battery awaken + Timed charge/discharge I'm not sure about... I've tried them but can't really say what happened tbh

Which leaves "feed in priority" and "EPS mode unaccounted for... This could be the two "battery awaken" modes above?

[i-jk]

@wills106 there are several battery charge values in the system - some from BMS (which limits over current), some for the depth of charge for the batteries overall, some for limiting charge in certain modes. Tbh it'll take a while to discover what does what.

I'm not using those since I now use automations to control battery charge and discharge current via Home Assistant via basic charge and discharge current. I base this on state of charge and temperature to protect the batteries because they're in a cold garage.

I also automate the switch from auto (self use) to off-grid when SOC < 20% -- and back, depending on time of day and solar energy input. Finally I use the octopus integration to force charge overnight on the cheapest electricity and am about to include Solcast data to attempt to charge only what is needed based on the likely solar harvest next day.

This integration currently allows all this cool stuff to work seamlessly so, again, thank you 🍻

[J14111]

I'd say that the 'Energy Storage Control' in HA is good but not quite a match.

* `Auto` in HA is "self use mode" and works fine

* `Timed charge/discharge` is correct and works fine

* `Off-grid mode` is also correct

* `battery awaken` and `battery awaken + Timed charge/discharge` I'm not sure about... I've tried them but can't really say what happened tbh

Which leaves "feed in priority" and "EPS mode unaccounted for... This could be the two "battery awaken" modes above?

Exactly the same for me, for the way I use it everything works perfectly

[J14111]

@wills106 someone on facebook pointed me to this, they are regsiter addresses extracted from the android solis app, may be of some use to you? assets.zip

[wills106]

I can take a look. But there is a possibility they don't match up to the Modbus registers. The SolaX ones don't, some are close.

[wills106]

Just had a look at they appear to be actual registers. I'll try an take a proper look later today.

[wills106]

No error now with that change, I will have to confirm it changes the setting on the inverter a bit later

Did you manage to confirm 'Backflow' is working correctly and writing to the Inverter as intended?

[J14111]

Just checked both backflow settings work perfectly thanks

[J14111]

@wills106 I just signed up to Octopus and used your referal code to say thanks again!