Looking for (paid) help to develop an integration for the Generac PWRmanager. Should be fairly easy for someone that is knowledgeable with HA, Python, and Protobuf.
What is the PWRmanager?
PWRmanager is a load management device made by Generac as a part of their PWRcell platform. Basically it sits between your breaker box / load center and various loads and will automatically turn off the load in the event of a mains power failure so that your solar/batter backup lasts longer. It has 12 relays and also does power metering.
Desired Outcome
Ability to control loads from HA, retrieve status of loads, and power metering data.
Information Gathered
While I’m not professionally a dev, I work in the cyber security industry. I’ve poked and prodded and this thing extensively and have an integration approach that I believe will work, but I don’t have the python experience needed. The device natively creates a tunnel to Generac’s cloud and communicates status via MQTT. I should have torn the device apart and attempted to hardware hack whatever its running and create my own SSH tunnel to pull MQTT data, but too late for that, and warranty issues…
Good news, the device also has a local web server which is accessible via basic auth on port 80, and reports status of and allows control of the loads. Bad news, no other ports open, and the web GUI uses protobuf extensivelly. I’ve tried to find RESTful enpoints that are within my abilities to integrate into HA with no luck (aside from some basic admin functions e.g. restart, network status, etc.)
Proposed Approach
Being that all capabilities needed are available through the web GUI, the simplest approach seems to be to write an integration that leverages a library to interpret the protobuf responses to build switch and sensor entities, and likewise send a protobuf payload in response to a switch state change.
I have the .proto file and extensive logging of the GET and POST commands used with the associated js, I just don’t have the skills to put that all together to write an integration. I can do testing or provide VPN access to the device if needed.
Thank you for your consideration and please DM with your interest.