I dug deep and whipped out my nun-chuck skills, bow hunting skills computer hacking skills to produce information for accessing data on the completely unsupported and abandoned line of solar hardware made by the company previously known as Renesola, which yielded my first GITHUB project!
Basically, there’s an ethernet connected powerline communication module that hosts an unbrowsable, unpronounceable web server. It runs linux and has a touch screen with a lame little GUI. It used to connect to the Renesola cloud, but that vanished along with the company’s stock value a few years ago. Thing is, there’s a mess of this hardware out there, and much of it cheap and on liquidation, and the MRG module doesn’t show individual panel and inverter performance, so you have no clue what’s wrong with your system if you’re getting lower than expected output. But because of my diddling around, I’ve produced what is the most comprehensive (but still not very comprehensive) documentation available for accessing these devices. See the GITHUB for more info.
Some day when I is smart, I will write a real integration. My real hope is, however, that all the poor saps in various municipal installations that found themselves running renesola outfitted arrays will get some extra mileage out of my work. I’m looking at you, Australia and New Zealand.
Please continue your work on this kontraptioneering. I’m one of those poor saps in New Zealand who would really appreciate being able to monitor individual Renesola microinverters. Thanks
Finding your project feels a bit like it must when a shipwreck survivor finally washes ashore on a sunny island! I am a Replus/RenaeSola orphan down here in Australia. When the App disappeared, locally all I could get was the 404 I thought it was the end of the line. I’m not overly technical but will play around with Home Assistant and see how far I get… but can I encourage you to push on with that integration you mentioned
Hey there,
I really hope that you’re able to get something meaningful out of the GITHUB. I’m not that great of a programmer, so don’t expect a full fledged integration or a stand-alone app. I’m hoping somebody who’s able to just throw together quick web or java stuff might take on that task now that I’ve done the decoding. Every solar panel, every inverter, and every kWh we get from a renewable is a step in the right direction, and I hope this work will help keep systems online longer and in better shape. Maybe someday I’ll look in to writing a simple web app that can look at your gateway in a more automated way, but for now, the homeassistant route is the best that I’ve got. Please let me know if you’ve managed to get it working. I know it’s clunky, so any hints or work-arounds that you can suggest to the community is a good thing.
As for programming, this old dog isn’t great at learning new tricks, but I’m trying. Don’t hold your breath for an integration, just try and smash through with a giant YAML file for now. Somebody smarter than me (any takers???) could work on a proper integration.
If there’s any way I can help, feel free to post, and if you have any better instructions or suggestions for the community at large, or success stories, please make them public. As you know, you’re not the only guy in this boat.
Looks like NEP - Northern Electric & Power is the actual manufacturer…
Major update and eureka moment here kids - check this out…
This is huge! So the Renesola MRG has a web interface, but somebody BROKE it before shipping it. Thanks for nothing guys! But here’s how you fix it…
SSH in to the box: (Do this from Linux or some other SSH program, Putty, etc.)
user name root
password nep
It may give you some guff about a key, or a key not matching, just connect anyways.
Your goal here, now, is to rename a file in the Gateway folder called index.bak to index.html and that’s it. So issue this command…to make a copy of said file, because it’s small and nobody really minds.
cp Gateway/index.bak Gateway/index.html
Then type exit to disconnect and now just go to the IP address of your MRG in your browser and VOILA!!
Is there a tutorial on how to “SSH in to the box”? I’m a computer novice
I downloaded Putty, connected the MRG to my PC through ethernet cable, started Putty, put in my IP address, clicked the open button but all I get is “network error connection refused”
Then I tried connecting the MRG to the router with the PC attached to the router, input my IP address, but got the same error message
Help! I really want to get this going as I have a couple of inverters that are playing up - I can see them shutting down on the MRG graph
The IP address you need to put in to Putty is the IP address of the MRG monitor. You can find that under SETTINGS on the monitor, I think anyway. I have mine set to a static IP, so it shows that. It will probably a 192.168.xxx.xxx. kind of address. Failing that, you’ll need to log in to your router and find the IP address of the router there under DHCP leases.
Commands entered in to the SSH session are sensitive to upper and lower case. Remember that.
A word of warning - As you say that you’re a computer novice, be aware that when you’re in there playing with the SSH (that is, after you successfully log in) you’re poking around in the brain and there’s absolutely nothing to prevent you from screwing up the whole gateway. Just do the commands to make a copy of the index file (under the new, useful name) and get out with the exit command. There should be no need to restart anything, just make the copy, and try the web page on your desktop.
Thank you so much - I have the output showing on my computer now. And it appears all my Renesola micro-inverters are faulting for short periods of time throughout the day. Some are much worse than others. And the faults are not happening at the same time for all the microinverters. So probably not mains voltage related. But perhaps it’s temperature related as it happens much more frequently in the afternoon. If only I had access to this data (my low computer skills level means I’m reluctant to try anything too far from my comfort zone)
I have also done some digging around the internet. I’ve found the NEP web site http://www.northernep.com/en/ has an identical looking model of gateway going by the part number BDG256. And their monitoring web site still appears active. They have a document about setting up their gateway. It refers to a password for wifi = gateway. And describes using a wireless dongle. This password also works with the Renesola gateway. I’m wondering if the Renesola gateway could be re-directed to send data to the NEP monitoring web site??? Or maybe a NEP gateway could be purchased (the price is eye watering though) and used with the Renesola microinverters??
The Renesola microinverter appears visually identical to the NEP microinverter BDM250. So I think its a fair assumption that NEP produced the solar gear for Renesola
I was unable to crack the password for “Inverter Parameters Setup”. Maybe NEP would provide it? Or maybe it’s available somewhere within the solar installer network as it is referred to as being necessary to configure the microinverter to local network standards. Maybe this is where “postman_nz” works / used to work???
Thanks once again for this very useful information
Yeah I tried publishing to the NEP monitoring site, but I can’t find an IP address that works, and I’ve sent about 30 emails and heard exactly nothing. On the other hand, to hell with the cloud, it’s a liability as we all are well aware. You’re better off without it, and probably better off without a gateway with, and let’s be honest, god only knows what cooties lurking, courtesy of the PLA Unit 61398.
My inverters also tend to fault out a few times a day here and there, no idea why, but you’re right, it could be a temperature issue, as I had experienced the same sort of BS when I had panels just laying on the roof (don’t do this), but it could ALSO be surges on the grid, since sometimes a few of mine would drop out when the air conditioner kicked on hard.
As for buying a new NEP box for full price? Probably a dumb idea, especially given their tech support record. You’d be better off buying four real inverters from a reputable company. I got my Renesola gateway on Ebay for $50 US. The ones listed currently out of Torrance, California have a US 220V plug, but they’ll work anywhere, 50/60 hz supposedly. I doubt they made different boards for each region and nothing leads me to believe they wouldn’t be fine on 50 hz.
In inverter parameters, I also tried cracking it to no avail. Maybe somebody ought to send an email translated to Chinese to their tech support?
At any rate, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Just expect to throw these inverters out as they fail. I have a tiny 6 panel system, and 3 spare inverters, and if I ever get really serious about it, I’ll get enphase.
OK, I can add some more voltage detail that may help. I have been logging mains voltage for the last 8 months. In NZ where I am, the regulations limit mains voltage to 230V ± 6% = 243.8V max. After logging for a month, I told my power company to reduce voltage as it was too high, peaking at 249V. This significantly improved the amount of inverter fault. Unfortuantely I didn’t have access to individual panel output, but I would see total system output drop by 40% eg. 3.5kW to 2.2kW, then slowly pick back up. Now my peak is 242.4V (95th percentile) and I’m only occasionally seeing a single or 2 or 3 inverters output drop. It’s not the same across all inverters, some are way worse than others. There are no significant voltage dips or swells recorded, maybe 1 per day. But the inverters fault between 1 & 20 times per day
It’s our summer time, so lots of blue sky days right now. And it’s getting hot (for NZ) at around 30°C ambient, so under the panel where each inverter is it must be stinking hot. That’s what makes me think it may be temperature related
I got my Renesola Gateway from Ebay about 6 months ago. It was a UK version, so 240V 50Hz. but probably irrelevant as the working voltage and frequency covers all possibilities. I have 21 panels and renesola inverters
Hello! I have a doubt that I can’t find anywhere. I hope you can help me. I have an on-grid system with 5 NEP microinverters, and I really wanted a gateway to analyze them. However, the BDG-256 is very expensive. Could I use the renesola gateway, since apparently, it has the same hardware as NEP? It would very cool.
P.S. I’m from Brazil.
I of course can’t guarantee that you could use the Renesola gateway, but I personally would try it. I doubt that there’s any difference in the hardware at all, and probably very little in the software aside from a few branding files, although some even have the same background picture.
I think they’re the same. I would take the chance.
Hi @xafalcon If it interests you, I’ve found out how to update the MRG so that it gives information on each inverter using the MRG’s own interface screen.
Hi @louis61. Thank you for the extra info. The more we can find out about these Renesola inverters, the better. I use the gateway connected by ethernet cable to my router, which allows me to view the output from each micro inverter in graphical form. I’m happy that with a now reduced mains supply voltage, my micro inverters are not “tripping out” due to over-voltage. In fact, they are working very well
What I really desperately need is the password for the “misetup” page as I’m wanting to use my microinverters in an off grid situation, and need to use frequency shifting to sequentially throttle the inverters as the battery becomes fully charged. And to do that, I need to access the inverter setup page = “misetup”
Hi @xafalcon. I contacted the guy who used to work for ReneSola Australia. (he’s the person who gave me the information on how to update the MRG back in 2016) Unfortunately, he doesn’t know the password. It was nice of him to get back to me, actually. Any idea what it might be @Postman_nz? Have you tried obvious ones like “admin”, “user” and “nep”? It’s good that you were able to connect it to your router - not something I’ve managed to do, unfortunately, I’m very much a novice! Anyway, good luck with it!
Hi @louis61. I’ve probably spent 6 hours trying to crack the misetup password. Tried all the usual and logical passwords I could think of. But without success. Surely someone must know it, somewhere
Connecting through a router is quite simple. Just follow the instructions above, and it worked for me. I use a software called PuTTY. I’m also a computer novice, so if I managed it, you should be able to as well
