SMA Integration with Sunny Boy SB 5000TL-20

Configuration
1

I don’t have web access to my solar inverter but I’m willing to go down that path if there are successful installs. I figure the module costs around $300 in Australia so want to ensure this works.

I’m using the above model. Anybody successfully using this?

2

I’m getting different responses from SMA and distributors re the WebConnect module.

Some say this is not compatible with my SB 5000TL-20 and instead recommend an RS485 piggy back unit which - looking at the specs - won’t help my cause as the HA SMA integration requires the inverter to be accessible via a browser which I believe is only possible via WebConnect.

How do other SMA users connect to their inverter?

3

I found a more elegant way to extract the data from those older sunny boy inverters. No interface card and no RTU installations. I just took an old lying around raspi and installed evcc.io
evcc.io is actually a brilliant software to charge cars and manage energy based on solar surplus energy. With that, it nicely reads all SMA inverters speedwire data plus the energy meter speedwire and sends the data via mqtt to your broker. From there, it’s a piece of cake to read the mqtt sensor information.
Sample cofig for your inspiration:

network:
  schema: http
  host: evcc.local
  port: 7070

log: info

mqtt:
  broker: 192.168.1.27:1883
  topic: evcc

meters:
- type: template
  template: sma-home-manager
  usage: grid
  host: 192.168.180.117
  name:  grid
#three inverters
- type: template
  name: pv1
  host: 192.168.180.60
  template: sma-hybrid
  usage: pv
  modbus: tcp
  id: 3
  port: 502

- type: template
  name: pv2
  host: 192.168.180.57
  template: sma-inverter
  password: 'Anlagenpasswort'

- type: template
  name: pv3
  host: 192.168.180.211
  template: sma-inverter
  password: 'Anlagenpasswort'

site:
  title: Home
  residualpower: -300
  meters:
    grid: tibber_grid
    pvs:
    - pv1
    - pv2
    - pv3

It sounds more complex than it is. I wanted to share with you how I quickly extracted the data of legacy inverters with one awesome tool evcc.io.

4

So with evcc.io I still need the SMA Speedwire/WebConnect module? If so I’m no better off as this option is not available for my SB 5000TL-20

5

I UNDERSTAND. I thought the network/speedwire module was available (like for SB4000) and the challenge was to extract the data from the speedwire traffic.
The SB5000 has no web connect interface available? Or no longer in stock?

6

No unfortunately it’s not available for this particular model SB 5000TL-20 (available for the SB 5000TL-21) so I believe the only option for me is via an RS485 piggyback module…

7

@OJBender can you post the docker command or docker-compose you used to build the docker for evcc?

I have an “SB 3000TL-21” which i want the data to be in HomeAssistant somehow. I used the ModBus + SBFSpot option but ModBus isnt supported anymore and SBFSpot doesnt run on my new QNAP NAS.

8

I was lazy. I installed evcc on a raspi in the same network and then started on its command line with -evcc detect. It showed the speedwire talking devices and their IP addresses. From there, configuration was easy. So no docker here. sry.

9

i got evcc working in docker now. Also retreives the data from the SMA via Speedwire. However the evcc does not show up in MQTT devices. How did you solve that?

10

I have the mqtt topic and IP address configured in evcc.yaml.

mqtt:
  broker: 192.168.1.27:1883
  topic: evcc

On the local console of your mqtt broker you can listen/subscribe to the topic evcc as follows.
mosquitto_sub -t evcc/# -u <username> -P <password>

It should dump the evcc messages published.

Check if your mqtt broker allows the connection in the first place. I have seen many configs that would not allow connections.

11

@tfmeier I know this is a very late response. But if your inverter has bluetooth you can use SBFspot to poll your inverter and publish the data through mqtt.
I have this setup for a SB 2000HF.

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