Hi, I am currently using the solax pocket wifi 2 usb dongle to get the data off my solax inverter, which is not ideal as I have had to set up a dns server to redirect dns request for www.eu.solaxcloud.com and mqtt01/mqtt02.solaxcloud.com to my raspberry pi AP/HA setup, and I then read the mqtt data in HA.
I have also used the curl command, which was more reliable than mqtt, but more work to get it to working within HA.
With mqtt the inverting does reqsynctime and then waits for a respsynctime from solaxcloud, and then sends a Synctime mqtt message when its sync’ed. Because there is no response from my mqtt broker for reqsynctime it sometimes goes off line/hangs with no mqtt messages - this can be for minutes or sometimes hours and then the inverter starts sending data again.
I have found this doc with pocket wifi teardown:
https://fccid.io/2AMEH-POCKETWIFI/Internal-Photos/Internal-Photos-3499969
This is the wifi module they are using:
https://en.mxchip.com/productinfo/244895.html
Has anyone tried to make there own dongle with tasmota to get the data off, then send over mqtt.
Basically I am wanting to have a setup like a sonoff switch with tasmota, easy to configure and use with HA.
I am on my 3rd pocket wifi, one was replaced when the invert failed a few months after install, and a second one failed after a couple of years use - both replaced under warranty which was good except for the 2 weeks wait for replacement to arrive, so looking for something more reliable.
I am wondering if I could use the USB port for power/data to an ESP8266 module, or use a RS485 module to serial UART and connect that to a ESP8266 WIFI with tasmota on it.
Something like this dutch guy has done with his energy meters:
https://diytechandrepairs.nu/esp8266-to-monitor-electricity-with-sdm-devices-and-send-to-mqtt/