@Lad1 : Correction: Apparently, solax can create a local hotspot with address 5.8.8.8, This is not good practice and I am sure once you connect to your home network, port 502 wont be open anymore
With pocket WiFi you can connect locally into SSID of the inverter AP and it serves DHCP as 5.8.8.8. - connected to Rpi. At the same time the pocket WiFi is connected to my router (from this private address 19.168.1.xxx I get wrong readings).
You cannot have 2 DHCP servers on the same lan, results will be completely unpredictable. The pocketwifi cannot have 2 addresses, one 5.8.8.8 and one in your LAN …
Some people create a reverse proxy between both LAN’s, but I fear you are alone if you go this way.
We recommend to use the serial RS485 connection with an RS485 adapter (see our Wiki)
By the way, I am an experienced network engineer and although reverse-proxying between both LANs should work, I do not use it myself as you need yet another process or processor to keep alive. Furthermore, I believe the 5.8.8.8 lan is meant only for initial setup and not secured as it should be.
When the Pocket WiFi is in Access Point Mode, is there any security? Or are you free to connect to it?
Reverse proxy didn’t work for me. My skills aren’t there yet. I don’t see why the pocket WiFi couldn’t be broadcasting is own service AP with DHCP, and at the same time be connected to my local LAN router’s DHCP. On modern phones you have hotspot broadcasting WiFi while connected to other WiFi and shearing the internet. My settings are: Rasberry-Settings-network: LAN (routers DHCP) and WiFi (pocket WiFi DHCP second network).
No security, open WiFi. Do you thing, 5.8.8.8 could be used to access my network from outside?
You do realise that using the Pocket WiFi in AP mode could mean that I could just drive by yor house and dump your battery into the Grid or Force Charge it from the Grid at the most expensive time if you are on a Time of Use Tariff.
Basically I could cause you a lot of financial damage.
AP mode is only meant for initial setup.
Either use it for it’s intended purpose and connect locally via RS485 or just chuck the Pocket WiFi in the bin!
As I said, good luck if you want to go that way …
I personally wont spend time on this and as @wills106 writes, it is probably completely insecure.
Correction, there is a login page on 5.8.8.8, but with obvious credentials. You are absolutely right with this vulnerability, but the AP can not be switched off. It is an unforeseen problem for my owners, since Pocket WiFi is supplied by default. In the Solax app you can make only minor changes, but using your modbus addon there are other options.
Well then Pocket WiFi is not the way. My technician warned me about accidentally swapping wires (blue and white-blue) for RS485, it would damage the inverter, so I am bit reactant to hard-wiring.
I wouldn’t class that as any form of security.
Also it seems like Modbus is exposed on port 502 only when in AP Mode and that’s the easiest way of causing you trouble.
I’m not aware of any damage of getting the wires the wrong way.
You need to be careful of other pins on the Gen4 though as they have dry contact pins.
Thank you for help, I will try the wire. Hope this discussion will be useful for someone else too.
I hope so too and this is why I started to create this Integration in the first place, as Cloud connectivity isn’t everything!
I am grateful I have other contributors such as @infradom who has allowed this Integration to be used on a wider variety of Inverters and also everyone’s feedback on new Inverters to support / improvements.
Unfortunately, the Pocket WiFi keeps its local SSID without security and a web page with predictable password and IP number even when connected to your routers wifi network… It’s really annoying as it is also using 40 MHz of bandwidth in the 2.4 GHz band… I see about 5 inverters in my street,…
To have some form of security, you have to change the default password.
I removed mine since switching to Modbus. Good riddance.
I think the pw is now the serial number of the pocket wifi so not so easy to hack into unless you read the sn off the device of course. I think you can also switch off the AP once connected to the router. but then if you change the router pw you are a bit stuck. there is a button on it maybe that does a factory reset? I must say I find the cloud app quite useful except it only gives todays view.
@Lad1: Maybe one day, solax will bring a firmware update that makes modbus tcp/502 available also when connected to the home network, but your experience shows that it is not yet the case. Thanks
The serial number of the Pocket Wifi is in its SSID name…
Mine doesn’t have a button… I seem to have bricked mine by having a password that was too complicated/long(?) on my WiFi. After that, the local SSID disappeared, and now it’s doing a fast-blink and that’s it. The serial number is no longer visible in the inverter menu either.
I also still wanted to use the cloud app, so I replaced mine with a Pocket LAN and put in on a special “IoT-Cloud” VLAN, which is only allowed to create outgoing connections through the main router.
Hello
Can I have one more question please? actually two.
-
What is the difference between House Load and Inverter Power? show very similar values.
-
“Today’s Solar Energy” and “Today’s Yield” parameters. Which is suitable to use for Energy management in Home Assistant? I believe “Today’s Solar Energy” but my total home consumption at 15kW per hour does not match the Solax mobile app. A difference of about 1kW per hour. HA shows more.
Thank you
They can be very Similar. Inverter Power is the power coming from Solar &/or Battery.
The House Load, could be higher that Inverter Power if it is also pulling from the Grid.
Solar Energy is just the Power generate from the PV.
Todays Yield is a combination of the Solar PV and Battery energy. The Battery could be from yesterday’s generation or Grid charging over night.
For the dashboard you want:
Grid consumption - SolaX Today’s Import Energy
Return to grid - SolaX Today’s Export Energy
Solar production - SolaX Today’s Solar Energy
Battery systems - SolaX Battery Output Energy Today & SolaX Battery Input Energy Today
Thank you for your response.
However, with this setting, the data of the mobile application with HA diverges. Is there any explanation? in the image HA says 8.8 mobile app at the same time 8.2. With more consumption, the difference is greater.
I will try to measure household consumption with another device soon. I have good experience with Shelly 3EM