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[Solved] Issues with 6.5kWh Growatt battery – Shinephone app says system is offline

Morrisandcharlie · 2024-02-03T17:46:08Z

Hello! Another newbie here…I came online a few hours ago trying to find a solution to our current problem (Growatt/Shinephone app saying our system is offline) and have found a wealth of info on these pages, thank you. A quick intro: we had solar panels fitted at our cottage in South East England, UK, in Nov 2022 and have a 6.5kWh Growatt battery. After much reading, many hours spent going down internet rabbit holes and numerous time consuming visits from heating consultants, we booked our ASHP fitting for April this year. This will replace our oil-fired central heating; the boiler is 54 years old and will be ceremoniously removed along with the oil tank in the garden! The problem we have at the moment is probably minor, and I’m not even sure if this is the right place to post it. In anticipation of the ASHP arriving, we switched yesterday to Cosy Octopus. At about the time we switched, the Shinephone app advised that our ‘plant’ is offline. The timing may be coincidental but, either way, this is not something that has happened before for any length of time (it’s now been offline for about 30 hours, on previous occasions it’s been an hour or less). We don’t know what to do about it in spite of much googling! So, with apologies for asking for help on our first visit, could anyone advise us please?

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Last Post by GraemeD 2 years ago

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GraemeD

(@graemed)

Active Member Member

Joined: 2 years ago

Posts: 10

21/02/2024 8:26 pm

@transparent

yeah I'm a code wrangler but not usually related to hardware, this is merely my inner geek leaking out. I mainly work with web API's and UI's in the retail sector.

Yeah I was certainly not aware before purchase as to how reliant my system is on external services, and my installers were not keen on sharing the admin password with me, though I've figured that out now. Makes me worry that these systems could host a botnet, and I have no way to control it if I firewall the system it shuts down from what I've read if it doesn't get a sign of life signal from the "server". So as you say this is not ideal if China decide they don't want us to have power they can just shut the whole UK user base down. Or over laod the national grid by making all our systems constantly load from grid, so we cant meat those targets. Worrying stuff

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Transparent

(@transparent)

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Joined: 4 years ago

Posts: 2866

22/02/2024 10:29 am

Those are rational concerns, which I agree with. But it doesn't need a hostile attack from China or an embedded botnet to take down our British energy supply system. The very way in which these devices are being designed leaves them open to compromise by unknown third parties.

For obvious reasons I'm not going to elaborate on that in an open forum!

If it's the case that your particular inverter 'shuts down' after a period of non-communication with an external server, then that would appear to be a breach of the Consumer Rights Act. Wouldn't it fall within the scope of 'unfair contract terms'?

I suggest you check this by searching online for reports from other users.
In particular, try to find out if firmware upgrades can be implemented by Growatt or an installer without your knowledge or consent.
Not only could that take your inverter out of action during the process, but you could be left with 'new' firmware which fails.

Attempting to build any further control software on that foundation is fraught with problems. You could be refused warranty repairs, or perhaps find yourself facing charges in future.

Please don't use this forum to attack Growatt based on what you find out.
My preferred strategy is to work with Chinese companies, to better inform them, and allow them to redesign their products to fully operate within UK law.
The majority of Chinese engineers with whom I communicate are extremely polite, and eager to hear what we have to say.

Save energy... recycle electrons!

👍

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GraemeD

(@graemed)

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Joined: 2 years ago

Posts: 10

22/02/2024 10:41 am

Thanks for your reply, some serious concerns for sure.

Posted by: @transparent

↑

Attempting to build any further control software on that foundation is fraught with problems. You could be refused warranty repairs, or perhaps find yourself facing charges in future.

Oh I don't intend to do any write changes to my platform, I'm merely making a display to show the SOC and if below a certain threshold show the current Octopus rate so as to let the family know when to run dishwasher/washing machine etc

I dont intend to bash Growatt at all

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GraemeD

(@graemed)

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Joined: 2 years ago

Posts: 10

27/02/2024 4:31 pm

I have solved my issues with my Shine RF Stick and it now updates every 5 minutes.

I did this by forcing the stick to update its firmware here:

screenshot 192.168.1.19 2024.02.27 16 24 38

Which i accessed by finding the Lan IP address of the Shine Lan box and using username of "admin" and password is the 5 char string on the Lan box itself (although I'm sure the first time the password was just "admin" too

I followed this which was for Lan-X but seems to be valid for RF

MIDSUMMERWHOLESALE.CO.UK "https://midsummerwholesale.co.uk/pdfs/growatt-shinelan-x-manual.pdf"

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AllyFish

(@allyfish)

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Joined: 3 years ago

Posts: 518

28/02/2024 9:04 am

@graemed well done! Will you be issuing an invoice to your installer at your standard charge-out rate +VAT on the same payment terms they had with you?

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GraemeD

(@graemed)

Active Member Member

Joined: 2 years ago

Posts: 10

28/02/2024 9:14 am

@allyfish

no they responded with

I have been updated by Growatt and advised that they ran a firmware update on the datalogger and it is now updating every 5 minutes. I have also cross checked this online on your system and can see this is the case.

I hope this resolves the issue

So they are talking rubbish as until i performed the update there was no improvement.

They are still ignoring me on WHY my reported Grid import is significantly lower than what Octopus is billing me, because I think they know they will need to send a tech to fix the CT clamp.

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