🇺🇦 Українська версія / Ukrainian version

Must PV18 Solar Monitor & Control System ☀️🔋

This is an Open Source solution for local monitoring and control of Must PV18 series solar inverters (specifically PV18-3024 VPM and similar models) using Node.js and Raspberry Pi.

The project allows you to abandon slow and internet-dependent Chinese Wi-Fi monitoring solutions in favor of a fully local, fast, and secure solution.

🚀 Features

• ⚡ Real-time monitoring: Get data on voltage, current, load, and network status every few seconds.
• 📊 Local history: Built-in SQLite database stores historical metrics. If the internet goes down, your data won't be lost.
• 🏠 Home Assistant: Full integration via MQTT (Auto Discovery or manual configuration).
• 📈 Grafana / InfluxDB: Send metrics to InfluxDB for professional graphing.
• 🖥️ Web UI: Custom lightweight web interface (Dark Mode), optimized for Kiosk mode on Raspberry Pi with a small screen.
• 🛠️ Control: Ability to change inverter settings (source priority, charging currents, etc.) via API.

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📂 Project Structure and File Purposes

The repository contains not only the final application but also utilities that helped reverse-engineer the inverter protocol.

🔹 Main Files:

• server.js — Main application file. This is the "brain" of the system. It:
  • Starts an Express web server.
  • Polls the inverter via Modbus RTU in an infinite loop.
  • Manages a command queue for writes (changing settings).
  • Writes data to SQLite, MQTT, and InfluxDB.
• public/ — Folder with web interface (HTML/CSS/JS) for displaying data in a browser.

🔹 Development and Debugging Utilities (Dev Tools):

• sniffer.js — "Sniper". Script for targeted data search. It reads registers one by one with error handling. Used to find correct addresses (match CSV documentation with reality) and determine address offsets.
• scan.js — "Scanner". Attempts to read registers in blocks (10-30 at a time). Helps quickly see an array of data, but may cause CRC errors on some controllers that don't support batch reading.
• monitor.js — CLI monitor. Simple version of the program without a web server and databases. Simply outputs current metrics to the Linux console. Perfect for quick connection testing.

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🛠️ Requirements

1. Hardware:
   • Raspberry Pi (any version, even 2B/3B) or any Linux/Windows PC.
   • USB Type-A → USB Type-B cable (standard "printer" cable) to connect to the inverter's USB port (it has a built-in USB-Serial chip).
2. Software:
   • Node.js (v14 or higher).
   • User group dialout (for USB port access on Linux).

⚙️ Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/xxx87/must-inverter-mon.git
   cd must-inverter-mon

2. Install dependencies:

   yarn install

3. Configuration: Create a .env file and edit it according to your needs:

   cp .env.example .env

4. Run:

   node server.js

   The web interface will be available at: http://Your-Raspberry-IP:3000

🏠 Home Assistant Integration

Data is published to the home/solar/json topic (full object) and individual topics. Example sensor configuration in configuration.yaml:

mqtt:
  sensor:
    - name: "Solar Battery Voltage"
      state_topic: "home/solar/battery_v"
      unit_of_measurement: "V"
      device_class: voltage
    - name: "Solar Load Power"
      state_topic: "home/solar/load_power"
      unit_of_measurement: "W"
      device_class: power

⚠️ Disclaimer

This software is provided "as is". The author is not responsible for any equipment damage. Changing inverter settings through scripts is done at your own risk. Always check the documentation for your inverter model.

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Created with ❤️ and Node.js