FoxESS to Home Assistant Integration Options (H1/AC1&AIO)

[Will]

As FoxESS has grown its market share globally, it's been under active development from its community of developers who want to extend its functionality, reporting and automation capabilities.

It's now possible to integrate your H1 series FoxESS solar/battery system with Home Assistant in four ways detailed below:


1. FoxESS Cloud Integration https://github.com/macxq/foxess-ha

By far the easiest to setup, this integration uses your FoxESS cloud app login details to poll the FoxESS Cloud every 5 minutes.

Pros:

• Easiest to set up

• No additional hardware or cabling needed

Cons:

• Relies on the cloud being available

• Slow polling rate, data polls between 5-15mins

2/3.FoxESS RS485/LAN Modbus https://github.com/StealthChesnut/HA-FoxESS-Modbus

This is the most advanced integration, requires a network cable to be installed into the inverters LAN port or can use a USR-W610 RS485 to lan adapter to convert RS485 to a wifi accessible web server which Home Assistant can connect to and poll in near realtime.

Pros:

• Local polling, no reliance on the cloud

• Realtime polling of inverter data

• Allows for better automation as the data is realtime prividing better triggers

Cons:

• Additional hardware (USR-W610) or Network Cable required

• Latest Firmware required for direct LAN interface

4.FoxESS API with Cloud/TCP control https://github.com/dmarjoram/Roses.SolarAPI
This integration uses a combination of cloud commands and TCP commands via the modbus address to change work mode, set force charging windows and set MinSoC's.

Pros:

• Offers features not in other integrations

• Offers local and cloud commands

• Lightweight

Cons:

• Relies on the cloud being avilable for some features

• Requires docker hosting knowledge

• Requires exposed modbus address for inverter which might required additional hardware or cable depending on solution

[Ched]

Just wanted to say thanks for this forum and your posts.
I installed Home Assistant on a RPI3 I had kicking about and bought a RS485 to USB converter and wired it up and added the code as required and it worked perfectly. It's so much better than the Fox App.

Thanks

[canton7]

Would it be possible to recommend foxess_modbus instead of ha-foxess-modbus, and avoid recommending the USR-W610?

[muscar]

Just wanted to say thanks for this forum and your posts.
I installed Home Assistant on a RPI3 I had kicking about and bought a RS485 to USB converter and wired it up and added the code as required and it worked perfectly. It's so much better than the Fox App.

Thanks

Hey I have recently purchased a solar system with a Fox Inverter H1-5.0-E and I am a bit frustrated of the fact that it does not show live data but more of a snapshot of what happened 5 minutes ago. I was trying to get Home Assistant integration with my inverter but I am not sure what pieces I need to buy in such a way that it does not impact the current setup of the inverter in any way.

I can see that my LAN port is being used on my inverter that is connecting to a clamp on the grid cable connection and I have a WIFI module installed on it. Is there any way that I can leave the invertor in that setup but also extend it so I can connect to it from Home Assistant and pull data down?

Have also seen the IP address of it on the network but when I connect to it there is a web interface that allows me to change the following:

• Set-up net
  Local upgrade
  Set port number
  Change AP Password
  Network Configuration

Any help would be appreciated.

[calum]

Have a look at the FoxESS Modbus integration here https://github.com/nathanmarlor/foxess_modbus/

Particularly have a read of the wiki pages about connecting to your inverter.

If I were you I'd look into an RS485 interface, they are not particularly hard to connect and they are more capable and reliable than the direct ethernet method.

[JRascagneres]

Hi guys! Looking at getting FoxESS batteries installed. Can you control when they charge / discharge on HA?

[Dave Foster]

Hi guys! Looking at getting FoxESS batteries installed. Can you control when they charge / discharge on HA?

Yes, you have to connect to the inverter via RS485 and then you get access to sensor data and you can control charge periods and many other settings.- i’ve linked the integration below as it documents the installation and connection.

https://github.com/nathanmarlor/foxess_modbus

[MadWayne]

I had the Ethernet version working until the Ethernet port was turned off.

Loved it with uptodate information, now trying to get the the ra485 mod to work and struggling.

With the rs485 usb module HA seems to freak out on the PI4.

So must be missing something very basic as I can see others with it working.

I bought the usb module recommended, maybe this isn’t set up in HA correctly.

The PI4 only stops working when it’s connected to pins 3 and 4 which are the rs485 pins on the H1 inverter, with it not connected to the inverter HA works.

Thanks for listening

[Dave Foster]

What were you using on your Pi to connect to the modbus, was it the old StealhChesnut (using an include in your configuration file with modbus.yaml) or Nathan's newer integration (https://github.com/nathanmarlor/foxess_modbus)

On the older version the modbus timeouts could definitely block your HA from starting/stopping if not configure correctly.

Probably worth as a start, remove whichever modbus integration your are using and see if the Pi will start up with the modbus adaptor plugged in with the cables connected.

Inver Pin 3 (RS485B) should be connected to the B pin, Inverter Pin 4 (RS485A) should be connected to the A Pin.

Assuming it starts ok, I would recommend using Nathan's integration I linked above, it's much easier on resources.