NodeRenogy

Utility to retrieve data from Renogy solar controllers and publish it to MQTT, written in NodeJS.

Data can then be surfaced in Home Assistant, or anything else that can read from a MQTT bus.

NOTE: This software provides read-only access to your Solar Controller, intended for publshing information to Home Assistant, Grafana, or similar. You can not change any parameters with this software.

This software is licensed under the MIT License.

Thanks

Thanks to menloparkinnovation the for renogy-rover that inspired this software.

Thanks to the Renogy boards for the Protocol docs

Thanks to the solaranzeige.de boards for pinout information.

Compatibility

See below table, in theory this should work with any Renogy solar controller, but the below have been tested. If you have success with one not listed here, please let me know by raising an issue!

Controller	Interface	Notes	Status
Renogy Wanderer	RS232	Has no switched load, so load values are always 0	✅
Renogy Rover	RS232	Tested with 20A version	✅

Supported Registers

The below is a list of supported registers for device information:

Register	Description	Unit
0x00A	Controller voltage rating	Volts
0x00A	Controller current rating	Amps
0x00B	Controller discharge current rating	Amps
0x00B	Controller type
0x00C - 0x013	Controller model name
0x014 - 0x015	Controller software version
0x016 - 0x017	Controller hardware version
0x018 - 0x019	Controller serial number
0x01A	Controller MODBUS address

The below is a list of supported registers for state data:

Register	Description	Unit
0x100	Battery Capacity	Percent
0x101	Battery Voltage	Volts
0x102	Battery Charge Current	Amps
0x103	Battery Temperature	Celcius
0x103	Controller Temperature	Celcius
0x104	Load Voltage	Volts
0x105	Load Current	Amps
0x106	Load Power	Watts
0x107	Solar Panel (PV) Voltage	Volts
0x108	Solar Panel (PV) Current	Amps
0x109	Solar Panel (PV) Power	Watts
0x10B	Min Battery Voltage Today	Volts
0x10C	Min Battery Voltage Today	Volts
0x10D	Max Charge Current Today	Amps
0x10E	Max Discharge Current Today	Amps
0x10F	Max Charge Power Today	Watts
0x110	Max Discharge Power Today	Watts
0x111	Charge Amp/Hrs Today	Amp Hours
0x112	Discharge Amp/Hrs Today	Amp Hours
0x113	Charge Watt/Hrs Today	Watt Hours
0x114	Discharge Watt/Hrs Today	Watt Hours
0x115	Controller Uptime	Days
0x116	Total Battery Over-charges	Count
0x117	Total Battery Full Charges	Count

Connecting your Controller

Renogy controllers use either RS232 or RS485 for serial communications, for either you will need an interface that supports the protocol your controller uses.

Generally, standard PC serial ports (DB9/DB25) are RS232, if your machine doesn't have one you can use a USB > Serial adapter. For RS485 you will need a USB > RS485 adapter or similar.

NOTE: TTL Serial (as found on Raspberry Pi's, Microcontrollers, etc) is not the same as RS232. RS232 operates at higher voltages and can damage equipment if connected to a TTL serial port. You must use an adapter (e.g. a MAX3232) with TTL serial ports.

I will be covering RS232 here, as that's what my controller (Renogy Wanderer) supports. I am using a USB > Serial adapter connected to a Raspberry Pi Zero. The adapter I have uses the Prolific PL2303 chipset, I would recommend one using this chipset. They can be had from Amazon, etc for under £20.

Building a cable

Once you have a way to connect to RS232 devices, you will also need a cable. As far as I can see, Renogy do not sell these. So, you will need to make one.

The Renogy Wanderer (and other controllers that use RS232) has a RJ12 jack that it uses for serial communications. This will need to be connected to your RS232 interface. In my use case, I built a RJ12 > DB9 cable to use with a Serial > USB adapter.

The RJ12 connector on the controller has 6 pins, with the first 3 being needed for our cable. The remaining pins are for power. See the below table for the pinout.

RJ12 Pin	DB9 Pin	Function
1	2	Serial TX > RX
2	3	Serial RX > TX
3	5	Ground
4		Ground
5		VCC (+15V)
6		VCC (+15V)

RJ12 and DB9 Pins are counted right to left, with the contacts facing you.

When building your cable, please check voltages with a multimeter to ensure you have the connections correct. In my testing you should see ~5v between the TX (RJ12 Pin 1) and GND (RJ12 Pin 3), ~0.1v between RX (RJ12 Pin 2) and GND and ~5v between TX and RX)

Using the utility

Ideally you would install/run this on a device that is connected to your solar controller all the time. I use a Raspberry Pi Zero W, which is more than powerful enough for this use case.

This also assumes you have a MQTT broker setup and running already. If you don't want to use MQTT you can output the results to the console. Support for other output methods may come at a later date.

You will first need to ensure you have NodeJS v16+ installed on your device.

NOTE: If you installed a version of node with apt-get on your Pi Zero, please un-install it before installing Node v16.

The Pi Zero/One doesn't have official support for newer version of NodeJS, so follow the instructions here to get it installed.

If you are using a Pi 2 or later, follow the instructions here to install the official NodeSource build.

Once you've got NodeJS installed, then follow the below instructions.

Installation

1. Clone this repository (or download it) by running;

git clone https://github.com/mickwheelz/NodeRenogy.git

2. Change to the NodeRenogy directory and install the dependencies by running the below commands

• Change to the directory you cloned the code into: cd NodeRenogy
• Run installer: npm install
• Link command: sudo npm link

Running the utility

Basic Example:

node-renogy -s /dev/ttyUSB0 -m 192.168.0.10

This would use serial port /dev/ttyUSB0 and connect to MQTT Broker at 192.168.0.10 with no user/password, publishing to the NodeRenogy/state topic ever 60s.

The utility supports using different polling intervals and topics, as well as MQTT brokers that need authentication, please see below for a full list of options.

These options can also be passed as environment variables, by appending NODERENOGY_ to the argument (e.g. NODERENOGY_SERIALPORT=/dev/ttyUSB0). This is useful when running as a service (see below section).

Argument	Alias	Env Var	Description	Example
--serialport	-s	NODERENOGY_SERIALPORT	REQUIRED: Serial port your controller is connected to	-s /dev/ttyUSB0
--baudrate	-b	NODERENOGY_BAUDRATE	The baud rate to use for serial communications, defaults to 9600	-b 14400
--mqttbroker	-m	NODERENOGY_MQTTBROKER	The address of your MQTT Broker	-m 192.168.0.10
--mqttuser	-u	NODERENOGY_MQTTUSER	The username for your MQTT Broker	-u mqttUser
--mqttpass	-p	NODERENOGY_MQTTPASS	The password for your MQTT Broker	-p mqttPass
--mqtttopic	-t	NODERENOGY_MQTTTOPIC	MQTT topic to publish to defaults to 'NodeRenogy'	-t MyTopic
--pollinginterval	-i	NODERENOGY_POLLINGINTERVAL	How frequently to poll the controller in seconds, defaults to 10	-i 60
--loglevel	-l	NODERENOGY_LOGLEVEL	Sets the logging level, useful for debugging	-l trace
--help	-h		Show help
--version			Show version number

If you don't specify a MQTT broker, it will simply print the results to the console, this is useful for testing.

Running as a service

The utility can be configured to run as a service, including on startup.

These instructions are for Rasbpbian, but should work on any Debian based distro (Ubuntu, etc) or any system that uses systemd.

1. Create a service definition file. This file should contain your required environment variables.

Example:

[Unit]
Description=NodeRenogy Service

[Service]
ExecStart=node-renogy
Restart=always
User=pi
Group=pi
Environment=PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin
Environment=NODE_ENV=production
Environment=NODERENOGY_SERIALPORT=/dev/ttyUSB0
Environment=NODERENOGY_MQTTBROKER=192.168.0.10
WorkingDirectory=/home/pi/NodeRenogy

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Note the Environment=... lines, set any configuration options here such as serial port, MQTT broker, interval, etc.

2. Name this file noderenogy.service and save it in /etc/systemd/system

3. Run the following commands:

• To start the service: systemctl start noderenogy

• To check the logs/ensure its running: journalctl -u noderenogy

• To enable the service to run at startup: systemctl enable noderenogy

Publishing to MQTT

The utility will publish one topic, with two subtopics on your MQTT Broker. You specify the topic name in the configuration with the default being NodeRenogy

The first subtopic is <topic>/device. This is published once when the utility is first run and contains information about the controller.

Example:

{
  "controllerV":12,
  "controllerC":30,
  "controllerDischgC":20,
  "controllerType":"Controller",
  "controllerModel":" RNG-CTRL-WND30",
  "softwareVersion":"V1.0.4",
  "hardwareVersion":"V1.0.3",
  "serialNumber":1116960,
  "controllerAddress":1
}

The second is <topic>/state which contains data pulled from the controller, it is published at the interval specified in the configuration (e.g. every 10s).

Example:

{
  "battCap":96,
  "battV":"13.10",
  "battC":"2.12",
  "battT":24,
  "controlT":18,
  "loadV":"0.00",
  "loadC":"0.00",
  "loadP":0,
  "solarV":"13.10",
  "solarC":"2.12",
  "solarP":27,
  "battVMinToday":"12.10",
  "battVMaxToday":"13.40",
  "chgCMaxToday":"3.51",
  "dischgCMaxToday":"0.00",
  "chgPMaxToday":"46.00",
  "dischgPMaxToday":"0.00",
  "chgAHToday":"4.00",
  "dischgAHToday":"0.00",
  "chgWHToday":"50.00",
  "dischgWHToday":"0.00",
  "uptime":15,
  "totalBattOvercharge":9,
  "totalBattFullCharges":3
}

You can then subscribe the topics with a MQTT client and data as you wish. An example of this would be surfacing it in Home Assistant. See below for more information on how to do that.

Getting data into Home Assistant

The values can be displayed in Home Assistant by adding them as sensors in the configuration.yaml files.

Essentially you just need to extract the values from the JSON payload published to MQTT. For each value you want to use in Home Assistant, add a MQTT sensor entry in your config file.

See below for some examples:

mqtt:
  sensor:
  - name: "Renogy Battery Capacity"
    state_topic: "NodeRenogy/state"
    value_template: "{{ value_json['battCap'] }}"
    unit_of_measurement: "%"
    device_class: battery
  - name: "Renogy Battery Voltage"
    state_topic: "NodeRenogy/state"
    value_template: "{{ value_json['battV'] }}"
    unit_of_measurement: "V"
    device_class: voltage
  - name: "Renogy Battery Current"
    state_topic: "NodeRenogy/state"
    value_template: "{{ value_json['battC'] }}"
    unit_of_measurement: "A"
    device_class: current
  - name: "Renogy Temperature"
    state_topic: "NodeRenogy/state"
    value_template: "{{ value_json['controlT'] }}"
    unit_of_measurement: "°C"
    device_class: temperature****