Measures to totally block communication with Growatt

[tabascoz]

Hi There, starting this thread to ask feedback and collect ideas on how to totally block communication with Growatt.

I have been turning my eyes away from the fact that my data has been shared outside of my control to Growatt and their limits of data transfer are not well documented.

In the light of recent conversation and request from manufacturer ( see #574 ) it has been stated that they're pretending to "fix" some things on their end. I suspect, as usual when manufacturers decide to be against Open Source Community, that they will or cloud implement changes just to prevent tools like Grott from working.

With that, i notice :

• Changes from Server IP being pushed by Growatt and breaking users setup (multiple issues opened) .
• @peters59 comment in post (Data-Logger resets back to growatt servers #557 (comment)) saying Shine-X stick firmware version 3.1.0.5 does not allow to enter fixed IP or set interval time

I tried to totally block the comm setting it up a IP block on my broadband carrier router, but unfortunately this rendered Grott and the Shine sticks useless. I am not sure if this is related to DHCP issues with router's block or if the sticks do talk with Growatt from time to time to keep them alive.

I purchased a new router to put in between sticks and internet, will install Openwrt and do some sniffing to check that and make sure what's going on.

Right now I have Grott / Grottserver set but have not implemented full block of Shine sticks to internet.

Appreciate all your ideas, would not like to spend cycles with that but unfortunately and ultimately if Grott stops working I'll need to get rid of my three Growatt inverters and purchase another brand ( also do accept recommendations!)

[patcher-ms]

IP server changes aren’t necessarily malicious.
Assuming ShineWiFi uses server.growatt.com to locate the server, changing the IP address it points to isn’t particularly newsworthy.

When you blocked communications did you use Grott or GrottServer? Grott requires a server to be there since it just sits in the middle and processes the messages it sees. GrottServer should work.

Purchasing a new inverter seems overkill. Even if Growatt were to change their protocol in a way that breaks Grott there are ways to get the data directly from the inverter via modbus. Have a look at SolarAssistant but there are also other (more DIY) solutions

[tabascoz]

Yep, the changes aren't evil by themselves. But still they might be not exactly evil but to work in favor of Growatt interests.

I have blocked it with grott and grottserver, but something has broken when i blocked it at FW level. I am unsure, for example, if ShineWifi could bypass the setup to go to localserver and talk with Growatt servers ,for example to receive fw updates.

Gotta figure out why Grott and Shinewifi stopped reporting locally when i blocked outside traffic at the router.

Purchasing a new inverter seems overkill

Yep i know... but dont wanna spend efforts and time playing cat and mice game. Would need to think about modbus or changing Shinewifi stick firmware, i know there are alternatives, but i am not ruling out changing till i know i can have 100% blocked installation. Don't wanna be caught by surprise to learn i lost monitoring when I'm away given some crazy stuff from manufacturer.

[PedroKTFC]

I've been using grottserver (with a few mods) for months now and so am completely independent of Growatt. My system's mine. My data's mine. What I do with them is entirely for me.

[tabascoz]

My new router has arrived yesterday. I installed Openwrt on it. I was able to properly block ShineWifi sticks traffic to outside world and Grott is working fine. Something with the old broadband's router wasn't right and it was preventing Grott to operate, even though the firewall rule was clear to only block to Wan.

At night I'll do a full system shutdown and restart to see if the sticks would properly initiate. If so, I understand the risk should be mitigated. Will report back.

[tabascoz]

So i think i have good news :) at least in sitkcs with firmware 3.0.0.2, i can confirm even after full shutdown, the ShineWIFI sticks do properly initialize and work as expected, reporting to my Grott server.

I am unsure what went wrong the first time i tried it, but i was already aiming to replace my broadband router anyway....