2026-04-27 — LVX6048 remote-control plane

Built the bridge from Home Assistant down to the inverter PI18 setters, so day-to-day knobs (output / charger priorities, charge-current caps) can be flipped from a dashboard without touching the LCD or a shell. Three components: powermon's built-in adhoc mechanism enabled, a Python shim that validates and mirrors commands, and HA-side mqtt: / Lovelace configs.

What happened

Surveyed PI18 setters available on this firmware. Confirmed POP / PCP / PSP / PEI / PDI / MCHGC / MUCHGC / MCHGV / PSDV / BUCD / PBT from our patch. Common PI30-only setters (PE/PD, POPM, PF, PCVV, PSAVE, etc.) may also be accepted but weren't tested today. No software AC-output toggle exists on this family — that requires a downstream contactor.
Phase 1 — enabled powermon's adhoc command queue. Powermon already ships an MQTT-based adhoc mechanism (adhoc_topic / adhoc_result_topic under mqttbroker). Added both keys to powermon{,2}.yaml:
```
mqttbroker:
  adhoc_topic: powermon/lvx6048_{1,2}/addcommand
  adhoc_result_topic: powermon/lvx6048_{1,2}/result
```
Verified end-to-end with a PI (protocol ID) query — both units responded protocol_id=18 within ~1 s.
Phase 2 — validation shim (lvx-control). New systemd-managed Python daemon that subscribes to solar/control/lvx6048/<action>, validates the payload against an allow-list (matching the rules flash.py already enforces), encodes to PI18, and mirrors to both inverters' addcommand topics so the parallel cluster never desyncs on a setting (which would trigger fault 86 — "Parallel output setting different"). Reuses the existing powermon venv's Python at install time (same shebang-rewrite pattern as lvx-resolve-links), so no new dependency setup. Broker creds read from ~/.config/powermon/powermon.yaml, so no new secret file to manage. Risky setters (battery thresholds, type, output mode, factory reset) are deliberately not exposed here — those still go through flash.py apply.

Supported actions:
- output_priority — POP (SUB / SBU)
- charger_priority — PCP (solar-first / solar+utility / solar-only)
- solar_power_priority — PSP (battery-first / load-first)
- max_charging_current — MCHGC (10–80 A in 10 A steps)
- max_utility_charging_current — MUCHGC (2 / 10–80 A)
Phase 3 — HA-side configs. Mirrors the eg4battery/homeassistant/ pattern. homeassistant/mqtt_controls.yaml defines 4 selects + 1 number bound to the friendly control topics; state is read from the existing PIRI auto-discovery sensors via value_template mappings (PIRI publishes "Solar - Battery - Utility" while the shim accepts "solar_battery_utility"). homeassistant/lovelace_controls.yaml is a complete dashboard view: summary header, output/charger control, charge-current control, history graph, per-unit health glance. homeassistant/README.md documents the install path and the control- plane architecture.
MOD decoder regression fix. Powermon services were crash-looping (~3,000 restarts on unit-2) because the inverter started reporting mode 07 post-commissioning, which our decoder didn't know — it raised KeyError instead of falling back. Added "07": "Eco" (best guess; revisit if observed in non-Eco contexts) plus placeholder labels "Mode 08" … "Mode 15" so any future unknown code shows up as an opaque label rather than crashing. Defensive expansion via dict comprehension kept the change small.
Discovered firmware quirk: MCHGC / MUCHGC lock during active charge. While the inverter is in mode 06 ("Charge") — i.e. actively bank- charging from solar or grid — the firmware rejects MCHGC / MUCHGC setter writes (responds with NAK; result topic shows "Failed"). POP / PCP / PSP / PEI / PDI work in all observed modes. This is defensible firmware behavior (don't change current limits while current is flowing) but not a documented one. Workarounds are listed in lvx-control/README.md: retry while in Standby (mode 01), change via LCD Programs 02/11, or use flash.py apply (which stops powermon for exclusive USB access).
install.sh updated. Now copies lvx-control into /usr/local/bin/ with the powermon-venv shebang rewrite, installs the systemd unit, and enable --now's the service once ~/.config/powermon/powermon.yaml has real (non-placeholder) creds. Idempotent on re-run.

Net effect

Metric	Before	After
Settings changes from HA	LCD or shell only	`solar/control/lvx6048/<action>` topic
Mirror to both inverters	manual / coordinated	automatic (single publish)
Validation before sending	none / firmware regex	shim allow-list + firmware regex
Audit trail	none	`journalctl -u lvx-control.service`
MOD-code crash on unknown value	yes (003,054 restarts on unit-2)	no (defensive 08–15 fallback)

Files touched

M  LVX6048/README.md                                       (directory listing + status note)
M  LVX6048/config/powermon/powermon.yaml                    (adhoc topics)
M  LVX6048/config/powermon/powermon2.yaml                   (adhoc topics)
M  LVX6048/install.sh                                       (deploys lvx-control)
M  LVX6048/powermon-patches/pi18.py                         (MOD 07 + 08-15 placeholders)
A  LVX6048/etc/systemd/system/lvx-control.service           (new systemd unit)
A  LVX6048/lvx-control/lvx-control                          (new Python daemon)
A  LVX6048/lvx-control/README.md                            (supported actions / topics)
A  LVX6048/homeassistant/mqtt_controls.yaml                 (HA select + number entities)
A  LVX6048/homeassistant/lovelace_controls.yaml             (dashboard view)
A  LVX6048/homeassistant/README.md                          (HA-side install steps)
A  LVX6048/2026-04-27-control.md                            (this file)

How to verify

# 1. Services healthy
systemctl --no-pager is-active \
    lvx-resolve-links.service \
    powermon.service powermon2.service \
    lvx-control.service

# 2. Watch result topics
mosquitto_sub -h <broker> -u mqtt -P <pass> -v \
    -t 'powermon/lvx6048_1/result' \
    -t 'powermon/lvx6048_2/result' &

# 3. Fire a control command (no-op against current state)
mosquitto_pub -h <broker> -u mqtt -P <pass> \
    -t 'solar/control/lvx6048/charger_priority' -m 'solar_first'

# Expected: both inverters publish "Succeeded" within ~1s.

# 4. shim audit log
journalctl -u lvx-control.service -f
# Expect lines like:
#   OK charger_priority='solar_first' -> PCP0,0 -> mirror to 2 inverter(s)
#   REJECT max_charging_current='999' (amps: 10,20,30,40,50,60,70,80)

Loose ends / next pass

Phase 4 — HA automations (TOU peak-shaving, storm-prep button, cell-imbalance throttle). Deferred until the manual controls have been used for a few days and the actual desired automations are clear.
MCHGC / MUCHGC reliability. The current "Failed when in mode 06" behavior is documented but ugly. Possible improvements: (a) auto-retry the shim once after a 30 s delay; (b) require the inverter to be in Standby before sending; (c) extend flash.py to push these via the apply path (stops powermon, sets, restarts) and expose that as an HA shell-command. Option (c) is the cleanest if frequent changes matter.
Per-component dashboard for LVX6048 stack. Today's lovelace_controls.yaml is the first one. Worth a follow-up to add an Energy-dashboard wiring guide once both inverter ac_output_active_power
- battery pack_power template sensors stabilize.
MOD code 07 label. "Eco" is an educated guess; observe over the next few days and relabel if it shows up in unrelated states. Same as the open follow-up for code 06 from yesterday.
PE / PD setters (buzzer mute, alarm enable/disable, fault recording toggle, etc.) — these are PI30 family and probably accepted by the LVX6048 PI18 firmware. Worth a quick test before adding to the shim's allow-list, since "mute the buzzer" is a useful HA button.

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