shaggy-solar/.claude/skills/REFERENCE.md

Solar install — system map (shared reference for the solar skills)

This file is the ground truth the solar-* / troubleshoot-* / power-usage skills build on. Read it once at the start of any solar task. Everything below was verified live on this host (the monitoring Pi) on 2026-06-23; re-verify anything load-bearing before acting on it.

Topology

6× EG4 LifePower4 v2 packs ──RS485 (1 FTDI each)──┐
2× MPP Solar LVX6048 inverters ──USB-HID/PI18─────┤  this Pi  ──MQTT──► HA broker
1× OpenEVSE charger (10.0.0.249) ──its own WiFi───┘  (daemons)         10.0.0.41:1883

All telemetry lands on the MQTT broker at 10.0.0.41:1883 under HA auto-discovery (homeassistant/<class>/<entity>/config retained, .../state republished each poll cycle — state topics are NOT retained, so to read current values you must listen for a window: use lib/solar-snapshot).

Broker credentials live in ~/.config/powermon/powermon.yaml (mqttbroker.{name,port,username,password}). Never hardcode them — every tool here reads them from that file. lib/solar-snapshot does too.

The snapshot helper

./lib/solar-snapshot (relative to this skills dir) captures the latest value of every matching MQTT topic over a short window and prints a table. This is the primary read tool — prefer it over raw mosquitto_sub.

solar-snapshot [-w SECONDS] [-g GREP_RE] [-f] TOPIC_FILTER...

MQTT + matches one WHOLE level, so lifepower4_+ matches nothing. Subscribe to homeassistant/sensor/+/state and narrow with -g:

solar-snapshot -g 'lvx6048_1_' 'homeassistant/sensor/+/state'
solar-snapshot -w 16 -g 'lifepower4_[1-6]_soc/' 'homeassistant/sensor/+/state'
solar-snapshot 'openevse/#'        # EVSE publishes on-change; idle when unplugged

The history helper

solar-snapshot only sees now. For "when did X last happen / show last week", use ./lib/ha-history, which queries Home Assistant's recorder (the only store that keeps history — local journald is volatile, ~1 day, wiped on reboot; no solar data goes to InfluxDB). Default window 7 days; HA recorder default retention is 10 days.

ha-history [-s SINCE] [-e END] [-m REGEX] [-a] ENTITY...
ha-history -s "10 days ago" sensor.lvx6048_lvx6048_1_device_mode sensor.lvx6048_lvx6048_2_device_mode
ha-history -s "10 days ago" -m fault sensor.lvx6048_01_lvx6048_1_fault_code sensor.lvx6048_02_lvx6048_2_fault_code

HA entity_ids ≠ MQTT object names. powermon's hass output doubles the device slug and is inconsistent across commands, so you must use the real ids, e.g.:

• device mode: sensor.lvx6048_lvx6048_{1,2}_device_mode (device slug lvx6048)
• fault code: sensor.lvx6048_0{1,2}_lvx6048_{1,2}_fault_code (slug lvx6048_01/_02)
• PV/batt/load: sensor.lvx6048_lvx6048_1_{mppt1_input_power,mppt1_input_voltage,battery_voltage,ac_output_active_power}
• EG4 packs are TRIPLE-prefixed (even worse), e.g. sensor.eg4_lifepower4_lifepower4_1_lifepower4_1_pack_current — device slug eg4_lifepower4_lifepower4_1 + object lifepower4_1_pack_current. Always discover, don't hand-construct. When unsure, list them: curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $(cat ~/.config/ha/token)" $HA/api/states | python3 -c 'import sys,json;[print(s["entity_id"]) for s in json.load(sys.stdin) if "lvx6048" in s["entity_id"]]' Auth: reads a long-lived token from ~/.config/ha/token (mode 600) or $HA_TOKEN — never on the command line, never hardcoded. Base URL $HA_URL else ~/.config/ha/url else http://10.0.0.41:8123. If it reports "no token", the user must create one (HA → Profile → Security → Long-lived access tokens) and write it to ~/.config/ha/token; tell them which file, don't ask them to paste it in chat. Recorder excludes (per eg4battery/homeassistant/recorder.yaml) drop EG4 per-cell/register/string entities — those have no history; the inverter device_mode/fault_code and pack soc/pack_voltage etc. are recorded.

Services (this Pi)

Service	Role	Entities it feeds
powermon.service	LVX6048 #1 poller (PI18/USB)	lvx6048_1_*
powermon2.service	LVX6048 #2 poller (PI18/USB)	lvx6048_2_*
lvx-resolve-links.service	oneshot: maps /dev/hidraw* → /dev/lvx6048-{1,2} by PI18 serial; runs before powermon	(links)
lvx-control.service	bridges solar/control/lvx6048/* → powermon adhoc queue	(control)
eg4-battery.service	polls all 6 packs over RS485/Modbus	lifepower4_1..6_*

Quick health: systemctl is-active powermon.service powermon2.service eg4-battery.service lvx-control.service Logs: journalctl -u <svc> --since "10 min ago" --no-pager

Entities cheat-sheet

Inverters lvx6048_{1,2}_* (PI18 GS/MOD/PIRI/FWS/ET): device_mode (Power-On/Standby/Bypass/Battery/Fault/Charge…), fault_code, battery_voltage, battery_capacity (%), ac_output_active_power (W), ac_output_voltage, grid_voltage, mppt1_input_power/mppt2_input_power (W, PV), inverter_heat_sink_temperature, parallel_instance_number (0 = master, 1+ = slave).

Packs lifepower4_{1..6}_* (Modbus): soc, soc_alt, pack_voltage, pack_current (signed, + = charging), cell_01..16_voltage, cell_voltage_delta_mv (imbalance), cell_voltage_min/max, capacity_ah, temperature_01..04, temperature_pcb, model, firmware_version, firmware_date, warning/protection bits, register_NN raw. There are 16 cells/pack.

EVSE openevse/<key> and openevse_* HA entities: power (W), voltage, amp (mA raw → A in HA), pilot, max_current, session_energy (Wh), total_energy, status (active/sleeping/disabled…), state, temp, vehicle (plug). Charger HTTP UI at http://10.0.0.249.

Derived HA template sensors (lifepower4_N_pack_power, _temperature_max, _cell_imbalance_pct, lifepower4_stack_*) are computed inside HA, not on MQTT — compute them yourself from the raw entities when working off the Pi.

Known issues / gotchas (check memory for the canonical versions)

• Inverter battery_voltage is INTERMITTENTLY wrong — read a correct ~54 V on 2026-06-20 (verified via HA history), but ~9–10 V on 2026-06-23/24 after the Jun 22 14:18 reboot, with packs steady at ~52–53 V throughout. So it's a post-reboot / re-init glitch (the inverter or PI18 GS field not settling after restart), NOT a permanent scaling bug. Implication: treat the inverter battery reading as untrustworthy and use the lifepower4_* pack entities for any battery math; if it reads ~10 V right now, a powermon (or inverter) restart may clear it — worth testing.
• Pack 6 is an oddball: Modbus addr 0x01 @ 115200 (packs 1–5 are 0x40 @ 9600). It reads SoC high (76 % on 2026-06-24 vs 50–55 % on packs 1–5) — but at the SAME pack_voltage (53.4 V) and cell voltage (3.337 V), so that's counter drift, not real imbalance: all packs are paralleled and physically at the same charge.
• EG4 SoC never re-anchors (drifts because packs rarely hit 100 % to reset the coulomb counter). Verified live via the equal-voltage/different-SoC signature above. Fix = the calibration-charge skill (periodic full charge). See memory project_eg4_soc_drift_remediation.
• RS485 daisy-chain silences slave packs — each pack needs its own FTDI; an inter-pack chain demotes slaves. See memory project_eg4_daisy_chain_silences_slaves.
• No per-day inverter energy — PI18 only gives ET (lifetime Wh); ED/EM/EY NAK. Daily kWh must come from HA recorder or ET deltas.
• Parallel cluster: changing inverter settings on only one unit risks fault 86 (desync). lvx-control always mirrors to both — that's why setters go through it.
• MCHGC (max_charging_current) is firmware-LOCKED while charging — confirmed live 2026-06-25: a cap change NAKs ("Failed") on BOTH units whenever mppt1_charger_status = charging, even though device_mode still reads Battery. So the cap is only settable in a true pre-charge idle window (dawn) and revertible only once charging stops. Detect charging via charger_status, NOT device_mode. This is why solar-morning-run defaults to solar-only @ 60 A and gates the 80 A throttle behind an idle check. Same lock applies via flash.py (it's an inverter-side lock).
• MCHGC 0/Full equivalent — see battery_re_discharge_voltage gotcha in the calibration notes (stop_charge_voltage is really re-discharge; firmware NAKs 0).

Action policy for these skills

Allowed (safe remediation):

• Read anything: solar-snapshot, mosquitto_sub, journalctl, systemctl status/is-active.
• Restart the data-plane daemons when they're wedged: sudo systemctl restart powermon.service / powermon2.service / eg4-battery.service / lvx-control.service
• Recover inverter USB links: sudo systemctl restart lvx-resolve-links.service or sudo /usr/local/sbin/lvx-resolve-links.

Forbidden (escalate to the user instead — propose the exact command, don't run it):

• Any inverter/battery setter: solar/control/lvx6048/* publishes (charger priority, max charge current, output priority, …).
• lvx-flash/flash.py apply and dump/compare/sync-check — they contend for exclusive USB and stop powermon; advanced, user-driven only.
• Anything that writes battery thresholds, output mode, or factory resets.
• Power-cycling hardware, moving cables, breaker changes.

When a fix is outside the allowed set, report the finding and hand the user the precise command(s) to run.

Scoped exception — calibration-charge skill only: that one skill may change exactly one setting (stop_charge_voltage → Full and back) via the prepared eg4-lp4-v2-calibration.yaml profile, on BOTH inverters, and ONLY after explicit in-session user confirmation, and it must REVERT afterward. No other skill and no other setting. This does not loosen the policy above for anything else.