! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! September 2025 update ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Support for the SolarEdge homegrown encryption has been removed, as has the local DHCP/DNS server. Ethernet active and passive modes are still supported assuming that the inverter has old firmware that does not do encryption and it is not communicating with the actual SolarEdge server.

! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! September 2023 update ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

When this project was started ten years ago, SolarEdge inverters communicated with their monitoring server using a proprietary data format that was sent in the clear. It was possible to reverse engineer most of the messages in order to obtain the optimizer level data which was not otherwise available. The same data was also available on the RS232 and RS485 interfaces which were provided on their inverters. A few years later, SolarEdge implemented a homegrown encryption algorithm for the communications to their monitoring server, which prevented access for a while until an effort by a number of contributors to this project was successful in figuring out the algorithm which got it working again.

In the years since then, SolarEdge has introduced new products which no longer support the RS232 interface, and they have dropped their encryption algorithm and are now using the far more secure and mainstream SSL/TLS encryption method which is essentially not hackable. This means that if you have a newer inverter or if the firmware in your older inverter is up to date, the only way to access performance data is going to be via the RS485 interface.

Also, please note that this software is made available here without any expectation of support. If you use it and have a problem that you can't solve, you can open an issue, however there may not be a response, given the relatively small number of contributors and the fact that SolarEdge does not support this project in any way. Contributors are only familiar with the particular SolarEdge equipment that they personally own and are not motivated to maintain the software beyond their particular needs.

! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

SolarEdge Monitoring

This project enables monitoring the performance data of SolarEdge inverters and optimizers. Solaredge supports the open Sunspec Alliance logging protocols, however this data is only accessible via an RS485 interface on the inverter and does not include module level (optimizer) data. Solaredge publishes an API that allows access to their portal, however this also does not include module level data.

How it works

SolarEdge inverter monitoring data can be accessed by any of 3 hardware interfaces - ethernet, RS232, or RS485. Data can be parsed by semonitor.py either in an active mode, where semonitor.py interacts with the inverter directly, or in a passive mode where the data that is being sent to the SolarEdge monitoring portal is captured.

interface    modes
---------    -----
ethernet     active, passive
RS232        active
RS485        active, passive

Access modes

Ethernet active

The inverter is made to connect to semonitor.py instead of the SolarEdge monitoring portal by resolving its hostname (usually prod.solaredge.com) to the IP address of the server running semonitor.py. This may be done by connecting the ethernet interface of the inverter to a dedicated ethernet interface on the server running semonitor.py.
The inverter will attempt to connect to the SolarEdge server using a solaredge.com hostname, so some method of resolving this name to the address of the server running semonitor.py must be implemented. Details of how to do this are out of scope of this project.

In this mode, the inverter will no longer be communicating with the SolarEdge server so monitoring services and firmware updates will no longer be available.

Ethernet passive

Data sent between an inverter and the SolarEdge monitoring portal is captured and fed into semonitor.py. In order to do this the network traffic between them must be monitored by a server on the network. This will not work if the inverter and the local server are connected to an ethernet switch. Either they could be connected through an ethernet hub, or the inverter could be connected to a dedicated network interface on a server that bridges to the local network.

Traffic may be captured to a pcap file using wireshark or tcpdump or some other program.
The resulting file must be processed through seextract.py before it is fed into semonitor.py. In this mode, semonitor.py is reading data from a file or stdin and isn't actually reading from the network directly.

RS485 active

The server running semonitor.py is connected to one or more inverters through a serial port with an RS485 adapter. All inverters must be configured as RS485 slaves and semonitor.py functions as the RS485 master. The inverter serial numbers are specified to semonitor.py using the -s option and the -m option specifies master mode.
There cannot be another master device on the RS485 bus.

RS485 passive

The server running semonitor.py is connected to one or more inverters through a serial port with an RS485 adapter. Some other device such as an inverter or a SolarEdge Control and Communication Gateway functions as the RS485 master and semonitor.py just monitors the data on the bus. Depending on capability of the hardware running semonitor.py, there may be issues with it being able to keep up with the data rate so there may be lost or corrupted data.

RS232 active

RS232 is a point to point interface so only active mode is meaningful. While it is technically possible to capture RS232 traffic into a file and process the file using semonitor.py, that is out of scope of this discussion.

Specified commands may be sent to the inverter from semonitor.py using the -c option over any of the 3 hardware interfaces, but there are certain commands that the inverter will only accept when coming from the RS232 interface. If an inverter is in encrypted mode, commands to get the encryption key or to place the inverter in unencrypted mode must be sent over RS232.

Hardware configurations

Ethernet hardware configurations

Active

                  semonitor
inverter -------- server

Passive using ethernet hub

                     capture
inverter ---     --- server
            |   |
           ethernet
             hub
              |
              |
              |
          SolarEdge
            server

Passive using dual capture server interfaces

                   capture
inverter --------- server ----
                              |
                              |
                              |
                          SolarEdge
                            server

RS485 hardware configurations

Active

inverter ---
            |
            |
            |     semonitor
inverter -------- server
            |
            |
            |
inverter ---

Passive

                  RS485
inverter -------- master
            |
            |
            |     semonitor
inverter -------- server
            |
            |
            |
inverter ---

RS232 hardware configuration

                  semonitor
inverter -------- server

How to use it

This describes how to use the programs.

semonitor.py is a program that implements a subset of the SolarEdge protocol. It can be used to parse the performance data that has been previously captured to a file, or it can interact directly with a SolarEdge inverter over the RS232, RS485, or ethernet interface. Performance data is output to a file in JSON format.

seextract.py (removed)

seprint.py prints a subset of data in human readable form from a file containing JSON performance data.

sekey.py is used to extract the unique encryption key from an inverter.

se2state.py follows a file containing JSON performance data and outputs a JSON file that contains the current state of the inverter and optimizer values.

se2csv.py reads a file containing JSON performance data and outputs a separate comma delimited file for each device type (eg inverter, optimizer, battery) encountered that is suitable for input to a spreadsheet.

se2graphite.py and pickle2graphite.py both read a file containing JSON performance data and send it to a graphite server. se2graphite.py sends it to the graphite server's "text listener" port one metric at a time, while pickle2graphite.py sends it to the graphite server's "pickle listener" port, with multiple metrics per transmission.

semonitor.py

SolarEdge inverter performance monitoring using the SolarEdge protocol.

Usage

python semonitor.py [options] [datasource]

Arguments

datasource           Input filename or serial port.

                     If no data source is specified, the program reads from
                     stdin, unless the data source type is specified as network.

                     If a file name is specified, the program processes the
                     data in that file and terminates, unless the -f option
                     is specified, in which case it waits for further data
                     to be written to the file.

                     If the data source corresponds to a serial port or network,
                     send commands to and process the data from that port or
                     network interface.

Options