PYTES E-BOX 48100R / PYLONTECH to Home Assistant / MariaDB

The program reads the RS232 serial port of PYTES and PYLONTECH LiFePO4 batteries.

How does this software work?

The "pwr" and "bat" commands are used.
The program reads the serial port at a specific frequency, parses the data, and saves a JSON file that can be used for further automation.

Configurable OPTIONS:

• record data to MariaDB
• send data via MQTT
• events monitoring – when power events, battery events, or system faults occur, a log file is created with cell details
• cell monitoring – read cell details for all batteries in the bank. Three levels of detail can be selected in the config file.
  More details can be found here

These options can be activated or deactivated in the configuration file (pytes_serial.cfg).

When MQTT transmission is activated:

• The JSON file is sent as a payload to the following topic:
  homeassistant/sensor/pytes/state
• The program has built-in integration with Home Assistant, where the following sensors are automatically created for each battery: current, voltage, temperature, soc, and status.
  The battery number is appended at the end of each sensor (e.g. current_1, current_2...).

When cell monitoring is activated, an additional device will be created in Home Assistant with the suffix _cells, with all associated sensors. The battery and cell number are appended at the end of each sensor (e.g. voltage_102 means voltage for battery 1 cell 2).
Basic statistics are also implemented. Therefore, additional sensors will be available for min, max, and delta values of cell voltage and temperature.
(e.g. pytes_cells_voltage_max_1 means max cell voltage for battery 1).

If more sensors are needed, they can be added manually according to the Home Assistant documentation: MQTT sensor and the example in the docs folder here.

An experimental feature is implemented that allows recording a specific event (power events, system events) in the log file when needed. The file events_config.json is a list of all known events. Changing in the file the level from 'info' to 'warning' will do the trick.

You can find more examples for a better understanding of what the program does.

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Installation and Execution

The serial cable must be connected to battery 1 (master).

1. Copy the current repository.
2. Optional:
   a. If you want to use MariaDB:
   • MariaDB must be installed (MariaDB documentation is outside this project's scope).
   • Use sql/pytes_mariadb.sql to import the required database and tables.
     b. If you want to use MQTT / MQTT integration in Home Assistant:
   • An MQTT broker must be installed (MQTT documentation is outside this project's scope).
   • If you use Home Assistant, make sure that MQTT auto-discovery is enabled so sensors will be auto-discovered when the program starts.
3. Rename pytes_serial.cfg.example to pytes_serial.cfg and configure it as needed (do not remove or comment out lines in sections, just set the values).
4. Make sure that all required Python modules are installed – see requirements.
5. Go to the folder where the program is located (e.g. cd /home/pi/Documents/pytes).
6. Execute pytes_serial.sh to run in a separate terminal instance (Linux/Raspberry) or run python3 pytes_serial.py directly from the console.
   • For autostart on reboot, see more info here.

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A lighter version written in MicroPython for ESP32 is available here: pytes_esp.

Enjoy!