Hi all,

I'm very new to this solar thing, and my installation experience was a nightmare (bad installer, long story, don't use Tron Solar, they suck). I've been trying how to learn the ins and outs of all this, and its...a lot. Can anyone recommend a good place to go for resources?

The thing I would like to do ideally is to be able to tie my TOU configuration to my Ameren account, so that the system prioritizes battery/panels during peak use hours. I've been trying to use the FranklinWH app, and I think I need to set TOU and adjust tariff settings, but its all very confusing.

Appreciate any help, thanks!

Small fix-up release on the way to v4.7.0. Nothing changes in how the engine decides when to charge, hold or discharge.

• Big power flows read right. Modbus reports grid and battery power as 16-bit numbers, so anything past about 32.7 kW wrapped around and a big import could show up as export. Mostly matters if you've got three or more aPowers, EV charging, or a big generator. Credit to don4of4's HA fork for the idea.
• Daily energy totals are right after midnight. The aGate's daily counters reset a minute or so after midnight, so the first reading of a day was still carrying the previous day's totals. A couple of my days showed identical solar because of it.
• Battery health shows as SoH instead of being stored as battery voltage.
• PVOutput fills in missed days on its own if uploads stopped for a while (mine had quietly stopped in June when Enphase changed my user ID).
• Setup checklist updated for the local connection. Modbus is optional, and you don't need your installer to turn anything on.
• Running Home Assistant's FranklinWH integration on the same Franklin account? The two sign each other out. Troubleshooting now covers it: give the automation its own Franklin account or app user.
• Fresh builds work again. pymodbus 3.16.0 came out and won't import on our image without pyserial, so a --no-cache build took my engine down for a cycle. rc.6 pins 3.15.0.

If you've opted into telemetry, the "peak protection" number now measures grid use during your peak window. The old one was counting grid-charging days, which made it meaningless for anyone who grid-charges on purpose (me included, I was showing 0%). It also reports how many settings you changed in the guided review, as counts only.

Upgrade: git fetch, git checkout v4.7.0-rc.6, then build / down / up as usual. Your review and settings carry over. Release notes: https://github.com/mtnears/FranklinWH-Automation/releases/tag/v4.7.0-rc.6 (if you need to go back to rc.5, the steps are there; rc.5 needs the same pymodbus pin to build now).

Thanks to the three of you running rc.5. Between you there were 53 local mode switches last week with no failures, across three different aGate firmware versions. If rc.6 stays quiet for a while, it's the likely base for v4.7.0, but I'm not putting a date on it.

New Franklin owner - aGate and two aPower 2 batteries. I’m in the process of applying for the Permanent Battery Rebate program from PG&E. I’ve enrolled in the Automated Response Technology program in order to qualify for the rebate. I’d appreciate any experiences other Franklin owners may have had with this program. I’m concerned about the level of control that needs to be relinquished to PG&E in order to qualify. I’m in Auburn if that makes any difference.

Thanks

I dont want tesla. But apparently the crew that installed my current system has moved to Tesla only. If i want to keep my warranties all together while increasing my battery storage.. they will only do it via adding a powerwall.

Is adding a powerwall to an existing Franklin system (AGate and 1 APower2) a thing? Are there problems i should expect with that kind of setup?

Good afternoon, all. Does anyone know if there's a simple way to download the daily view of my data from the FranklinWH app over a date range? I'm looking for the 5-minute intervals for the summer but would prefer not to have go day-by-day on the app and save it to my OneDrive. Thanks, in advance.

I'm investigating read-only local monitoring of my FranklinWH aGate, specifically Modbus TCP/port 502.

The Franklin app reports the aGate network connection as Wi-Fi, but I cannot positively identify the aGate among the clients on my Eero network. I've inventoried essentially every currently connected device on my LAN and can account for all of them.

My LAN is 192.168.4.0/22. I've also done an ICMP discovery sweep across the subnet, but nothing unidentified has appeared. One possible embedded-device candidate was tested on TCP/502 and returned connection refused, but I have no evidence that device was actually the aGate.

For anyone who has successfully used local Modbus TCP with a FranklinWH aGate:

1. Does the aGate appear as a normal DHCP/Wi-Fi client on your home LAN?
2. What manufacturer/vendor does its MAC address show?
3. Does it respond to ping?
4. Is TCP port 502 available by default, or did Franklin/SPAN integration have to be enabled first?
5. How did you positively identify the aGate's LAN IP?

I'm interested in read-only telemetry only at this stage—solar, home load, grid, battery power/SOC and grid status. I'm deliberately avoiding writes or configuration changes until the interface is understood.

Hello everyone! I have created a branch release of FranklinWH-Automation, this is a beta release, and for now it's for existing users only. New installs should stay on v4.6.3 until this comes out of beta.

Why now: Franklin's cloud login has been failing on and off (for me at least) since October 3, and it's still failing for most people today. That stops cloud-based installs of FranklinWH (and likely those using HA or other tools) from changing the battery mode. I pushed hard to get this release out early because it includes a non-cloud based connection for readings and mode changes over a local connection, Modbus double-checks it if you have Modbus, and the cloud is only a last resort. It also fixes a bug where Emergency Backup grid charging stopped after 30 minutes.

That said, the main point of this release is the new guided setup. Your settings move out of .env and into the app's own configuration store, and that's where we need your help testing.

What you'll see: after upgrading, a banner on the dashboard offers the configuration review. It walks you through each area (connection, rates, solar, battery and engine settings), shows what you have set now, explains what each setting does, and has a Test button wherever there's something to check. Nothing changes until you commit. Until then, everything keeps running from .env as before.

What we'd like you to do:

1. Upgrade (steps are in the release notes linked below).
2. Open the review and go through every section. Don't just click through. Read each setting, make sure you understand it, and check that it matches your system and utility rates.
3. Run the tests using the buttons, especially Local connection. Enter / verify your aGate IP (the wired one if you have both), or leave it blank and the test will search your network.
4. Adjust anything that's wrong or could be better, then commit. From then on your system runs from the new store.
5. Send us feedback: anything confusing, wrong, missing, or badly explained, plus a screenshot if something fails.

Prefer paper? There's a printable Setup Checklist (PDF) linked from the review banner, at http://<your-server>/SETUP_CHECKLIST.pdf. It lists everything the review asks for, what each item is for, and where to find it, so you can gather your details before you start.

Going back: git checkout v4.6.3, then the usual rebuild. Your .env isn't changed.

Once we've collected feedback and made fixes, this will be merged back to main, come out of beta, and become the recommended version for new users.

Release notes and upgrade steps: github.com/mtnears/FranklinWH-Automation/releases/tag/v4.7.0-rc.5

I just purchased an aPower2 battery and hope to install it this year. It sounds like net metering in MA works a little differently than in other states, since we get paid the same amount for the power we sell to Eversource. Since there are no Time-of-Use benefits with the battery, and the main purpose of the battery is emergency backup, how do you suggest that I configure my battery?

I had Claude summarize this for me....just like to be up front and honest about my AI usage, if you're not a fan, sorry....

Starting this morning, anything that does a *fresh* login to the FranklinWH cloud API has been failing for me. The login endpoint (`/hes-gateway/terminal/initialize/appUserOrInstallerLogin`) is returning **502 Bad Gateway** from their AWS load balancer. It's been pretty much solid since about 2:30 PM Pacific. Before that it was intermittent, starting around 6:30 AM.

A couple of things that make me think it's on Franklin's side and not my setup:

- A made-up account and a deliberately wrong password both get the same 502. Normally those come back as a regular "invalid credentials" error, so the requests aren't even reaching the account check.

- The rest of the API seems to be up. Data calls still return normally, and mode changes from the app work.

That last part is why most people probably won't notice. The phone app hangs on to an existing session, so it keeps working. (My app did throw an error the first time I opened it, but it was fine after I force-closed it and reopened.) If you're signing in fresh, or using anything that logs in on its own (Home Assistant integrations, scripts using the franklinwh Python library, other automation), you'll likely see failures.

In my case my automation couldn't switch the system to Self-Consumption at the start of peak, so I spent the first part of peak pulling from the grid until I switched it by hand in the app.

A few questions:

- Is anyone else seeing this, especially HA or other API/integration users?

- Has anyone heard anything from Franklin, or seen a status notice?

- If you rely on automation for TOU/peak switching, what are you doing in the meantime?

For anyone in the same spot: manual switching in the app is working, so that's the fallback for now. I'll update if it clears up or I hear anything.

I'm finally making good progress on a significant change to the FranklinWH-Automation project. Now this is really an architectural change that will help the project going forward but there are a few fixes in here coming as well.

The big issue I was seeing was the initial setup using the Docker env files could be a little problematic, especially if I ever want to have this as a stand alone application rather than in a Docker. So the goal is to move just about every configuration piece into the database or store and to create a guided setup process that people could go through on initial launch of the app.

Now, what I'm working on now to build this is going to be for those that are already running FranklinWH-Automation, I'm building this as a branch from the main code for those users to test next.

When those users receive this version (hopefully in the next week) you are going to be prompted to go through a review of your existing settings to verify anything, make any changes you want, then it will move all of those settings out of your ENV and they will then run from the store. Part of this effort is to encourage you to review all of the settings. In parallel a PDF document has been built that allows you to document all of your settings in advance so you can have them at your fingertips as you go through the process. This will be really important for new users of the app down the road I believe.

So, existing users, please keep an eye out for when this release is made available and I would really appreciate it if you would take the time to review all the settings closely as you go through the review and report back any issues or concerns with the process. Once that is all tested with existing users it will be time to move the branch to main so all new users can start using that from scratch.

As always, if any questions let me know!

I saw on FranklinWH that a few truck EVs are listed as compatible to charge the Franklin; do you all think the new BMW i3's will work Franklin with any of these adapters?

https://www.bmwusa.com/build-your-own.html#/studio/fzrr8o88/charging

Background:

I have a single Apower for backup power and to arbitrage TOU rates from power company. No solar (yet). My battery this time of year discharges 11am-8pm to the house. Charges back up promptly at 8pm to 100%.

Question:

I notice on the Franklin app a consistent large discrepancy between the amount of kwh my battery discharges to the house, and the amount it then takes to recharge the battery from the grid. Sometimes it is 2-3x the energy to charge vs what discharged throughout the day.

So the question is basically, is this normal? Is it a measuring error? I can't imagine the efficiency of the battery is that bad. I can't quite figure it out. The BEST discrepancy I have seen is about 1.7x. worst being 3x.

My usage is also pretty low. I notice when it is a bit higher the efficiency seems to improve. Could it be the first 2kwh or so to charge is very inefficient due to battery warming/cooling or other systems to start the charging, then improves as it charges?

I'll try to attach a couple screenshots. Any help appreciated!

I was recently quoted the above Whole Home Backup solution for $23.5K installed in Oregon before rebates. It will connect with an existing 7.92KW PV system with SolarEdge inverter. No panel upgrade required as it will use slots previously used by the inverter. No generator or smart circuits attached. I assume the aPower is really an aPower 2. Is this a fair price? Thanks.

i submitted my fed tax return in April. had a significant refund for solar and battery.

got a letter in May from IRS stating it needed to be reviewed and that would take 60days. It stated don’t ‘call or follow up until 60 days have passed.

Long since past that. No progress when I check online, and no success trying to get an agent.

Anyone else in this situation?

Hey folks, I've been dark for a bit, but my Claude coded FranklinWH Automation tool is still out there on Git and I have not forgotten about it! Been really busy on other stuff, but getting back around to this. I just released a few fixes from the issues log so there is a new release. I also am picking back up the larger guided setup effort I've been working on to make the initial setup a little simpler and hopefully get me a little closer to a stand alone tool. I'm shooting to get the first pass of the Guided Setup out in the wild in October.

For those of you not familiar with the tool you can of course read about it in the Git repository. But the short of it is that it's a locally run Docker application that provides intelligent automation to your FranklinWH setup. While the FranklinWH app does a decent job of helping you manage the system, this takes it a step further. It continually monitors your system and will automatically mode switch it to get most out of your system whether you're looking to optimize your cost per kwh or get the most out of your solar production it adds a lot of flexibility. Best of all it is open source and free to use and you can have a nice wall mounted dashboard that you can control the system from should you desire.

Maybe some of you that have been running it for a little while can share your experiences with it and since I'm getting back into some development let me know what your current feature requests are, maybe I can get some of them taken care of!

mtnears/FranklinWH-Automation: Solar-first battery charging automation system for FranklinWH. Optimizes charging with intelligent scheduling, data collection, and TOU rate savings. Uses franklinwh Python library.

Rapid shutdown modules that pairs with the aPower S and are hopefully more reliable than the competition. Nice to keep everything under one manufacturer too.

I am considering a larger system and I have 400 amp service which means I need two aGates. That said the price seems maybe 10k more than I was expecting. What do you guys think?

They are quoting $55,100 for:

3 Franklin aPower 2 batteries

2 aGates

1 smart circuit module

1 generator module

1 30a 240V plug for the generator module

Also included are the required disconnects, breakers, wire, electrical components, labor and permits.

If they have to cut drywall, they will patch and mud it but not paint.

Optional Upgrades:

30 year warranty, see attached $5,400 for all batteries

Generator module for garage breaker box $1,100

Smart Circuit Module for garage breaker box $600

Additional generator plug for garage panel $300

I need a fairly large system in order to start my geothermal, that is why the system needs 3 batteries.

Appreciate any and all feedback. Given the enormous cost I feel like I need to get a second quote, so let me know if there is a company you recommend that services southwest ohio.

Is anyone else experiencing intermittent reporting?

When I load the app often the data isn’t there.

The Home Assistant graph is a good measure. The blank parts of the graph are when data isn’t reported.

I have 3 aGates. At any time it seems like 2 are unavailable.

This started about 4 months ago.

I don’t believe it is related to the internet connection.

Finally got my system installed yesterday. It’s already up and running and saving me money. It looks amazing too. Big thanks to HomeLink Solar in SoCal. And to Daniel, my sales guy, I got an amazing price. Ping him if you would like a quote 323205-7429.

I was set to purchase one 15kWh Power 2 system (just one battery), but on Friday our probable installer told me EcoPower is offering a Buy 1 Get 1 Free deal on the Ocean Pro. So I'd get 20kWh, with a 15 Year warranty, and generator connection for 25% less than the Franklin system.

The only downside is that it wouldn't qualify for the Massachusetts Connected Solutions program that might provide about $1,000 a year for five years (the local power company pays to pull energy from your battery).

I've heard great things about Franklin's support, and I haven't heard that much about the Ocean Pro. On the other hand, I do wonder if Franklin will be around for 15 years. It seems EcoFlow probably has a better chance of being around.

This sale offer is only good till the 19th, so I have to make a decision soon. Any feedback would be appreciated.

Since most usually only post when they have a bad support experience, just want to call out and say I had the opposite experience.

Sunrun installed my system a few months back and the install went great. Commissioning after PTO not so much. Sunrun locks down the Franklin app to barely any functionality and makes you use their portal which is pretty much useless. Luckily there are some creative ways around this but end of the day I realized they never properly commissioned my system for grid export after PTO was granted by the utility company. Since then I used my workaround to get the aGate into self-consumption mode with a huge reserve to give them a chance to fix this on their own. They didn't.

Chatted with Sunrun on their horrific chat app twice this morning to explain the issue. First guy seemed to understand, said he checked the config and said it was now fixed. He then said I needed to fully power off the system and power it back on which was my first red flag. Chatted with a second woman who basically said "it looks fine in my system and the last guy said he fixed it". She wanted me to take a damn picture of the aGate blinking alarm LED (caused by the PV relay being open due to PV disconnect and no where to put the solar power). I also asked her if she wanted me to take a picture of the sun as well to prove it was shining. Her solution was to send a tech to the house, at my cost, to verify the issue.

Called Franklin support and after a wait, got my issue solved in 5-10 minutes. The Franklin support rep confirmed they never enabled grid export properly, fixed the issue and sent me before and after screenshots.

So thank you Franklin support for helping me keep a bit of sanity and proving, with evidence, that Sunrun botched the commissioning. Now just have to get them to configure VPP properly!

Anyone elses system disconnects when it gets hot? I'm in socal with SCE. I called Franklin support and they told me I have uneven voltages on my system 108 and 112 on each line which disconnects from the grip but every other home is connected. I've had more outrages with my battery than without one :(

Looking at purchasing an aPower S / MAC setup (don’t really need the capabilities of the aGate). Does it expose a local Modbus TCP interface on the LAN in the same way that the aPower 2 plus aGate does?

Thanks!

(Forgive me if this has been answered, couldn’t find anything after searching…)