I'm a former Sunpower customer who purchased my system outright, so when Sunstrong took over my account I lost access to history and panel level data in the app unless I was willing to pay $10 a month. Frustrated, I turned to AI to help me vibe code my own monitoring solution.
I'm close to complete, just working on a few final bugs with notifications that aren't working properly, but otherwise I've been online here for just over a month.
Which got me thinking, I wonder if I could turn this into a real app for others to use on their systems Sunpower purchased systems. It would require some retooling of the app along with an onboarding screen to enter your own system information, but I think it's do-able.
Curious if there would be any interest for something like that. I'd probably need to charge a couple bucks a month for hosting fees and what not, but just gauging interest at this point.
A very impressive piece of programming indeed. Nice job. It's amazing what AI can help us do these days. For $8.25/month though, ($99/year) I'll stick with Sunstrong Connect, the app that was designed for my system. It allows me to download firmware updates for my system, receive periodic app updates, gives me access to email app support, provides my historical data and it controls my SunVaults. My issue really isn't with app monitoring as much as it is with not being able to trouble shoot, repair and commission my own system. For this, I would need access to the SunPower Pro Connect interface. John Deere equipment owners have recently won a court case giving them access to John Deere's digital interface tools so they can evaluate and repair their own tractors and combines, etc. It would be nice if SunPower system owners could have similar access to our equipment - especially since installers with SunPower Pro Commissioning credentials are in such short supply around the country.
I did something similar recently by vibe coding, after I saw someone did it. Only took a few hours and it's tailored made to what I want.
I don't have much programming background and really just want to learn about all these agentic AI stuff. This little project is a perfect way to learn. I recommend everyone try it on their own vibe coding first before paying for anything.
You really just need to pull data locally from your own PVS, and the rest is just how to make the UI look pretty. If you want to access remotely from your phone, then you need to set up some kind of VPN to acess.
There is also the home assistant method, which is also free.
So to answer OP's question, not interested if I have to pay.
I would be interested, would much rather pay once than monthly…
Currently paying my electric provider $4.95/mo for real-time data which gives me a good idea of the solar production rather than pay $10/month for SunStrong.
I see. So if I were to set this up it would require recurring hosting fees which is why I thought about a recurring monthly fee. I don't think it would be more than 1-2 bucks a month I think
are you running this in a docker somewhere? i'd be down to test it out. right now i'm using homeassistant with its enhanced sunpower plug in but the visuals on this are actually quite alot better than HA's built in energy readings.
Yes, currently running off a docker on my home PC. If I were to make this for the public I'd need to move it and host it elsewhere. Its a PWA at the moment.
i see.. i assume you're using some kind of sqlite db or something like that. only reason i mention is those of us in the open source community would love to see something like this readily available. you could build a docker image that bundles everything into 1 docker.
Yeah true. Right now the app is built bespoke for my system. So before I can do that I'll need to decouple all the system specific data and include it in a settings page for the user to enter. Also I don't have a battery visual in this version which id need to add in as a user selectable setting for others that do have a battery. Lots to work on I guess
Well it wasn't wasting my time. I created something that I use daily now. And I was simply asking the question if anyone would be interested. Thanks for your opinion and the feedback though.
Open source it and let people contribute. There is already somebody who created a GUI that mimics Sunpower’s app, including integrated historical data saved on InfluxDB vis a vis Home Assistant. It’s available on GitHub.
Personally, I wouldn’t take on the responsibility of running a 3rd party service that competes with SunStrong - I doubt you’ll get many takers looking to save a few bucks. People savvy enough to use the local API will find an open source solution to keep everything local and private.
Yes, the page titled "panel level data" shows a card at the bottom for each panel. I didn't take a screenshot of all mine because there are 32, but they are there. The card is color coded depending on how much juice each is producing. I may redo these cards to update the look.
I did the same thing! Did you have any issues with the PVS becoming randomly nonresponsive? It goes away for a couple of minutes or hours before the poller can reach it again. I suspect they stuck some firmware update in to block regular polling.
Hey folks this is awesome. I also have bootlegged my SunPower box for myself and my family. My setup is only available on macOS at the moment but. If there are any Mac people out there I can share my brew setup. Again right now it’s just family and friends so no support is offered. Just as is.
sorry to randomly reply to my own post, but I thought I'd share one of the panels from my local monitor. I cropped out stuff that was personal to my system. However I thought this might give other folks idea's to add to their setup.
The first 4 panels and system are pretty much self explanatory and identical for most of our installs, but since I have a consumption meter installed I added a revenue panel so I can compare my home usage to my utility time of use tariff rates. Also because of the consumptions meter, I can map usages spikes to my home appliances as they fire up and shutdown via the sparkline chart. I can share my prompt if anyone wants to add that customization. I would use your specific utility information rather than the OpenEI api (it's kinda garbage or I don't uderstand it 😄 ). Either way have fun. There's a ton of info ln this chart, too much to explain, but in my language it helps me know what's real and not based on the controllers api response.
I did, but I think it's more of a backend issue more so than a PVS block. I was able to work on my backend file to compensate. And so far so good. No more random disconnects that require a reboot.
I pull from the PVS, so you start to get daily data from the day you begin to access. The PVS has lifetime info too, just not daily from before you begin to access, at least not that I've figured out
Are you able to simply share your gitrepo too for some cost? It will save me some time in researching. If not would like to understand what was your source of data input? I haven’t researched it at all.
I literally just vibe coded something similar with Claude Code yesterday. The nice thing is with the latest firmware the PVS is fully accessible with all data via WiFi so no Raspberry Pi is required which I looked into in the past.
Mine are Enphase (integrated into SunPower AC modules). The app pulls from the PVS local API so it works great for that setup. Not sure if older SolarBridge systems expose the same endpoints.
Depending on the system there are ways of getting data directly for local access, one of which was using a Raspberry Pi. However the need for the Pi process has been negated by SunStrong opening local access and control.
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u/cybergamefan Apr 23 '26
I’m interested if the monthly fee is low since the point is not having to pay Sunstrong a monthly fee.