The Growatt Alternative shineX dongle.

We have been getting more enquires about the growatt alt and I believe the page for the device is on back order as we had issues with the control software update (the software used to make the device)

we have all had issues with the growatt shinex which tends to work some of the time or lacks control and when there servers go down, your down too.

Status  - As of posting date.

We have updated the box that has the hardware, its now smaller!

it should now work, but.

I have not put my time into this as growatt is farily popular as they are cheap, but they are not considered the best inverters to use, as we all know SunSynk  or Deye are used and they also have a price tag ---- See our 6kw for best price. and to be fair you may want to reconsider how you use solar in your home. look up "grid attached" on the website.

If you want to order, then order or contact me for an update.
While it is important that I test that things work, it is for you to provide feedback either way.

BEST USE.
If you want big data, and control, then you should look at having HA  - we have a pre configured HA system, this allows you to almost "plug and play" which gives you all the essential parts. You can then use HA to complete automations to best use your solar power with control over charge and discharge as well as power rates (output). The system uses MQQT as a back bone. which is how I made the other devices (remote display)  with the HA the data is stored there and its not a limited system, its just the raw system which you can upgrade and update as your own.

SHINES 
The shine S is the serial device as some inverters use this. I made one and did not get feedback as to if it worked or not and how easy it was, I would assume that it works as people complain if it doesn't. 😉
SO this may be a gamble, I don't know.

The shinex and the ShineS are different as they use different control chips and the decoder is different, so the S has a secondary cable and decoder to read and write to your inverter. ( power and data - RS485)

RELIABILITY
Mine has been working non stop for 2 or 3 years now without any issues.
Software is maintained. for most you can remote update (you will be emailed updates) But if its not broke dont fix it.
The device is tested before being made available, but I dont have every inverter here to ensure that there are no problems or bugs. ( hence why feed back is important)