GivTCP PALM automation in Home Assistant

General Home Automation
1

I’m getting into setting up GivTCP on my Home Assistant Green.

All good so far but I have some questions around PALM/SmartTarget.

Does it just set the calculated charge target and I have to set the charge period I.e during Go cheap rate. Or does it do it all?

The documentation is a little thin and there’s not even anything explaining what the numbers mean. I did spy some help text in an older Speak to the geek video.

If anyone has any tips on this feature. I see there might be a simulate option to just log the proposed outputs.

I’ve tried looking at Batpred but that is an absolute beast.

2

I think you have to set the charge times.

It’s been so long since I used it though.

I’d seriously consider PredBat though. It’s really good. Have a read of the documentation and some of the topics on the other forum.

Other forum being the non-beta one.

3

I don’t know if the PALM integration in GivTCP still works or not, last time I heard it mentioned was someone reporting that it wasn’t working on GivTCP v3

I did look at palm initially, saw the speak to the geek video, but decided in the end to go down the predbat route.

One of the problems with palm is that its quite simplistic, it doesn’t know about time of day tariffs, etc. You can run predbat in read only mode whilst you get it setup and learn how it works.

Or write your own inverter control scripts using givtcp controls, its not that hard to master what they do. I worked mine out by just looking at what controls changed when I did a manual charge, discharge etc from the givenergy app

4

It does seem to run, calculate and sets the SOC.

But now a followup question.

If I enable scheduled charge. You specify a SOC there (Charge Target SOC1) but how does this relate to Target SOC value which is what Palm sets? Does one overide the other?

5

Should be the same thing, as long as givenegy haven’t changed anything in the firmware.

PALM is not part of givenegy, so if it doesn’t work properly, it’s something the author of palm would need to sort, then get the GivTCP files updated too (which also isn’t givenegy owned).

1 Like
6

I’m also trying to figure this out too.

PALM has just run on mine, and set Target_SOC to 90%. But I can’t see when its going to actually charge.

I have the GivEnergy all in one set to timed charge (between 2am and 3am), with a target of 85% (Charge_Target_SOC1)

So I can’t see how its going to work.

7

there is a speak to the geek video on youtube about setting up givtcp and using palm to automate battery charging - if you find that it might answer your questions

I personally decided it was too simplistic and so didn’t use it, went down the predbat route instead.

8

Here’s what I’ve figured out.

Palm/Smart target just sets the target charge.

You also need to enable the following in GivTCP: Enable charge target.

This setting will override all other charge targets.

You now need to set a charge window during your cheap hour and set this charge target to 100%. This % will be ignored and it just goes with your SoC charge target.

What now happens is. During your chosen charge window the battery will see what to charge to and if it’s below this, it will charge.

If it’s above it then nothing will happen.

Unlike discharge where during the window the battery won’t support the house load in this case it will and will still operate in eco mode.

As it’s effectively summer (because of my shoulder months) it sets the soc to 25%. My charge window is between 00:35 and 05:15 it starts. The soc is high so doesn’t charge but still powers the house.

As a side note. This is how the force charge via the app works. It sets the Soc to 100%. Sets a charge window from midnight to midnight and enables charge target. When you set it to return to normal operation it sets charge slot 1 back to what you had previously.