Installation Guide

Installation Guide

This guide walks you through installing the Monitor My Solar integration in Home Assistant.

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure you have:

1. ✅ Monitor My Solar Dongle (v3.0.0+ firmware)
2. ✅ Home Assistant (2024.1.0 or newer)
3. ✅ MQTT Broker (Mosquitto recommended)
4. ✅ HACS (Home Assistant Community Store)

Step 1: Install MQTT Broker

If you don't have an MQTT broker installed:

1. Go to Settings → Add-ons → Add-on Store
2. Search for "Mosquitto broker"
3. Click Install
4. Start the add-on
5. Go to Configuration tab and add a user:

logins:
  - username: mqtt_user
    password: your_secure_password

Step 2: Configure MQTT Integration

1. Go to Settings → Devices & Services
2. Click + Add Integration
3. Search for "MQTT"
4. Enter your broker details:
   • Broker: localhost (if using Mosquitto add-on)
   • Port: 1883
   • Username & Password (from Step 1)

Step 3: Install via HACS

Option A: HACS Default Repository

1. Open HACS
2. Click Integrations
3. Click + Explore & Download Repositories
4. Search for "Monitor My Solar"
5. Click Download
6. Select the latest version
7. Click Download
8. Restart Home Assistant

Option B: Manual HACS Installation

1. Open HACS
2. Click Integrations
3. Click the 3 dots menu → Custom repositories
4. Add repository:
   • URL: https://github.com/Monitor-My-Solar/monitormysolar
   • Category: Integration
5. Click Add
6. Search for "Monitor My Solar" and install

Step 4: Manual Installation (Alternative)

If not using HACS:

1. Download the latest release from GitHub
2. Extract the monitormysolar folder
3. Copy to custom_components directory:

# Navigate to your Home Assistant config directory
cd /config

# Create custom_components if it doesn't exist
mkdir -p custom_components

# Copy the integration
cp -r monitormysolar custom_components/

4. Restart Home Assistant

Step 5: Add the Integration

1. Go to Settings → Devices & Services
2. Click + Add Integration
3. Search for "Monitor My Solar"
4. Follow the configuration wizard

Next Steps

• Initial Setup - Configure your first dongle
• Multi-Inverter Setup - Add additional inverters
• GridBoss Configuration - Enable GridBoss features

Troubleshooting Installation

Integration Not Found

• Ensure you've restarted Home Assistant after installation
• Check the custom_components directory structure
• Verify no errors in Home Assistant logs

HACS Issues

• Update HACS to the latest version
• Clear browser cache
• Try manual installation method

Permission Errors

• Ensure proper file permissions:

chmod -R 755 custom_components/monitormysolar

Updating the Integration

Via HACS

1. Open HACS → Integrations
2. Find "Monitor My Solar"
3. Click Update when available
4. Restart Home Assistant

Manual Update

1. Download new version
2. Replace the monitormysolar folder
3. Restart Home Assistant

⚠️ Important: Always check the Migration Guide when updating between major versions.