Projects/Lidl Balkonkraftwerk Hacking
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| Project Lidl Balkonkraftwerk Hacking | |
| Naam | Lidl Balkonkraftwerk Hacking |
| Beschrijving | ESP32 hacking |
| Website | https://www.lidl.nl/p/tronic-balkon-zonnepanelen-starterset-400-w/p100387536 |
| Start | 2025-10-25 |
| Contact | Polyfloyd |
| Status | Alpha |
I bought a solar power set from the Lidl in Germany for just 200 euros. A decent deal for 370 Wp panels, a microinverter and some mounting brackets.
On problem: the microinverter runs Tuya, which is notoriously connected to Chinese clouds. The inverter can be used without setting up network connectivity and the Tuya app, but I would like to have stats from this device in Home Assistant.
So let's hack it!
Teardown
The OEM manufacturer and model is EWAY-VNV6204. Eway makes more power electronics such as car chargers. There are a couple more models in this series such as the EWAY-VNV6208 where the last number corresponds to the wattage.
What is really neat is that the MCU responsible for network connectivity is an ESP32-C3 which I am familiar with. Moreover, it has a 4-pin header right next to it which is most likely UART and a physical push button labeled "BURN" which may very well be a button to put the ESP in flashing mode.
Getting In
The pad on the UART header farthest from the ESP is connected to a large copper plane. With a continuity test from a multimeter I was able to conclude that this is a ground plane. The two middle pins have thin traces leading to the ESP which means that these are the RX/TX lines. The last pad is probably VCC, I did not measure it.
The board is powered from the DC/solar side. The Lidl Tuya app reports the DC voltage when the sun is hitting the panels, which usually is around 26 volts in slightly overcast weather conditions. The EWAY specs state that the maximum input voltage for this device is 60 volts. Hooking up some probes to the neatly exposed cable connections to a lab power supply with 20V made the board power up.