Anker app can get nearly realtime data over cloud based mqtt

[p4i1ipp]

When you open the Battery page in the app you get realtime data over solarpower, chargingpower and homefeed power.
You can see sometimes a short (debug?) message in the app connecting to an MQTT Broker.
I've sniffed the traffic from the App and can see, that it connects to the same MQTT-Broker the solarbank does (aiot-mqtt-eu.anker.com) over the same port 8883.
As we already know the battery did the auth via mTLS with a certificate which CN ist the battery serial number.
So, the app did not have such a seriel - and i don't think Anker will put a private key in an app.
Further thinking is, that the broker maybe can be accessed with with app credentials reading the live data?
Maybe someone else has done some research on this part?

Greetings, Phil

[thomluther]

Hi @p4i1ipp
Why shouldn't the App use the device SN as well for the MQTT connection?
I know there has been an Api endpoint to query the mqtt setup which listed various certificates.
However, this endpoint was removed, probably due to security reasons.

If someone is able to get the MQTT connection to work for real time device data, that would be great.
That may also provide battery temp information, which is not provided via Api.

[p4i1ipp]

Hi @thomluther,

i did a deep dive into the android app with some debugging attached.
Can you try call the API with this path: /app/devicemanage/get_user_mqtt_info

Phil

[thomluther]

Hi @p4i1ipp
It throws still an error for non existing endpoint. I think it was removed from the cloud Api as said earlier. You may still find fragments in the app.

Testing Solix API:
Request Error: 404, message='Not Found', url=URL('https://ankerpower-api-eu.anker.com/power_service/v1/app/devicemanage/get_user_mqtt_info')
Response Text: 404 page not found

[p4i1ipp]

Hi @thomluther,

the path the app uses don'r prefix it with "/power_service/v1/" - it was called directly:
"url": "https://3.19.49.144/app/devicemanage/get_user_mqtt_info",
(IP is from US-Cloud, not EU)

[thomluther]

Ah ok, That works indeed. Shows a couple of my certificates.
So you can use that for your own with the test module:
CONSOLE.info(json.dumps((await myapi.request("post", "app/devicemanage/get_user_mqtt_info",json={})), indent=2))

[p4i1ipp]

I'm able to connect to the MQTT Service after some try and error. They do some nasty things not specified in the MQTT5 protocol.
Now the fun part begins: Which Topics they subscribe to?
Currently my guesses are all wrong.

[thomluther]

I have no clue. They do nasty things with the Api fields too, having different meanings and no values in special situations....
MQTT is a completely different construction place I'm not going to start with :-)
Still busy with getting normal App features into the HA integration

[thomluther]

Hi
That looks pretty much the same as the response of the scene_info Api query.

I assume the MQTT interface is used by the end devices to transmit their data to the cloud, typically in 1 min intervals.
The real time data you see in the app in the device details are most likely via BT interface, since you can see them also when Wifi is disconnected. Also I know from other users that they manage the device only by BT connection.

So principally I don't think you will get additional data from the MQTT interface, they are all available in the cloud via the Api.

And for temperature and real time device data, you would need to implement a BT interface...

[p4i1ipp]

I've the livedata and temperature also when not anyway near the battery, so i doubt it is transfered via BT.
The charm of getting the MQTT running is more frequent data than every 60 seconds,, as this is way to slow for zero-grid-feeding.

I'll post an update as soon as i get this any further.

[stamak]

Hi here
Thx for your efforts.
Trying to get metrics for SOLIX C1000 using API
Actually data': {'site_list': []} is empty when calling API endpoint power_service/v1/site/get_site_lis
As I understand I can not get data with help of the scene_info Api query

Also trying to get it via MQTT with help of paho-mqtt library using data getting API app/devicemanage/get_user_mqtt_info

Currently can getting Not authorized, when trying to configure mTLS
Also trying to understand how to figure out topic name, I am assuming it thing_name

Would appreciate any help :)

[stamak]

Script python solarbank_monitor.py provides next info:

Sites: 0,  Devices: 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Device         : SOLIX C1000(X)          Alias         : SOLIX C1000(X)
Serialnumber   : XXXXXXXXXXXX        Admin         : NO
System         : Unknown  (Site ID: )
Wifi SSID      :
Wifi state     : Online                  Signal        :  --- %
No Solarbank, Inverter or Smartreader device, further device details will be skipped
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[thomluther]

This script is only using the cloud Api. As you can follow in this thread, the cloud Api has almost no information about standalone deviced. You can run the export_system script against your owner account and review the output files. Only the bind and related devices will show some metrics about your stand alone device such as PPS.
And this is what you see in the solarbank monitor tool.

Usage data is only available for devices configured to a power system (site in the Api).
View the site rules output, there you can see which site types are possible and what the main device is for each site type.
Without the main device type, you cannot configure a power system at all.

But even if PPS are attached to a main device type (e.g. F3800 attached to a power panel #117) there may be no usage data provided to the cloud by the devices.

There is nothing of the existing Api tools or scripts you can re-use for the mqtt server. That is something you have to explore and build from scratch.