Limitations

Helio is small on purpose. Here's what it doesn't do, so you know before you set it up.

Hardware and cloud

• Eybond + ShineMonitor only. Helio talks to the ShineMonitor cloud. Systems on Solarman, Growatt ShinePhone, SolisCloud, Sungrow iSolarCloud, Huawei FusionSolar and others are not supported yet.
• Unofficial API. Helio uses the same web API that shinemonitor.com uses, with your login. It isn't a published partner API, so ShineMonitor could change it without notice. The endpoint, key and parameters are configurable for that reason.
• Depends on the cloud. No internet at home, or ShineMonitor down, means no new data in Helio. Helio doesn't talk to the stick or inverter directly.
• 5-minute resolution. The stick reports roughly every 5 minutes, so the curve can't show shorter spikes or dips.

Data

• Generation only. Helio shows what your panels produce. It doesn't know your home's consumption, grid import, or grid export, because a standard inverter doesn't measure them.
• Savings are a range, not a bill. Without consumption data Helio can't know how many units you used versus exported. See Accuracy and savings.
• No history before the stick was online. Daily and monthly values only exist from the day the stick first connected. Lifetime total is the exception: it comes from the inverter's own counter.
• No battery views. Hybrid and battery systems show generation only, with no state of charge, charge/discharge or backup time.
• One plant per deployment. Several plants means several deployments, each with its own SHINE_PLANT_ID.
• No exports or alerts yet. No CSV download, no email or WhatsApp alerts when generation drops.

Accounts and security

• One shared dashboard login. Everyone uses the same DASH_USER / DASH_PASSWORD; there are no per-person accounts or roles.
• Best-effort brute-force protection. Wrong passwords are slowed down and an IP is locked out after 5 tries for 15 minutes, but on serverless hosts each instance keeps its own counter, so the lockout isn't global. Use a strong password. See Security.
• Your ShineMonitor password lives in your host's settings. It's never sent to browsers, but anyone with access to your Vercel project can read it.

Product

• English only. Translations are welcome.
• Not affiliated with anyone. No support from Eybond, ShineMonitor, SmartClient, or any inverter brand. Issues go to this repo.

Most of these are on the contribution wishlist.