TigoTell

Tigo CCA/TAP sniffer built atop Waveshare ESP32-S3-RS485-CAN.

Non-intrusively monitors communication between Tigo Cloud Connect Advanced (CCA) and Tigo Access Point (TAP) or solar modules to extract real-time telemetry data.

📸 Overview

TigoTell passively listens to the RS485 communication lines of your Tigo solar installation. By sniffing the packets exchanged between the CCA and the TAP, it decodes module-level power statistics, discovering nodes automatically without interfering with the proprietary network. This allows you to log fine-grained solar data into databases like InfluxDB while the official hardware remains unaware.

✨ Features

• Passive Sniffing
  Safe, receive-only RS485 monitoring without disrupting existing communications.
• Data Parsing
  Decodes Tigo PowerData, Announce, and NodeTable frames (Voltage, Current, Temperature, Duty Cycle, RSSI, etc.).
• InfluxDB Integration
  Streams parsed telemetry directly to an InfluxDB instance over UDP line-protocol.
• REST APIs
  Live JSON endpoints for power data, system discovery statistics, and parser health (/json and /version).
• WebSerial Debugging
  Built-in web-based serial console.
• OTA Updates
  Fast and secure Over-The-Air firmware updates using ElegantOTA.
• WiFi Management
  AP-based initial setup for seamless network provisioning utilizing NetWizard.

📋 Requirements

Hardware

• Base Board
  Waveshare ESP32-S3-RS485-CAN (or a comparable ESP32-S3 board with an RS485 transceiver).
• Communications Wiring
  Connection to the RS485 A and B lines between the Tigo CCA and TAP.
• Power
  Can usually be run off the same power supply as the Tigo CCA.

Software / Dependencies

• pioarduino Core (CLI) or VSCode IDE extension.
• (Optional) An InfluxDB and/or Telegraf instance (configured to receive UDP datagrams) if you wish to record time-series metrics.

🚀 Getting Started

1. Configuration

Clone the repository and prepare the required configuration files:

git clone https://github.com/gongloo/TigoTell.git
cd TigoTell

Copy the example configuration files and edit them to match your setup:

cp src/config.example.h src/config.h
cp platformio_upload.example.ini platformio_upload.ini

• In src/config.h, uncomment and define your InfluxDB hostname/IP, port, and the exact pins your RS485 transceiver uses (defaults are typically TX=17, RX=18, EN=21).
• In platformio_upload.ini, configure your OTA credentials (custom_username and custom_password).

2. Build and Flash

Use pioarduino to compile the firmware and flash it via USB:

pio run -e esp32-s3-devkitm-1 -t upload

Important

For the initial flash over USB, Over-The-Air (OTA) updates will not be available yet. You must comment out the upload_protocol = custom line in platformio.ini to force a USB upload instead of attempting an OTA update. You can uncomment it again for future OTA flashes.

Note

Make sure to also run the uploadfs target if LittleFS requires a fresh image, although normal firmware updates bundle necessary files.*

3. Network Provisioning

1. Once flashed, the ESP32 will broadcast a WiFi Access Point named TigoTell.
2. Connect to this network on your phone or computer.
3. A captive portal should appear (or navigate to 192.168.4.1).
4. Enter your local WiFi credentials to connect the device to your network.

4. Usage

Once connected to your local network, you can access the device in your browser via mdns (http://TigoTell.local) or its assigned IP address.

• /json: Returns a snapshot of all discovered nodes and their latest parsed data, including system stats.
• /version: Returns the current firmware version and build timestamp.
• /update: Access the ElegantOTA firmware update portal.
• /webserial: View live serial log output.

🙏 Credits & Acknowledgments

This project stands on the shoulders of the incredible reverse-engineering work done by the community. A massive thank you to the following projects which provided the foundation for decoding the Tigo protocols:

• willglynn/taptap: Excellent documentation and implementation of the Tigo wireless protocol.
• tictactom/tigo_server: Fundamental research and parsing logic for the Tigo CCA/TAP communications.
• Google Gemini: For AI pair-programming assistance in building and structuring this project!
• Google Material Design Icons: Used for the web dashboard visualization (licensed under the Apache License 2.0).