Hey r/amberelectric,
TL;DR: I built a native iOS/Android battery automation app for Amber customers and I’m looking for a small beta group, especially Sigenergy, FoxESS, and PW2 owners.
I’ve been building a battery automation app for Amber customers called GridSentinel. It’s a solo project, currently ready for testing through Apple TestFlight and Google Play internal testing.
I started building it after seeing a few Amber battery owners frustrated by automation decisions they couldn’t inspect or override. Automation is still the point. I wanted something where the owner sets the thresholds, can see the reasoning, and can pause, override, or disconnect when they want to.
GridSentinel watches Amber’s live wholesale prices every 5 minutes and issues commands to your battery based on thresholds you set: export above your sell threshold, charge below your buy threshold, and curtail when feed-in goes negative. Every mode change is logged in plain English, and there’s a one-tap manual override for 15, 30, or 60 minutes.
I’m keeping the beta small so I can work closely with early testers. If something feels confusing, missing, or annoying to use, I’d genuinely like to hear about it. Good feedback will help shape what I build next.
I’m particularly looking for Sigenergy owners who are already unenrolled from SmartShift or willing to start the unenrolment process, FoxESS owners who can generate a FoxESS Cloud API key from their own account, and Tesla Powerwall owners, especially PW2. I’m already running it on my own PW3.
Safety guardrails I’ve built in:
- User-set reserve limit, default 20%, so the app won’t export below your chosen floor
- Grid charging only happens below your buy threshold, default 0c unless you change it
- Auto-pause if GridSentinel can’t read prices or battery status reliably
- Pause stops automation, and disconnect removes the battery connection entirely
- Battery credentials and Amber API keys are encrypted at rest and can be removed any time by disconnecting in the app
A few honest caveats:
- It’s beta. It’s running cleanly on my own Powerwall 3, but expect some rough edges.
- The Sigenergy and FoxESS integrations are built, but I haven’t had them running on real systems yet. That’s the specific gap I need beta testers to help close.
- SmartShift and GridSentinel can’t run on the same battery at the same time.
- Amber is still the retailer. GridSentinel only handles dispatch logic on top.
If you're interested, feel free to send me a DM. Just include your battery brand/model, whether you’re on iOS or Android, and the email I should invite through Apple TestFlight or Google Play internal testing
I’ll send invites individually and keep the first group small while feedback comes in.