SAFETY-13: the output freeze gets an exit, and only where it needs one
checks / unit (pull_request) Successful in 5m30s

While the loop is frozen the command's magnitude may fall but never rise. At
prev_w == 0 there is no magnitude left to fall, so a charge cannot START. That
refusal is deliberate and it is kept: the inverter reporting power we did not
command means another writer is on the actuator, which is the §1.5 non-goal.
What it did not have was an END - nothing cleared it but the other writer
leaving.

Reproduced on release/1.0 @ c8dcb38, at the live install's shape (max_w 5000,
slew_w 400, target_grid_w -10), with another writer holding the pack at +700 W.
The route is not the obvious one: entering from an export, the slew limit moves
the command off zero before the counter reaches 3. It is entered from the
DEADBAND - a site resting at its target counts saturated cycles while nothing is
wrong - and 0 W is then a fixed point: a 2 kW export arriving afterwards leaves
the command at exactly 0.0 W on every subsequent cycle.

And prev_w == 0 is not where it stops. The same tuning pins at -800 W against
its own integrator standing at -2388 W, with the same absence of an exit. So the
change is written against the output freeze, not against a special case of it.

THE DECISION IS WHICH FREEZES GET AN EXIT, NOT HOW LONG THE BLOCK LASTS.

  - A divergence a LIMIT could have produced - the inverter doing less than the
    command, in the command's own direction - clears itself, because the command
    is pinned at something the inverter can reach. No exit. release/1.0
    unchanged, and asserted so: a curtailed inverter is never released over 30
    cycles.
  - A divergence a limit could NOT have produced - overshooting the command, or
    the opposite sign - cannot clear itself, because clearing it needs the
    inverter to track OUR command. That one releases.

unasked_power() is that predicate and it is physical, not statistical: a limit
can only make the inverter do less, in the command's own direction, so
everything a limit can produce lies in the interval spanned by 0 and prev_w
widened by saturation_w. At prev_w == 0 it IS the saturation test, which is
exactly why the zero case is the one that strands.

The bound is not a new number. SETTLE_CYCLES = ceil(PLANT_SETTLE_S /
LOOP_TICK_S) = 9, SAFETY-39's two measured constants and the reciprocal of
SLEW_RAIL_FRAC: a divergence still standing after the plant's own settling time
is not this plant catching up. _SAT_COUNT_CAP is written as SETTLE_CYCLES + 1;
its value is unchanged at 10.

RELEASING THE OUTPUT FREEZE DOES NOT UNFREEZE THE LOOP, which is what makes this
bounded. The integrator freeze is untouched, so a released cycle can only move
the command toward an accumulator that stopped accumulating, by at most one slew
step, and never past it - swept over 107 625 released states. On the run above
the command starts on the ninth saturated cycle and settles at -1190 W against a
frozen integrator of -1194 W, not at the 5000 W rail.

Graded against a transcription of release/1.0 over the 3024-case sweep, which
was NOT taught the new rule: 2592 cases bit-identical, 432 releases, and 27 of
those change the command - every one a charge from prev_w == 0 that release/1.0
refused to start.

SAFETY-04's deliberate assertion is kept rather than inverted: its fixture sits
below the bound, so it still asserts the block, and the release is asserted
beside it on the other side of the bound.

Coverage audit re-measured, same mutation form, __pycache__ purged: output
freeze 2 -> 11 (2 reproduced on a pristine c8dcb38 first), the exit 4,
unasked_power 6.

saturation_cycles at 9 or 10 removes the block entirely, because the freeze
cannot engage before its own exit is due. Not refused at startup; asserted in
the tests and written in DOCS.md.

Nothing was measured on two inverters: inverter B does not physically exist
(NOTES.md §1.1b) and sim/plantsim.py:216 INVERTER_B is INVERTER_A copied with
measured=False. The N=2 escalation is stated from the code (actual_w is
site_batt_w, the SUM) and is labelled as such.

22/22 test files pass in goodwe-addon-ci, mounted :ro, bytecode purged first.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01BwRLw7eKYj2byVdwB6kbjU
This commit is contained in:
2026-09-06 13:56:26 +02:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 5
parent c8dcb38a95
commit 6c4565659b
5 changed files with 761 additions and 13 deletions
+48 -1
View File
@@ -473,7 +473,7 @@ behind it would trip the firmware watchdog on a system that is working fine.
| `target_grid_w` | -10 | What the meter should rest at. Negative = a slight export |
| `step_w` | 10 | Quantisation |
| `saturation_w` | 500 | Divergence that counts as "the inverter is at a limit" |
| `saturation_cycles` | 3 | How many consecutive cycles before freezing. A cycle is one meter update or `cycle_floor_s`, whichever comes first - see the note below. **Do not set to 1** |
| `saturation_cycles` | 3 | How many consecutive cycles before freezing. A cycle is one meter update or `cycle_floor_s`, whichever comes first - see the note below. **Do not set to 1**, and **do not set it to 9 or 10** either: at 9 the freeze cannot engage before its own exit is due, so the no-start block stops existing (SAFETY-13, below) |
| `integrator_max_w` | 0 | Bound on the loop's accumulator, and 0 means "same as `max_w`". Caps how much stale error can be waiting to unwind when the sign flips. **Do not raise it above `max_w`** - the output clamp already bounds what is commanded, so the only thing extra headroom buys is more cycles of wrong-direction power after every saturation event. Lowering it below `max_w` is the useful direction |
| `heartbeat_s` | 10 | Refresh interval; must stay well under the firmware watchdog |
| `cycle_floor_s` | 15 | The longest the loop may go without evaluating. A deadline on the gap between cycles, reset by every cycle — on a healthy meter it never elapses and changes nothing. Raise it only if your meter is slower than ~10 s; it must stay under `meter_max_age_s`, past which there is no reading to evaluate anyway |
@@ -628,6 +628,53 @@ correct toward that wrong value instead of holding a stale command. It is bounde
happened to a lying meter whose value merely jittered — bit-exact repetition was never a
safety property.
#### When the freeze lets go, and when it deliberately never does (SAFETY-13)
While the loop is frozen the command's **magnitude may fall but never rise**. That is
the anti-windup rule, and at `prev_w == 0` it reads as a refusal to *start*: with
nothing commanded there is no magnitude left to fall, so a charge cannot begin. That
refusal is deliberate. Commanding 0 W while the inverter reports hundreds of watts
means something is driving the actuator that this add-on did not ask, and starting to
push power the other way into it is how two controllers end up fighting over one
actuator — the configuration §1.5 of the specification rules out.
**What was missing was an end to it.** Nothing cleared the block: not the error growing,
not the integrator moving, not time. The exit is now explicit, and *which* freezes get
one is the decision:
| the inverter is… | can it clear itself? | what happens now |
|---|---|---|
| doing **less** than the command, in the command's own direction — a cold pack, a curtailment, an export cap | **yes.** The command is pinned at something the inverter can reach, so it catches up and the freeze clears | unchanged: frozen for as long as it lasts, with no exit |
| doing something **outside** what the command can explain — overshooting it, or the opposite sign | **no.** Clearing the freeze needs the inverter to track *our* command, and the other writer is what stops it | the freeze releases once the divergence has outlasted the plant that could otherwise have explained it |
The second row's threshold is not a new number. `PLANT_SETTLE_S` (18 s, measured) is how
long this plant takes to settle, so a divergence still standing after that is not this
plant catching up; at the measured 2 s meter tick that is **9 cycles**, which is the
same relationship the slew limit already uses (`control.py`, `SETTLE_CYCLES`).
**Releasing the output freeze does not unfreeze the loop.** The *integrator* freeze is
untouched, so the command is free to move only as far as an accumulator that stopped
accumulating cycles ago, one slew step per cycle. Measured on the simulator at the live
install's shape (`max_w 5000`, `slew_w 400`, `target_grid_w -10`), with another writer
holding the pack at +700 W and 2 kW of export standing: the command holds at 0 W while
the counter climbs, starts at the ninth saturated cycle, and settles at **−1190 W**
against a frozen integrator of −1194 W — not at the 5000 W rail. Before this change the
same run held 0.0 W on every cycle, for as long as the other writer stayed.
⚠️ **The site still does not reach its target in that state, and it is not supposed
to.** What the exit buys is that the battery stops being idle while the site exports;
what it does not buy is correct regulation against an actuator somebody else is also
writing to. A standing grid error with another writer on the bus is the symptom of a
configuration this add-on refuses to support, not a tuning problem. If you see
`freeze-released` in the action log, look for the second writer.
⚠️ **One configuration removes the block entirely, silently.** `saturation_cycles` is
accepted up to 10. Set it at or above 9 and the freeze does not engage until the bound
has already passed, so the no-start block never happens at all. This is not refused at
startup — a controller that will not boot over a tuning nuance is worse than the nuance
— but it is why the default is 3 and why the table above says **do not set to 1** at one
end and leaves you this note at the other.
#### Why `target_grid_w` is not zero
The deadband is a one-way ratchet: any resting point inside it holds until