Fix crash when charge/discharge time string is malformed

[Copilot]

time_string_to_stamp() raised an unhandled ValueError when the inverter returned an out-of-range time like '14:70:00', crashing update_status() entirely instead of recovering gracefully.

Changes

• utils.py — time_string_to_stamp(): wrap datetime.strptime in try/except ValueError; return None on failure with a warning print. The existing None-guards in inverter.py already set safe defaults (00:00:00) and log a warning, so no further changes are needed there.

# Before
return datetime.strptime(time_string, "%H:%M:%S")  # raises ValueError on e.g. '14:70:00'

# After
try:
    return datetime.strptime(time_string, "%H:%M:%S")
except ValueError:
    print("WARN: time_string_to_stamp: invalid time string '{}', returning None".format(time_string))
    return None

• fetch.py: removed the now-redundant try/except (ValueError, TypeError) blocks around time_string_to_stamp() calls in the energy rates loader, replacing them with None checks. Since time_string_to_stamp() now handles ValueError internally and returns None, the old exception handlers would never have triggered. The error logging and continue behaviour are preserved exactly.

• tests/test_inverter.py: add test_charge_window_invalid_format_time and test_discharge_window_invalid_format_time covering the out-of-range minutes case ('14:70:00'), complementing the existing 'unknown' tests.

[springfall2008]

@copilot what about the other call sits of time_string_to_stamp in fetch.py, don't we need to remove the try/except around those and check for None instead?

[Copilot]

@copilot what about the other call sits of time_string_to_stamp in fetch.py, don't we need to remove the try/except around those and check for None instead?

Done in b4661df. The two try/except (ValueError, TypeError) blocks around time_string_to_stamp() calls in fetch.py have been replaced with None checks — since the function now handles ValueError internally and returns None, those exception handlers would never have fired. The log message and continue behaviour are preserved exactly.

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[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR hardens Predbat’s time parsing so malformed inverter-provided schedule strings (e.g. 14:70:00) don’t crash inverter status updates, and it aligns rate-loading code to treat bad times as “missing” rather than exceptional.

Changes:

• Update time_string_to_stamp() to catch malformed time strings and return None.
• Simplify fetch.basic_rates() by removing redundant exception handling and relying on None checks.
• Add inverter tests covering out-of-range minute values for charge/discharge schedule times.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 3 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

File	Description
apps/predbat/utils.py	Wraps datetime.strptime() to avoid crashing on invalid time strings (but currently only catches ValueError).
apps/predbat/fetch.py	Replaces try/except around time_string_to_stamp() with None checks when parsing rate windows.
apps/predbat/tests/test_inverter.py	Adds regression tests for invalid time values (14:70:00) in charge/discharge windows and wires them into the inverter test runner.

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

apps/predbat/utils.py:784

• The warning uses print(), which bypasses Predbat's normal logging (self.log() / record_status) and can become noisy because many callers already log a warning when time_string_to_stamp() returns None (so this can double-log). Prefer returning None without printing, or route the warning through the project's logging mechanism if available.

        return datetime.strptime(time_string, "%H:%M:%S")
    except ValueError:
        print("WARN: time_string_to_stamp: invalid time string '{}', returning None".format(time_string))
        return None