My solar monitoring in the 1st week (or so)
I have an Eversolar TL1500AS inverter and a PMU.
I’ve been using a Current Cost “Classic” for over two years to monitor my house usage. I’ve been logging the data from that daily using Dale Lane’s “currentcost” software. I have a licence for the Techtoniq software but don’t use it as it really needs a PC on all the time which defeated the purpose IMHO. ( http://wotid.com/target4000/index.html )
I bought a Current Cost EnviR and Bridge for my inverter and linked it to the Current Cost dashboard and Google Power meter so I could monitor the system where ever and when ever I wanted.
But there is a BIG drawback using the EnviR. The final EMC filter in the inverter is after the AC anti islanding disconnect contactor. I’m not sure what it consists of, probably an inductor and a capacitor network and it draws current while the Utility AC is on. I’ve not put my actual watt meter on it, but I imagine the wattages is very, very low. It’s just the “apparent” power (VA) registers 35W 24/7. The “Real” power (W) would be negligible.
Seeing as the Current Cost device is really just an ammeter calibrated to display W and calculate kWh it registers apparent power. So when the unit is sleeping, the Current Cost Dashboard and the Google powermeter are both showing an always on load of 35W which is inaccurate.
The other thing about the current Cost dashboard is that it updates every 5 minutes and the Google Powermeter updates every 10 minutes, I wanted better resolution than that. (You don’t need a bridge and can run the Current Cost software on your PC, but you need it on while the Solar System is generating. I want to export as much as I can and use the minimum amount of power as possible while the Solar is working)
(Being a sparky and know the ins and outs of VA, W and Power factor and learnt a lot about the Current Cost device from using it for over 2 years, logging it and comparing it to my actual electricity bill – I tried the EnviR but it didn’t cut it for me, but having said that, it’s still hooked up and I look at the graphs all the time).
So to continue – I bought an Eversolar PMU
It came with a disk that had AS Control V1.03 Build 102 on it. I installed it and the software could see the inverter via the PMU but would not connect to it. After mucking around with it for hours I sent a nasty email off and was surprised when I got a phone call from a Chinese man 10 minutes later. I couldn’t understand him very well and said I ]would send another email wit hpictures, so I grabbed some screen shots to show him what was going on. After a few emails and a few suggestions it still wouldn’t work. I tried the software on 4 different machines, my W7 laptop, my XP (SP3) laptop and 2 desktops to try and confirm it wasn’t a machine problem. I calmed down a bit when I discovered the PMU had lots of data in it from the inverter, I just couldn’t access it via AS Control (unless I did an import and just looked at the table).
In the end I was emailed AS Control V1.03 Build 118 and it worked just fine.
Both versions have some quirks. Like after setting the time in the PMU, the program becomes non responsive and has to be shut down and re-opened, same when changing the sampling interval. The changes happen OK, just AS Control stops working. I also attacked the English language ini file and fixed a couple of typos that annoyed me 🙂
The data is very comprehensive.
I created a dynamic dns account on dyndns.org and set it up in my router, put the PMU in the DMZ. Entered the dyndns address into the PMU (The AS Control software cracked it when I changed the port to 80, but it worked anyway. I have since changed it back to port 8080). One thing I do have to do when I get a new IP is remove the connection and then hit add again so AS Control grabs the new IP. It doesn’t check at each start up. It easy to know when to do it as the thing won’t connect.
I installed AS Control on my desktop computer at work and can monitor the system from there (and compare it to the Currentcost Dashboard and Google Powermeter).
Another thing, the data on the computer is only the data captured while it is connected to the PMU. The PMU does have all the data though. So I created a batch file that FTP’s into the PMU and copies the data to my computer, so after running the batch file and opening AS Control my computer has the latest data. My batch file also copies the files to a directory in my Dropbox account so I can grab them out of that at work. I can FTP into the PMU from a remote site once I disabled the FTP blocking rule on my router and put the PMU in the DMZ.
If anyone wants the batch file sing out.
(My main PC is my W7 laptop. AS Control installs to Program files, this is where it tries to write the data files too. W7 doesn’t like this, so creates a nearly identical file structure in C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\AS Control\HistLog this is where my batch file copies the data files to.) I’ve not tried installing AS Control to some other folder that W7 would probably allow free R/W access).
I’ve bloody waffled too much – I’m happy with my PMU. (I wish it was compatible with PVOutput.org though). I just manually enter my daily figures.
14 Comments to My solar monitoring in the 1st week (or so)
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Steve I am having the same problem you experienced with the AS Control V1.03 Build 102, I can see, PING, FTP to the PMU but it doesn’t communicate with the Solar Inverter
“EverSolar TL5400”.
Are you able to send me a copy of the “AS Control V1.03 Build 118”.
Thanks in anticipation.
Regards
Barry
Hi Barry, have a look here >> http://wotid.com/pvsolar/ Good luck.
Steve.
Steve
Thanks for your prompt response, very impressed.
I have downloaded the latest AS-Control and now the PMU is communicating with the Inverter.
The next hurdle is to have an understanding of the structure of the data buried in the DAT file available with the FTP download.
Are you able to indicate the structure.
My undersatnding there is a 64 or so byte header and then there is repeating 48 byte block of binary data.
Is this something you can help me with….
Thanks again.
Regards
Barry Hart
Steve
Thanks for your prompt response, very impressed.
I have downloaded the latest AS-Control and now the PMU is communicating with the Inverter.
The next hurdle is to have an understanding of the structure of the data buried in the DAT file available with the FTP download.
Are you able to indicate the structure.
My undersatnding there is a 64 or so byte header and then there is repeating 48 byte block of binary data.
Is this something you can help me with….
Thanks again.
Regards
Barry Hart
Hi again Barry,
I haven’t attempted to do anything with the .dat files on the PMU other than copy them to my laptop daily. I can’t help you there sorry.
Steve.
Steve
Thanks…
Regards
Barry Hart
Steve, I have seen some reference to the “Ever-solar RS485 protocol”
Would you mind sending me a link to download this document.
At this stage I am using a PMU but in the fullness of time I would like to be able to iterrogate the inverter directly with a RS-485 converter..
Also is it possible with a hub etc. to be able to have the PMU and Solar-Eye both operating reading the inverter…
Thanks….
P.S. Are you in Brisbane???
Regards
Barry Hart
Hi again Barry, the protcol document is in the same directory on my server as the PMU software http://wotid.com/pvsolar/
Because the inverter / PMU / Solar eye are all on an RS-485 bus, I can see no reason why the Solar-Eye and PMU couldn’t be connected at the same time in the same chain. But I’ve not tried it or know of anyone that has.
(I’m in Melbourne).
Regards,
Steve.
Steve
Prompt as usual, thanks for the protocol stuff….
I tried both the units connected on one occasion but only the first one connected being a PMU worked.
I will try it again.
Thanks again
Barry Hart
Steve
Today I connected the Solar-Eye and it was reporting the inverter status, then I connected the PMU and when it was operational the Solar-Eye went off line.
I guess only one RS-485 device at a time…
On the otherhand the PMU records whenever it is connected to the inverter, exactly as you predicted…
Thanks…
Regards
Barry Hart
You’ve saved me from an expensive mistake, I was thinking of buying a solar-eye as well. It must be that they’re both masters or something. Multiple inverters work fine with the one PMU on the one RS-485 bus.
Steve.
Steve
My understanding is that there can only be one “Master” interrogating the inverter at any time.
What is interesting is that the Solar Eye was connected and operational when the PMU came on line and the PMU imediately took control.
I am hopeful one day I will be able to connect both devices via some sort of RS-485 hub…..
After my inverter was installed I wired up a three port RJ-45 panel with two connections to the inverter RS-485 sockets and the third RJ-45 connected to my network switch.
With this arrangement it is very simple to alter the connections.
Regards
Barry Hart
Steve,
Wondering if you have any experience with setting up a Solar Eye to receive comms from a Solar Bee. I have just got my inverter up and running, connected to the Solar Bee, and went to try to connect it to the Solar Eye, but absolutely no data.
The Solar Eye says it’s connected,but no dat yet.
The instructions aren’t all that well written, so I might have missed out on a step or two?
Any thoughts?
Unfortunately I don’t have any experience with the Solar eye & Bee set-up at all Peter. Most of what I know is from this document http://wotid.com/pvsolar/eversolar_solar_eye.pdf the rest I know because Barry let me know the PMU and Solar Eye set-up can’t co-exist.
Sorry,
Steve.