Solar Assistant Wish list, Bugs and Issues.

[robby]

Well that sucks! Sounds like a question to Sol-Ark about why it would do that?

I don't want to assume it's happening to everyone just yet, maybe it's just me. I am waiting for another Sol-Ark owner to chime in.

 

[robby]

Yours might need some coffee, mine is the outdoor model running ver6982 and well behaved.

Hello "Chime" are you sure that it is not locking up at all? I have had mine slow down and lockup and then a few hours later it is working again.
Going into the menus is the only way to fore it to work, but sometimes it does it on it's own. If your only casually monitoring you might not notice but I have a wall mounted tablet in my Kitchen that is constantly monitoring.
I ordered another USB converter and should be getting it soon. That is my last hope as I know that Sol-Ark has zero interest in helping me get Solar Assistant up and running.

 

[robby]

Yours might need some coffee, mine is the outdoor model running ver6982 and well behaved.

Another possible reason that yours might be running and mine is not is that you have very old firmware on your unit.
Mine is running 3.2.0.6 and the latest is 3.2.0.9

Yes it's confusing but I think they stopped sharing firmware with Deye about a year ago and they started with a new number system. My unit came with 69xx (Cannot remember exactly which xx) but I upgraded it.

I don't know how important Solar Assistant is to you but I can tell you that the Upgrade has two big benefits.

1) It increases the point where the Inverter leg will trip up by about an additional 500W per phase.

2) This was the one that got me. They tweaked the MPPT algorithms and man does it make a difference. I saw my panel output just go up from like 3100W just before the update to 15 minutes later being 3900W. The guy told me your going to see a big increase in the tracking efficiency and he was right. I did comparisons over the next few days and I always got a lot more power for any point in the day.

 

[Bigblockcutlass123]

It there an update out since December?

 

[robby]

It there an update out since December?

Not sure, I think it came out in Mid December. I have not moved to 3.2.0.9 because it mainly was a fix for the Generator starting and some other generator related issues. I don't have a Generator hooked to the Inverter so I skipped this one.

 

[Ted Katsouras]

Another possible reason that yours might be running and mine is not is that you have very old firmware on your unit.
Mine is running 3.2.0.6 and the latest is 3.2.0.9

Yes it's confusing but I think they stopped sharing firmware with Deye about a year ago and they started with a new number system. My unit came with 69xx (Cannot remember exactly which xx) but I upgraded it.

I don't know how important Solar Assistant is to you but I can tell you that the Upgrade has two big benefits.

1) It increases the point where the Inverter leg will trip up by about an additional 500W per phase.

2) This was the one that got me. They tweaked the MPPT algorithms and man does it make a difference. I saw my panel output just go up from like 3100W just before the update to 15 minutes later being 3900W. The guy told me your going to see a big increase in the tracking efficiency and he was right. I did comparisons over the next few days and I always got a lot more power for any point in the day.

I use the PC and iPhone to view the Solar Assistant so it is not displayd all the time. Sounds like a very good update for Sol-Ark I will update soon.

 

[Bigblockcutlass123]

I just need to be able to adjust the time so the charts are accurate. Just wasted time and money going to town to check for update witch there is none to correct this problem. NO. On the way home I shut the car off before shutting down the PI. So I really messed up the time and had to go back.

 

[Lt.Dan]

Mine has a problem that really bugs me. If there is any interuption in power or wifi to the Pi4 that im using, then it will go into a "Check connection" or whatever and won't reconnect to the inverters. I have to physically go out there, unplug the USB cables from the Pi to the inverters, then Solar Assistant will show up and I can go to settings, and "Disconnect" it from the inverters, then I can physically plug the inverters back in and "Connect" to them in the settings page again.

Huge pain in the ass. Why does it not try to auto-reconnect?

 

[robby]

Mine has a problem that really bugs me. If there is any interuption in power or wifi to the Pi4 that im using, then it will go into a "Check connection" or whatever and won't reconnect to the inverters. I have to physically go out there, unplug the USB cables from the Pi to the inverters, then Solar Assistant will show up and I can go to settings, and "Disconnect" it from the inverters, then I can physically plug the inverters back in and "Connect" to them in the settings page again.

Huge pain in the ass. Why does it not try to auto-reconnect?

Where are you seeing this message, on your tablet or PC?
Mine just shows a standard browser error message like "cannot connect to url address" or Solar Assistant sends some of the data but it's the data just before it lost contact with the Inverter.

I recently redid my Rj45 Crimp again and this time it has been working perfectly for 5 days. The wire that comes from this dongle is thinner than CAT 5 wire and I think the crimp either cuts the wire in two or misses most of it and makes a half assed connection. I got a new dongle but since this one is now working I will leave it until it acts up again.

 

[Lt.Dan]

Where are you seeing this message, on your tablet or PC?
Mine just shows a standard browser error message like "cannot connect to url address" or Solar Assistant sends some of the data but it's the data just before it lost contact with the Inverter.

I recently redid my Rj45 Crimp again and this time it has been working perfectly for 5 days. The wire that comes from this dongle is thinner than CAT 5 wire and I think the crimp either cuts the wire in two or misses most of it and makes a half assed connection. I got a new dongle but since this one is now working I will leave it until it acts up again.

I'm seeing it on my phone when trying to access the web page. I'll screenshot it next time I see it

 

[robby]

Mine has a problem that really bugs me. If there is any interuption in power or wifi to the Pi4 that im using, then it will go into a "Check connection" or whatever and won't reconnect to the inverters. I have to physically go out there, unplug the USB cables from the Pi to the inverters, then Solar Assistant will show up and I can go to settings, and "Disconnect" it from the inverters, then I can physically plug the inverters back in and "Connect" to them in the settings page again.

Huge pain in the ass. Why does it not try to auto-reconnect?

Bingo, I think you hit one of the nails on the head. Mine had been working perfectly for the last 5 days and then today the Internet went out for about 30 seconds and the Solar Assistant just could not be reached again on both the Local IP and remote. I was just about to leave the house 20 minutes after it happened so I did not have enough time to pinpoint what is going on. I suspect that when it's data stream got interrupted it just locked up the Pi. It's a real PITA that the developer did not put some form of Interactive GUI on the Pi so that owners can diagnose what is going on.

 

[wattmatters]

then today the Internet went out for about 30 seconds

What exactly do you mean by this? Do you mean an Internet outage or an outage on your local network?

Normally with Internet outages there is no issue as the Pi just keeps on operating and logging data. The local network connection still exists, just no talking to a remote server for a while.

But if the problem is your local network, then that's a different issue. I assigned my HA Pi a static IP address in my router. No idea if it helps but it seems to have no issues re-establshing a connection when that's required.

 

[robby]

What exactly do you mean by this? Do you mean an Internet outage or an outage on your local network?

Normally with Internet outages there is no issue as the Pi just keeps on operating and logging data. The local network connection still exists, just no talking to a remote server for a while.

But if the problem is your local network, then that's a different issue. I assigned my HA Pi a static IP address in my router. No idea if it helps but it seems to have no issues re-establshing a connection when that's required.

The Internet went out, I lost the connect light for about 30 seconds and of course browsing stopped and then the system reconnected and I could browse again but I noticed that the webpage on Solar Assistant was stuck and showing old data. I refreshed the page (local IP) and the browser said it could not connect.
When I get home I will try to see what happened. I tried using the remote url and it says that it cannot connect, so it is still down.
How did you set a static IP in the router, using DHCP reservations? Any way to set the IP static in the PI?

 

[wattmatters]

How did you set a static IP in the router, using DHCP reservations?

this

Anyway to set the IP static in the PI?

not sure, don't think it needs it.

 

[robby]

I blamed Solar Assistant for no reason?. Very odd thing happened in that my main Orbi router got turned off when the Wallwart came loose in the socket. Plugged it back in and she is running.
So with the RJ45 cable fix has basically been working perfect so far.

 

[wattmatters]

my main Orbi router got turned off when the Wallwart came loose in the socket

There you go, a local network problem. Glad you got it sorted.

 

[Lt.Dan]

I'm running mine on Wifi. I wonder if thats somehow why I'm having troubles?

 

[robby]

I'm running mine on Wifi. I wonder if thats somehow why I'm having troubles?

It does not like when the WiFi drops out.
I saw this article and I am wondering if he is using the reboot method or not.
https://weworkweplay.com/play/rebooting-the-raspberry-pi-when-it-loses-wireless-connection-wifi/
The stupid part on my side is that I have CAT6 cable run in the room but have not finished running it to the router in the house because it's going to be a lot of work and I just got lazy and used the WiFi.

 

[Lt.Dan]

Mine won't even work if I unplug power and plug it back in. I have to unplug all the USB's, (3 of them, 2 for the inverters and 1 for the SmartShunt), then somehow it will let me view the web page, And I have to go to the settings tab, disconnect from all devices (which are showing errors because nothing is plugged in), then plug in the USBs and reconnect.

There is also a 50/50 chance that my inverters get flipped around, so what was originally Inverter #1 is now #2 and vice-versa.

 

[robby]

Mine won't even work if I unplug power and plug it back in. I have to unplug all the USB's, (3 of them, 2 for the inverters and 1 for the SmartShunt), then somehow it will let me view the web page, And I have to go to the settings tab, disconnect from all devices (which are showing errors because nothing is plugged in), then plug in the USBs and reconnect.

There is also a 50/50 chance that my inverters get flipped around, so what was originally Inverter #1 is now #2 and vice-versa.

Have you labled the USB converters? It should detect them the same way if you plug them in the same order and one at a time into the same ports after the Pi has booted. What version Pi are you using?