timselectric
If I can do it, you can do it.
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I'm old school.
I'll just take screenshots, 3 times a day. lol
I'll just take screenshots, 3 times a day. lol
Solar Assistant sadness
- Thread starter timselectric
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robby
Photon Vampire
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He has been saying that for 6-8 months. I think the deadline he gave was September and still nothing.
I think the guy spends way to much time adding new Inverters to make new sales and not enough time making it a better product for those who have already invested in it.
timselectric
If I can do it, you can do it.
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Hopefully not. But time will tell.
For now, I'll just swap in a new card if it happens again. And hopefully the data can be retrieved later.
For now, I'll just swap in a new card if it happens again. And hopefully the data can be retrieved later.
robby
Photon Vampire
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You cannot retrieve the Data unless by some miracle the SD card database can be rebuilt.
The data is not stored on a SA cloud server. All his system does is provide basically a Free DDNS service to redirect request from his servers back to your Pi.
wattmatters
Solar Wizard
Home Assistant captures my Solar Assistant data, via its own database and also Influx db, which are backed up (along with my entire HA system) to a Google drive 3 times a week.
I did write my own backup solution for Solar-Assistant. I back-up everything onto a USB stick every hour and keep 30 days worth of backup files of influxDB and grafana. If I ever had to rebuild the SD card I could restore the DB from the backup any time. I'm not trusting the SSD for any of it.
I also agree with @robby , most "updates" are to support new inverters and not to support existing ones. He did fix the MPPT3 reading for my Sol-Ark 15k, he also corrected the weekly sums that were out of whack eventually but my temperature reading for the inverter is still garbage, the grafana version is still a really old outdated one with limited abilities and there is still no built-in backup solution.
Overall I like Solar-Assistant, I don't care about the hardware locked license, he allows a single transfer to a new raspbery pi one time which should be enough if it ever dies and the package he sold works very well in general.
With the frequent writes and likelihood of the SD card dying the backup solution should be top priority for him to fix but I worked around it which works for me. If you're technically inclined I posted in another thread how to do it.
I also agree with @robby , most "updates" are to support new inverters and not to support existing ones. He did fix the MPPT3 reading for my Sol-Ark 15k, he also corrected the weekly sums that were out of whack eventually but my temperature reading for the inverter is still garbage, the grafana version is still a really old outdated one with limited abilities and there is still no built-in backup solution.
Overall I like Solar-Assistant, I don't care about the hardware locked license, he allows a single transfer to a new raspbery pi one time which should be enough if it ever dies and the package he sold works very well in general.
With the frequent writes and likelihood of the SD card dying the backup solution should be top priority for him to fix but I worked around it which works for me. If you're technically inclined I posted in another thread how to do it.
wattmatters
Solar Wizard
I got all the MQTT controls added in a recent update. That was pretty neat. And my batteries were added.
I've no big issue with them adding more inverters. The bigger the user base the more viable the business, the more likely it will be supported for a long time.
It's far from perfect (what software is?). Others are free to develop their own solutions, even sell them. If there was something better and cheaper, sure I'd go for it. Don't see many alternatives though for users who just want something that works and is largely plug and play.
I'm looking forward to seeing what sort of new system controls are introduced in upcoming updates. If I can offload some power management controls to SA I would prefer that to having my HA automations performing those tasks (removes a point of failure).
I've no big issue with them adding more inverters. The bigger the user base the more viable the business, the more likely it will be supported for a long time.
It's far from perfect (what software is?). Others are free to develop their own solutions, even sell them. If there was something better and cheaper, sure I'd go for it. Don't see many alternatives though for users who just want something that works and is largely plug and play.
I'm looking forward to seeing what sort of new system controls are introduced in upcoming updates. If I can offload some power management controls to SA I would prefer that to having my HA automations performing those tasks (removes a point of failure).
timselectric
If I can do it, you can do it.
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It's on the card.
I will save the card, until I find a solution to restore the data.
Used ThinkPad laptops are excellent for use in monitoring and serving data. These laptops use minimal power when the display is off and an SSD makes them almost indestructible. Most if not all ThinkPads will run Linux with no problems.
A good used laptop can often be cheaper than a single board linux solution. And they come with a display, keyboard, power supply and trackpoint.
A good used laptop can often be cheaper than a single board linux solution. And they come with a display, keyboard, power supply and trackpoint.
Does your laptop fit on a DIN mount next to the inverter? I don't need a keyboard, display and trackpad for a headless setup that just does its thing.
SA is supported on a Orange Pi 3 LTS
As far as running the SA software on an x86 computer I would think you would need an ARM emulator like QEMU to run raspian pi OS with SA software.
I don't use SA so I don't know just what form the SA specific software is in. Is it compiled binary executables or some scripting language like Python or Perl? The binary files won't run on anything other than Pi. The scripts could probably be used on another type of hardware and OS.
Orange Pi 3 LTS - Orangepi
Orange Pi 3 LTS is an open-source single-board computer with dual-band wireless WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0
www.orangepi.org
As far as running the SA software on an x86 computer I would think you would need an ARM emulator like QEMU to run raspian pi OS with SA software.
I don't use SA so I don't know just what form the SA specific software is in. Is it compiled binary executables or some scripting language like Python or Perl? The binary files won't run on anything other than Pi. The scripts could probably be used on another type of hardware and OS.
Lt.Dan
Solar Wizard
I wonder if you could get it running on Docker?
That is all wonderful. The point is that you somehow have to interface with your inverter's Comms port. So whether you want to build an elaborate bridge setup to get data out from the inverter to your laptop, or you want to host the laptop close to the inverter or you just want to put a small ARM processor based headless device by the inverter is what we're discussing here.
Solar Assistant addresses the issue with option #3. I think anything else costs too much either in money or time to be even worth pursuing, but hey, you do you, man....
Lt.Dan
Solar Wizard
Maybe, but I already have a server less than 10ft from the inverter. Sounds like less parts and more control with no additional cost to me. Not to mention Raspberry Pis are almost $200 now.
Sure, if you have a server next to the inverter then by all means, run a long RS485 from the inverter to your server and go to town...
I would venture to say that the Solar-Assistant software may or may not work in a docker container given that it does some kind of hardware locking which may or may not be possible with a docker container. From their site "All other Orange PIs, Banana PIs, Rock PIs, etc. are not supported. Virtual machines, docker, etc. is also not supported."
An Orange PI 3 LTS can be had for $60 which will work just as well as a raspberry Pi.
I don't know what kind of hourly rate you guys make but there came a time in my life where I will just pay the $100 for the turn key solution rather than try to build it on my own and spend 80 hours on something. I have far higher priority tasks to spend my time on.
I would venture to say that the Solar-Assistant software may or may not work in a docker container given that it does some kind of hardware locking which may or may not be possible with a docker container. From their site "All other Orange PIs, Banana PIs, Rock PIs, etc. are not supported. Virtual machines, docker, etc. is also not supported."
An Orange PI 3 LTS can be had for $60 which will work just as well as a raspberry Pi.
I don't know what kind of hourly rate you guys make but there came a time in my life where I will just pay the $100 for the turn key solution rather than try to build it on my own and spend 80 hours on something. I have far higher priority tasks to spend my time on.
robby
Photon Vampire
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I was a DIY everything kind of guy up until about 15 years ago. Then I started to choose my battles more carefully.
In the last 5 years I only DIY stuff that I cannot buy or is extremely expensive. Putting together my Solar system fit the of category of extremely expensive, so I spent 3 months doing everything from design, purchasing, Electrical Room construction to Mounting and electrical wiring.
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