Monitoring (lifepower, schneider, outback)

underdog5004 · Thursday at 6:30 PM

I have 2x schneider xw+ inverters, 6x eg4 lifepower batteries, and 3x outback fm80 charge controllers.

Everything is running smoothly, but now that I've got the schneider gateway installed, I've got the bug for system monitoring. Looks like I can enable comms between schneider and eg4 with the insight home and the eg4 comms hub. This leaves the charge controllers out of the loop. Looks like the outback mate3 can be part of the solution.

I looked at solar assistants site for compatibility, and didn't see schneider or outback compatibility.

I'm looking for a box or boxes that will allow full system monitoring in a single place/window, preferably without requiring internet connection. I realize interoperability is a dirty word to most of these manufacturers, but these protocols have e been around for a while, and there's some pretty clever people in the diy solar space.

So, how should I approach this issue? Where should I look for a solution?

marionw · Thursday at 7:59 PM

If you are using the EG4 Communications Hub and all your battery addresses start from 1 (0 places a BMS in Master Mode) and your inverter connects to the Hub. The LifePower4 RJ4 jacks are actually tow RS485 busses. Pins 7&8 are used by the hub to communicate to all batteries and Pins 1&2 (since you are using the hub) can now be used by Solar Assistant to monitor all batteries. Use an RS485 to USB converter and connect the orange/white and orange as shown in the photo. Connect the converter to your Raspberry PI. On the SA Configuration tab select the correct port and select "Narada" for the battery protocol.

See/Review:

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query on SRNE reset times.

I have a 3KV SRNE hybrid controller which i monitor with an online datalogger. The info from the datalogger is good, however at 6PM the data for the days' info resets to zero. I am wondering if anyone has the same issues, and would disconnecting/reconnecting: the panels, AC input and the DC...

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Hedges · Thursday at 8:06 PM

Are you recommending using RS-485 data +/- without a ground reference connected?

ThaiTaffy · Thursday at 8:12 PM

Hedges said:
Are you recommending using RS-485 data +/- without a ground reference connected?

I tried this once (was actually by mistake) the max 3232 lasted a day before it cooked no magic smoke sadly.

Edit the ground was connected to the TTL side and not the recommended standard side.

underdog5004 · Thursday at 8:30 PM

marionw said:
If you are using the EG4 Communications Hub and all your battery addresses start from 1 (0 places a BMS in Master Mode) and your inverter connects to the Hub. The LifePower4 RJ4 jacks are actually tow RS485 busses. Pins 7&8 are used by the hub to communicate to all batteries and Pins 1&2 (since you are using the hub) can now be used by Solar Assistant to monitor all batteries. Use an RS485 to USB converter and connect the orange/white and orange as shown in the photo. Connect the converter to your Raspberry PI. On the SA Configuration tab select the correct port and select "Narada" for the battery protocol.

See/Review:

Help with Pace BMS Comms

Hey, I have a Anenji battery pack. It's a 51.2V100AH battery. It has a Pace BMS but I cannot get any reliable communications with it. The seller sent me a BMS Tools v2.04 which they say should be able to talk to the battery. I'm getting nowhere. I have 3 RS232 cables, 1 from Amazon, 1 from the...

diysolarforum.com

query on SRNE reset times.

I have a 3KV SRNE hybrid controller which i monitor with an online datalogger. The info from the datalogger is good, however at 6PM the data for the days' info resets to zero. I am wondering if anyone has the same issues, and would disconnecting/reconnecting: the panels, AC input and the DC...

diysolarforum.com

View attachment 233212

View attachment 233211

Grounding issue aside, if I hooked it up the way that you indicate it seems like I would be monitoring the batteries through solar assistant but then also be able to monitor the batteries through Schneider Insight home? I'm not sure what the advantage to that would be. I don't think that solar assistant can monitor the Schneider inverters but I could be wrong. Any ideas about monitoring the Outback charge controllers?

ThaiTaffy · Thursday at 8:41 PM

I might seem like a broken record to many on the forums but from a quick Google search it seems that complete monitoring might be possible with home assistant.
https://diysolarforum.com/threads/h...batteries-in-closed-loop-communication.63081/ might be of help

marionw · Thursday at 8:42 PM

Hedges said:
Are you recommending using RS-485 data +/- without a ground reference connected?

I have never hooked up the ground. I am using a 130ft cat5 with the two converters (in the picture) and a third converter and have no issues even at 19200 baud. I use the orange white/orange pair, brown white/brown pair and blue white/blue pair in the same cat5 cable to monitor three different RS485 busses.

marionw · Thursday at 8:57 PM

underdog5004 said:
Grounding issue aside, if I hooked it up the way that you indicate it seems like I would be monitoring the batteries through solar assistant but then also be able to monitor the batteries through Schneider Insight home? I'm not sure what the advantage to that would be. I don't think that solar assistant can monitor the Schneider inverters but I could be wrong. Any ideas about monitoring the Outback charge controllers?

Many use Solar Assistant to get data into Home Assistant via MQQT as Home Assistance does not have a particular communications protocol supported. The LifePower4 batteries use the Narada protocol and Home Assistant may not support it (yet).

ThaiTaffy · Thursday at 9:13 PM

https://forum.outbackpower.com/viewtopic.php?t=18446 might help as far as your charge controllers

underdog5004 · Friday at 11:03 AM

ThaiTaffy said:
https://forum.outbackpower.com/viewtopic.php?t=18446 might help as far as your charge controllers

Ok, after doing a fair amount of reading, and thinking, I've come up with a draft diagram, attached. What are your thoughts? I'm unsure if Home Assistant will be able to read schneider info through the eg4 hub, or if I'll need to connect the insightHome directly to the Home assistant. Also, if eg4 battery info is available through eg4 communication hub, I don't see the need to run pins 1/2 to the Home Assistant, seems redundant.

Edit: also, all the equipment should actually connect to Solar Assistant, which would then connect to Home Assistant.

underdog5004 · Friday at 1:41 PM

underdog5004 said:
Ok, after doing a fair amount of reading, and thinking, I've come up with a draft diagram, attached. What are your thoughts? I'm unsure if Home Assistant will be able to read schneider info through the eg4 hub, or if I'll need to connect the insightHome directly to the Home assistant. Also, if eg4 battery info is available through eg4 communication hub, I don't see the need to run pins 1/2 to the Home Assistant, seems redundant.

Edit: also, all the equipment should actually connect to Solar Assistant, which would then connect to Home Assistant.

View attachment 233356

@marionw

Monitoring (lifepower, schneider, outback)

underdog5004

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marionw

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query on SRNE reset times.

Hedges

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ThaiTaffy

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underdog5004

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query on SRNE reset times.

ThaiTaffy

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marionw

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marionw

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ThaiTaffy

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underdog5004

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underdog5004

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