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Monitoring Solar Assistant

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30362

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Jun 17, 2022
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Every 24-48 hours my Solar Assistant goes offline and I get a "page cannot be displayed" error on the local LAN and a "please connect your bluetooth" if I try to use the public address. Even the HDMI output connected to the PI shows nothing, so I'm forced to reboot the PI manually by plugging and unplugging.

For this reason, I am not using the buck converter and instead I have a USB cable connected to a 120v outlet.

I know it's inefficient to have a 120v -> 12v adapter when I could use the buck converter, but the constant failures of Solar Assistant caused me to go this route.

All that said, I'm trying to configure an uptime monitor for the PI so I can try to figure out why it's happening and if it's the same time of night, or the same event (SBU switch to SUB etc..) but whenever I try to use a monitoring system that relies on http, it automatically shows the device as down. Even though I know it's up.

I can hit the http://ipaddress as well as ping it, telnet to port 80 etc... and there's no issues, even Angry IP Scanner shows the device is live on port 80, but anything that does HTTP monitoring cannot see it as live and I'm wondering if perhaps it's doing a redirect from 80 to another port, since it is using grafana and not issuing a 200 reply.

Anyone know how to reliably monitor the Solar Assistant Orange PI? Thanks.
 
30362 said:
Anyone know how to reliably monitor the Solar Assistant Orange PI? Thanks.
Click to expand...
That is the approach I have taken. That 120 V power supply is connected to my critical loads panel so i am using solar or batteries to power it most of the time. You may need a higher capacity buck converter or power supply, assuming nothing is disconnecting the existing one from the batteruy.
 
Ampster said:
That is the approach I have taken. That 120 V power supply is connected to my critical loads panel so i am using solar or batteries to power it most of the time. You may need a higher capacity buck converter or power supply, assuming nothing is disconnecting the existing one from the batteruy.
Click to expand...
I have the 120v adapter connected to my critical load panel as well, I've never used the buck converter because the failures I'm having are when using the 120v adapter... I don't plan to use the buck converter because of this constant problem.
 
30362 said:
I have the 120v adapter connected to my critical load panel as well,
Click to expand...
I don't have a simple answer. I just recall something I read earlier that said whatever the power supply it needed to put out enough current or the Solar Assistant would go offline ocassionally.
 
30362 said:
Every 24-48 hours my Solar Assistant goes offline and I get a "page cannot be displayed" error on the local LAN and a "please connect your bluetooth" if I try to use the public address. Even the HDMI output connected to the PI shows nothing, so I'm forced to reboot the PI manually by plugging and unplugging.

For this reason, I am not using the buck converter and instead I have a USB cable connected to a 120v outlet.

I know it's inefficient to have a 120v -> 12v adapter when I could use the buck converter, but the constant failures of Solar Assistant caused me to go this route.
Click to expand...
That's really odd. I've had mine on a buck converter since I installed in Sept.

30362 said:
All that said, I'm trying to configure an uptime monitor for the PI so I can try to figure out why it's happening and if it's the same time of night, or the same event (SBU switch to SUB etc..) but whenever I try to use a monitoring system that relies on http, it automatically shows the device as down. Even though I know it's up.

I can hit the http://ipaddress as well as ping it, telnet to port 80 etc... and there's no issues, even Angry IP Scanner shows the device is live on port 80, but anything that does HTTP monitoring cannot see it as live and I'm wondering if perhaps it's doing a redirect from 80 to another port, since it is using grafana and not issuing a 200 reply.

Anyone know how to reliably monitor the Solar Assistant Orange PI? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Are you trying to run your "monitor" program local to your network or from the internet? If it's from the internet, it won't be able to see your local IP configured for your pi, it just sees the IP for your home network.
 
Mine does that also every so often. I just go do something else for 20 minutes and then it's back online
 
Adam De Lay said:
That's really odd. I've had mine on a buck converter since I installed in Sept.



Are you trying to run your "monitor" program local to your network or from the internet? If it's from the internet, it won't be able to see your local IP configured for your pi, it just sees the IP for your home network.
Click to expand...
Uptime Kuma, docker container running on my local network, same vlan as my Orange Pi.
 
TomC4306 said:
Mine does that also every so often. I just go do something else for 20 minutes and then it's back online
Click to expand...
Not mine, it goes down middle of the night (usually) and stays dead until I pull power...
 
Can you do a packet capture to see what ports are being referenced when SA is called from the browser?
 
Have SA running on two Raspberry PI's, never an issue.
Bought an Orangepi and every couple of days it just was freezing.

I bought a new housing with active cooling on Aliexpress, and since I moved the pi to that new case it keeps running flawless.
 
Ampster said:
I don't have a simple answer. I just recall something I read earlier that said whatever the power supply it needed to put out enough current or the Solar Assistant would go offline ocassionally.
Click to expand...
My orange Pi draws 3-4 w or less usually, if it hangs and needs reboot maybe 5w max.
 
I got one of these from Amazon to power the pi and power hub. Draws less and runs cooler than the one that comes with the kit. Super clean output with or without load on scope. Haven’t had a glitch since I installed it and the CAT 8 cable to the router(Wi-Fi not reliable). 4BCA4B4E-D15B-410D-80CE-6BFBBAE97065.jpeg6FD02364-A234-4F04-8147-D6E4D0CBA315.png
 
Skypower said:
I got one of these from Amazon to power the pi and power hub. Draws less and runs cooler than the one that comes with the kit. Super clean output with or without load on scope. Haven’t had a glitch since I installed it and the CAT 8 cable to the router(Wi-Fi not reliable). View attachment 147584View attachment 147585
Click to expand...
Just a question wrt the usb hub. I want to add a second JK BMS to one single PI and have similar usb-converters as you.

I guess that it won't fit in the pi because of the sizes and a hub is the way to go. Any recommendations wrt a hub? E.g. should it has to be powered separately?
 
You should power the hub separately, this will take the load off of the Pi and make the setup more stable. In my experience, the Pi is very sensitive to power fluctuations so you want to keep those to a minimum.

Bonaire? What a fantastic place!
 
Robbert said:
Just a question wrt the usb hub. I want to add a second JK BMS to one single PI and have similar usb-converters as you.

I guess that it won't fit in the pi because of the sizes and a hub is the way to go. Any recommendations wrt a hub? E.g. should it has to be powered separately?
Click to expand...
What jberger said.
My selection was, open the page, close my eyes, lower the finger to select.

E293CD24-2EAC-4224-B0CB-5668F638B64E.png
 
I cut the wire from the wall wort and wired it into the DC to DC converter. Same with the pi.
 
Robbert said:
Thank, ordered exactly the same ?
Click to expand...
Went with 3amp fuse on each 5V device and a one amp feeding the DC to DC. The negative to the converter is also fused and goes to the load side of my current meter so it gets counted too. Remember when you zero a load meter, no load even the meter itself can pass through the sensor or shunt..9BC08687-5BD2-49C6-A44F-74552B374B4B.jpegD09BEDC4-AEF9-49FF-8804-B67157C57C22.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Robbert said:
Plenty of time before second battery arrives (will be in a month).
First some prepping to tye everything together ?.
Click to expand...
I like these tiny fuses. Space saving, great selection and inexpensive. But be warned, install heat shrink collar stops on the leads to prevent the contacts from protruding from the housing. That could create glow worms if you don’t install the stops and get unlucky if you don’t control the open fuse housings. 24290DE4-096A-4E85-832A-7C1E0F18D24C.png
 
I was having problems when I first installed SA on a Pi 3B+ was getting power sag warnings. it turned out to be the micro USB cable I was using between the power converter and the pi.
 
Mine has been about as stable as you could hope for on an orange pi 3 lts. I did make sure to use a network cable with it though. I have a netgear wifi extender in my workshop that all of the stuff in there connects to. The pi's are connected to it with ethernet cables and my cameras and pp-code thermometers are connect to it with wifi. This way there is a nice clean and stable uplink from there back to the rest of the house.

The pi's are powered off dc from a lifepo4 battery bank using a dc to dc adapter so that probably helps too.
 
Something to consider you could get the POE adaptor for the pi then you could power it with a POE switch that lets you cycle it up/down either on a schedule, by IP monitoring or just when you want to manually reboot it.
 
I would get root access on the pi and either telnet in and reboot it that way or install webmin and do it thru its webpage. Cutting the power on the pi is asking for it if running off an sd card. Well running off anything isn't to good of an idea cutting power on linux.

I power my pi's via dc with a 12 volt adapter I bought off amazon. I have that hooked to my batteries since I have a 12 volt system also.
 
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