Automated alerts

[Mkgough]

Hello folks,

I am wondering what people are using for monitoring and alerting, and what hardware/software people are using that can produce email alerts of various status changes to track daily activity such as battery level, low and high triggers, PV to AC charging, etc.

Anyones hardware and software do this?

I have a MPPSolar LV2424 with the WiFi module and would love to have email alerting. The App does not have any alerting/notifications, so wondering what people have and what hardware software solutions are best for automated alerting/notifications.

Cheers,

MG

 

[svetz]

I have Enphase and the tool they supply is very nice, but I still built a homebrew system for basic normal data collection and alerts (e.g., compares the solar input from a nearby weather station to the array output and sends me emails if it's repeatedly subpar).

Here's some other stuff I know about....

Other somewhat related projects on the forums

• BarkingSpider's Off-grid Solar / Battery monitoring and control freeware
• BiduleOhm's DIY BMS design and reflection
• butter_fry's Home Assistant
• GXMnow's Adding Storage to my Enphase

Other Monitoring Software

• Sense Solar, Emporia, IotaWatt
• Solar Assistant (Solar-assistant.io)

Other Resources

• HomeAssistant - IoT
• System Advisor Model (SAM) from NREL
• NASA API
• PVGIS
• Excel Calculator from the New Mexico State University

 

[houseofancients]

you can use solar assistant as a xomplete solution, or diy using home assistant , jblanche's library and a raspberry pi

 

[Mkgough]

I have purchased Solar Assistant as they told me they would be adding email status alerts in the future, so we will see. I currently use…

- WatchPower on a old laptop and VNC into it to see the console
- Victron SmartShunt for battery monitoring

The bluetooth on the Victron requires I go into the garage to check status… Not optimal

And my Inverter says batteries are at 80%, but the shunt says 34%, so monitoring this difference seems obviously needed and logical.

SA says Victron is aupported, so may help at a single pane.

Thanks.

 

[butter_fry]

You're asking about a few different components, each of them requiring a different solution.

The MPPsolar is something I don't have much familiarity with. I use a Growatt, which is as far as I know same thing under the hood. But I think the communication protocols are different - I don't know enough to know, so don't quote me on that. If they're the same there are some good open source projects to do telemetry harvesting. Some grab it from the remote server after it's been uploaded, others grab it directly from the unit itself.

The Victron world though is much more developed and open. Since you only have a smartshunt, that make things a bit trickier. One of my solar systems is running a small victron setup. An open source project sprung up and is now supported by Victron directly whereby you run a custom OS on a raspberry pi essentially turning it into a headless controller for all your Victron equipment. that doesn't apply to you with only the smartshunt

I did a quick search on the GitHub and noticed this newcomer - https://github.com/KinDR007/VictronSmartShunt-ESPHOME I think that would totally work for you.. if you wanted to go the Home Assistant route. ESPHOME is an Add-On for home assistant. Essentially it is wicked simple programing from nearly ALL IoT devices. All you have to do is throw a configuration file at it and it will work out all the code for you. It appears the code owner of this repository taught ESPHOME how to read Victron via UART and pass it on into Home Assistant. It bypasses the need for a CCGX or the afore mentioned RPi controller.

After you get a HA environment setup, the world of graphs, displays, notifications, triggers is all open to you. All data is actionable. For example, in my small victron setup I'm monitoring battery voltage and SOC. Once the battery is drained I've got a trigger set that flips on a Grid fed D/C power supply that powers the system till solar takes over in the morning. A poor man's transfer switch with a $5 IoT relay.

The route I'm talking about is VERY hands-on, but I like this type of stuff. If you don't have the RPi or DiY chops or don't have the interest in learning, I don't recommend it. But if you do, what is available can't be beat by any commercial monitoring product.