If I wanted to see and record various ins and outs how would I do it?

[ianganderton]

I’m interested in being able to see and record over time how much energy is flowing around a system. What are the options on doing this?

FWIW I know there is no real point it’s just that I’d like to be able to see it the data. Maybe a ‘point’ would become obvious.

I’d like to be able to see/record solar pv in, battery in/out, dc load, inverter load, alternator in. I’d like to be able to view the relationship between V, A &W

Would an arduino set up do the job? I’ve messed with them a bit. maybe a link to a similar project as a starting point.

 

[gnubie]

You could do it on an arduino but you may find that a small linux single board computer might be a friendlier way to start. While you can get some pretty beefy microcontrollers the one on most arduino boards are pretty limited in ROM and RAM size so you'll have to be able to do C programming or the like. C is what you'll run into in the standard arduino IDE.

A raspberry pi or any one of the many SBCs out there is a good start IMO. With the additional RAM available and being a general purpose linux environment you can use any number of scripting languages and any number of web servers to talk to the client side. There's another thread on the forum where there is discussion of monitoring any MPPT charger in a similar fashion.

Victron controllers periodically send a fair amount of information in plain text by default so they are pretty easy to gather data from. There is a basic C framework to divvy up the stream on their site. I mangled it to perl in a couple of minutes. You can also use Victron's hex protocol and get all sorts of info out of the controller including history, as well as configure it. With other controllers you have to throw commands, often modbus, at them to get any info.

I used to gather and log all sorts from my Victron SCC but now just have a simple API that provides a few critical values direct from the output of the Victron.

*edit*
add link to other thread

 

[svetz]

These threads might give you some ideas:

• Perfect Monitoring Software (also has a working system for Enphase, but source might give you ideas)
• Off-grid Solar / Battery monitoring and control freeware
• reading the Net Meter via RF (What you import and export, thinking you don't have a net meter so probably won't help)
• RF and the Smart Solar Home
• Post on a variety of controllers
• My brain could be on fire, #2: FireStick example reading/displaying watts

 

[tictag]

I don't completely agree with @gnubie on this one, linux boards are OK, but they are less reliable and, imho, more difficult to troubleshoot than simple microcontroller-based solutions - it's harder to identify whether software is causing your problem in my experience. Also, again in my experience, it is much easier to acquire/transform/transmit simple sensor data using a microcontroller then it is with a linux board. Don't get me wrong, they do have their uses ... I use a Raspberry PI to add thermal imaging to my drone - very difficult to do this with a simple microcontroller.

Personally, I would get myself a smart battery monitor (e.g. Victron BMV712) as your 'main' measuring device then augment that with a microcontroller-solution connected to multiple hall-effect sensors. You can surface the microcontroller data either via the web (lots of IoT services are available for free e.g. adafruit.io, ITTT etc) or to a bluetooth app, or a simple display.

If you wanted a professional solution, consider the Victron eco-system, every product they make has data that be surfaced via their VRM portal. Not cheap, though.

Check out Adafruit's Feather product line as your base microcontroller solution - bulletproof and fantastic support. Sparkfun are also a good 'base'.

 

[gnubie]

I was looking at it from an all-in-one approach. The SBC gathers, logs, transforms, presents since we already have a SCC that measures most of the wanted information already. The whole kit in one $15 (or less!) board. Storage, network, wifi, abundant RAM, CPU power etc.

For the actual data measuring if you are having to go down to measuring yourself I do use microcontrollers. I used to have a micro + opto sensor watching the index marker on my spinning electricity meter and that operated as a remote sensor for a SBC. It could have been done purely with a SBC but it would have been much less convenient, power use, location etc. A smartmeter would have allowed me to communicate wireless with the SBC direct to the meter removing the need for the micro etc.