Renogy DCC50S - Anyone using the data port?

[boondox]

Hi All,

The Renogy DCC50S comes with a data cable. As far as I can determine they sell no interface to use it. Any idea why it comes with one? Any information about data it puts out and is it possible to change settings?

Thanks!

 

[tictag]

Renogy offers both the BT-1 Bluetooth and the DM-1 Cellular modules, which connect to their charge controllers via RS232 and the RJ11 connector. They each come with an associated app. Obviously, you would need an RS485-to-RS232 adaptor to connect them but these are pretty common (according to a quick amazon.com search).

But just because you might be able to physically connect to your DCC50S, doesn't mean that communication will be successful. The DCC50S product page specifically mentions, "Note: Renogy's 12V 50A DC-DC On-Board Battery Charger with MPPT is not compatible with Renogy's current BT-1 Bluetooth Module." but this might just be because they each support different communication standard (which the adaptor might solve?).

If worst comes to worst, you can buy RS485-to-USB adaptors on Amazon, which will at least allow you to see what's coming out of the unit on your PC, what you then do with that data might be tricky but online services like https://openenergymonitor.org/ might be able to help.

Your best bet, however, is to talk to Renogy - maybe they had such a product that has since been discontinued, I mean who uses RS485 these days?

 

[boondox]

Thanks Tic. I did contact Renogy and they said they plan on releasing a product in the future, with no ETA. I have all the stuff to sniff the data port and might be able to parse it into useful data. What would be much harder is figuring out how to program parameters. My coding skills aren't that great.

 

[tictag]

Yeah, that'll be tough even with their communication protocol datasheet. There are a few RS485 libraries on GitHub for microcontroller platforms, one implementation is actually for an EPTracer SCC, might be helpful? Just search GitHub for "RS485".