Sol-Ark Installers Experience - All Common questions and answers

[fisherus]

I just got a Beta approval for a Starlink internet system and received it today, 6 days after I paid them $499 equipment deposit and $99 for the first month. Should take care of my updates on my Sol-Ark 12K as well as being able to see what it is doing on my laptop or cellphone. Absolutely amazing how it sets itself up and automatically finds satellites. It also has a built-in heating element that melts ice and snow. This will allow me to integrate my video surveillance system as well. Now, if 3 1/2' of snow will melt, so I can get it installed.

 

[ArthurEld]

I just got a Beta approval for a Starlink internet system and received it today, 6 days after I paid them $499 equipment deposit and $99 for the first month. Should take care of my updates on my Sol-Ark 12K as well as being able to see what it is doing on my laptop or cellphone. Absolutely amazing how it sets itself up and automatically finds satellites. It also has a built-in heating element that melts ice and snow. This will allow me to integrate my video surveillance system as well. Now, if 3 1/2' of snow will melt, so I can get it installed.

That is an awesome solution. Does that deposit come back to you?

 

[ArthurEld]

Do we need to pre charge capacitors in the Solark?

Since I can't edit my post above, I guess you get the equipment deposit back if you return the equipment.

 

[ArthurEld]

All right guys. Since I didn't get an answer here and I couldn't find it in the f'n manual,
I sent and email to Solark asking if we have to precharge the capacitors.

The answer is... Nope

Those guys are quick too. I sent a 2 sentence email and 1/2 hour later I have my response.

 

[fisherus]

That is an awesome solution. Does that deposit come back to you?

No, the deposit pays for the dish and accessories they send you. Sorry for the delay in answering your question. I've been away from some health issues.

 

[mrdavvv]

• Do I need a resistor to pre-charge the capacitors?
• During testing before install my inverter gave me an F03 or F04 error (GFDI Failure) and wont turn on!
• Where should I ground my neutral and ground wires?

Hi!, any updates about this?, interested since im about to install my inverter.

 

[solardad]

Just received this notice that a new firmware was pushed out last night. See line two.... Highly interested in knowing if this means a BMS can control the inverter when an issue vs. flipping a relay. I have a question out to them for confirmation.

 

[solardad]

FYI - Sol-Ark has updated their website recently and I just noticed that they list Batrium now as a partner. So there maybe hope for those that have a Batrium to integrate sooner than later. https://www.sol-ark.com/battery-partners/

 

[Shawn Hayes]

I apologize for the long post here: I've been doing my own research since I have the Sol-Ark 12K and have come to a dead end. Has anyone or does anyone know if you can ACTUALLY pull data directly from the Sol-Ark (via RS232, RS485, RS232/WiFi) getting it to a Raspberry Pi to get a graphical view with Grafana like people are doing with the Batrium, etc for real time data viewing? This is what I received from a retired electrical engineer I reached out to for help after trying multiple options of connecting the R-Pi w/ my Sol-Ark.
Quote:
"It says the RJ45 connector is RS485. It doesn't have to be used for Ethernet, and in this case, it's not. There's a very specific protocol running on this connector, and you would have to read SunSpec Draft 4 to understand what it is. I predict you won't be able to use the RS232 connector except for the WiFi Dongle. Looks like WiFi is your only option.
BTW, I saw this... Note: Sol-Ark 12K is not compatible with wired Ethernet connections for monitoring or updates, you must use the included WIFI dongle. Lucky page 13. I thumbed through the rest of the WiFi setup, and it looks like their app is the only option. To get around that, you would have to intercept, and decode their messaging to their web server. This could be a bit of difficult reverse engineering and that's if they're not using encryption. Maybe I'm not understanding this right, but I don't think this box has user monitoring access except through their app and that's only if the user was set up by the installer. Am I understanding that right? But again I didn't read the whole manual."

I know other folks here and other sites have been trying to this and succeeded with other inverters, but with Sol-Ark? I know people are using this with battery monitoring with success as well. I've seen a device called E-Gauge, but it's no better than Sol-Ark's PowerView app to me. However they do make communication devices that I'm told must connect to the E-Gauge (like RS485 to Ethernet or USB) to get the data from the inverter to the actual E-Gauge device. I've reached out to E-Gauge and here's the response:

"The eGauge can connect with a Modbus RTU (RS-485) equipped solar inverter when used with the E-Gauge like RS485 to Ethernet or USB converter. In order to configure the eGauge to read from the inverter via modbus we would also need to have an available modbus map for your inverter. This will usually be found in the inverter documentation. You will need to confirm with your Inverter manufacturer how the communication should be wired. It is possible that your Inverter is equipped with Modbus TCP which would connect to your LAN, rather than RS-485 which is a serial (3 wire) connection. Different inverters often have different options that they can be equipped with at the time of purchased."

So in conclusion, is there someway to capture the WiFi data and send it to the R-Pi? Or would the (RS485, Ethernet or USB) communication device sold by/for E-Gauge actually translate data to R-Pi?
Please share your thoughts or solutions if you have them?
Thanks!!

 

[Shawn Hayes]

Here's an update to my earlier post above here # 29:
I spoke to a Sol-Ark associate today in reference to some questions about the E-Gauge and general data logging from the Sol-Ark inverter. Here's what I was told:
The E-Gauge can NOT log any data directly from the inverter. E-Gauge offers several communication devices that leads you to believe it converts data from RS485 to Ethernet or USB. Then connect to the E-Gauge data loggers. According to Sol-Ark, NO data can be transmitted out via the RS485 to anything, rather RS485 was intended to communicate with batteries. The only way E-Gauge would work is using "CT's", that's pointless to me. So dead end. Granted it was another Sol-Ark associate that told me to look at the E-Gauge to log data for my off grid Sol-Ark.
More importantly the Sol-Ark associate told me that Sol-Ark's only form of data transmitting was via the WiFi dongle for the PowerView ES app. However the associate stated that the PowerView ES app is the ONLY way to view this data. Better yet, the PowerView app is a CLOUD based data logger and if you do not have INTERNET, you can see or log data. It was also stated that you CAN NOT even use the PowerView app or desktop version that connects to a modem to create a LAN, to connect to Sol-Ark, so you can log/view your own data. YOU MUST HAVE INTERNET service? Maybe Sol-Ark doesn't understand the meaning of off-grid? It was stated however, maybe if you were a Modbus programmer, you could perhaps find a "work around"?
If someone here has more or better information that contradicts this, helps, please share? I would love to find a solution to this issue. After paying a premium for one of the better inverters on the market (early 2020), I'm now questioning this purchase. I would recommend people looking for a truely off grid inverter, look hard before buying. Being off grid, currently, you can not even see or log your own data without internet due to PowerView being a cloud based application.
It would be a more attractive option to allow the actual consumer to decide what and how they want to see the data coming from the inverter. For nearly $7000.00, you would think data coming from the inverter should be easily obtained by the consumer.
@solardad
@RickyBobby

 

[solardad]

Here's an update to my earlier post above here # 29:
I spoke to a Sol-Ark associate today in reference to some questions about the E-Gauge and general data logging from the Sol-Ark inverter. Here's what I was told:
The E-Gauge can NOT log any data directly from the inverter. E-Gauge offers several communication devices that leads you to believe it converts data from RS485 to Ethernet or USB. Then connect to the E-Gauge data loggers. According to Sol-Ark, NO data can be transmitted out via the RS485 to anything, rather RS485 was intended to communicate with batteries. The only way E-Gauge would work is using "CT's", that's pointless to me. So dead end. Granted it was another Sol-Ark associate that told me to look at the E-Gauge to log data for my off grid Sol-Ark.
More importantly the Sol-Ark associate told me that Sol-Ark's only form of data transmitting was via the WiFi dongle for the PowerView ES app. However the associate stated that the PowerView ES app is the ONLY way to view this data. Better yet, the PowerView app is a CLOUD based data logger and if you do not have INTERNET, you can see or log data. It was also stated that you CAN NOT even use the PowerView app or desktop version that connects to a modem to create a LAN, to connect to Sol-Ark, so you can log/view your own data. YOU MUST HAVE INTERNET service? Maybe Sol-Ark doesn't understand the meaning of off-grid? It was stated however, maybe if you were a Modbus programmer, you could perhaps find a "work around"?
If someone here has more or better information that contradicts this, helps, please share? I would love to find a solution to this issue. After paying a premium for one of the better inverters on the market (early 2020), I'm now questioning this purchase. I would recommend people looking for a truely off grid inverter, look hard before buying. Being off grid, currently, you can not even see or log your own data without internet due to PowerView being a cloud based application.
It would be a more attractive option to allow the actual consumer to decide what and how they want to see the data coming from the inverter. For nearly $7000.00, you would think data coming from the inverter should be easily obtained by the consumer.
@solardad
@RickyBobby

I believe I might of posted this link before but I’ll post it again since it relates to this scenario.

In short this site originates from South Africa and they use the Sunsynk version of the Sol-Ark / Deye inverter. This post highlights users being able to poll the inverter data via the rs485 port or the WIFi port.

software for sunsynk + pylontech combo

hi can someone design for use friendly dashboards like icc for me -i am using sunsynk and pylontech- will pay for the services. regards P

powerforum.co.za

I have not explored it but it could provide a road map to a solution in reading inverter data directly.

 

[Shawn Hayes]

@solardad yes, your original post about this is why I started looking into this myself, your original link to that forum in S Africa. I have been following that thread fairly closely. I have reached a conclusion, or at least based on what Sol-Ark has stated to me. The RS 485 port is intended for battery communication. The Wi-Fi is the only way data is transmitted out of the Sol-Ark. So my assumption is you need to be a Web scraper to be able to crack the encryption code of the PowerView ES cloud service? I’m not that technologically versed. But still searching for a solution.

 

[RStone13]

After reading this thread, are these inverters really worth the hassle?

 

[solardad]

After reading this thread, are these inverters really worth the hassle?

Good question, I believe so. What is being discussed is to monitor the data realtime vs. leveraging the existing reporting they offer. So sort of a DIY item vs. trying to leverage the core inverter functionality. In my view this is really just a nice to have. My setup works great as-is.

It is a PIA that they are not as open source like Victron. Hopefully in time if enough Sol-Ark owners question when these features will be available it will be delivered sooner than later.

 

[Shawn Hayes]

Good question, I believe so. What is being discussed is to monitor the data realtime vs. leveraging the existing reporting they offer. So sort of a DIY item vs. trying to leverage the core inverter functionality. In my view this is really just a nice to have. My setup works great as-is.

It is a PIA that they are not as open source like Victron. Hopefully in time if enough Sol-Ark owners question when these features will be available it will be delivered sooner than later.

@RStone13 I would agree with @solardad , I guess my frustration is for $7000 it shouldn’t be this hard to capture your own data and do what you want with it? I think these are really good inverters despite the price. However it feels like you bought a really expensive sports car with a really cheap dashboard! Sol-Ark needs to work with owners to give them open source data collection!
I guess that’s why I stated in an earlier opinion, for those who are truly off grid, want to be able to see what your inverter is actually doing and collect your own data, you should look around before you purchase.

 

[solardad]

@RStone13 I would agree with @solardad , I guess my frustration is for $7000 it shouldn’t be this hard to capture your own data and do what you want with it? I think these are really good inverters despite the price. However it feels like you bought a really expensive sports car with a really cheap dashboard! Sol-Ark needs to work with owners to give them open source data collection!
I guess that’s why I stated in an earlier opinion, for those who are truly off grid, want to be able to see what your inverter is actually doing and collect your own data, you should look around before you purchase.

@RStone13 great analogy!

 

[ArthurEld]

Solark is definitely monitoring the data.

Solark wants us to use their software and dongle connection so they can stay in the loop.

 

[Shawn Hayes]

Solark is definitely monitoring the data.

Solark wants us to use their software and dongle connection so they can stay in the loop.

I’m sure that’s great for them, but those that live off grid, does that mean you must invest more money into ways to get internet just to monitor/collect data of your inverter? Either a “hot spot” using cellular data or a satellite option? I’ve spent enough already. They should be working on a solution for to this.
In late December 2020 I had a problem with my system. I went to the off grid build site and the system was shut completely down. Granted it wasn’t a major problem, but without any kind of data, historical data, there was no way to see what happened and why the system shut itself off. Therefore my new rabbit hole.....

 

[ArthurEld]

I’m sure that’s great for them, but those that live off grid, does that mean you must invest more money into ways to get internet just to monitor/collect data of your inverter? Either a “hot spot” using cellular data or a satellite option? I’ve spent enough already. They should be working on a solution for to this.
In late December 2020 I had a problem with my system. I went to the off grid build site and the system was shut completely down. Granted it wasn’t a major problem, but without any kind of data, historical data, there was no way to see what happened and why the system shut itself off. Therefore my new rabbit hole.....

Yes it would be best if Solark at least allowed people access to the data.
I think Solark might deny some warranty claims if they aren't connected.

 

[opticalcarrier]

thanks for this OP! As I have a question here..
What is the deal with this diagram? I get pretty much everything about it except for the part how the transfer/critloads panel connects the the main panel and the rest of the house. Why is there just an "A" there, and that black wire to "load"? wtf is "load" Why does that transfer/crit loads panel not also have just a simple 240VAC breaker connection in the mains panel?