diy solar

diy solar

Sol-Ark Inverters 8 and 12K

Need to wake you up again @Haugen

Im doing some numbers to decide either between some pylontech batteries or a DIY one with the Heltec BMS.. same as yourself.

Fits of all, what would be the main advantages of the inverter communicating with the battery?.
  • Being able to cut the charge / discharge depending of SOC, without a hard turnoff from an external BMS
  • Maybe read SOC? (Altough you mention before that Sol-Ark can calculate this even with "dumb" batteries.
Do you know if the CAN compatibility with generic BMS's its an special implementation from Sol-Ark?. I was considering a Deye / Sunsynk but maybe they wont provide that.. so that could steer things to the SolArk Again. Al tough, seeing the guys that are reverse engineered the communication protocol with the web monitoring, and if thats suposed to work with the 3 brands, it would mean that the Sol-Ark doesn't have an special firmware and the Heltec BMS could work also with the sunynk's and deye's.

And when you are building your DIY battery?, im very interested in your experiment.
Long post - apologies but will try and cover a few things - for those who already understand BMS/CAN etc - please skip over most of it.

One of the big advantages of CAN is accurate SOC, and control for the charge/discharge are now handled by the BMS.

An issue with SOC determination using V is a drop when under load which affects it - some inverters are better, some standalone shunts etc also "learn" but the inverter still looks at the V rating. To use an example - your lithium bank might be sitting at 51V idling, and the SOC (varies on all batteries) would be roughly 80% (just an example on a 48V nominal battery) - it's not linear - so 49V might be close to 20% SOC, 50V 50% etc. When you add substantial load (couple of kW) you will experience a drop in V - sometimes 1.5-2V depending on load -this is normal - so the inverter suddenly see's the battery drop from 80% to 20% - and depending on your settings might switch to utility. Remove the load - it recovers back to 51V - this switching causes inaccurate SOC readings, and not very efficient. You would see this on battery SOC graphs as big steps in %. Also means you have to set the V levels as an estimate for cutoff/low - recharge/full etc - all in V (The Sol-Ark has a % estimate that tries to match V - but it's still estimate) - if you use CAN or RS485 (different protocols but the same end result) - you are are measuring accurate V per cell direct from the BMS- regardless of load. So the inverter gets "told" what the correct SOC level is by the BMS. Also makes the programming much easier for levels - you simply choose "low battery = 20%"- or "keep it between 40% and 80% during X time of the day." as an example. The BMS also controls charging/discharging etc - so no need to program the values - keeps it within the recommended parameters of the cells. Using an external shunt, running it through the learning process will of course work, but it's another component, something else to buy, and only does 1 thing - gives you SOC - something which the BMS already does.

There are PHD papers on the web trying to explain the determinations of SOC in Lithium cells - it's complicated math.

With regards to @Craig's post question "why is it complicated" - it isn't on paper, but can you just buy any DIY BMS, hook up a network cable and it works - absolutely not. There are many details and technicalities around al the different cells, charge curves, all sorts of math around when to start throttling charging, how to calculate SOC etc - and every bms out there and every cell is different. That's part of what you pay extra for when going for a branded battery - they have engineered both hardware and software to match perfectly, and spend many hours making sure THEIR BMS talks to the inverter - probably paid some fee's also for inverter manufacturers to develop code, certify their battery etc. This is why often firmware upgrades add more batteries to the list of supported ones for CAN/RS485.

It is changing though - so BMS companies are trying to make it easier - the trick is to know which ones.

Another issue not mentioned is connecting multiple batteries in parallel. How does CAN then work? In the branded battery world you often have little dip switches to indicate which battery in the stack is "master" and then slaves, as well as ID them say battery 0,1,2,3 - for example a 4x 48V 100A Dyness pack (so 400A @ 48V) - each battery has a BMS that controls it's own cells - your inverter now needs to understand there are 4x packs each with potentially 12-16 Cells, and each to be managed separately. In the DIY space this sometimes worked using RS485 as a protocol and then a small little hub to broadcast all RS485 info - but CAN is much better - no hubs needed. This is important if you want to build out larger banks. Without intelligence you will run into many issues with parallel banks where BMS's now fight each other, require buzzbars etc.

Tried a few brands of BMS with the Sunsynk - none of them with success - and finally (after searching for months) found one that seems to do it all - talks direct with Deye/Sol-Ark/SunSynk/Ohm (all from the same factory - rebranded), have master/slave ports built in to build out larger banks etc. Have ordered and waiting for stock to test it out.

For those that are keen : Seplos is the brand. They have a very active youtube channel, of course they also make and sell their own DIY kits - very impressive stuff - (and priced accordingly!) - but they do sell the BMS on it's own - so for those that are keen to give it a go - https://www.seplos.com/ Last time I checked they were around $150 for a single 100A 48V BMS (unsure of min order limit) + shipping.

I found another post this forum where the manual was uploaded - so maybe worth a read - but for this use case - they do seem to talk to Sol-Ark fine on CAN. https://diysolarforum.com/resources/seplos-48v-100a-bms-specification.77/history

The specific BMS I'm referring to is the 100A 48V one in the download link - unsure what other size and configurations they have.

If you prefer something that "just works" and is "plug & play" - then branded batteries is the way to go - does not have to be the most expensive ones, there are very good 2nd life ones out there that already work over CAN with many inverter brands - but yes it will be more expensive than a full DIY - but many of us like to fiddle and make it work over time :)

Alternatively setup your battery as AGM-V/% - set you levels accordingly and accept 20%-30% less usable capacity (which in the long run will make your cells last longer anyways). Your BMS will still offer protection for low cutoff, overcharge, temperature etc (if those are features of your BMS).
 
Long post - apologies but will try and cover a few things - for those who already understand BMS/CAN etc - please skip over most of it.

One of the big advantages of CAN is accurate SOC, and control for the charge/discharge are now handled by the BMS.

An issue with SOC determination using V is a drop when under load which affects it - some inverters are better, some standalone shunts etc also "learn" but the inverter still looks at the V rating. To use an example - your lithium bank might be sitting at 51V idling, and the SOC (varies on all batteries) would be roughly 80% (just an example on a 48V nominal battery) - it's not linear - so 49V might be close to 20% SOC, 50V 50% etc. When you add substantial load (couple of kW) you will experience a drop in V - sometimes 1.5-2V depending on load -this is normal - so the inverter suddenly see's the battery drop from 80% to 20% - and depending on your settings might switch to utility. Remove the load - it recovers back to 51V - this switching causes inaccurate SOC readings, and not very efficient. You would see this on battery SOC graphs as big steps in %. Also means you have to set the V levels as an estimate for cutoff/low - recharge/full etc - all in V (The Sol-Ark has a % estimate that tries to match V - but it's still estimate) - if you use CAN or RS485 (different protocols but the same end result) - you are are measuring accurate V per cell direct from the BMS- regardless of load. So the inverter gets "told" what the correct SOC level is by the BMS. Also makes the programming much easier for levels - you simply choose "low battery = 20%"- or "keep it between 40% and 80% during X time of the day." as an example. The BMS also controls charging/discharging etc - so no need to program the values - keeps it within the recommended parameters of the cells. Using an external shunt, running it through the learning process will of course work, but it's another component, something else to buy, and only does 1 thing - gives you SOC - something which the BMS already does.

There are PHD papers on the web trying to explain the determinations of SOC in Lithium cells - it's complicated math.

With regards to @Craig's post question "why is it complicated" - it isn't on paper, but can you just buy any DIY BMS, hook up a network cable and it works - absolutely not. There are many details and technicalities around al the different cells, charge curves, all sorts of math around when to start throttling charging, how to calculate SOC etc - and every bms out there and every cell is different. That's part of what you pay extra for when going for a branded battery - they have engineered both hardware and software to match perfectly, and spend many hours making sure THEIR BMS talks to the inverter - probably paid some fee's also for inverter manufacturers to develop code, certify their battery etc. This is why often firmware upgrades add more batteries to the list of supported ones for CAN/RS485.

It is changing though - so BMS companies are trying to make it easier - the trick is to know which ones.

Another issue not mentioned is connecting multiple batteries in parallel. How does CAN then work? In the branded battery world you often have little dip switches to indicate which battery in the stack is "master" and then slaves, as well as ID them say battery 0,1,2,3 - for example a 4x 48V 100A Dyness pack (so 400A @ 48V) - each battery has a BMS that controls it's own cells - your inverter now needs to understand there are 4x packs each with potentially 12-16 Cells, and each to be managed separately. In the DIY space this sometimes worked using RS485 as a protocol and then a small little hub to broadcast all RS485 info - but CAN is much better - no hubs needed. This is important if you want to build out larger banks. Without intelligence you will run into many issues with parallel banks where BMS's now fight each other, require buzzbars etc.

Tried a few brands of BMS with the Sunsynk - none of them with success - and finally (after searching for months) found one that seems to do it all - talks direct with Deye/Sol-Ark/SunSynk/Ohm (all from the same factory - rebranded), have master/slave ports built in to build out larger banks etc. Have ordered and waiting for stock to test it out.

For those that are keen : Seplos is the brand. They have a very active youtube channel, of course they also make and sell their own DIY kits - very impressive stuff - (and priced accordingly!) - but they do sell the BMS on it's own - so for those that are keen to give it a go - https://www.seplos.com/ Last time I checked they were around $150 for a single 100A 48V BMS (unsure of min order limit) + shipping.

I found another post this forum where the manual was uploaded - so maybe worth a read - but for this use case - they do seem to talk to Sol-Ark fine on CAN. https://diysolarforum.com/resources/seplos-48v-100a-bms-specification.77/history

The specific BMS I'm referring to is the 100A 48V one in the download link - unsure what other size and configurations they have.

If you prefer something that "just works" and is "plug & play" - then branded batteries is the way to go - does not have to be the most expensive ones, there are very good 2nd life ones out there that already work over CAN with many inverter brands - but yes it will be more expensive than a full DIY - but many of us like to fiddle and make it work over time :)

Alternatively setup your battery as AGM-V/% - set you levels accordingly and accept 20%-30% less usable capacity (which in the long run will make your cells last longer anyways). Your BMS will still offer protection for low cutoff, overcharge, temperature etc (if those are features of your BMS).
Great info!.... I ended up getting a pylontech battery, its suposed to be able to talk with the Deye, will test ;)
 
I also verified with Sol-Ark tech support that the BMS doesn't have to communicate to the Sol-Ark.
Haugen, when do you think you system will be up and running?
New to solar but this makes sense. The BMS in most other types of battery just need to present a dumb two-terminal device externally and limit conditions in the pack. As long as the charger runs a proper CC/CV cycle for that battery, any communications should just be for optimization and asset health monitoring.
 
I think people running high amps have more problems.
When I hit a limit the BMS stops the current to or from the battery. I don't think I have hit a limit using above 50A though.
If I wanted to use over 125A sustained current I would be more concerned.
 
Great info!.... I ended up getting a pylontech battery, its suposed to be able to talk with the Deye, will test ;)
What DEYE version did you get & where? I'd be interested in your setup since I have the Sol-Ark 12k already for our house but at the cabin we just bought I am thinking on the 5k DEYE version. Have a Alibaba vendor who wants to sell me one.
 
What DEYE version did you get & where? I'd be interested in your setup since I have the Sol-Ark 12k already for our house but at the cabin we just bought I am thinking on the 5k DEYE version. Have a Alibaba vendor who wants to sell me one.

8K version, didnt know the 5K existed!.

I have a thread of my installation if you want to check ;)
 
Great info!.... I ended up getting a pylontech battery, its suposed to be able to talk with the Deye, will test ;)
Yes definitely talks to the Deye 100%. Did you go single Pylon or a stack of multiples? (2.4 or 3.6) - just be aware of the max discharge rates - around 50A (think the 3.6 bursts to 75A) - so essentially 2.4kW max if you have a single.
 
Yes definitely talks to the Deye 100%. Did you go single Pylon or a stack of multiples? (2.4 or 3.6) - just be aware of the max discharge rates - around 50A (think the 3.6 bursts to 75A) - so essentially 2.4kW max if you have a single.

Thats good to know!

At the moment i just bought a single battery and a 9 bay rack (Wich can hold around 4 x 2.4kw batteries)..., just for testing. The "critical" circuit its very small, so i should be fine with a single battery for a while.

Im probably going for a total of 4 units at the end, that would be around 5000USD in batteries!
 
This is posted in another thread as well:
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 an 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!!
 
Here's an update to my earlier post here #130:
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. :mad:
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
 
Another issue not mentioned is connecting multiple batteries in parallel. How does CAN then work? In the branded battery world you often have little dip switches to indicate which battery in the stack is "master" and then slaves, as well as ID them say battery 0,1,2,3 - for example a 4x 48V 100A Dyness pack (so 400A @ 48V) - each battery has a BMS that controls it's own cells - your inverter now needs to understand there are 4x packs each with potentially 12-16 Cells, and each to be managed separately. In the DIY space this sometimes worked using RS485 as a protocol and then a small little hub to broadcast all RS485 info - but CAN is much better - no hubs needed. This is important if you want to build out larger banks. Without intelligence you will run into many issues with parallel banks where BMS's now fight each other, require buzzbars etc.

Tried a few brands of BMS with the Sunsynk - none of them with success - and finally (after searching for months) found one that seems to do it all - talks direct with Deye/Sol-Ark/SunSynk/Ohm (all from the same factory - rebranded), have master/slave ports built in to build out larger banks etc. Have ordered and waiting for stock to test it out.

For those that are keen : Seplos is the brand. They have a very active youtube channel, of course they also make and sell their own DIY kits - very impressive stuff - (and priced accordingly!) - but they do sell the BMS on it's own - so for those that are keen to give it a go - https://www.seplos.com/ Last time I checked they were around $150 for a single 100A 48V BMS (unsure of min order limit) + shipping.

I found another post this forum where the manual was uploaded - so maybe worth a read - but for this use case - they do seem to talk to Sol-Ark fine on CAN. https://diysolarforum.com/resources/seplos-48v-100a-bms-specification.77/history

The specific BMS I'm referring to is the 100A 48V one in the download link - unsure what other size and configurations they have.
Very good information! Thanks for sharing your experience. I have been searching for this myself.

I need to look into the Seplos BMSs. Though, 100A won't withstand the 185A charhe current from the SolArk, I suppose at 48V that's enough to absorb the hit from my A/C starting up.

With the limitation to the current draw, a 2nd pack of 280Ah cells would be almost necessary. That makes the ability to provide a unique address on the CAN bus more important. To know which pack to check, that data needs to be known. Monitoring the CAN bus would point directly to the problem.
 
Long post - apologies but will try and cover a few things - for those who already understand BMS/CAN etc - please skip over most of it.

One of the big advantages of CAN is accurate SOC, and control for the charge/discharge are now handled by the BMS.

An issue with SOC determination using V is a drop when under load which affects it - some inverters are better, some standalone shunts etc also "learn" but the inverter still looks at the V rating. To use an example - your lithium bank might be sitting at 51V idling, and the SOC (varies on all batteries) would be roughly 80% (just an example on a 48V nominal battery) - it's not linear - so 49V might be close to 20% SOC, 50V 50% etc. When you add substantial load (couple of kW) you will experience a drop in V - sometimes 1.5-2V depending on load -this is normal - so the inverter suddenly see's the battery drop from 80% to 20% - and depending on your settings might switch to utility. Remove the load - it recovers back to 51V - this switching causes inaccurate SOC readings, and not very efficient. You would see this on battery SOC graphs as big steps in %. Also means you have to set the V levels as an estimate for cutoff/low - recharge/full etc - all in V (The Sol-Ark has a % estimate that tries to match V - but it's still estimate) - if you use CAN or RS485 (different protocols but the same end result) - you are are measuring accurate V per cell direct from the BMS- regardless of load. So the inverter gets "told" what the correct SOC level is by the BMS. Also makes the programming much easier for levels - you simply choose "low battery = 20%"- or "keep it between 40% and 80% during X time of the day." as an example. The BMS also controls charging/discharging etc - so no need to program the values - keeps it within the recommended parameters of the cells. Using an external shunt, running it through the learning process will of course work, but it's another component, something else to buy, and only does 1 thing - gives you SOC - something which the BMS already does.

There are PHD papers on the web trying to explain the determinations of SOC in Lithium cells - it's complicated math.

With regards to @Craig's post question "why is it complicated" - it isn't on paper, but can you just buy any DIY BMS, hook up a network cable and it works - absolutely not. There are many details and technicalities around al the different cells, charge curves, all sorts of math around when to start throttling charging, how to calculate SOC etc - and every bms out there and every cell is different. That's part of what you pay extra for when going for a branded battery - they have engineered both hardware and software to match perfectly, and spend many hours making sure THEIR BMS talks to the inverter - probably paid some fee's also for inverter manufacturers to develop code, certify their battery etc. This is why often firmware upgrades add more batteries to the list of supported ones for CAN/RS485.

It is changing though - so BMS companies are trying to make it easier - the trick is to know which ones.

Another issue not mentioned is connecting multiple batteries in parallel. How does CAN then work? In the branded battery world you often have little dip switches to indicate which battery in the stack is "master" and then slaves, as well as ID them say battery 0,1,2,3 - for example a 4x 48V 100A Dyness pack (so 400A @ 48V) - each battery has a BMS that controls it's own cells - your inverter now needs to understand there are 4x packs each with potentially 12-16 Cells, and each to be managed separately. In the DIY space this sometimes worked using RS485 as a protocol and then a small little hub to broadcast all RS485 info - but CAN is much better - no hubs needed. This is important if you want to build out larger banks. Without intelligence you will run into many issues with parallel banks where BMS's now fight each other, require buzzbars etc.

Tried a few brands of BMS with the Sunsynk - none of them with success - and finally (after searching for months) found one that seems to do it all - talks direct with Deye/Sol-Ark/SunSynk/Ohm (all from the same factory - rebranded), have master/slave ports built in to build out larger banks etc. Have ordered and waiting for stock to test it out.

For those that are keen : Seplos is the brand. They have a very active youtube channel, of course they also make and sell their own DIY kits - very impressive stuff - (and priced accordingly!) - but they do sell the BMS on it's own - so for those that are keen to give it a go - https://www.seplos.com/ Last time I checked they were around $150 for a single 100A 48V BMS (unsure of min order limit) + shipping.

I found another post this forum where the manual was uploaded - so maybe worth a read - but for this use case - they do seem to talk to Sol-Ark fine on CAN. https://diysolarforum.com/resources/seplos-48v-100a-bms-specification.77/history

The specific BMS I'm referring to is the 100A 48V one in the download link - unsure what other size and configurations they have.

If you prefer something that "just works" and is "plug & play" - then branded batteries is the way to go - does not have to be the most expensive ones, there are very good 2nd life ones out there that already work over CAN with many inverter brands - but yes it will be more expensive than a full DIY - but many of us like to fiddle and make it work over time :)

Alternatively setup your battery as AGM-V/% - set you levels accordingly and accept 20%-30% less usable capacity (which in the long run will make your cells last longer anyways). Your BMS will still offer protection for low cutoff, overcharge, temperature etc (if those are features of your BMS).
They sell them on Alibaba

 
So I'm in the planning stage of switching my inverter to Sol-Ark. I've read so many good feedbacks, but I'm stuck with a BMS to use with a DIY 272Ah 48v battery setup. I'm planning to do a 4p16s or 16sp4, but I'm curious what others who have DIY Lifepo4 batteries hooked up to their Sol-Ark inverter.

I did contact Sol-Ark and Orion BMS, and the Orion BMS Jr has a close loop support through CAN. The problem that I have is the Orion BMS Jr seems very complicated compared to the other BMS' that I've look at. Also in their manual(s), they are strongly against parallel strings.

So, what BMS are you all using with Sol-Ark inverters?
 
So I'm in the planning stage of switching my inverter to Sol-Ark. I've read so many good feedbacks, but I'm stuck with a BMS to use with a DIY 272Ah 48v battery setup. I'm planning to do a 4p16s or 16sp4, but I'm curious what others who have DIY Lifepo4 batteries hooked up to their Sol-Ark inverter.

I did contact Sol-Ark and Orion BMS, and the Orion BMS Jr has a close loop support through CAN. The problem that I have is the Orion BMS Jr seems very complicated compared to the other BMS' that I've look at. Also in their manual(s), they are strongly against parallel strings.

So, what BMS are you all using with Sol-Ark inverters?
I have done a fair amount of research, looking at many BMS's for LiFePo4 battery banks. Unless things change between now and the time I'm ready for a full battery bank, (6-9 months, under construction) I'm going to spend the money and go with Batrium. I feel it suits my needs the best but may not be the best for someone else. Of course things change so fast with technology these days, so who knows.

As a follow up to several of my previous posts in this thread. The data communication between Sol-Arks' cloud service and Power View desktop/app is encrypted. No way that I can find to capture and read the data without the encryption being removed or a way to decrypted it.
Some of you may have known this already, but I figured it out the hard way. So at this point, persuading Sol-Ark to give open source data access will be the only way for off grid folks to monitor their inverters data output.
Kind of funny that an American, VETERAN owned company, is the only inverter that requires a "Big Brother" style, control "permission" to see your own inverter data, huh?
 
I have done a fair amount of research, looking at many BMS's for LiFePo4 battery banks. Unless things change between now and the time I'm ready for a full battery bank, (6-9 months, under construction) I'm going to spend the money and go with Batrium. I feel it suits my needs the best but may not be the best for someone else. Of course things change so fast with technology these days, so who knows.

As a follow up to several of my previous posts in this thread. The data communication between Sol-Arks' cloud service and Power View desktop/app is encrypted. No way that I can find to capture and read the data without the encryption being removed or a way to decrypted it.
Some of you may have known this already, but I figured it out the hard way. So at this point, persuading Sol-Ark to give open source data access will be the only way for off grid folks to monitor their inverters data output.
Kind of funny that an American, VETERAN owned company, is the only inverter that requires a "Big Brother" style, control "permission" to see your own inverter data, huh?
I like Batrium as there are more videos that I can learn, their literature is much better, and awesome interface. How do you plan on connecting to the Sol-Ark inverter?
 
I like Batrium as there are more videos that I can learn, their literature is much better, and awesome interface. How do you plan on connecting to the Sol-Ark inverter?
I don’t. There’s currently no way to make Batrium & Sol-Ark communication work. The parameters will need to be set accordingly on each device. This way I can at least monitor/log my battery banks data in real time.
@solardad has his Batrium setup monitored and displayed with Grafana, very nice graphical display.
 
I have done a fair amount of research, looking at many BMS's for LiFePo4 battery banks. Unless things change between now and the time I'm ready for a full battery bank, (6-9 months, under construction) I'm going to spend the money and go with Batrium. I feel it suits my needs the best but may not be the best for someone else. Of course things change so fast with technology these days, so who knows.

As a follow up to several of my previous posts in this thread. The data communication between Sol-Arks' cloud service and Power View desktop/app is encrypted. No way that I can find to capture and read the data without the encryption being removed or a way to decrypted it.
Some of you may have known this already, but I figured it out the hard way. So at this point, persuading Sol-Ark to give open source data access will be the only way for off grid folks to monitor their inverters data output.
Kind of funny that an American, VETERAN owned company, is the only inverter that requires a "Big Brother" style, control "permission" to see your own inverter data, huh?
I don't think I would label using the cloud (internet based) data stream can be construed as "Big Brother". Maybe you need to read 1984 again.
Encryption means that your data is yours and cannot be taken from you for any reason. Not even SolArk could break it.
It's not nefarious, just convenient. Even living off grid, you can have internet. Get an old wireless phone and share a data plan to connect.

I get your point that you want to own every bit of data produced. The fact is, after a couple months, I don't even look at the data every day. I'm certainly not going to waste my time checking in on my system second by second.
Yes, I have shading issues from trees in neighboring lots. I see a dip in power out; I look up, probably a cloud. Nothing I can do about it.
 
I don't think I would label using the cloud (internet based) data stream can be construed as "Big Brother". Maybe you need to read 1984 again.
Encryption means that your data is yours and cannot be taken from you for any reason. Not even SolArk could break it.
It's not nefarious, just convenient. Even living off grid, you can have internet. Get an old wireless phone and share a data plan to connect.

I get your point that you want to own every bit of data produced. The fact is, after a couple months, I don't even look at the data every day. I'm certainly not going to waste my time checking in on my system second by second.
Yes, I have shading issues from trees in neighboring lots. I see a dip in power out; I look up, probably a cloud. Nothing I can do about it.
Understand but if the data wasn’t transmitted out it wouldn’t need encryption. If you wanted to transmit data, then enable encryption. The 1984 reference on my part my have been a stretch but being forced to use their service was my point.
Therefore open source data collection on site would fix that.
As for using cellular data, that’s an added expense for $7K I shouldn’t HAVE to need. Additionally we have very poor cellular service even though we use Verizon. Sol-Ark did an update Tuesday March 30, this week. I did exactly that, ( iPad as a hot spot ) to get my updates this time. Got it connected, receiving data Monday evening before leave our off grid build site. When I logged on mid morning on Tuesday to check it, my data connection was lost @ 10:52 pm Monday night. So, cellular connection isn’t good for me. I hope you all understand where I’m coming from?
 
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