Solar Assistant assistant

[doityourself2021]

SA needs to connect to some port on your battery bank that allows it to see all batteries so it can report on each individual battery.
SA also needs a connection to the inverter to report on inverter stuff.

If the only connection is to the Inverter, then the Inverter, assuming you have a closed loop communication with a "Master BMS" in your battery bank will report what the "Master BMS" is reporting to the inverter, that is all batteries in the bank as one big battery.

In "closed loop" communication the "Master BMS/Battery" will report to the inverter what it (the master) compiles as all the individual batteries in such a manner that the Inverter is seeing the battery bank as "One Big Battery". The "Master BMS/Battery" does not report the data for each individual battery to the inverter

If you have an RS232 port on the batteries then your probably need to connect the RS232 port on the "Master Battery" to SA using the appropriate RS232 (or RS232-TTL) to USB Converter.

SA, with a connection the inverter and another to the "Master Battery/BMS" will then display the Inverter data as well as each battery in your battery bank

Hi Marionw - all good info. However for my Growatt SPF which only communicates rs485 , and the battery BMS boards are Seplos, three rj45 ports, CAN/rs232,and 2 rs485 ports, as per SA Battery info.. had to change BMS board Pack 1-3 dip sw..accordingly and us a USB-A to rs485 converter to connect to #1 BMS battery Pack.. Bingo, now all three batteries are being shown on the SA interface -

 

[marionw]

In most instances you will always find two RJ45 connections that are for battery to battery communication. Often the third (or first depending on how you count, right to left or left to right) will be for BMS communications to the inverter. Some batteries like SOK or SunGoldPower (Jakiper? Ruixu?) do provide an RS323 port for SA/PC comms which gives you the best of all three. Closed loop (if you want it) while having SA monitor both the inverter an all batteries.

Get the manual for your battery and look at the pinout from the RJ45 jacks for battery to battery comms. In the EG4 LifePower4 batteries the double RJ45 connections used for battery to battery comms is actually two separate RS485 busses, Pins 1&2 for SA or PC and pins 7&8 for Master BMS to the other batteries.

Don't know but you could get luck and find there are two busses and not just one. The SunGoldPower on the other hand, there are not two busses in the RJ45 jacks for battery to battery comms, only one, they do however provide an RS232 port for SA or PC and a separate set of RJ45 jacks (CAN and RS485) for BMS to Inverter.

The great thing about RS485 is that you can get distance. I have one cat5 cable from my garage to my computer room (about 170 ft). I made three custom cat5 cables; One uses pins 1&2 (only pins 1&2 on one end) plugged into the batteries, a second custom cable using pins 7&8 connected to the WIFI port (pins 7&8 are an RS485 bus and pins 1&2 are power for a WIFI dongle) and a third where pins 7&8 on one end are wired to pins 4&5 on the other. All three plug into an RJ45 Splitter Adapter with four ports. The cat5 to my computer room plugs into the forth port. In the computer room I have RS485 to USB converters connected to the orange/white and orange twisted pair (pins 1&2), an RS485 to USB converters connected to the blue/white and blue twisted pair (pins 4&5) and an RS485 to USB converters connected to the brown/white and brown twisted pair (pins 7&8). This way I can monitor (or sniff/spy) on any communications. This is how I am doing some software development from the comfort of my computer room.

Oftentimes the inverter or battery manuals give you the pinouts of the various jacks/ports/connections and it is possible to take advantage of the info

 

[Quattrohead]

About every 20seconds is as good as you can get reliable polls. You have to poll in increments of 40 registers, so three sets per.

I have been hitting the 18k every second for just about a year now, it's fine until you need to update the inverter firmware, then you need to stop SA polling the inverter.
Just checked with MQTT explorer, the inverter responds every 1-5 seconds generally.

 

[SignatureSolarJess]

May experience from past with Signature Solar period, from my initial purchase of Growatt SPF and afterwards and past three years,, has been very poor.. as they won't even reply to emails. And to try to reach someone technical on phone is impossible and they don't call back or reply. I even say where the owner was on Telegram, not to long ago.. I sent him a message to just verify it was him.. He confirmed and from that point on would not even respond to pleasant message afterward.. So I m Done with Solar Signature, (corrected thanks to bring to my attention.. to many late hours and my 74 years is catching up to me..lol ).. 4 years ago they were anxious to build their business and were very supportive .. after they have grown so busy.. they could care less...
I have the same SA Orange, have good feed via WiFi, not sure why supply voltage for 5v 1-2 amp from your battery(s) would cause Growatt issues.. Yes, Electricity is a Mystery for sure.. Wish you the best

Hi! I'm so sorry that you had this experience. Signature Solar has been a growing company, but today we are fully staffed and waiting for your calls and emails! We absolutely do care and have improved our customer service exponentially over the past few months. We'd love to reconcile with you and ensure you are taken care of. Are you still having issues that I can assist with?

 

[doityourself2021]

Hi! I'm so sorry that you had this experience. Signature Solar has been a growing company, but today we are fully staffed and waiting for your calls and emails! We absolutely do care and have improved our customer service exponentially over the past few months. We'd love to reconcile with you and ensure you are taken care of. Are you still having issues that I can assist with?

Dear Jess,
Your the First since 2022
Your reply to my experience from the past 3+ years, in offering reconcile is appreciated.
For the record, I made a purchase, back later part of 2020, in 2021 there was a failure November 2021 of the Growatt controller..
Signature Solar did step up to the plate, however was a tug with Signature Solar and had to get James involed and Growatt Representive..
it was not an easy experience in Nov 2021 and then was advised by Solar Signature to not contact Growatt directly in the future, but strictly with Signature.. I tried that several times after replacement parts. No Support
From 2022-2024, could never get a reply to emails, phone call, phone message, and even an attempt via Telegram with James.. No Response, no return replies. Thus I take that as Not Interested. Your the First since 2022
Just so you understand, on the technical side, I was not calling to complain, just wanted to share input and a few questions..
Signature Sales experience very good.. Support then-??
I hope it has changed.. and I am pleased to see your Offer with an extended hand.. Thank You.
To answer your question as to issues, changes made in its behaviour and firmware.
Not all is resolved at this time.. I still have some question Technically..
Regards - RS

 

[doityourself2021]

Has anyone found Solar Assistant PI Orange, dropping wifi connection?
Just past 24 hours.. and
how about Ethernet cabled..
thinking of switching if this is going to be a constant issue..
Love the SA PI Orange, from SA.. been great and robust.. info from my BMS Battery packs and my Growatt SPF6000T off grid.

 

[SignatureSolarJess]

Dear Jess,
Your the First since 2022
Your reply to my experience from the past 3+ years, in offering reconcile is appreciated.
For the record, I made a purchase, back later part of 2020, in 2021 there was a failure November 2021 of the Growatt controller..
Signature Solar did step up to the plate, however was a tug with Signature Solar and had to get James involed and Growatt Representive..
it was not an easy experience in Nov 2021 and then was advised by Solar Signature to not contact Growatt directly in the future, but strictly with Signature.. I tried that several times after replacement parts. No Support
From 2022-2024, could never get a reply to emails, phone call, phone message, and even an attempt via Telegram with James.. No Response, no return replies. Thus I take that as Not Interested. Your the First since 2022
Just so you understand, on the technical side, I was not calling to complain, just wanted to share input and a few questions..
Signature Sales experience very good.. Support then-??
I hope it has changed.. and I am pleased to see your Offer with an extended hand.. Thank You.
To answer your question as to issues, changes made in its behaviour and firmware.
Not all is resolved at this time.. I still have some question Technically..
Regards - RS

Ooof, I'm so sorry. I can assure you our support has improved so much and we are here to help. Let's get this looked at! Would you mind DMing me your name and email address? I'd like to look into your order and get your questions answered!

 

[wpns]

how about Ethernet cabled

I never use WiFi when there's a wired option, too many things that can go wrong (plus I run my Pis on PoE, so there's a cable anyway).

 

[doityourself2021]

Ooof, I'm so sorry. I can assure you our support has improved so much and we are here to help. Let's get this looked at! Would you mind DMing me your name and email address? I'd like to look into your order and get your questions answered!

Ms. Jess - Will be happy to in the days ahead... at moment I have more pressing projects. You can find my Signature Solar contact info ref to your old system files Order # SO-01489 date 09-01-2020 - Thank You

 

[doityourself2021]

I never use WiFi when there's a wired option, too many things that can go wrong (plus I run my Pis on PoE, so there's a cable anyway).

Absolutely best to Ethernet it.. I had been experiencing " Lost Connection over Air WiFi, just about once a day.. " Just ran cable, now up. I believe
it's the end of "Lost connection"..

I never use WiFi when there's a wired option, too many things that can go wrong (plus I run my Pis on PoE, so there's a cable anyway).

Your correct, after initially doing WiFi, and getting dropped at least once a day.. Decided time to pull the Cat cable of the spool and run it.. Tool all day.. now done.. From what I can tell it's more responsive... and this should end the "Not Connected" message..

 

[Pierre]

Have a Pi Zero W running SA on a Growatt 5000ES. For redundancy I put the Growatt Shine dongle on an extension cable and must report that the Shine server has been solid for the last 3 months or so. Nice to have both monitoring features, just in case.

 

[doityourself2021]

Have a Pi Zero W running SA on a Growatt 5000ES. For redundancy I put the Growatt Shine dongle on an extension cable and must report that the Shine server has been solid for the last 3 months or so. Nice to have both monitoring features, just in case.

Pierre - Hi I have been running my Growatt SPF6000T-DVM off Grid for now 3 years plus.. with the Shine.. However this past week I have Switched to Solar-Assistant SA-PI Orange from Solar Assistant, purchased the complete, kit, with power supply, Pre Loade SA software.. and the SA is so much more Robust with Information that the Growatt Shine... you may not be that interested in .. It is simple transition to the SA, just power it up, tell it what equipment you have and how you want to communicate over the network if wanting or just connect via a display device. Just thought I would share a positive note.. The Shine is Ok, but only updates once every 5 minutes, where Solar Assistant is every 1-3 seconds. Guess it just depends on how much info you want.. The Growatt Inverter itself, does limit some info, or I should say lacking.. I lived with Shine for 3 years.. but will not go back to it.. Just wanted to share with you my experience.. Glad your solid with your connection and Shine.. Regards Ric

 

[Pierre]

Pierre - Hi I have been running my Growatt SPF6000T-DVM off Grid for now 3 years plus.. with the Shine.. However this past week I have Switched to Solar-Assistant SA-PI Orange from Solar Assistant, purchased the complete, kit, with power supply, Pre Loade SA software.. and the SA is so much more Robust with Information that the Growatt Shine... you may not be that interested in .. It is simple transition to the SA, just power it up, tell it what equipment you have and how you want to communicate over the network if wanting or just connect via a display device. Just thought I would share a positive note.. The Shine is Ok, but only updates once every 5 minutes, where Solar Assistant is every 1-3 seconds. Guess it just depends on how much info you want.. The Growatt Inverter itself, does limit some info, or I should say lacking.. I lived with Shine for 3 years.. but will not go back to it.. Just wanted to share with you my experience.. Glad your solid with your connection and Shine.. Regards Ric

Thanks for your comments , Ric. Much appreciated. I was going to buy the whole Pi Orange kit but had a spare Pi Zero W in the spares box. At first I thought the Zero was going to be too lite but to my surprise it runs SA just fine. Glad also that your system is running smoothly. Cheers , Pierre.

 

[ponobill]

I'm not surprised to read here that DHL lost a few other SA orders. I waited about 1.5 months for mine to get here to Maui, tracking showed it was stationary at some facility in California. I think the budget DHL shipping uses USPS and then consolidates for ocean transport. Solar Assistant eventually sent me a second unit by USPS flat rate box. It arrived in four days. And of course the DHL shipment arrived the next day--two months in transit.

I have an old windows PC that I boot Linux on, I should have just used that. I do like the size of raspberry-based stuff though.

 

[wpns]

I have an old windows PC that I boot Linux on, I should have just used that.

SA won’t run on anything but RPi.

 

[Steve777]

So toying with the idea of getting SA and wondering which RPi platform to buy to support it, a 4 or a 5. Any thoughts from current users? The SA website groups the 4 and 5 together in terms of capabilities, but I was wondering if there were any other advantages to the 5 over the 4? How about recommended RAM 4 or 8Gb?

Thanks

 

[wattmatters]

My main SA runs on a Pi 3b, the other of a Pi 4. Just use a good quality SD card.

 

[Crowz]

Orange pi 3 lts is the one you want for solar assistant.

It has the mmc drive onboard. Its cheap. It has all the horsepower needed to run it full speed. Anything beyond that is like buying a $2000 gaming pc to check your email. Its just serves no purpose.

You can get the orange pi for $60 from amazon with case, power supply with it being completely ready to go.