Solar Assistant cable extension with standard ethernet cable?

[logjam]

Hello,
Newbie here. Just upgraded my existing 14 year old grid-tied array (SMA inverter) to a Sol-Ark15Kw inverter with 3 eFlex batteries.

I was thinking about adding a Solar Assistant Pi unit to the mix, to better monitor my system (although it’s a bit disappointing that for the Sol-Ark15, it is read only).

All my equipment is outdoors. The Sol-Ark is in a custom made steel cabinet, and the eFlex batteries are in a DuraRack enclosure.

I was going to put the Raspberry Pi in the steel cabinet, next to the inverter, but it’s too hot in there for a Pi to survive for long.

I was wondering if the following is a solution:
I currently have the Sol-Ark wifi dongle wired with an ethernet cable (coming from inside the house). If I put a RJ45 splitter on the can-bus, put the eFlex BMS on one leg of the spliitter, can I use the existing ethernet cable (disconnect it from the dongle, since the dongle can use wifi), connect it to the other leg of the splitter, and then couple that ethernet cable to the proper (RJ45 to USB) cable, to plug in to the Pi? Essentially, I’m trying to use the existing ethernet cable as a long extension cable, so I can run the Pi inside the house.
Would this work?

Thank you all!
Logjam

 

[houseofancients]

I was thinking about adding a Solar Assistant Pi unit to the mix, to better monitor my system (although it’s a bit disappointing that for the Sol-Ark15, it is read only).

actually, you can change most of the TOU setting and working mode the lastest beta's :

 

[houseofancients]

if your BMS uses canbus, this should be possible, if it runs rs485 , you need to find out what pins it is using ...
Sol-Ark/Deye/Sunsynks have 2 pair of rs485 pin-outs , so then a standard utp spliter works fine ( that is what i am using to split my port)

SolarAssistant

solar-assistant.io

 

[logjam]

actually, you can change most of the TOU setting and working mode the lastest beta's :
View attachment 159072

View attachment 159070View attachment 159069

Thanks! Good to know. I'll try it once I get everything going!

 

[logjam]

Do I need to modify the existing ethernet cat6 cable to be a straight-through, or will a standard unmodified cable work, coupling it with the correct RS485 cable?

 

[houseofancients]

Do I need to modify the existing ethernet cat6 cable to be a straight-through, or will a standard unmodified cable work, coupling it with the correct RS485 cable?

on the 15K's i needed to do so , but that depend on your batteries, which i am not familiar with

 

[logjam]

Just wanted to report back, that a standard ethernet cable with an ethernet coupler, going to the RS485 -> USB works flawlessly! So nice to have the Pi inside the house, instead of a hot environment!