Solar assistant: do you use it?

[curiouscarbon]

Solar Assistant combines the data from my EASun 8kW inverter and Victron Smart Shunt. Integrated via MQTT with Home Assistant (and Node Red).

Automations manage the Output Source priority, the Charge Source Priority and the Maximal Grid Charge Current settings. There is also a Storm Mode which can be activated by choice or set up to trigger automatically if needed.

Without SA I doubt these would be so easily achieved.

I don't however look at the SA dashboard much. Most of my data is viewed via Home Assistant, and also data captured with InfluxDB and use Grafana for granular view/analysis.

View attachment 168073

Meanwhile it combines with data from my grid PV system as well as other monitoring (IoTaWatt) to provide a larger picture on live power feed:

View attachment 168075

And energy supply and consumption. Below shows the off-grid PV data (from Solar Assistant) and grid PV (Fronius) combined:

View attachment 168077

wow that looks really nice.

thanks for mentioning victron support specifically; their website does not list it clearly.

 

[wattmatters]

I have a question about HA.
Can it connect with more than one SA?

I can't see why not but until someone does it, who can be sure?

What I'm not sure about is whether SA can operate with just batteries/BMS and not be connected to an inverter.

I have a spare RPi4 and it has crossed my mind to monitor my server rack batteries/PACE BMSs separately as SA currently is monitoring my Victron Smart Shunt. Multiple battery inputs is an often requested feature for SA to add. Not sure if/when it will make an appearance but it would be helpful. I so would like to be capturing all the cell voltage data.

 

[OffGridForGood]

I'm thinking about using one for the BMS's.

OH!
Interesting.

What I'm not sure about is whether SA can operate with just batteries/BMS and not be connected to an inverter.

tell me more...

 

[wattmatters]

thanks for mentioning victron support specifically; their website does not list it clearly.

For clarity - it's only for the Victron BMV or SmartShunt, not the wider Victron family.

Configuring your battery in SolarAssistant

Read battery metrics with SolarAssistant

solar-assistant.io

 

[wattmatters]

tell me more...

I wish I could.

 

[OffGridForGood]

I wish I could.

Darn it,
and I thought we had an easy fix about to just happen before my very eyes!

{-I have been following the I-T guys thread on the forum where they discuss the JK BMS connecting to SA using the GPS plug, I have JK, but it is tough to follow those conversations with all the TLA's (three letter acronyms) they toss around like word salad. I ordered some parts and will give it a try, but if you have an easier way...I am all ears!}

 

[timselectric]

I can't see why not but until someone does it, who can be sure?

What I'm not sure about is whether SA can operate with just batteries/BMS and not be connected to an inverter.

I have a spare RPi4 and it has crossed my mind to monitor my server rack batteries/PACE BMSs separately as SA currently is monitoring my Victron Smart Shunt. Multiple battery inputs is an often requested feature for SA to add. Not sure if/when it will make an appearance but it would be helpful. I so would like to be capturing all the cell voltage data.

I've been begging for the feature.
I plan to connect the BMS's to my spare Pi.
It would be nice to view it in one place.

 

[realpinochet]

I wish SA supported Schneider and Outback but according to the email I got back they never will. I really wanted to use it to monitor a future system on those two inverters.

 

[wattmatters]

Tried to make a GIF of the power flow card:

https://imgur.com/irUIcMH

 

[webbbn]

may i ask about this? something related to rpi foundation actions? the gpu NDA stuff? (genuinely ignorant)
the community support momentum is a large part of why it drew me in.

Nothing to do with the RPi foundation. I've just had too much troubles with the hardware. For starters, they made a product that has a USB power connector, which doesn't work with USB voltages. They usually work with 5.3V, but, even then, with plenty of available current, you can still get the dreaded undervoltage error. I've never had that problem with any other SBC.

There are also other issues with them that, in my experience, make them unreliable. I've tried using them on my 3D printer, and they just have issues sometimes, which is not good in the middle of a day-long print. I'm currently using a couple of Orange Pi Zero Plus 2 (I think), and they've never had issues.

I think they're great for their original intended purpose of providing a (relatively) low-cost SBC for education and hobbyist, but I don't find them reliable enough for applications where you need high reliability.

 

[webbbn]

Tried to make a GIF of the power flow card:

https://imgur.com/irUIcMH

Is this from SA, or HA?

 

[wattmatters]

Is this from SA, or HA?

HA using data from various sources, including SA.

 

[webbbn]

HA using data from various sources, including SA.

If you could interface with your hardware via other means, is there much benefit to SA over just using HA integration? Is there anything significant that you can't do from HA that you can from SA, or that SA is just much better at? I haven't found much that you can't, relatively easily (from what I can tell) integrate into HA directly.

 

[Crowz]

The "right way" is subjective. If I were to design such a system, I would base it off an ESP32, add a voltage regulator that supports at least 48V, and include all the interface hardware in the box, which would interfaces directly with the ESP32, not going over USB. The hardware cost for such a box would likely be under $20. You already have WIFI and Bluetooth, and you could even add ethernet with POE for not much more. It also is more tolerant to temperature extremes, more fault tolerant, uses less power, is more secure, and is smaller.

They could make a good profit on the hardware, and provide better protection for the drivers, which might make it easier to work with more hardware vendors that want to protect their protocols. The software, then, could run anywhere. Many of us already have Home Assistant (or similar) machines running that it could run on. If you want to throw it on a pi, you can do that as well.

Not enough horsepower to do the job. Considering how this thing works it would choke under the load.
Not to mention memory requirements, storage needs, etc.

 

[Crowz]

I have it and use it with my LV6548's. Works great. I use it with the Victron Smart Shunt as the charge controllers I use don't have communication.

This is how I'm going to setup the battery I just bought for my system I have now and I will be adding a smart shunt for my 12 volt system when they release the epever support for my 4215bn's.

 

[curiouscarbon]

Nothing to do with the RPi foundation. I've just had too much troubles with the hardware. For starters, they made a product that has a USB power connector, which doesn't work with USB voltages. They usually work with 5.3V, but, even then, with plenty of available current, you can still get the dreaded undervoltage error. I've never had that problem with any other SBC.

There are also other issues with them that, in my experience, make them unreliable. I've tried using them on my 3D printer, and they just have issues sometimes, which is not good in the middle of a day-long print. I'm currently using a couple of Orange Pi Zero Plus 2 (I think), and they've never had issues.

I think they're great for their original intended purpose of providing a (relatively) low-cost SBC for education and hobbyist, but I don't find them reliable enough for applications where you need high reliability.

thanks!

undervoltage crashes have visited me a number of times before. kinda picky about PSUs..

interesting to hear about the absence of power supply brownout issues. cheers

 

[Crowz]

If you could interface with your hardware via other means, is there much benefit to SA over just using HA integration? Is there anything significant that you can't do from HA that you can from SA, or that SA is just much better at? I haven't found much that you can't, relatively easily (from what I can tell) integrate into HA directly.

Very big benefit. HA does updates and it will break whatever its reading from eventually with an update. SA takes the time to keep their stuff working with HA so you don't have to do it

 

[Crowz]

its a very nice software, easy to read, nice graphics, some bugs here and there, I remember once someone ask about the security of the app , Basically you have to register the app and there is an option for remote view ,is it safe ? , can someone go to the main hosting and from there change your setting remotely ?

It has a password you set for remote logins. How secure that is depends on the developer but I haven't heard of any issues. If you want total security you can setup your own firewall system to only allow you to get in.

 

[webbbn]

Not enough horsepower to do the job. Considering how this thing works it would choke under the load.
Not to mention memory requirements, storage needs, etc.

That's odd, since it's fairly common practice. My Emporia view is working just fine on an ESP32, recording 16 channels of information down to the second, serving it up to the web, allowing me to analyze it...

 

[curiouscarbon]

The "right way" is subjective. If I were to design such a system, I would base it off an ESP32, add a voltage regulator that supports at least 48V, and include all the interface hardware in the box, which would interfaces directly with the ESP32, not going over USB. The hardware cost for such a box would likely be under $20. You already have WIFI and Bluetooth, and you could even add ethernet with POE for not much more. It also is more tolerant to temperature extremes, more fault tolerant, uses less power, is more secure, and is smaller.

They could make a good profit on the hardware, and provide better protection for the drivers, which might make it easier to work with more hardware vendors that want to protect their protocols. The software, then, could run anywhere. Many of us already have Home Assistant (or similar) machines running that it could run on. If you want to throw it on a pi, you can do that as well.

this thread's example is appealing to me. it's more of a "connector" than a replacement for an SBC x86/arm, but i like it more than the "dongle hell" of huge boxes and multiple USB-B plugs (i dislike USB-B plugs!)

anyways, this one uses a ESP8266 (ESP-01) to wifi stream BMS data to some other computer.

JBD BMS Wi-Fi Module

OK So I bought a bunch of the JBD BMSs for my powerwall and needed a way of monitoring/managing them that did not require I walk to the solar room with my cell phone and connect to each one with bluetooth or worse yet somehow come up with a 14 serial connection system to my raspberry Pi. So I...

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