Solar Assistant perpetual license = 2 years

[robby]

I like Solar Assistant and have two instances of it running to send their data via MQTT to Home Assistant where its all aggregated. It's just a convenient front end interface right now since I don't have the time to sink into getting Home Assistant to talk to everything directly. The first one I purchased came with lifetime updates along with the perpetual license and I believe in getting what I paid for. The second one was just purchased back in March and when its two years are up I'll gladly pay for additional updates as needed to continue to support the product. I'm just not a fan of how they handled this. People like me that bought the original product with lifetime updates shouldn't have even seen the option to pay for anything; It should have seamlessly upgraded to the latest version as usual.

I don't mind paying, but I don't want to pay for a year of just new Inverters being added to the software.

 

[Tulex]

Here eating popcorn, watching the drama, feeling so glad I decided to explore other options from SA, and found guybw's LuxPower integration for HA that's free, more functional, and actually improving regularly. I work with some pretty awesome people that also pointed me the right way.

Don't really know what the drama is, just people trying to understand.

Bottom line, if you purchased SA before August 2024, nothing has changed, you get the product you purchased with the terms at the time.
If you purchased after August 2024, you agreed to their new terms, which stated that you get only 2 years of updates.
Anyone can opt for the new terms by paying the fee.

 

[Tulex]

Huh that is stored on the SD card. I can go back to day one.

Yes I can just see the Grid power outage notification coming in an update very soon.

Data is on the card, but you can't see it in SA beyond a year. And exporting through SA it is totally useless.

 

[Tulex]

Now, if they break MQTT so that you need the subscription, that is going to piss off a lot of people.

 

[robby]

Don't really know what the drama is, just people trying to understand.

Bottom line, if you purchased SA before August 2024, nothing has changed, you get the product you purchased with the terms at the time.

What exactly are the "terms at the time". Is it just a working copy or one that gets new updates and features?
I just want clarity.

 

[robby]

Data is on the card, but you can't see it in SA beyond a year. And exporting through SA it is totally useless.

Yes I can



Agree that exporting is pretty much useless.

 

[Tulex]

What exactly are the "terms at the time". Is it a working copy or one that gets new updates and features?
I just want clarity.

Well, that's what's going to be interesting. Are they working on ways to call new features services?
If purchased before August 2024 and you opt out, updates are a given. But, new features, I don't know.

 

[Tulex]

Yes I can

View attachment 321364

Agree that exporting is pretty much useless.

You can graph it, but how much solar did you have for August 2024?

 

[robby]

Well, that's what's going to be interesting. Are they working on ways to call new features services?
If purchased before August 2024 and you opt out, updates are a given. But, new features, I don't know.

That is what he needs to clarify because his statement on it is confusing.

 

[robby]

You can graph it, but how much solar did you have for August 2024?

Okay now I see what your saying. Yes that has always been the limit in SA.
A limit that Pierre could have easily fixed years ago.
I have always depended on MySolArk for Archival Data.

 

[Tulex]

Okay now I see what your saying. Yes that has always been the limit in SA.
A limit that Pierre could have easily fixed years ago.
I have always depended on MySolArk for Archival Data.

I've asked for that feature multiple times. Always, "It's on our list".
And lately, mysolark has had a lot of bad data.

 

[DIYPV]

Here, follow this link.
At the very bottom there is the option to OPT OUT. You will not be able to transfer your licence to a different device it seems...

I think SA allowed one transfer if needed. Is this still the case with the Opt Out?

 

[robby]

I've asked for that feature multiple times. Always, "It's on our list".

I noticed that a lot of requested features have always been put aside while he adds more Inverters to the software.

And lately, mysolark has had a lot of bad data.

The stored data on their servers is intact and fine. It is the compiling and math that is done on the Data that is screwed up in some areas. I have also talked to them multiple times and they say they are "Working on it:".

 

[DIYPV]

My suspicion is that the "new services" that subscribers will get is the ability to see extended data ( Beyond 12 months ) via access to online data.
That and maybe notifications that they oddly promised for a year then stopped promising.

I’ve asked SA via email for the data past 12 months, but didn’t get any meaningful response. The way it is right now, you can’t compare months one year apart.

 

[Tulex]

I think SA allowed one transfer if needed. Is this still the case with the Opt Out?

If I understand it, the difference is:

With the original agreement, there is a one time transfer. With the new model, there isn't a limit, just can only be on one device.
They can't change the one time move per the original agreement, as it was in place at the time of purchase.

From their site back in July 2024

I want to transfer my license to a new PI​

Our licenses are single device licenses with the option of one transfer to a new PI. PI boards are extremely reliable and it's highly unlikely that you would need more than one transfer. If you need to transfer your license, please see our license transfer guide.

 

[werepuppy]

What does that mean about export being useless? You can't get the data out to process in a useable form to process in other software? Yuck./

 

[Brett V]

So the latest update promised “Added BMS cell imbalance metrics to battery page”. It was behind the paywall but I downloaded the trial version and would likely have paid for it if it worked.
Attached are screenshots from the same batteries between the 8-14 version and 6-13 version.

 

[Quattrohead]

Here eating popcorn, watching the drama, feeling so glad I decided to explore other options from SA, and found guybw's LuxPower integration for HA that's free, more functional, and actually improving regularly. I work with some pretty awesome people that also pointed me the right way.

I wanted to look at his system but the weird thing about having to email him to get permission didn't sit well with me, I'm a suspicious bastard. Maybe you could tell us all about it. Can it do a direct RS485 connection for example.

 

[houseofancients]

Post in thread 'Solar Assistant Updates - Beta' https://diysolarforum.com/threads/solar-assistant-updates-beta.110581/post-1533940

 

[robby]

So my understanding is that Updates now means Bug fixes and that is separate from New Features which now must be paid for and it seems like he timed it so that many of those new features are coming with the next update.

When I look at SA updates it literally works out to one good update per year and the rest are mostly new Inverters and Batteries being added. So 3 out of 4 do nothing for an existing owners.

What pisses me off is that he enticed a lot of people to buy into SA by saying it was a one time purchase. You would be set for life with the latest version, and now he has changed that. Some people will say it is unreasonable to expect a lifetime worth of updates while others like me will say it is unethical to dangle that in front of people just to make sales when you needed them.

I HATE subscription models! I had to remove about $500 worth of them from my credit card a couple of years ago. They are like parasites that keep slowly nibble away your money.

I would have never have bought into SA if it had told me it was $14 a year to use it. I know those traps, you start to use it then all your archived data is on it so you keep paying and paying because you are more and more invested in the product with each passing year.

Here is my final thought on SA.
Anyone on the Forum ask about it, they will no longer get glowing reviews from me.

 

[SolarTruthSeeker]

So my understanding is that Updates now means Bug fixes and that is separate from New Features which now must be paid for and it seems like he timed it so that many of those new features are coming with the next update.

When I look at SA updates it literally works out to one good update per year and the rest are mostly new Inverters and Batteries being added. So 3 out of 4 do nothing for an existing owners.

What pisses me off is that he enticed a lot of people to buy into SA by saying it was a one time purchase. You would be set for life with the latest version for life, and now that has changed. Some people will say it is unreasonable to expect a lifetime worth of updates while others like me will say it is unethical to dangle that in front of people just to make sales when you needed them.

I HATE subscription models! I had to remove about $500 worth of them from my credit card a couple of years ago. They are like parasites that keep slowly nibble away your money.

I would have never have bought into SA if it had told me it was $14 a year to use it. I know those traps, you start to use it then all your archived data is on it so you keep paying and paying because you are more and more invested in the product every year.

Here is my final thought on SA.
Anyone on the Forum ask about it, they will no longer get glowing reviews from me.

agreed. subscriptions give no guarantees to the user and prices can be raised at any time.

 

[werepuppy]

What pisses me off is that he enticed a lot of people to buy into SA by saying it was a one time purchase. You would be set for life with the latest version for life, and now that has changed. Some people will say it is unreasonable to expect a lifetime worth of updates while others like me will say it is unethical to dangle that in front of people just to make sales when you needed them.

I would say if perpetual updates were promised up front then they should be delivered to those who bought at the time when that was being offered, but it's not a great business decision to make such an offer in the first place (except maybe for a new product reaching early users), and it's unreasonable for buyers to expect perpetual updates unless they were explicitly promised.

Having to keep paying to use the SAME software is basically a scam and while some products are offered that way, I wouldn't buy them.

I think I would concentrate on FOSS alternatives to something like this in any case.

 

[bgreet]

Just looked at purchase date, was 8/4/2024 Anyways, we're interested in a fringe hobby. I'm happy to send a cup of coffee/beer to someone who actively keeps a key part of my system going. IMO we should be supporting someone like this instead of piling on them. I know if SA went out of my system I'd be hosed in terms of local control. The adobe example keeps being presented. This isn't some huge corporation it's likely a single person who shares the same interest/passion as we do and trying to balance their normal job with keeping this going.

 

[f3hunter]

Just for those of you who don't know, my apologies to those who do. Perpetual license means you own it and can use it forever. However if you want updates, patches, etc. you typically have to pay some kind of yearly maintenance fee. The good thing about perpetual licenses is that if you don't want to update to the latest version, the version you have will work forever and you never have to pay another penny.

Subscription licenses however are different. You don't own the software, you are basically renting it. If you stop paying for it, it stops working. Unfortunately most software companies are going the way of subscription licenses.

True statement! Folks scream for "Feature updates" free forever, which is not a reasonable request. As an old developer, I have developed free (open source) with occasional free updates and paid for perpetual applications with "free critical updates" and "paid for" future feature updates. Time is money and if the feature updates offered are worth your money, which is a reasonable asking price, buy it. If they are not, then you still have the "Perpetual Licensed" SA you have been running all this time forever from your initial purchase.

 

[f3hunter]

I get it, but… The problem is you wake up one day and your license is expired and the company has gone under and there’s no way to use anything. Or any number of problems that could (and do) come up.

Critical monitoring software shouldn’t phone home just to make itself work.

I do not understand your statement, in my experience..SA does not have to phone home to work correctly. If you choose to use their monitoring site, I could see where this might be an issue. I have run SA for years without it needing to phone home to their site. My SA's IP Address is blocked in my firewall (Destination and Source) "from receiving or sending to the internet" in common terms. I use Wire Guard to tunnel into my home network to view/control SA on my phone whenever I want to remotely. When I want to check for updates, I unblock SA in my firewall, update and lock it back down.