Solar Assistant Versus PowerView Pro (for use with Sol-Ark)

[Lt.Dan]

I do enjoy the Argon M.2 case, which uses an M.2 SSD. Makes the Pi so much faster too!

 

[Nobodybusiness]

using a ssd as boot and storage for my pi..
will outlive the pi, and wont corrupt

Never thought about that because the data just isn’t that critical to me and SD cards are cheap.

I assume as long as the drive is formatted to FAT16 or 32 it would work.

Probably be better for multiple Storage writes also..

 

[robby]

I have not had my DB corrupted yet.
Probably hurt my feelings but I take the macro numbers and keep them in excel so If I lose the DB I still have archive data just not the minutiae I had before.

It’s nice to have but it’s not integral to my operating.

You can learn a lot by looking at the monthly trends.

You would be surprised at how Mary IOT devices call home and they are not all here.

I am well aware of it and that is why I open every device I have like TV's, Laptops and remotes and remove the camera connection as well as clip a wire on any Mics that are built into remotes and Laptops. I guess they can still use those accelerometers as Mics to pick up audio. Some of this crap came back to bite me when the wife needed to do some Zoom Medical CE courses during Covid. Had to connect some stuff back. All of this is kind of pointless if you have a smart phone in the house but it's the whole MS, Google and Alexa stuff I am trying to get away from.

My Hickvision cameras where calling Home to China on an hourly basis.

Yep! I bought three Chinese camera system from Amazon to monitor the Interior of my electrical room.
All three required me to sign into an App with my precise GPS info turned on. If it was not on I could not log in.
I let the first one have the info and then noticed on my router that data was going out on intervals. It seems to transmit every 30 minutes or so.
I use Tomato software on my Router so it's pretty easy to see that something is going on.
Anyway returned that Camera and got another one, it had the same issue so returned it and then the third one the same thing. I ended up buying a closed loop RF based system with a 5" screen.

I didn’t bother to capture the data to see what it was but just blocked it.

You would be very surprised at the amount of info a Smart TVs / Thermostat Ect, sends out to different folks.

Frankly it’s none of their business so everything not specifically allowed is blocked.

Yes as explained above I am very aware of what smart TV's etc transmit. So does any remote with Alexa or Google built in. The problem is that your phone is also doing the same thing and there is no way to conveniently turn that off.

 

[Nobodybusiness]

You can learn a lot by looking at the monthly trends.

I am well aware of it and that is why I open every device I have like TV's, Laptops and remotes and remove the camera connection as well as clip a wire on any Mics that are built into remotes and Laptops. I guess they can still use those accelerometers as Mics to pick up audio. Some of this crap came back to bite me when the wife needed to do some Zoom Medical CE courses during Covid. Had to connect some stuff back. All of this is kind of pointless if you have a smart phone in the house but it's the whole MS, Google and Alexa stuff I am trying to get away from.

Yep! I bought three Chinese camera system from Amazon to monitor the Interior of my electrical room.
All three required me to sign into an App with my precise GPS info turned on. If it was not on I could not log in.
I let the first one have the info and then noticed on my router that data was going out on intervals. It seems to transmit every 30 minutes or so.
I use Tomato software on my Router so it's pretty easy to see that something is going on.
Anyway returned that Camera and got another one, it had the same issue so returned it and then the third one the same thing. I ended up buying a closed loop RF based system with a 5" screen.


Yes as explained above I am very aware of what smart TV's etc transmit. So does any remote with Alexa or Google built in. The problem is that your phone is also doing the same thing and there is no way to conveniently turn that off.

Actually with Firewalla you see every network flow from every device.

It takes time but you can setup rules to block all the analytics and still leave a port open for backup or Video distribution if you want.

I see your point though because as soon as you go outside your network with your phone they get it anyway.

All of the HICKVISION cameras are ONVIF so you are not required to use any proprietary software.

I have a PC running local Blue Iris.
It captures everything locally and I can see it locally or remotely via My phone or another PC via VPN on Firewalla.
The cameras themselves don’t have access to the internet. Only the blue Iris webserver via VPN does.

Can you access you closed loop cameras remotely?

I supposed I could tweak my usage based upon
Yearly statistics.
I’m just not sure how much it would benefit me?

 

[robby]

I see your point though because as soon as you go outside your network with your phone they get it anyway.

I am pretty sure they get it one way or the other. Either it is stored on the smartphone until you get into 4G or 5G land or they can use the 4G-5G even when you think it is off or on WiFi only.
If your going to go as far as to make a turned off phone not really be off, then it would make sense you cover all the other bases as well.

I think the Russians are getting a crash course on phone security while on Special Vacation in Ukraine.

 

[Nobodybusiness]

I am pretty sure they get it one way or the other. Either it is stored on the smartphone until you get into 4G or 5G land or they can use the 4G-5G even when you think it is off or on WiFi only.
If your going to go as far as to make a turned off phone not really be off, then it would make sense you cover all the other bases as well.

Fortunately or Unfortunately I live in the middle of nowhere.
We literally have No LTE or any phone service where we live.
It’s all done via LTE extender if you want one or WiFi.

We use WiFi with ours and at least while we are there we can control what goes in and out.

Now after we get out and join the network there is no control.

Not much I can do about the phone but all the other devices in the house we can and do control who they talk to and about what.

I just think most people would be amazed at the amount of bandwidth is consumed just from analytics and call it home type communications from TV, PCs IOT type things.

 

[houseofancients]

Never thought about that because the data just isn’t that critical to me and SD cards are cheap.

I assume as long as the drive is formatted to FAT16 or 32 it would work.

Probably be better for multiple Storage writes also..

speeds up your pi a bunch, no corruption, and had a bunch of intel enterprise ssd's laying around doing nothing

 

[Nobodybusiness]

speeds up your pi a bunch, no corruption, and had a bunch of intel enterprise ssd's laying around doing nothing

Nice.. I think I have a 240 GB sata 3 to USB external SSD laying about from some project.

Might just format that and use Etcher to transfer SA over to it to see what happens.

 

[Lt.Dan]

Nice.. I think I have a 240 GB sata 3 to USB external SSD laying about from some project.

Might just format that and use Etcher to transfer SA over to it to see what happens.

I think there is something about SA licensing that is stuck with the original SD card you provided, and transferring it isnt very easy.

EDIT: Nevermind, looks like that isnt the case anymore. https://solar-assistant.io/help/general/transfer-license

 

[Nobodybusiness]

I think there is something about SA licensing that is stuck with the original SD card you provided, and transferring it isnt very easy.

EDIT: Nevermind, looks like that isnt the case anymore. https://solar-assistant.io/help/general/transfer-license

I didn’t think the PI had anything like a TPM chip in it but it looks like they provided a way to move it regardless.

I think I will try it just to see the performance gain and head off any DB corruption if that is a problem.

Thanks for the Directions!!

 

[sgturner]

I use the CANBUS/485 output on the inverter board

Yes, this would be my 1st choice, however the RS485 port is being used to control/monitor 6 x eFlex batteries and its not clear if both can be on the same RS485 bus at the same time.

 

[robby]

Yes, this would be my 1st choice, however the RS485 port is being used to control/monitor 6 x eFlex batteries and its not clear if both can be on the same RS485 bus at the same time.

No you cannot use the Port for both with the eFlex.

Edit: Well that does depend on if your battery is actually supported by Sol-Ark. Once you set the Inverter to Lithium mode and set the battery address to anything other than 00 it means the Inverter is limiting two way communication to what that battery pack expects. So the eFlex uses 04 and that means the port is expecting an eFlex to be attached and does not recognize Solar Assistant.

If you are using a battery that is not supported by the Sol-Ark like an EG4 or SOK that do not have supporting subroutines built into the Sol-Ark then the address remains at 00 and I suspect that both the battery and Solar Assistant can work on the port with a Y adapter (splitter) cable. In the case of the SOK I think it uses the Canbus port so that would make it even easier.

 

[Lt.Dan]

If you are using a battery that is not supported by the Sol-Ark like an EG4 or SOK that do not have supporting subroutines built into the Sol-Ark then the address remains at 00 and I suspect that both the battery and Solar Assistant can work on the port with a Y adapter (splitter) cable. In the case of the SOK I think it uses the Canbus port so that would make it even easier.

@HighTechLab Can you confirm what port the SOK uses? I'm contemplating getting SOK's in the future for the SA 12k I got from you, but also want Solar Assitant

 

[robby]

@HighTechLab Can you confirm what port the SOK uses? I'm contemplating getting SOK's in the future for the SA 12k I got from you, but also want Solar Assitant

I just checked and it's 00 and uses Canbus so all you need is a Y splitter cable like the one below and the cables for the SOK and SA to plug into it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B092YLKGCY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[HighTechLab]

@HighTechLab Can you confirm what port the SOK uses? I'm contemplating getting SOK's in the future for the SA 12k I got from you, but also want Solar Assitant

SOK-Sol-Ark comms use CAN.

I believe most SOK users though, are using the USB-RS232 cable and going from the battery straight to the solar assistant PI.

We actually got an email from SolarAssistant, because we have been working on implementation with the SOK as well as documentation. Once I figure out this SMA communication headache, Solar assistant will be back on the front burner.

 

[robby]

SOK-Sol-Ark comms use CAN.

I believe most SOK users though, are using the USB-RS232 cable and going from the battery straight to the solar assistant PI.

We actually got an email from SolarAssistant, because we have been working on implementation with the SOK as well as documentation. Once I figure out this SMA communication headache, Solar assistant will be back on the front burner.

Wouldn't that be going a step backward since the Sol-Ark would no longer be receiving real time battery info from the Sol-Ark.

 

[Lt.Dan]

Wouldn't that be going a step backward since the Sol-Ark would no longer be receiving real time battery info from the Sol-Ark.

I agree, I want the inverter to know what's going on. Unless Solar Assistant can be the middle man, and the Pi will give all the info to the SolArk? That would be pretty sweet

 

[HighTechLab]

Disclaimer: I've never used solar assistant on a sol-ark, so my knowledge with the Sol-Ark integration is limited!

Perhaps I am mistaken, but I believe solar assistant can monitor what is going on with the inverter and the battery independently, at the same time. So the battery and inverter communicate to each other for operations purposes, and solar assistant pulls data from each independently...I think? Maybe I'm off a mile here, like I said I haven't fully dug into this yet.

 

[kid744]

Just fired up my Deye 8k this weekend and set up solar assistant today. Very impressed with the software so far.

Kid

 

[robby]

Disclaimer: I've never used solar assistant on a sol-ark, so my knowledge with the Sol-Ark integration is limited!

Perhaps I am mistaken, but I believe solar assistant can monitor what is going on with the inverter and the battery independently, at the same time. So the battery and inverter communicate to each other for operations purposes, and solar assistant pulls data from each independently...I think? Maybe I'm off a mile here, like I said I haven't fully dug into this yet.

I am not sure either but I am much more confident that since the SOK uses the Canbus port and SA uses RS485 port they should both work together and the Sol-Ark will communicate the battery status to SA as well as Powerview.