Solar Assistant Wish list, Bugs and Issues.

[jmjack]

Feature add - note - Using EG4 6500EX inverters.

Would be nice for those of use with smaller solar arrays to have options to:

• program a change from USB to SUB mode after the batteries reach 100% charged. This way while in USB mode all solar goes to charge to charge batteries and Loads are handled by GRID. Then once batteries are topped off, move to SUB mode where solar can handle the loads and GRID can assist if needed.
• program a change to SBU mode once the sun starts setting to run off batteries for the night. Then another option to to move to back to USB once the sun start to come back up to repeat charging batteries as mention in first point.
• Another possible way to specify inverter modes based on battery charge state and also times of the say. If possible, maybe even a selection for sunset and sunrise based on a local time zone.

I have only been use SA for a few days so if any of the above requests are possible someone please let me know.

 

[Skypower]

If you sign up for the Beta program, you will get that data.
Just signed up and received the data, you can easily integrate that in your own graphs in Grafana. This is just a test (running for less than a hour now). View attachment 144375

Will I get the data in question show up with Solar Assistant Beta on my iPhone? When I’m home I can get all the data I need directly from the BMS. My phone is always with me, laptops for me are only when I do taxes, compose letters or reflash something. Not too tech savvy with cross programs.

 

[wattmatters]

Would be nice for those of use with smaller solar arrays to have options to:

• program a change from USB to SUB mode after the batteries reach 100% charged. This way while in USB mode all solar goes to charge to charge batteries and Loads are handled by GRID. Then once batteries are topped off, move to SUB mode where solar can handle the loads and GRID can assist if needed.
• program a change to SBU mode once the sun starts setting to run off batteries for the night. Then another option to to move to back to USB once the sun start to come back up to repeat charging batteries as mention in first point.

Mine already does this switching between SBU and Utility First modes - it's all managed with Home Assistant automations and the Solar Assistant MQTT integration. I don't use SUB mode though as I haven't been convinced it is necessary, although I may do some experimentation with it.

Here's last 48 hours showing when it switched between output source priorities:



If I roll the pointer over the chart it gives me exact times of transition:



With Home Assistant you can design your own automations to manage such things.

Mine also manages if, when and how much supplemental charging the batteries get from the grid input (which is really from my grid-tied PV):



It all depends on what the solar PV forecast is for the off-grid PV array for the remainder of the day, and how much charge the batteries need to be filled up.

I had a play with SUB mode this afternoon after batteries were at 100%. Honestly it made no difference to leaving it in Utility First mode. My inverter already detects the battery is full and so uses PV to supply loads with Utility input supplementing. It's exactly what SUB made does anyway.

See chart below:



Just before 14:00 the battery was full and charge current ramps down. When that happens while in Utility First mode the inverter begins load sharing, with PV supplying loads + battery float charge, and the grid is then supplying supplemental power.

At just before 14:25 I manually switched it from Utility First to SUB mode. The only minor functional difference is when in Utility First mode there is still a small float charge going to the battery, while in SUB mode there is a minor discharge of the battery.

Either way is fine by me, and since Utility First mode already does blend once the battery is fully charged I see no real benefit to using SUB mode.

 

[Robbert]

Will I get the data in question show up with Solar Assistant Beta on my iPhone? When I’m home I can get all the data I need directly from the BMS. My phone is always with me, laptops for me are only when I do taxes, compose letters or reflash something. Not too tech savvy with cross programs.

Yes, this is what you get.
No additional programs etc necessary.

 

[Skypower]

Yes, this is what you get.
No additional programs etc necessary.

Thanks
I tried to get the Beta to come up, but like I’ve seen in the past but couldn’t. Going to do a reboot later to switch over shown inverter one to actual #1 and to fix a bad fuse contact supplying the pi.(clean and no-ox-id A special) figures, it’s the only place where I didn’t use it lol. When it reboots it’ll probably be there, if not I’ll just wait for the next update which probably isn’t far away. Thanks for the info, that’ll work.

 

[Crowz]

Ive so got to get around to ordering this after I get batteries.

 

[Skypower]

Ive so go to get around to ordering this after I get batteries.

Be warned, it can be addictive ?

 

[jmjack]

Mine already does this switching between SBU and Utility First modes - it's all managed with Home Assistant automations and the Solar Assistant MQTT integration. I don't use SUB mode though as I haven't been convinced it is necessary, although I may do some experimentation with it.

Here's last 48 hours showing when it switched between output source priorities:

View attachment 147855

If I roll the pointer over the chart it gives me exact times of transition:

View attachment 147857

With Home Assistant you can design your own automations to manage such things.

Mine also manages if, when and how much supplemental charging the batteries get from the grid input (which is really from my grid-tied PV):

View attachment 147856

It all depends on what the solar PV forecast is for the off-grid PV array for the remainder of the day, and how much charge the batteries need to be filled up.

I had a play with SUB mode this afternoon after batteries were at 100%. Honestly it made no difference to leaving it in Utility First mode. My inverter already detects the battery is full and so uses PV to supply loads with Utility input supplementing. It's exactly what SUB made does anyway.

See chart below:

View attachment 147865

Just before 14:00 the battery was full and charge current ramps down. When that happens while in Utility First mode the inverter begins load sharing, with PV supplying loads + battery float charge, and the grid is then supplying supplemental power.

At just before 14:25 I manually switched it from Utility First to SUB mode. The only minor functional difference is when in Utility First mode there is still a small float charge going to the battery, while in SUB mode there is a minor discharge of the battery.

Either way is fine by me, and since Utility First mode already does blend once the battery is fully charged I see no real benefit to using SUB mode.

Thanks for that info, very interesting results between SUB and USB modes. I figured there would be more of a difference. When I get some free time now that i have SA up and running I may try some similar testing.

 

[Crowz]

Be warned, it can be addictive ?

Ive got home assistant up and running I just can't talk myself into ordering the solar assistant yet since I can't figure out a use for it till I have batteries. Well I could be monitoring with it but the app I have from sungold does that ok right now.

I'll probably give in and order it soon knowing me

 

[wattmatters]

Thanks for that info, very interesting results between SUB and USB modes. I figured there would be more of a difference.

That's for my particular inverter. I cannot generalise beyond that to what other inverters may do, although the Voltronic family of inverters are similar in how they operate.

 

[Adam De Lay]

Backup and restore now in the latest beta!

 

[wattmatters]

Backup and restore now in the latest beta!

Good news!

I picked up on something weird with MQTT data.

Since the last software version, MQTT energy data registers are being reset to zero at midnight every Monday morning. This causes the first hour of interval energy data to be lost each week. Previously the energy accumulation registers would only ever accumulate (as they should) and not reset.

The SA team have acknowledged the issue and mentioned a change was made due to some other requirement I don't fully understand but they will look into how they can stop the loss of the interval data.

I'd be curious to know if anyone else can see this MQTT energy register reset occurring on Mondays at midnight.

 

[Quattrohead]

Is this why I cannot look back further than a week in home assistant at the data? I was looking at it and thought it was odd but really didn't think any more about it until just now. I guess I should look in to the solar assistant data and see if it can show anything there or not.

 

[wattmatters]

Is this why I cannot look back further than a week in home assistant at the data?

I doubt that's related. This is likely more your issue:

Home Assistant Statistics | Home Assistant

Home Assistant has support for long-term statistics. Each hour it will take a snapshot of supported entities and track different things about the entity state. Currently it differentiates between two types:

data.home-assistant.io

 

[lygi]

I'm curious how is it possible that native SunSynk integration to HA can grab daily data and SA can't. Passing total_increase which resets every week

 

[Brett V]

Is there any possibility to convert temperatures to fahrenheit?

 

[Crowz]

Is there any possibility to convert temperatures to fahrenheit?

I didn't find anything for converting so I doubt it but might I suggest working with it celsius as in getting used to it?

I myself being an american mutt run on fahrenheit but I keep electronics normally set to celsius. The reason is two fold. When conversing with people computer wise or on other electronics the C temp wise is known by all. Basically they know 90C is max for x processor in their pc and not 194F. This makes life simpler.
The second and most important reason has to do with manufacturer specs. Max temps and ideal temp range or even low temp limits are given in celcius not fahrenheit. So your going to save yourself a ton of trouble kind of going with it.

 

[Crowz]

Anyone have an idea what solar assistant considers weekly? The daily counter works fine on the dashboard but the weekly thing seems to reset on thursdays??

 

[Lt.Dan]

Anybody using a Smart Shunt and compatible BMS with Solar-Assistant?

I want to be able to use the Smart Shunt to calculate SOC and for the Battery Stat, but still want to see individual BMS's for their cell voltages.

 

[Crowz]

Im going to use the victron smart shunt on mine. My weize batteries are not setup to talk to the bms so I will be using the victron shunt to work with it. This is on my small system not my home stuff.