Solar Dashboard Project

Projects related to Solar Power
cedarman
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2020 6:28 pm

Re: Solar Dashboard Project

Post by cedarman »

Connecting the micro USB to power worked. I can access the dashboard but I'm getting the following error repeatedly:

[rover] modbus error read result: 226 13-11-2020 18:27:51
[main]: Current sample data is invalid 13-11-2020 18:27:51
jonathan
Posts: 237
Joined: Thu Feb 01, 2018 1:12 am

Re: Solar Dashboard Project

Post by jonathan »

Try powering it on first and then plugging in the renogy controller.
cedarman
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2020 6:28 pm

Re: Solar Dashboard Project

Post by cedarman »

Powering on first then connecting the controller worked. Thanks! I also found the link to the guide in the UI (maybe you could include the link and a QR code in the box for future customers).

I have the temperature probe connected to my controller and was wondering if Renogy reported out this data so that you could include it in the dashboard?
cedarman
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2020 6:28 pm

Re: Solar Dashboard Project

Post by cedarman »

...I guess temperature monitoring is a 'no'...

One problem I've noticed with my cloud dashboard is that it's reporting over 800kWh and rising rapidly, even though I've only been operating for a few days with a 100W panel. Any thoughts on this?
jonathan
Posts: 237
Joined: Thu Feb 01, 2018 1:12 am

Re: Solar Dashboard Project

Post by jonathan »

cedarman wrote:
Tue Nov 17, 2020 11:26 am
...I guess temperature monitoring is a 'no'...

One problem I've noticed with my cloud dashboard is that it's reporting over 800kWh and rising rapidly, even though I've only been operating for a few days with a 100W panel. Any thoughts on this?
Hey sorry about not responding to your last post.

The temp monitoring is on the To-Do list, thanks for asking for it. The the reported lifetime generation is incorrect, we will push a software update that fixes it in the future. It's related to how we are reading the data from the Renogy. This issue doesn't affect the EPEVER units.
TripitakaBC
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Nov 17, 2020 5:12 pm

Re: Solar Dashboard Project

Post by TripitakaBC »

I just discovered that if you leave any pop-up open on the internal dashboard, the unit stops recording any data. I had the dashboard open on 3 different PCs and on one of them, I had opened the log file pop-up and not closed it. Couldn't figure out why it stopped logging data and then I had the lightbulb moment...
jonathan
Posts: 237
Joined: Thu Feb 01, 2018 1:12 am

Re: Solar Dashboard Project

Post by jonathan »

TripitakaBC wrote:
Thu Nov 19, 2020 11:49 am
I just discovered that if you leave any pop-up open on the internal dashboard, the unit stops recording any data. I had the dashboard open on 3 different PCs and on one of them, I had opened the log file pop-up and not closed it. Couldn't figure out why it stopped logging data and then I had the lightbulb moment...
Hey, TripitakaBC

Yes this is possible, the internal processor ESP8266 is very heavily used by the solar dashboard software so if it's asked to do too many things it might never get around to recording data. Normal use with 1 or 2 windows open should be no problem. Using the cloud access is the best case because it doesn't rely at all on the ESP8266 server.
fredivar
Posts: 20
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2020 6:02 pm
Location: Norway

Re: Solar Dashboard Project

Post by fredivar »

fredivar wrote:
Fri Sep 11, 2020 4:33 pm
jonathan wrote:
Fri Sep 11, 2020 4:20 pm
fredivar wrote:
Fri Sep 11, 2020 4:18 pm
Looking closely on my Snektek module which is V2 with a RTC pinout, but no special RTC module (which I saw in another YouTube video). Since I bought it back in early 2019, these Snektek modules was probably not delivered with RTC at that time, and that may the problem with my module not drawing any graphs and configure the time incorrectly. However, the initial Firmware delivered from last year with the unit, did show graphs, but have fixed scaling (max 400w),but did of course not have the advantage of remote access via the cloud service.
Alright, are you comfortable soldering the RTC module yourself? Then I will send it to you.
Sounds great, have been working as an electronic engineer for more than 30 years, so soldering is no problem
Hi Jonathan (others which might have suggestions)
I received the RTC, got it mounted and tried at home (with no access to Solar controller), modified the SD card reset according to instructions here and tried updating to latest firmware. Was able to connect to local WiFi, but not to Cloud. Then tried the older
3.1-403949-2020-07-10-07-32 Firmware, but now the processor on the Nodemcu did not seem to run correctly, The LEDs on Snektek module RED+Green was always on. Tried loading Firmware again several times, same problem. Then tried a newer Nodemcu programming tool, and suddenly it seems to work again!
Now with old Firmware which was able to connect with the Cloud. (Have not been able to connect with cloud with new Firmware).
Took the Snektek module with me to the cottage and connected to Epever controller, but got some problems getting data from the Epever controller now (maybe try the suggestion here to connect to USB first, then controller?). After leaving the cottage, I have connection through the cloud, but look like the cloud think I have newer Firmware than I have (4 point something, while 3.1 is installed now). I do not see any curves or numbers, but are able to remotely move cursor (time) to read out some instant values seen on this link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ogve1z80jw4h ... VeV9a?dl=0
(Also Log file from the Snektek module, named snektek.docx)
Any suggestions to help to get this to work better is appreciated.
Best regards Fred ivar Tallaksen, Sandefjord, Norway
TripitakaBC
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Nov 17, 2020 5:12 pm

Re: Solar Dashboard Project

Post by TripitakaBC »

Jon,
Can I get you to add a user and pass field to MQTT settings?

I've tried the REST approach but I'm finding stability of the stream to be an issue, often the settings are not sent whereas with mqtt I can store the settings in Influx.

EDIT:
Is it possible to just add them to the config file?
xion2000
Posts: 71
Joined: Fri Jan 24, 2020 6:02 am

Re: Solar Dashboard Project

Post by xion2000 »

I've been having problems for several weeks now after have none at all for several months, the data collection is being rather hit and miss. I upload my data to Home Assistant which displays a graph similar to that on the SolarDashboard and I use that data to turn on & off a battery charger. I'm getting gaps in the collected data all the time so rather than displaying a graph as a continuous line is is made up of dots and spaces.
I actually think the problem is the Epever Charge controller not the SolarDashboard as if I switch monitoring to my PC using the Epever Monitoring Software I'm now getting communication errors when trying to read data every 10 seconds (which used to work fine) but appears to be OK if I change to a read frequency time off every 20 seconds.
Is there a way to adjust the read interval time on the SolarDashboard
Is anyone else having similar issues
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