[RE-wrenches] Solar Assistant and Midnite AIO
Dave Angelini Offgrid Solar
offgridsolar at sti.net
Sun May 18 08:00:51 PDT 2025
It is that water sound spiraling down. Even Powerwall3 still does not
have a gen input. Going to church to pray for some help!
Stay safe Michael !
Dave Angelini Offgrid Solar
"we go where powerlines don't"
[1]https://offgridsolar1.com/ [2] [1]
e-mail offgridsolar at sti.net
text 209 813 0060
On 2025-05-18 7:52 am, Michael Morningstar via RE-wrenches wrote:
> Wow, when do we realize that fork in the road we chose to go down may
> have been the wrong one? I know there's a phrase to describe needing to
> augment an inverter with a Cerbo, Chargeverter, and Solar Assistant,
> but it escapes me.
>
> Same with the myriad of tinkering, workarounds, and tweaking
> Manufacture A's inverter to Manufacture B's batteries. There are a lot
> of smart minds on this list with the technical prowess to make things
> work, but what happens when someone like me that's let's just say is a
> "little slower" gets a call to service such a system and the guy or gal
> that "got it to work" isn't around, or the comet-like manufacture the
> likes of Growatt or it's equivalent is no more.
>
> I know I do more griping on this list than contribute to the knowledge
> corpus and it's not that I'm a crank, I think. Right now, it's just
> that I'm sitting on a dozen requests to build off-grid and GTBB systems
> and I find myself in a paralysis where I can't recommend a single
> Hybrid inverter, and for my potential off-grid customers, all that I
> can recommend is a system where I'm stacking two 3-5kw inverters and
> many settings require a dongle and PC, Victron.
>
> So in the first case, this road seems to have lead to an ever
> increasing techno-cluster fuck, and in the second, it's traced back to
> where we were several years ago, but not in a good way.
>
> Serious question, What is the challenge in building an SW quality
> inverter and MPPT that plays nice with most all batteries. Conext came
> close? If it's a feasible proposition, I know people with the means and
> interest in these things to make it happen.
>
> Michael
>
> On Sun, May 18, 2025 at 6:15 AM William Bryce via RE-wrenches
> <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
> SA will combine the SOC if the Communication is working properly with
> the BMS and the MNS AIO. See attached
>
> On Sun, May 18, 2025 at 8:28 AM Jason Szumlanski via RE-wrenches
> <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>
> I will also mention that SA seems to be pulling the SOC information
> from only the first inverter added to the system, or the one designated
> as "#1" in SA. It is not averaging the SOC pulled from all three
> inverters.
>
> Another note: I tried the Emulated BMS in SA, and it didn't work. The
> battery graphs were all wrong, only showing that absolute value for
> current rather than showing charge and discharge current. The reported
> SOC stayed pegged at 100%. I went back to using the inverter values,
> and that is when I discovered the SOC was not dropping fast enough in
> SA, which led me to the battery aH issue.
>
> Jason Szumlanski
> Principal Solar Designer | Florida Solar Design Group
> NABCEP Certified Solar Professional (PVIP)
> Florida State Certified Solar Contractor CVC56956
> Florida Certified Electrical Contractor EC13013208
>
> On Sun, May 18, 2025, 8:11 AM Jason Szumlanski
> <jason at floridasolardesigngroup.com> wrote:
>
> That's not a bad idea. But it is one more thing to potentially go wrong
> and have to maintain.
>
> I just discovered something else with a parallel AIO and SA setup.
> Really it's more of an inverter issue. The inverters have wildly
> inaccurate SOC values if you are doing open loop. You have to divide
> the battery aH setting by the number of inverters you have for accurate
> numbers, at least on the firmware I have. I noticed on this triple
> setup that when the batteries were depleted about 80% (20% SOC), that
> the inverters reported a SOC of 73%. Each inverter only sees the aH
> that they consume individually and deduct that from 100%.
>
> If you are using the inverter values for SOC in SA, you need to set the
> aH in the inverters to the proportional share of the battery capacity.
>
> This is something I believe Midnite needs to fix unless it has already
> been addressed in a firmware upgrade.
>
> Jason Szumlanski
> Principal Solar Designer | Florida Solar Design Group
> NABCEP Certified Solar Professional (PVIP)
> Florida State Certified Solar Contractor CVC56956
> Florida Certified Electrical Contractor EC13013208
>
> On Fri, May 16, 2025, 9:53 AM Jay via RE-wrenches
> <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>
> Hi Jason
>
> How about you install a 12v battery charged from the inverter to power
> the device which would give you back up on backup.
>
> On May 16, 2025, at 12:58 AM, Jason Szumlanski via RE-wrenches
> <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>
> But the upside is it doesn't rely on the cloud, so historical data is
> stored locally, even in the event of a system shutdown (if you power
> the Pi device from the battery DC bus). That doesn't do much good if
> the battery BMS turns off, of course, but it's nice to continue logging
> data even if there is no Internet connection.
>
> Jason Szumlanski
> Principal Solar Designer | Florida Solar Design Group
> NABCEP Certified Solar Professional (PVIP)
> Florida State Certified Solar Contractor CVC56956
> Florida Certified Electrical Contractor EC13013208
>
> On Fri, May 16, 2025, 12:48 AM Brett Stigile via RE-wrenches
> <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote: Overall I like Solar
> Assistant as well. Be aware it is not cloud based. Sure it stores
> locally on the Pi, that's great. But, if the internet is down you are
> blind. Not supper helpful for remote sites if you can't look through
> the data a see if there was a potential issue or if the internet is
> just down.
>
> Brett Stigile
> Owner/Renewable Energy Electrician
> 503-317-7950
> brett at oregonsunwrangler.com
>
> Oregon Sun Wrangler LLC
> CCB: 240661
> License No: 66LRT
> NABCEP PV Installation Professional Certification
> #PV 100414-008123
>
>> On May 15, 2025, at 1:05 PM, re-wrenches-request at lists.re-wrenches.org
>> wrote:
>>
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>>
>> Today's Topics:
>>
>> 1. Re: EG4 Praise (Maverick Brown)
>> 2. Solar Assistant and Midnite AIO (Jason Szumlanski)
>> 3. Re: Solar Assistant and Midnite AIO (William Bryce)
>> 4. Re: Solar Assistant and Midnite AIO (Kirpal Khalsa)
>>
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 1
>> Date: Thu, 15 May 2025 08:14:41 -0500
>> From: Maverick Brown <maverick at mavericksolar.com>
>> To: RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
>> Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] EG4 Praise
>> Message-ID: <A830425D-80E1-4E8E-A23E-023873895B16 at mavericksolar.com>
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>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 2
>> Date: Thu, 15 May 2025 11:37:53 -0400
>> From: Jason Szumlanski <jason at floridasolardesigngroup.com>
>> To: RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
>> Subject: [RE-wrenches] Solar Assistant and Midnite AIO
>> Message-ID:
>> <CAE438R-L9F0ka3QyPans-cYtQc3PDmvLK5uR6K5-Oz=WKpey3Q at mail.gmail.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>>
>> I just got Solar Assistant up and running with my triple AIO site. It
>> was
>> surprisingly easy. I think I am in data heaven. This is everything I
>> had
>> hoped for from the Midnite Pro app. It consolidates all three
>> inverters'
>> instant and historical data while providing real time individual
>> inverter
>> data as well. I'm not sure if I can get the historical data per
>> inverter,
>> but that is available through the Midnite app anyway, and has little
>> usefulness in a multi-inverter environment.
>>
>> If anyone needs tips on how to get this done, feel free to contact me
>> off
>> list.
>>
>> The short answer is I purchased a preloaded Solar Assistant Pi device
>> directly from Solar Assistant, and three USB to RS-485 dongles from
>> Amazon.
>> I got the Pi device with the DC power supply and connected it directly
>> to
>> my battery bus so it stays on even if the inverters shut down.
>>
>> Jason Szumlanski
>> Florida Solar Design Group
>> -------------- next part --------------
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>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 3
>> Date: Thu, 15 May 2025 12:20:45 -0400
>> From: William Bryce <wlbryce at pineridgeproducts.com>
>> To: RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
>> Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Solar Assistant and Midnite AIO
>> Message-ID:
>> <CAEQmjP4UqH9GCFGHt4MkEVtY71FbfOfh4o7gCaBUQbRj67Omog at mail.gmail.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>>
>> I highly recommend using SA with ALL Asian inverters. This will remove
>> the
>> chance of a SolArk screen of death bricking and locking you out of
>> your
>> inverter, and also remove any chance of data or setting manipulation
>> from
>> others.
>>
>> With SA, ALL the data is served and stored on the RPie computer
>> locally.
>>
>> On the MNS AIO, you can run the Dongle and the SA at the same time.
>>
>>> On Thu, May 15, 2025 at 11:38?AM Jason Szumlanski via RE-wrenches <
>>> re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> I just got Solar Assistant up and running with my triple AIO site. It
>>> was
>>> surprisingly easy. I think I am in data heaven. This is everything I
>>> had
>>> hoped for from the Midnite Pro app. It consolidates all three
>>> inverters'
>>> instant and historical data while providing real time individual
>>> inverter
>>> data as well. I'm not sure if I can get the historical data per
>>> inverter,
>>> but that is available through the Midnite app anyway, and has little
>>> usefulness in a multi-inverter environment.
>>>
>>> If anyone needs tips on how to get this done, feel free to contact me
>>> off
>>> list.
>>>
>>> The short answer is I purchased a preloaded Solar Assistant Pi device
>>> directly from Solar Assistant, and three USB to RS-485 dongles from
>>> Amazon.
>>> I got the Pi device with the DC power supply and connected it
>>> directly to
>>> my battery bus so it stays on even if the inverters shut down.
>>>
>>> Jason Szumlanski
>>> Florida Solar Design Group
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance
>>>
>>> Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org
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>>> List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
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>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 4
>> Date: Thu, 15 May 2025 09:50:38 -0700
>> From: Kirpal Khalsa <kirpal at oregonsolarworks.com>
>> To: RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
>> Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Solar Assistant and Midnite AIO
>> Message-ID:
>> <CAOE7iVGgp1Vxyz-82jpD1LzyW7EUMDNsw-6iBS-KnHjNk4thMg at mail.gmail.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>>
>> Does the Solar Assistant work with Outback gear?
>>
>> Kirpal
>>
>> On Thu, May 15, 2025, 9:21?AM William Bryce via RE-wrenches <
>> re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>>
>>> I highly recommend using SA with ALL Asian inverters. This will
>>> remove the
>>> chance of a SolArk screen of death bricking and locking you out of
>>> your
>>> inverter, and also remove any chance of data or setting manipulation
>>> from
>>> others.
>>>
>>> With SA, ALL the data is served and stored on the RPie computer
>>> locally.
>>>
>>> On the MNS AIO, you can run the Dongle and the SA at the same time.
>>>
>>> On Thu, May 15, 2025 at 11:38?AM Jason Szumlanski via RE-wrenches <
>>> re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I just got Solar Assistant up and running with my triple AIO site.
>>>> It was
>>>> surprisingly easy. I think I am in data heaven. This is everything I
>>>> had
>>>> hoped for from the Midnite Pro app. It consolidates all three
>>>> inverters'
>>>> instant and historical data while providing real time individual
>>>> inverter
>>>> data as well. I'm not sure if I can get the historical data per
>>>> inverter,
>>>> but that is available through the Midnite app anyway, and has little
>>>> usefulness in a multi-inverter environment.
>>>>
>>>> If anyone needs tips on how to get this done, feel free to contact
>>>> me off
>>>> list.
>>>>
>>>> The short answer is I purchased a preloaded Solar Assistant Pi
>>>> device
>>>> directly from Solar Assistant, and three USB to RS-485 dongles from
>>>> Amazon.
>>>> I got the Pi device with the DC power supply and connected it
>>>> directly to
>>>> my battery bus so it stays on even if the inverters shut down.
>>>>
>>>> Jason Szumlanski
>>>> Florida Solar Design Group
>>>> _______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
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--
Michael Morningstar
Morningstar Electric Inc
PO Box 1494
Mount Shasta, CA 96067
530-921-0560
CSLB 1116835
mjmorningstar at gmail.com
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[1] http://members.sti.net/offgridsolar/
[2] https://offgridsolar1.com/
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