[RE-wrenches] Solar Assistant and Midnite AIO

Todd Cory toddcory at finestplanet.com
Sun May 18 08:09:35 PDT 2025 

I keep hearing all these people hand ringing the "newer better" equipment 
with all the associated problems and I shake my head at why people don't 
choose small and simple?

Our entire grid tied homestead is zero energy with only 7 kW of solar (and 
that includes our mini split for winter heating and charging our electric 
car) and a ~20 year old, 48 volt outback inverter with flooded and lead 
calcium batteries which should easily go 30 years with basically no 
maintenance.

Maybe I'm just an old fuck but what I have works really well and I didn't 
have to reinvent the wheel either.

On May 18, 2025 7:54:33 AM Michael Morningstar via RE-wrenches 
<re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> 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:
>>>
>>> Send RE-wrenches mailing list submissions to
>>>    re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
>>>
>>> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
>>>    http://lists.re-wrenches.org/listinfo.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>>> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
>>>    re-wrenches-request at lists.re-wrenches.org
>>>
>>> You can reach the person managing the list at
>>>    re-wrenches-owner at lists.re-wrenches.org
>>>
>>> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
>>> than "Re: Contents of RE-wrenches digest..."
>>>
>>>
>>> When responding to posts within the Digest, be sure to restore the Subject: 
>>> line to the exact original, and please edit out any extraneous lines from 
>>> the quoted message.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 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>
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>>>
>>> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
>>> URL: 
>>> <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org/attachments/20250515/1d46c98a/attachment-0001.htm>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------
>>>
>>> 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 --------------
>>> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
>>> URL: 
>>> <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org/attachments/20250515/b8d7966f/attachment-0001.htm>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------
>>>
>>> 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
>>>>
>>>> List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
>>>>
>>>> Change listserver email address & settings:
>>>> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>>>>
>>>> There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try the
>>>> other:
>>>> https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/
>>>> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>>>>
>>>> List rules & etiquette:
>>>> http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
>>>>
>>>> Check out or update participant bios:
>>>> http://www.members.re-wrenches.org
>>>>
>>>>
>>> -------------- next part --------------
>>> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
>>> URL: 
>>> <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org/attachments/20250515/610bc1b7/attachment-0001.htm>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------
>>>
>>> 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
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>
> _______________________________________________
> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance
>
> Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org
>
> List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
>
> Change listserver email address & settings:
> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
> There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try the 
> other:
> https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/
> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
> List rules & etiquette:
> http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
>
> Check out or update participant bios:
> http://www.members.re-wrenches.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance
>
> Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org
>
> List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
>
> Change listserver email address & settings:
> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
> There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try the 
> other:
> https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/
> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
> List rules & etiquette:
> http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
>
> Check out or update participant bios:
> http://www.members.re-wrenches.org
>
>
>
> --
>
> Michael Morningstar
>
> Morningstar Electric Inc
> PO Box 1494
> Mount Shasta, CA 96067
> 530-921-0560
> CSLB 1116835
> mjmorningstar at gmail.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance
>
> Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org
>
> List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
>
> Change listserver email address & settings:
> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
> There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try the 
> other:
> https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/
> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
> List rules & etiquette:
> http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
>
> Check out or update participant bios:
> http://www.members.re-wrenches.org



Sent with Aqua Mail for Android
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org/attachments/20250518/03a0f116/attachment.htm>

More information about the RE-wrenches mailing list