Monitoring and control software for the Outback and Classic

Started by Halfcrazy, March 19, 2014, 08:35:48 AM

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TomW

Quote from: mtdoc on April 18, 2014, 06:49:48 PM
Hey Tom.  I hope you get it figured out and if so post it here since I have ordered an AXS port and hope to be setting this up myself soon.

I certainly will. I had to walk away from it as it was making me crazy searching and trying things and not getting anywhere.

I will get back at it but had hoped someone would say "you gotta set this to that" but so far nobody seems to have the answer.

The Classic bit works treat it is the Outback inverters and the Outback AXS port that are twitchy and apparently OB has not devoted (m)any resources to product support on the AXS Port.


Tom
Do NOT mistake me for any kind of "expert".

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)


24 Trina 310 watt modules, SMA SunnyBoy 7.7 KW Grid Tie inverter.

I thought that they were angels, but much to my surprise, We climbed aboard their starship and headed for the skies

mtdoc

Did you ever get this working for you Tom?

I have my AXS Port now and am hoping to find time soon to install it. Wondering what the pitfalls are to look out for....
Array 1: Sanyo HIT225 X 8 on Wattsun tracker. Array 2: Evergreen ES-E-225 X 12 on shed roof. Midnite e-panel with Outback GVFX3648, FNDC and Classic 150 X 2. 436 AH AGMs. Honda eu2000i X 2.

TomW

Quote from: mtdoc on May 02, 2014, 05:59:21 PM
Did you ever get this working for you Tom?

I have my AXS Port now and am hoping to find time soon to install it. Wondering what the pitfalls are to look out for....

Nope, never had any luck with it recognizing the inverters as FX inverters just generic inverter and could not program them with it.

I got an error once about "wrong version" but it never said of what. Maybe it is my FX's they are not exactly new inverters?

I had to give up on it when my laptop committed suicide on me a couple weeks back and haven't got back to it but got the laptop replaced now so will get at it again.

Tom
Do NOT mistake me for any kind of "expert".

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)


24 Trina 310 watt modules, SMA SunnyBoy 7.7 KW Grid Tie inverter.

I thought that they were angels, but much to my surprise, We climbed aboard their starship and headed for the skies

dgd

Ryan,

This is a neat piece of software. It took me just a minute to get it displaying two Classic's data.
I can get the AXS port configured for it too but the second hand 230V 3048 I bought locally has decided to do weird cracking noises then let smoke escape. Seems it was in a flood zone two owners ago and I am first to use it since. Should have bought one from naws instead of being a cheapskate.

The display boxes look pretty, good for those preferring a text type display instead of the analogue dash type of the local app. The 1 minute shortest time refresh is a tad too long for me.

It sorta reminded me of the original mymidnite text list display (node 14??) or at least one line of it.
( I don't  use MyMidnite due to its potential security/hacking issues BUT did it ever get the node14 type text display back as an option?)
Now instead of, or additional to, the screen refreshing, this program were to were to have a configurable number of time stamped display lines for each device then that would be a nice visual immediate record of how the device was performing.

Also got me thinking what could have been and now we see another variation of reporting from the Classic. I suppose the great advantage of this is the ability to see the AXS port and for Outback inverter (and controller?) info to be integrated in one display.

After re-reading ZBs comments I can appreciate his frustration at the seemingly non cooperative efforts of developers in making these reporting applications. But then thats the way things go,  no critisism of these package developers as they produce some excellent stuff but each tends to go his/her own way.

dgd

Classic 250, 150,  20 140w, 6 250w PVs, 2Kw turbine, MN ac Clipper, Epanel/MNdc, Trace SW3024E (1997), Century 1050Ah 24V FLA (1999). Arduino power monitoring and web server.  Off grid since 4/2000
West Auckland, New Zealand

TomW

This is frustrating.

Maybe I got a bad AXS Port?

I have tried it on XP home,Win 8 and under Wine on different computers..

I cannot get it to function properly on any of them. Does not seem to retain settings.

Maybe I will see if i can send it to Ryan and see if it works for him? So far not much use here.

Tom
Do NOT mistake me for any kind of "expert".

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)


24 Trina 310 watt modules, SMA SunnyBoy 7.7 KW Grid Tie inverter.

I thought that they were angels, but much to my surprise, We climbed aboard their starship and headed for the skies

mtdoc

Well that sucks Tom... :-[

I have my AXS port - now I just have to find the time to get it installed and play with the software. I also need to update my utility room router/wifi.    -Life is just too busy... maybe this weekend.    I have both XP and Win 7 machines available to try it with. Will report back after I try in it out.
Array 1: Sanyo HIT225 X 8 on Wattsun tracker. Array 2: Evergreen ES-E-225 X 12 on shed roof. Midnite e-panel with Outback GVFX3648, FNDC and Classic 150 X 2. 436 AH AGMs. Honda eu2000i X 2.

TomW

Quote from: mtdoc on May 07, 2014, 02:48:53 PM
Well that sucks Tom... :-[

I have my AXS port - now I just have to find the time to get it installed and play with the software. I also need to update my utility room router/wifi.    -Life is just too busy... maybe this weekend.    I have both XP and Win 7 machines available to try it with. Will report back after I try in it out.

In the slow process of getting an RMA out of AltEStore and / or Outback.  It is obviously a brick now  only lights up the green LED now.

Kind of getting the run around that AltEStore needs to get an approval from OB to RMA it.

Considering it took nearly 3 weeks to get it the first time  I expect it may be months before I have one to use again.

Felt like a run around but we will see.

Won't be buying from AES again, that is for certain.

And that is where it is now.

Just an update.

Tom
Do NOT mistake me for any kind of "expert".

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)


24 Trina 310 watt modules, SMA SunnyBoy 7.7 KW Grid Tie inverter.

I thought that they were angels, but much to my surprise, We climbed aboard their starship and headed for the skies

dgd

Tom,

Since my OB smoked I have seen that this Classic/AXS port software will not start up the AXS port. I think it may actually require the AXS port to see a recognised OB inverter.
Just thinking since you said your OBs were not recognised that this may be an issue.
Or maybe not, but just an idea. I hope my AXS is not bricked  :o

dgd
Classic 250, 150,  20 140w, 6 250w PVs, 2Kw turbine, MN ac Clipper, Epanel/MNdc, Trace SW3024E (1997), Century 1050Ah 24V FLA (1999). Arduino power monitoring and web server.  Off grid since 4/2000
West Auckland, New Zealand

leeelson

Quote from: Halfcrazy on March 19, 2014, 08:35:48 AM
So we have some software that was written by an individual. It basically allows you to program your outback gear and classic as well as monitor it. I understand the next move is to port it over to Linux so it will run on something like a Beagle Bone black. The software requires the Outback AXS and at least one Classic in the system.

It can be found here http://www.kb1uas.com/pics/MidniteClassic3PlusObAXS-V1Setup.exe

I will start throwing some screen shots up as well as a you tube video of it in operation.

Can the monitoring part be configured to add the daily kWh usage to provide cumulative power generation as a function of time in days?

ID Solar

Very excited to hear that this is possible. I've got several sites that would really benefit from remote monitoring/control. Does anyone know if this can be used with the Radian inverters as well? Any way to run the Mate 3 at the same time, or is it one or the other?

boB

Quote from: ID Solar on July 01, 2014, 05:26:38 PM
Any way to run the Mate 3 at the same time, or is it one or the other?

Unfortunately only one or the other.
K7IQ 🌛  He/She/Me

mtdoc

I finally found the time to get this software up and running.  A bit buggy with the tendency to crash once in a while when asking it to "update block/tab fields".  Also, attempts to write to the inverter fields sometimes return an error code but retrying eventually works.

But overall it's a very useful bit of software. Nice to be able to change the settings of my Outback Inverter from computer screen instead of wading through the convoluted Mate menu tree.  Thank you! :)    Of course with the Local App I could already do this with my Classics!

My biggest complaint is not an issue with this software but with the physical connection of the AXS Port.  I guess I didn't look at the Outback info close enough since I did not realize that the AXS needs to replace the Mate in the Hub. I had thought it would plug into one of the other empty Ports on the Hub.

So as Bob states above you cannot have an AXS port plugged in at the same time as the Mate.  The issue I have with this is that I am very happy with using WattPlot for monitoring and logging my Inverter and FNDC data.  But WattPlot requires serial data from the Mate 

I'd really like to be able to have my Wattplot and this software both running at the same time.   Wattplot does not allow the control of the system that this does and this software does not work very well for monitoring!  >:(

I tried a simple ethernet hub to see if that would allow both connections - but no joy. Both devices rely on PoE for their power.

Bob or other network guru's:  Is there any other 10 BASE-T  type hardware switch/router that might allow this?   Even a physical switch witch would allow me to change from one to the other would be better than having to open up my Epanel to change connections on my Hub.
Array 1: Sanyo HIT225 X 8 on Wattsun tracker. Array 2: Evergreen ES-E-225 X 12 on shed roof. Midnite e-panel with Outback GVFX3648, FNDC and Classic 150 X 2. 436 AH AGMs. Honda eu2000i X 2.

dgd

Quote from: mtdoc on July 03, 2014, 12:36:46 AM

I tried a simple ethernet hub to see if that would allow both connections - but no joy. Both devices rely on PoE for their power.

Bob or other network guru's:  Is there any other 10 BASE-T  type hardware switch/router that might allow this?   Even a physical switch witch would allow me to change from one to the other would be better than having to open up my Epanel to change connections on my Hub.

The problem is likely because the OB device only allows one network connection at any time. So its either OB hub or AXS device but not both.

dgd
Classic 250, 150,  20 140w, 6 250w PVs, 2Kw turbine, MN ac Clipper, Epanel/MNdc, Trace SW3024E (1997), Century 1050Ah 24V FLA (1999). Arduino power monitoring and web server.  Off grid since 4/2000
West Auckland, New Zealand

TomW

Quote from: mtdoc on July 03, 2014, 12:36:46 AM

I tried a simple ethernet hub to see if that would allow both connections - but no joy. Both devices rely on PoE for their power.

Bob or other network guru's:  Is there any other 10 BASE-T  type hardware switch/router that might allow this?   Even a physical switch witch would allow me to change from one to the other would be better than having to open up my Epanel to change connections on my Hub.

mtdoc;

I think you are lucky if that hub still works and you did no damage to the other components.

Some time ago I asked on the OB forum about using an ethernet hub to extend the range / break out the Hub ports.

I was warned it would damage the OB hub and possibly the ethernet hub.

I never tried it but remember the warning.

I ended up with multiple DOA AXS ports and no joy getting a functioning unit so I cannot say for sure but logging should be possible by collecting the ftp logs and parsing them for the data.

It always annoyed me that OB never offered any real customer options for logging / control via the network and a PC.

Tom
Do NOT mistake me for any kind of "expert".

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)


24 Trina 310 watt modules, SMA SunnyBoy 7.7 KW Grid Tie inverter.

I thought that they were angels, but much to my surprise, We climbed aboard their starship and headed for the skies

TomW

mtdoc;

I meant to mention that you could wire a couple ethernet bulkhead jacks as direct feed through and plug one into the OB Hub and the other into whichever device you wish to use.

Even an ethernet in-line coupler would work.

Like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Britta-Products-271710-Coupler-Straight/dp/B000BSLW8U/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1404388367&sr=8-2&keywords=ethernet++coupler

Not a switch but would work to use the AXS or the Mate.

Tom
Do NOT mistake me for any kind of "expert".

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)


24 Trina 310 watt modules, SMA SunnyBoy 7.7 KW Grid Tie inverter.

I thought that they were angels, but much to my surprise, We climbed aboard their starship and headed for the skies