Add Bluetooth

[Priusron]

Has anyone added Bluetooth to their classic 150? I believe you could connect it to the slave serial port but you would need to decrease the volts down to 5. I was thinking of using a HC-06 module. What information is available on the slave port? Is it the same as the Ethernet port?

[mike90045]

Bluetooth?  If I'm close enough to use bluetooth, I'll walk over to it.
I think zigbee has higher range.

I just use a wireless router and the local app

[Priusron]

The position it is mounted in makes it hard to read and I like Bluetooth. What is Zigbee?

[mike90045]

www.zigbee.org      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZigBee 

Low power wireless, up to 100 meters (300') line of sight.  250 kbit/s   max data rate.   For monitoring solar gear it's fine.

many vendors sell small modules, you need to have a pair.  http://www.digi.com/

[Robin]

I dont know about adding bt to a classic. We do have bt designed into three products currently in development.

[back40solar]

What three new products do you have in development? I have always thought having B/T on a wind turbine would really be cool! If you could monitor everything the turbine was outputting/doing maybe even control of the turbine from the ground. The possibilities are endless! Just think of information and control from the ground you could have! The ability to map out your hole years wind speed and production all from your turbine would be a big leg up on the reset of the industry.   

[Westbranch]

Methinks that 2 of those products would be the 10K and  6K inverters....  

[Robin]

I consider a 6 & 10k inverter one project they are similar in many ways. There are two wind grid tie inverters in the works. Both have bt built in. The battery charging version of the middle sized wind turbine also has bt. I wish the turbine was as far along as the electronics. We are learning how to wind the coils for all of the turbines. Getting the stator right is taking time. We already have a dozen or so of tje 200 watt turbones boxed but we did not build those stators.

[BioPower]

Wouldn't it be far more useful to have wireless built in, then you could connect a smart phone or wireless router.

[TomW]

It seems you should beware of "feature  bloat" that can result in losing  sight of the actual purpose of a device.

Just saying..

Tom

[Syonyk]

Why... ?

What purpose does adding bluetooth or wireless solve that isn't already solved with an ethernet port and a serial port for other devices to chain off?

I flat out don't see a point to bluetooth.  I don't want to talk to it with my smartphone if I'm near enough to read the LCD.

And wireless?  Meh.  There are a bazillion companies out there that make perfectly good, dirt cheap, ethernet to wireless adapters.  I'll use one of those if I want to.  MidNite should focus on the core aspects of a MPPT charge controller, not trying to hack on stuff that's cheaper and easier to obtain from other people.

... I wouldn't say no to a HTTP interface/API.  Modbus works, but HTTP APIs (JSON, please) are pretty standard as well.

[Priusron]

Why... ?

What purpose does adding bluetooth or wireless solve that isn't already solved with an ethernet port and a serial port for other devices to chain off?

I flat out don't see a point to bluetooth.  I don't want to talk to it with my smartphone if I'm near enough to read the LCD.

And wireless?  Meh.  There are a bazillion companies out there that make perfectly good, dirt cheap, ethernet to wireless adapters.  I'll use one of those if I want to.  MidNite should focus on the core aspects of a MPPT charge controller, not trying to hack on stuff that's cheaper and easier to obtain from other people.

... I wouldn't say no to a HTTP interface/API.  Modbus works, but HTTP APIs (JSON, please) are pretty standard as well.

Just because you won't use Bluetooth doesn't mean someone else won't. I also wasn't asking them to modify their product, I was asking if someone has added a Bluetooth module to their controller. Totally different than what you are asking about. You also state that they should focus on the core aspects of the MPPT charge controller and then throw out your desires. But you criticize me claiming I did the same thing when I wasn't  asking then to modify their product.

[BioPower]

It was the connectivity and remote monitoring that made me switch from Outback charge controllers to Midnite. I know the Midnite Classics are better in other ways,  but the Outback gear I had was working well. To add the same capabilities with Outback gear it cost at least the price of another 2 or even 3 charge controllers. All I had to add to the Midnite controllers was some cheap phone cables, network cables (if it had wireless then I could have not worried about them) and the Whizbang Junior which is quite cheap by comparison to the Outback alternative. To do the same with their (Outback) products you need a special hub, a DC current monitoring device, a very expensive data logging device and 3rd party software. After all that you can't update firmware yourself and as far as I know you can not remotely change settings.

I am very happy that the people at Midnite have done more than just "focus on the core aspects of a MPPT charge controller". They even provide the Web server for free!  Not everyone cares about what their power system is doing but I rely on it to run my house including refrigeration, so being able to check it when I am away from home is a big plus for me.

Thank you Midnite.

[TomW]

I would hate to see Midnite fall to "Feature Bloat" but would much rather see enhancement of the core functionality.

The communications seems quite adequate to interface with nearly any gear you need with off the shelf hardware and some easily obtained code. I suspect a ~$100 USD Cubie board can be had with a bluetooth chip in it so there is that option for a bluetooth solution, I believe.

I would hope some entity would develop a device and code to do this as a commercial project. Say a Cubie Board with a Microsd card loaded with the system and scripts needed to access the data and control the unit from whatever interface you desire.

I ramble.

Core function first.
Good documentation

and then all the buzzers, bells and whistles.

Just from here.

Tom

[Priusron]

Bio power what program are you using to produce your graph in your signature?