Another dashboard for shed PV

[ricardo]

Got bored last night, decided to use the diagram plugin for Grafana to sketch this dashboard. -- kinda like it

600W In -> KID -> 600W Inverter + 225 ah @ 24V  (its a small system, backup power for emergencies, runs landscape lighting overnight)

[ricardo]

btw -- i'm very pleased with the KID's performance ..  seattle has seen several cloudy days this summer and when the sky finally opens up the KID has handled the higher end of its range with no issues .. highest power i've seen is about 732W from a 600W array ..

[ClassicCrazy]

Nice graphics  - what is that dashboard - Node-Red or did you say you used something else to make it ?

I am assuming you got the updated Kid firmware from Midnite and it is all working fine .  They don't seem to have posted it on their website yet .

Larry

[ricardo]

I'm using Grafana to create these dashboards .. its an open source graphing package.

To use something like grafana you need a source for the data that is going to be graphed, in my case i'm using InfluxDB which is also open source .. it is a time-series database, which is a very efficient way of storing/retrieving many records of single values that change over time.  -- i use node-red to read the values from the KID serial out, and then i write them to Influx DB.

this gives me an independent store of all the data from my PV system for as long as i want to store it .. (i do the same for the grid-tried PV on my roof which is a 9kw system). -- i plan to store all the data indefinately (i think i calculated that the hard-drive i had would be enough space for 25+ years of storage -- i think the computer and HD will die before that)

I did get the beta firmware from Mario . i was assuming that they would post it on this forum for others to try ..  so far i've not had any issues with it, and it fixes the pc-mode debug flag issue.

[ricardo]

This is what my grid-tied dashboard looks like

I took inspiration from the stuff being done by EmonPi ..  i tried using their DB and graphing package too -- but ended up liking grafana better.

[ricardo]

the grid tied stuff has better time resolution .. i'm using an Egauge meter to measure the solar and consumption circuits .. which is basically realtime and storing the data in 5s intervals.

but nobody really needs that sort of resolution in the PV system (i should qualify that run-of-the-mill homeowners dont need real-time) .. and the KID's update rate of 1/minute is good enough.  (also it means that the amount of space to store the data is pretty tiny)

[Highflyer]

Ricardo,

Very nice!  Are you planning on letting other use your monitoring system?

[ricardo]

Ricardo,

Very nice!  Are you planning on letting other use your monitoring system?

I'm going to migrate all the stats gathering to a raspberri pi this week (lower power use -- going with a raspberri pi zero-w) .. if i made it a standalone system with all the parts built into a single image would others be interested ? 

[Highflyer]

I would bet there would be other interested in a software package that monitored the Kid.  Other topics here have talked about it.  I know I would. I have several remote Kids and I would love to know the system state remotely.  I just have not had the time to figure it out.

[Vic]

ricardo,

Thanks again for sharing your endeavors.   Looks great !

Have been dragging my feet in choosing a platform to start with   ...   almost 100 years ago,  used to do embedded controllers.   The "high level" programming was done in Assembly Language.

But,  there always seems to be projects with higher priority,   around here.

Bet that many of us are quite interested in what you are doing,   and just how you are doing it.   Thank you very much for your generous sharing,  for the good of many.

Vic

[ClassicCrazy]

Before I saw this I had just ordered a Raspberry Pi 3 + ( newest version) and a Pi Zero W . Both from Adafruit with shipping for $50.
Do you know if the Pi 3 + can run multiple things at once ? I use my existing older Pi B to run Weewx weather program . I am hoping I can run the Weewx and the Node-Red and maybe Mosquitto mqqt server all at the same time .

I know one thing I learned -- don't try to use some old cheap SD card in the Raspberry Pi or it will crash all the time.

Will look forward to whatever you share Ricardo - everyone has been wanting a good way to monitor the Kid.

Larry

[ricardo]

the pi-3 looks like alot of bang for your buck .. so i'm pretty sure you'll be able to run multiple packages in that platform.

i'm going to order a pi-3 so i can put together either a walkthrough to setup a pi for KID monitoring or maybe even an SD card image that you can download to do it yourself.

the pi that came in the mail to day is a zero-w .. i'm in the process of setting it up to replace the power hungry mid 2007 mac mini thats listening to the KID right now.

i think even the pi zero can do quite a bit of work .. i'm disabling the stuff thats not needed (like a graphical interface) so that it has more power for the stuff i do need.

[ClassicCrazy]

Ricardo -
There are two Pi 3 models
Pi 3
and Pi3 plus  (+)
Easy to confuse - the plus is the newest one same price as the other.
https://www.adafruit.com/product/3775
and the Pi Zero W not to confuse with the Pi Zero for anyone else out there.
ha ha !

Larry

[bee88man]

Just received a emonPi from OEM. It hasan Aurdino, NodeRed and MQQT and more pre-loaded to uSD onboard. Has ethernet, One Wire temp, meter-pulse reader and small packet RFM69 CW. I have a PV diversion to immersion that stop export of PV to grid with zero-crossing bursts.It is Aurdino and has matching RFM69CW radio..

I'm a newbie, but plenty of shared help can make for a quick study.

[ClassicCrazy]

Sounds like a nice box with all the connections already made for sensors.

Larry