HELP with online monitoring and Auto Gen Start

Started by CptnDaddy, July 31, 2021, 03:34:14 PM

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CptnDaddy

Hi everyone.  I'm brand new. We have a fully off-grid system in Northern Ontario Canada:
- 8 x 260W PV panels feeding into a Midnight Classic 150 charge controller
- and another 8x260W PV panels feeding into a second Classic 150
- charging 12 x 460amp hour Surrette 6V AGM batteries arranged in a 24V battery bank (3 banks of 4 batteries)
- powering a 4KW inverter
- running 220 AC into our cabin that is wired as a normal home
- 6KW Generac EcoGen propane generator as a backup

The system has been running great! 

I'd like some help with 2 things:
1) connecting my Classic 150's to my router(s) (Bell cellular / Starlink satellite) so that I can monitor remotely via MyMidnight2.com
2) getting the 2-wires that turn on/off the Generac's AutoGenStart connected to the Classic 150 (via a relay?) so that I can turn the generator on and off remotely, and have the Classic automatically start the generator when the batter voltage gets down to 24.2, and auto stop it when batteries are fully charged.

All feedback and pointers appreciated! Thanks in advance!
Brad

CptnDaddy

UPDATE: ok, so I have the controllers now talking to my router and some data coming in.


boB

Glad you got the network working !   Would love to hear how well it works through the Starlink.

The generator, as long as it has two wire start/stop can be done with Aux 1  and set for one of those battery voltage or State of Charge SOC functions (I think). 

Either Low Battery Cut Out or Diversion mode should work for straight voltage controlled generator start/stop.  Depending on if you need active HIGH or active LOW  start/stop run/stop  signals to that generator.  Those two functions are kind of opposite of each other.

Set the low voltage to where you want to start the genny and the high voltage where you want to have it stop.   There is a time setting for how long it has to be below the start voltage and time for how long it stays on after rising above the high voltage to stop.

I think the SOC% when using the Whizbang Junior battery shunt doohikky may also do what you want.

There is sometimes   more to be desired for full control of the generator but give it a try.  Might work just fine for you.  I hope so !

boB
K7IQ 🌛  He/She/Me

mcsarge

Hi,

I have quite a bit of experience with remote monitoring, and from Northern Ontario too!

I setup a Cradlepoint Router with a cellular plan to the cell tower 16 miles away, so one day soon we will get Starlink too, I think.

I have a couple of Raspberry Pis running and some Reolink Solar powered cameras and one camera attached to the Pi.

With the Raspberry Pi, I have setup some cool remote monitoring stuff, one of which is an integration to Telegram - so I send a message to a Bot running on the Pi through a channel and I get a response back with current power conditions, (see attached picture)

I do it with the help of a python program that connects to the MidNite Controller and gathers some information from it periodically and posts it on a MQTT service. When we get back on the island (we are from the USA) I plan on deploying a new weather station and getting data in the bot from that too. I also programmed the bot to be able to grab snapshots from an RPi camera as well as the battery powered Reolink (no easy feat).

DM me if you want to chat more or reply to this and we can make a thread of it.

Off Grid Island in Ontario Canada (Beaverstone Bay)
Primary: Classic 150 + wbjr; 3s2p HES 270watt
Winter: SolarBoost 50 MPPT (into wbjr); 2 x Sharp NE-80EJEA 80watt
Pack: 4s2p ROLLS S6-460AGM 6V for 24V pack
Inverter/Charger: Trace DR2424
Call Sign: KG4EUF