Features you would like to see added to the software.

[crunnells]

Something cool I'd like to see in the current GUI... A little marker that tracks the max for each gauge (except maybe Battery V). I'm reminded of the old gauges that had a marker that the needle would push as it went higher, and when it dropped back down the marker would stay. Like a little red triangle on the edge of the dial that points to the highest value.

Does that make sense? Purely cosmetic but it would still be nice to see the daily max value for the input values.

Otherwise, some way for the app to pull the logs from the Classic so I don't have to leave it on all day (it doesn't use a *lot* of power, but Activity Monitor (OSX) shows something like 20-25% of the processor usage when it's running) just to see how the system has performed while I was out. 

[adec]

As long as we are wishing, I'd like to have:

1. Make the 'midnitesolar.com' area under the Battery Volt gage a hot link button to launch the home page for MidNite
2. Add the ability to see and change what date and time the classic thinks it is
3. Auto scale the Battery Amp gage, I often run it 70-80 amps
4. Add an indication relative to equalize (i.e. how long to the next one & status of last attempt)
5. Add the ability to select and log certain logic states such as float, fault, etc
6. Store the Alerts data for later review and clearing or just last 24/36/48 hours
7. Remote reset capability
8. Manual over-ride to turn fans on or back to auto
9. Indication of fan state (i.e. on off, turbo on/off)

[Vic]

Thread Derail Warning,   warning ...

Hi adec,  WOW about 120 Amps DC MAX out of the Classic with that 3.75 Kw array ...  perhaps you have a second Classic 150?

End of derailment ...   Please resume normal traffic.  Thanks,  Vic

[adec]

No second Classic ... yet.  Waiting for the true parallel operation firmware to be done.  Then we will add a second Classic and a grid tie inverter gated off float.  Feed the batteries before we feed the grid.  In the interim I rely on the Classic's throttling capability (set to 80 amp max feeding a 100 amp breaker) on sunny-money days and make use of the over capacity potential on cloudy days.

[dRdoS7]

Hi,

Nice piece of software. It's the sort of thing I am missing with my SMA Sunnyboy Grid-tied inverter. It would cost $$$ to add something like this to it.

Things I would add to LocalStatusPanel App:

1. An option to minimise to tray instead of closing app., so it's still logging. I leave a PC on as a media server. I keep pressing the close button after checking status force of habit.
2. Enable manual scaling of battery volts. That way it represents a fuel gauge better. 33 - 63 is too big a range, IMO.

Thanks,

dRdoS7 (Classic 200 in Australia. Actually it's in the garage).

[dgd]

Just a couple of minor suggestions
The minimise screen uses the same size physical window as the main display, the window is obviously sized for those meters. I find the min display most useful as I see all 3 of my classics
I will soon be monitoring another 3 classics so 6 in the window. Would be nice to scale height of this window to suit. Number of lines displayed.
The watts are whole numbers only so the trailing .00 is wasted also the extra 0 on the Energy.
One additional item I would really like to see is Batt Volts as not all the classics will be dealing with the same battery bank.
On main display the input volts are also whole numbers whereas batt volts has tenths shown. Not of major concern but a bit odd seeing a turbine input 26v and the battery at 26.7v
Scaling also would be nice, I often see the 68amp exceeded but the needle can't reach the 68!!

Dgd

[djohnm]

Great software and I love all the fantastic ideas in this thread!

One simple ask: Could you place a revision history on the download page (http://mymidnite.com/?q=node/7) so one could tell at a glance if the currently installed version of the local app is the latest and greatest?

Thanks for all the work on these fine products!

-Dave

[dgd]

Tin Man
Thanks for all the ideas they are all great ideas and will get passed on to Andrew. The gauges do kind of scale now based on the Classic. For the battery amps if you turn the current limit down the Amps gauge will reflect that. the others do not range yet. The plan for the KWH meter is to have it start at say 1kwh and when the Classic goes past it will switch to 2kwh and so on. Maybe the input voltage can do something similar it could look at VOC and park say 10 volts above that?

Ryan

The present automatic analogue meter scaling gives some strange meter ranges.
My batt volts meter has 9 volts to 39 volts. I cannot imagine in normal everyday working anything ever below 20 volts or over 34 volts.
To solve these meter ranges to everyone's satisfaction I would suggest the local app looks for a config file. In here a user could specify meter ranges. This is a common approach to allow end users to  customise a program
Dgd

[dgd]

I have been thinking about this 'local app' (the nectar bottle is empty so clear head now )
It seems to me that its growing in complexity as it gets all these extra 'features' and seems to  be heading in the direction of becoming 'one program to do everything' AFA the Classic is concerned.
I liked the local app when it first appeared, the idea of 'live' online monitoring voltages and currents and a car-dashboard like analogue display
was appealing (I suspect because it was different).
But IMHO its now trying to  do too much - at least for one program.
What I would like to see is a simple local app that just does the live online monitoring and displaying. Perhaps with various display options from plain text/numbers in a minimal window to the car dash with skins options.

Then all those other current working or not-working-yet features separated out in other programs 
eg, reports, text and graphics forms with range (start/end dates) selection etc..   
      Classic online setup as now done by the local app 'config'

Hopefully this would not be an onerous task as the local app probably is already coded in a modular form (Andrew?)

And please sort out the tcp/ip stacking either/and in the Classic code/local app code to allow multiple connections/invocations of the local app.

dgd

[boB]

And please sort out the tcp/ip stacking either/and in the Classic code/local app code to allow multiple connections/invocations of the local app.

dgd

Now, that in itself would be great.  Not sure what is involved to do that but I would imagine it wouldn't
be all that difficult.

boB

[dRdoS7]

Hi,

Would it be possible to have an option to save logs in YYYYMMDD filename format?

Thanks,

dRdoS7

[boB]

Hi,

Would it be possible to have an option to save logs in YYYYMMDD filename format?

Thanks,

dRdoS7

Yes, but it won't be too high on the list.  However, for those from Oz, I did put in the text
below the date in the Revision screen "D/M/YEAR" so that at least one could tell how the
date was presented.  There was no room in the logs screen to do this though.

Time here is tight now but maybe sometime in the future ?

boB

[SolarMusher]

Daily Absorb time in data log could also be very helpful to help diagnose battery problems.
Erik

[Resthome]

Daily Absorb time in data log could also be very helpful to help diagnose battery problems.
Erik

I'll second this request.

[dRdoS7]

Hi,

After reading a post about which settings to change after a VMM I thought: how about a save and restore settings function in Local App?

As an alternative, or in addition, an option to print out current settings and/or where they are not the defaults.

dRdoS7.