Interfacing the classic to a xanbus network..

[DMJ72]

From what I can tell, there seems to be a market for a device to allow the classic to communicate with the xanbus network. This has been made more apparent with the invention of the combox. Who wants to use an older, buggy,  less efficient charge controller like the Schneider MPPT-60 when one can use the classic?


Do you folks think this would be a good idea?

[boB]

Yep.  This is a great idea and we have looked into this a few times.

It'll most likely happen, too.  Just a simple matter of programming of course.

I think that with the COMM box, the Classic will most likely only follow the xanbus system
unless the comm box allows controlling of XW/Connext/Schneider  equipment.

[DMJ72]

Yep.  This is a great idea and we have looked into this a few times.

It'll most likely happen, too.  Just a simple matter of programming of course.

I think that with the COMM box, the Classic will most likely only follow the xanbus system
unless the comm box allows controlling of XW/Connext/Schneider  equipment.

The Schneider Combox can control any device on the Xanbus network, with all the parameters available on the System Control Panel. I am not sure there is a need to control the Classic from the SCP/Combox but reporting from the classic would be good. I just bought 2 XW-MPPT60-150s for my solar upgrades instead of the Classic precisely because of this integration (but I will be joining the Classic family for another system soon )

Ultimately as many have said, the solution will be Midnite's own big inverter and ecosystem. I know that's going to rock!

[DMJ72]

Yep.  This is a great idea and we have looked into this a few times.

It'll most likely happen, too.  Just a simple matter of programming of course.

I think that with the COMM box, the Classic will most likely only follow the xanbus system
unless the comm box allows controlling of XW/Connext/Schneider  equipment.

I see the combox can be a Modbus TCP/IP slave and does Modbus over RS485, perhaps the classic can connect via these avenues. Hmmmm

[Jay c Swartley]

I have been asking MidNite to do the same.  I have a Schneider dual 4500 with 2 Classic 200's & Combox. I much prefer the Classis to the MPPT60-150s .

Please count me as a loyal customer anxiously waiting for the interface to happen from Midnite

Jay

[DMJ72]

From an installer point of view, having the 80+A capability of a Classic over the MPPT 60 is a good thing for the 24V Schneider/Xantrex inverters where the Panel to CC ratio is limited.

I bought Two XW MPPT60s (they work great and are very efficient) over Classics for my personal system upgrade (Conext SW 4024) for this reason : all the Control and reporting in one place via the ComBox / SCP.

But Xanbus is an archaic Canbus based protocol, it will depend on client/installer feedback to prove if the R&D is worth it to make this happen.

[DMJ72]

I have been asking MidNite to do the same.  I have a Schneider dual 4500 with 2 Classic 200's & Combox. I much prefer the Classis to the MPPT60-150s .

Please count me as a loyal customer anxiously waiting for the interface to happen from Midnite

Jay

I see midnite has a communication device for the SMA inverters using a modbus-canbus bridge concept, perhaps a modbus - xanbus device is not too far off?

http://www.midnitesolar.com/productPhoto.php?product_ID=568&productCatName=E-Panel%20-%20SMA&productCat_ID=38&sortOrder=1&act=p

[littleolbitty]

I just posted a similar request on the monitoring forum. This is just a thought but could the classics be monitored through the rs485 interface that exist on the combox through some type of an adapter? I know that the modbus assigns a modbus address to any device connected to the combox through the rs485 port. It seems to me that an adapter with simple protocols would be able to bridge the data and allow the combox to at least pull data and log it from the classic series charge controllers. The actual programminng of the classic would not need to be changed just interpreted by an adapter.

[boB]

I just posted a similar request on the monitoring forum. This is just a thought but could the classics be monitored through the rs485 interface that exist on the combox through some type of an adapter? I know that the modbus assigns a modbus address to any device connected to the combox through the rs485 port. It seems to me that an adapter with simple protocols would be able to bridge the data and allow the combox to at least pull data and log it from the classic series charge controllers. The actual programminng of the classic would not need to be changed just interpreted by an adapter.

Absolutely possible !

I was hoping that the "Black Box" project would take off and do this.

With a Raspberry Pi or a Beagle Bone (etc) and possibly a small PCB to take care of various hardware serial interfaces
like Can Bus, RS485, RS232, etc, you could interface ANYTHING to ANYTHING and coordinate everything and
be a web server and just be the interface to end all interfaces...  Still might need the Schneider Comm Box and
things to be able to do their proprietary things though.

boB

[zoneblue]

Havent had a lot of time to continue work on blackbox this year. Hopefully things will ease next year.

The primary thing i think is the flash wear managment before too many people should go trying the 'proof of concept' code. I mean its pre alpha. Once thats done, and we are confident that peoples SD cards arent dieing all over the show, then a prebuilt OS image written to a 8GB SD card is all someone would need to set it up.

However it is stable, and works really well, and is easy to add support for other inverters and such. Any gear with ethernet or USB is straight forward.  The current 1s device reads, once a day SD write methodology is keeping the kingston class 10 sd quite happy.

To really do this well though requires a read only OS, and i need to figure that part out next. Android does this as does one of the rPi OS's called IPE.

[Solar Islander]

Another plus one for the record ........ Count me in as a purchaser of a Classic if it can be networked at least to a basic level with the Xanbus protocol.

Schneider inverter seems good - controllers not so much!

Good way to expand the market for the Classics eh?

- Graham