Recent posts

#1

New Product Ideas and Discussion / Re: A CLASSIC PRODUCT ADDITION...

Last post by Barry Fields - Today at 04:00:23 PM

I have updated the BBMT block diagram.

The purple wire to the classic AUX2 WBjr port could transmit both Bank voltage and current (alternately).
You would no longer need a Power cycle on that line.
This would not load up the MODBUS with "fast data".

The BBMT could generate the PWM signal.

#2

Midnite Combox / Re: Status of the MNS COMBOX P...

Last post by Barry Fields - Today at 03:36:03 PM

example; three Classics in "follow me"

Can a Modbus unit respond to two unique addresses? (for writes only)

IE 1st unit addresses 10 & 11
   2nd unit           10 & 12
   3rd unit           10 & 13

all would respond to address 10 (conference call)
each would respond to 11 or 12 or 13 (private line)

Reason I ask

My new charge regime would want to be able to force FLOAT or ABSORB for all three classics.

#3

Midnite Combox / Re: Status of the MNS COMBOX P...

Last post by boB - Today at 03:18:22 PM

The Classic can actually talk to two things at once on the Ethernet jack.

But that second one is for My Midnite which is not another general purpose modbus over TCP/IP connection.  We restricted the network this way to reduce traffic on the Classic processor that has other important things to do like run the MPPT itself.  It's all resource restricted so as to not slow down the processor too much.

Also, the newer products with canbus can also be queried, not just sending out a data stream.  We don't want to overload the canbus traffic with data that is more rarely accessed.


boB

#4

Midnite Combox / Re: Status of the MNS COMBOX P...

Last post by Wizbandit - Today at 01:23:08 PM

The Classic's MODBUS registers can be accessed two ways, by Serial MODBUS aka MODBUS RTU or by MODBUS TCP/IP. RTU is available from the FOllow-Me jacks which are just serial data jacks.  Serial data devices generally are just two devices "talking" to each other.

MODBUS TCP/IP uses the Ethernet jack on each Classic which generally connects to a router with each Classic being assigned an IP address. The limit is only ONE TCP/IP connection at a time to a Classic.  If a device is connected then another device will not be allowed to connect, this limitation is unique to our Classic and has to do with resources in the Networking Code. A device, such as the COMBOX connects by opening a TCP/IP channel and grabbing data, then closing the channel, also known as ports.  Our LOCAL.APP Dashboard does this but it does not release the port until the software is closed down.  SO if the LOCAL.APP is running the COMBOX gets "connection refused" and no data.  Since I wrote the code in the COMBOX to open a port, get ONE or TWO registers then close the port, if I open the LOCAL.APP it jumps in between my data requests and LOCKS itself in so the COMBOX again gets refused a connection.  It would be nice if the LOCAL.APP would open/close but it's not being updated anymore.

#5

The Rosie / Re: Grid Sell Update?

Last post by aaapilot - Today at 11:57:56 AM

Great news, Wizbandit!  Thanks to you all for working thru the many details to bring this important function to Rosie.  I have LOTS of kilowatts just waiting for their chance to flow backwards to my neighbors!!!

Dave

#6

Midnite Combox / Re: Status of the MNS COMBOX P...

Last post by Barry Fields - Today at 11:26:47 AM

The broker can be living at your house on a raspberry pi ( that is how I do mine) or the mqtt data can be sent to a broker server out on the internet somewhere.

Could that broker be on your local PC? What would that connection look like?

I can't explain to you exactly why the Classic can only connect to one IP modbus at a time - limitation of the hardware I suspect.
Larry

I think I understand. If we had three Classics in follow me and I wanted to tell them all to turn off (example only):
I would have to call the first one with my modbus phone and say"shut off"and hang up.
I would then have to call the second one and hang up.
Ditto for the third.

Is there a way to do a conference call to save on modbus time?
Can a Modbus unit respond to two unique addresses? (for writes only)

IE 1st unit addresses 10 & 11
   2nd unit           10 & 12
   3rd unit           10 & 13

all would respond to address 10 (conference call)
each would respond to 11 or 12 or 13 (private line)

I again want to thank you all for your patience.

   

#7

The Rosie / Re: Beta Firmware

Last post by FNG - Today at 09:43:52 AM

Released 24.05.21.00 today

1- Fixed AC coupling bug where Rosie would throttle at 1/2 the target power
2- Added 150 watt low limit to grid support to keep any unintentional short sell backs from happening
3- Added a dual ramp rate to ramp slower on generator inputs
4- Fixed bug in LBCO setting not allowing it to go to full range of settings

#8

Midnite Combox / Re: Status of the MNS COMBOX P...

Last post by ClassicCrazy - Today at 09:23:20 AM

Your post was really appreciated and kept me out of the bar for a couple of hours.

I am really trying to understand the interconnections. I have attached a crude diagram of what I think I understand.

How does MQTT get to the cloud? Ethernet to the router?

"Basically the Classic had limitation of being able to only have one modbus link at a time." Explain please.

Feel free to edit my diagram iffn ya like.

I can't explain to you exactly why the Classic can only connect to one IP modbus at a time - limitation of the hardware I suspect.
Basically the software Graham wrote sends modbus requests to the Classic, and then takes the data requested and converts it to MQTT which is a data that can be easily sent to what is called a broker . The broker can be living at your house on a raspberry pi ( that is how I do mine) or the mqtt data can be sent to a broker server out on the internet somewhere.
Anything that has the credentials ( password) can subscribe to the broker and request that mqtt data. And as it shows in the original diagram  - my raspberry pi program that graphs the data can subscribe, a program running Classic Monitoring app can subscribe, or Home Assistant program could subscribe , etc and they can all subscribe at the same time and gather the data independently to do whatever with it.
Grahams program is requesting the data regularly via modbus so that it is always fresh and timestamped. So that is how it works in a nutshell.
Canbus is different than modbus in that no request for the data has to be made, the canbus is just sending the data all the time .
The difference is that what Jim is making with the combox is that it can send modbus requests to Classic for data, but it also has the canbus hardware to connect to newer Hawkes Bay , Rosie , Barcelona etc and that software will be able to interpret the canbus data stream into something us mere mortals ( or the influx program) can understand as voltage, current, charge state , etc.
Larry

#9

Midnite Combox / Re: Status of the MNS COMBOX P...

Last post by Wizbandit - Today at 07:35:01 AM

In the simplest of terms that an elderly Tennessee Hillbilly can understand:

What is the issue the Combox is intended to resolve?

The MNCOMBOX is a "data miner", it gathers data and allows the user to customize their "Dashboard" to display whatever they want or feel is important.  All I do is gather the data, store it in a data base and the user selects what data that want to see using Grafana.  The user can display the data many ways, as a dial, a graph, a bar code graph and many other "visualizations" too numerous to list.

It does not matter where the data is, MQQT Broker (server) somewhere, MODBUS, CANBUS Serial data, I can grab it and format it then write to a "Time Series Database", I use InfluxDB as Grafana interfaces with it well.

Here a screen shot of my dual Rosie Stack testing the new SELL to GRID code.  I have colored the WATTS green when ever "selling" and red when "using" from the grid.  My idea is have everything user customizable.

#10

Midnite Combox / Re: Status of the MNS COMBOX P...

Last post by Barry Fields - Today at 12:17:10 AM

This was software project that Graham created for the Classic. It is explained on page linked below. Basically the Classic had limitation of being able to only have one modbus link at a time. And that link had to be local or some kind of ip tunnel or whatever. The project linked made it so that something like a raspberry pi could connect to the Classic, and then publish the Classic data as MQTT . Those mqtt packets are easy to send out either locally via pi , or to external source. You don't need to open any ports on your router or do anything magic networking wise. Once the data is in mqtt form - as many clients as you want can get that data at the same time which got rid of the only one connection at a time limitation. Here is the link so you can see the graphic that Graham had made about it. https://github.com/ClassicDIY/ClassicMQTT
I use it via a raspberry pi with my classics and it is stable and never crashes.
 https://github.com/ClassicDIY/ClassicMQTT
Larry

Your post was really appreciated and kept me out of the bar for a couple of hours.

I am really trying to understand the interconnections. I have attached a crude diagram of what I think I understand.

How does MQTT get to the cloud? Ethernet to the router?

"Basically the Classic had limitation of being able to only have one modbus link at a time." Explain please.

Feel free to edit my diagram iffn ya like.