Beta KIDs

[philb]

The Kid seems right up my ally. A simple controller that knows how to do its job.

The Classics I have do their job very well too. I don't use half their capabilities. I check them twice a day to see how many Kwh's are used and to see the batteries are on float at the day's end. I've worked on ambient air monitoring instruments and loggers for 25 years. Now I'm getting a little break.  If the kid is simple to operate and needs its functionality tested, I'm in. I also have 5,700 watts of new solar panels on their way that would make a good test bed for a kid or two in combination with 2 additional Classics I just bought.

[Robin]

David, the prices you mentioned for the E tracers are pretty high. I suspect the KID will have a street price of $295 or so. It doesn't have Ethernet, but then it doesn't have the price tag for it either. $399 for a 30 amp Chinese controller with no support and no way to collect on a warranty is not a good deal in my mind. A Classic Lite isn't that much more than the E Tracer and the Lite has tons more capability and power. I am glad that this is one area where the Chinese aren't taking over yet. It isn't easy competing with American companies that have their products built in China, Taiwan, India and Mexico, let alone Chinese companies selling directly into the US. We just have to take it in the shorts and make very little profit, so your support is very much appreciated.
Robin

[Mario]

Hello everyone, it seems like there is a lot of interest on the kid and its capabilities, mostly in communications.
So I will start by saying that it does have a UART port and it is standard RS232, but the protocol its custom, I couldn't find a tiny protocol to make it fast enough to be able to do parallel inputs and outputs (True Paralleling).
Since the kid only has a single real hardware UART (well besides the one I had to simulate in software to be able to talk only to the WBJR)
if someone wants to do real time monitoring they will to give up the stacking port, I have a plan to be able to gather data through this port as mentioned before if someone will take their time to write a program I can help on getting the support needed.
I will have to say, right now the top priority is to build a though reliable charger and getting it on the Market.


The KiD
Mario R.

[mtdoc]

Thanks for the info Mario.

Looking forward to getting my hands on one!

[Westbranch]

As per Robins original post

http://midniteforum.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1500.0;attach=1900

[Robin]

Nicko, please e-mail bo@midnitesolar.com
He is taking care of all the beta unit details.

[nicko]

Thanks Robin,
Have done. Also got the spec's on the Marine options.
Thanks Very Much, Keep up the good work.
Cheers
Mark.

[Robin]

The Marine versions will list for $100 more than the regular Kid and therefore are not as good of a deal. We do spend quite a lot of money for the extra parts related to the Marine Kid, but in most cases, you would not want to incur the extra cost. Then again, the KID looks pretty good on a yacht. This picture is from Tom Carpenter's boat in New Zealand. He now has it mounted. Tom says the blue LCD display is very hard to read on his boat. We are now testing other colors of LCD's that have black letters rather than a blue background with white letters. I really like the blue background. The first 100 beta units will have blue LCD's. I am getting one of them for myself. Now all I need is a yacht!

[tecnodave]

Robin,

I agree with you about the price for the eTracer, way too high for what you get. I had considered the 60 amp version but for the few dollars difference it was dismissed pretty early in the consideration. In my opinion the Morningstar TS MPPT 60 and the MidNite Classic 150 were the only choices for me. The total programmability of the Classic, 50% more power, and the possibility of sources of input other than solar was the final deciding factor.  My system is working much better now that I can set the controller to match my choice of battery bank. I am harvesting about 20% more power than the Tracers (3) due to the matching to the battery bank.

Thanks for taking the time to design such a thoroughly thought out product.

David

[SolarVet]

Im game for beta testing

[dapdan]

Midnite,

Have these beta kids shipped as yet?

Damani

[dgd]

Hello everyone, it seems like there is a lot of interest on the kid and its capabilities, mostly in communications.
So I will start by saying that it does have a UART port and it is standard RS232, but the protocol its custom, I couldn't find a tiny protocol to make it fast enough to be able to do parallel inputs and outputs (True Paralleling).
Since the kid only has a single real hardware UART (well besides the one I had to simulate in software to be able to talk only to the WBJR)
if someone wants to do real time monitoring they will to give up the stacking port, I have a plan to be able to gather data through this port as mentioned before if someone will take their time to write a program I can help on getting the support needed.
I will have to say, right now the top priority is to build a though reliable charger and getting it on the Market.

Mario,
re: the stacking port, I assumed the pins were just the standard serial port configuration as on the Classic serial ports. So listening on that port there is nothing being output.
I was thinking that if a data stream, not continuous but perhaps every half to one second, with input volts and amps, batt volts and output amps, perhaps watts and kw/hrs and maybe a status byte or two for all the flags info and mode and error info and whatever, could be output then a listening rPi (et al)  could probably do enough real time displaying of data/modes and gather data over time. Time and date stamping would be rPi to make meaningful reports.
Is the KID cpu/memory/uart capable of this?  and is there any chance or this being available in a firmware update?
dgd

[Mario]

Hello everyone, it seems like there is a lot of interest on the kid and its capabilities, mostly in communications.
So I will start by saying that it does have a UART port and it is standard RS232, but the protocol its custom, I couldn't find a tiny protocol to make it fast enough to be able to do parallel inputs and outputs (True Paralleling).
Since the kid only has a single real hardware UART (well besides the one I had to simulate in software to be able to talk only to the WBJR)
if someone wants to do real time monitoring they will to give up the stacking port, I have a plan to be able to gather data through this port as mentioned before if someone will take their time to write a program I can help on getting the support needed.
I will have to say, right now the top priority is to build a though reliable charger and getting it on the Market.

Mario,
re: the stacking port, I assumed the pins were just the standard serial port configuration as on the Classic serial ports. So listening on that port there is nothing being output.
I was thinking that if a data stream, not continuous but perhaps every half to one second, with input volts and amps, batt volts and output amps, perhaps watts and kw/hrs and maybe a status byte or two for all the flags info and mode and error info and whatever, could be output then a listening rPi (et al)  could probably do enough real time displaying of data/modes and gather data over time. Time and date stamping would be rPi to make meaningful reports.
Is the KID cpu/memory/uart capable of this?  and is there any chance or this being available in a firmware update?
dgd

dgd,
at the moment the kid does not output anything though the serial port unless it is hooked up to a second unit and Comm is enabled in the menu, that being said if a single kid is in the system then you will be able to see what it is doing, yes all this that you are saying will be available with a firmware update when it is done.
Actually the way it will work is that there will be a list of variables(Vbatt,Pvvoltage,KWH... etc. still TBD) and you will connect to the kid serial and send a special command that will get you access to pull those variables out. so this way if some one is just interested in a single variable in specific then they can just get it, and the frequency will be faster for a single variable.
Will keep you posted as progress on this Marches on.

Mario R

[dgd]

Mario,
I know you are real busy working on the KID firmware but can I ask if there are more AUX output options coming soon?  I would be very interested in a FLOAT high and a PV high option.
My beta KID works good 
and can I ask what are the hieroglyphics on upper left corner when looking at rear of KID

dgd

[dgd]

Also just looking at that two line display.
The main status has what I assume is output current and battery voltage. I'm not sure how relevant the long text saying BULKMPPT is as the various modes could probably be abbreviated to three letters, BLK, FLT, ABS and EQ. And the work SOLAR I assume is the operating mode the KID is in. Again not sure this is needed as there are no other modes available yet and probably most KIDs will be in solar mode anyway.
The other data is Watts (V*A).
What I would suggest is the addition of Kw/Hr figure as well. Although thinking about this I suspect that without a clock in the KID then resetting Kw/hr on a daily basis would be not trivial to achieve. If there is no rtc device in the KID then is the cpu capable of timekeeping?
Is input current available?
dgd