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#51
The "Classic" charge controller / Re: ClassicBridge - Classic to...
Last post by ClassicCrazy - March 13, 2026, 02:09:12 PMThe Home Assistant is an operating system so would have to run on a computer of some sort, though they also sell a Home Assistant board that will run it. Do you have internet at your off grid site ?
Now that I have plenty of pv and battery power here at home, I haven't been counting the watts like I used to.
The options for Home Assistant to run on would be a mini pc , a raspberry pi 5 ( with nvme drive is best) or that Home Assistant board which I don't know much about. But you would probably be looking at a lot more power than what you are doing - more like 10 watts at least I think. But the monitoring and control capabilities would be worth it if you ever could get the power to run it.
You can use a program called Tailscale to get secure remote access over the internet without having to open any ports. A bit of geek work.
I just got an esp32 board that has rs485 and canbus ports built in. Something like that might be an option for you .
I looked at your post again and maybe you don't want to have remote access to the site if you aren't running internet unless you are there ?
Here is info from people who use the home assistant with I think the schneider stuff you have. I don't know anything about those. Maybe their info can be of help to you on your project. Also look on github for projects .
https://community.home-assistant.io/t/schneider-electric-solar-tcp-modbus-integration/312604
below is photo of my Home Assistant graphic of solar showing 4 different controllers and two different inverters. Home Assistant is getting data from Classic directly via modbus ip , Hawkes Bay and Rosie via canbus ( to a python program running on a raspberry pi ) from EG4 ( luxpower) inverter via rs485 , and from Victron via its bluetooth and also from ve direct wired connection . My Home Assistant runs on a vm on a mini pc running proxmox. I also have linux mint running on another vm on that if I ever need it. I am sure my power budget for all this monitoring is much higher than you would do since I have a router, mini pc, raspberry pi 3, raspberry pi 5 all messing around with each other in various ways in my power room. Fun hobby keeping it all going !
Larry
Now that I have plenty of pv and battery power here at home, I haven't been counting the watts like I used to.
The options for Home Assistant to run on would be a mini pc , a raspberry pi 5 ( with nvme drive is best) or that Home Assistant board which I don't know much about. But you would probably be looking at a lot more power than what you are doing - more like 10 watts at least I think. But the monitoring and control capabilities would be worth it if you ever could get the power to run it.
You can use a program called Tailscale to get secure remote access over the internet without having to open any ports. A bit of geek work.
I just got an esp32 board that has rs485 and canbus ports built in. Something like that might be an option for you .
I looked at your post again and maybe you don't want to have remote access to the site if you aren't running internet unless you are there ?
Here is info from people who use the home assistant with I think the schneider stuff you have. I don't know anything about those. Maybe their info can be of help to you on your project. Also look on github for projects .
https://community.home-assistant.io/t/schneider-electric-solar-tcp-modbus-integration/312604
below is photo of my Home Assistant graphic of solar showing 4 different controllers and two different inverters. Home Assistant is getting data from Classic directly via modbus ip , Hawkes Bay and Rosie via canbus ( to a python program running on a raspberry pi ) from EG4 ( luxpower) inverter via rs485 , and from Victron via its bluetooth and also from ve direct wired connection . My Home Assistant runs on a vm on a mini pc running proxmox. I also have linux mint running on another vm on that if I ever need it. I am sure my power budget for all this monitoring is much higher than you would do since I have a router, mini pc, raspberry pi 3, raspberry pi 5 all messing around with each other in various ways in my power room. Fun hobby keeping it all going !
Larry
#52
The Rosie / Re: Parallel Rosies not sharin...
Last post by Brucey - March 12, 2026, 10:04:58 PMHow are the Rosies wired together?
#53
The "Classic" charge controller / Re: ClassicBridge - Classic to...
Last post by RJD18 - March 12, 2026, 08:55:52 PMThanks for the tip Larry. Is Home Assistant an IP based solution ?
My setup is at a remote off grid location . I am cautious / considerate of any incidental loads including those added by monitoring and management equipment. This build (the box pictured) has a power footprint of 55.6mA @ 9Vdc . I am hoping the 9V power from the Classic RJ12 has enough oomph to power the interface without needing an external source. Until I establish this I am using a 9Vdc wall wort for power. My thinking is that this is a minimum tradeoff in incremental parasitic power load for the functionality gain
This use case emphasis is on LOCAL monitoring. The Schneider Combox also offers data logging. Since the ComBox is already part of the system I don't take an added power hit for this functionality . Using the RS232 to RS485 minimizes outboard power requirements of a IP Router or Internet access point etc when I am not there. When I am , I can power up a local LAN and the ComBox has a nifty UI that I can get at.
In the software design / architecture there is a strong emphasis being placed on unattended reliability, availability and fault tolerance. The software is being developed using an approach where both the Classic polling and translation to Schneider are based on configurable tables (read as user modifiable and easily adjustable) These two files will be kept on a small capacity microSD card that is on the ESP32 board used in this build. By doing it this way, the Classic extraction can be iteratively managed "if" the Classic firmware ever changes or if/when some of the registers that the documentation indicates are "reserved for future use get utilized. This makes the data extraction very scalable.
For translation/ transformation a table is also being used so that the transformaiton side of the interface is also easily maintainable / scalable and ,as a bonus, so that a translation table could be easily deployed to emulate ANY vendors MPPT or management system (in my case a Schneider MPPT60) but it would be equally do-able to create translate libraries for any make of MPPT and this device will allow a Classic to 'emulate ' what is needed for a particular vendor's MPPT or management ecosystem . I've been having fun working on the code and making it 'industrial grade' . A long time ago , in my past life, I had some responsibility for developing solutions used by banking / trading systems / mutual fund industry and stock markets . Am enjoying dusting off some 30 year old engineering cobwebs and having a bit 'o' fun doing it .
I will look in to the Home Assistant suggestion. thanks for that it is appreciated.
My setup is at a remote off grid location . I am cautious / considerate of any incidental loads including those added by monitoring and management equipment. This build (the box pictured) has a power footprint of 55.6mA @ 9Vdc . I am hoping the 9V power from the Classic RJ12 has enough oomph to power the interface without needing an external source. Until I establish this I am using a 9Vdc wall wort for power. My thinking is that this is a minimum tradeoff in incremental parasitic power load for the functionality gain
This use case emphasis is on LOCAL monitoring. The Schneider Combox also offers data logging. Since the ComBox is already part of the system I don't take an added power hit for this functionality . Using the RS232 to RS485 minimizes outboard power requirements of a IP Router or Internet access point etc when I am not there. When I am , I can power up a local LAN and the ComBox has a nifty UI that I can get at.
In the software design / architecture there is a strong emphasis being placed on unattended reliability, availability and fault tolerance. The software is being developed using an approach where both the Classic polling and translation to Schneider are based on configurable tables (read as user modifiable and easily adjustable) These two files will be kept on a small capacity microSD card that is on the ESP32 board used in this build. By doing it this way, the Classic extraction can be iteratively managed "if" the Classic firmware ever changes or if/when some of the registers that the documentation indicates are "reserved for future use get utilized. This makes the data extraction very scalable.
For translation/ transformation a table is also being used so that the transformaiton side of the interface is also easily maintainable / scalable and ,as a bonus, so that a translation table could be easily deployed to emulate ANY vendors MPPT or management system (in my case a Schneider MPPT60) but it would be equally do-able to create translate libraries for any make of MPPT and this device will allow a Classic to 'emulate ' what is needed for a particular vendor's MPPT or management ecosystem . I've been having fun working on the code and making it 'industrial grade' . A long time ago , in my past life, I had some responsibility for developing solutions used by banking / trading systems / mutual fund industry and stock markets . Am enjoying dusting off some 30 year old engineering cobwebs and having a bit 'o' fun doing it .
I will look in to the Home Assistant suggestion. thanks for that it is appreciated.
#54
The "Classic" charge controller / Re: ClassicBridge - Classic to...
Last post by ClassicCrazy - March 12, 2026, 02:08:22 PMI have been using AI for some of my projects and it is really helpful. Actually more than helpful since it wrote python code I never could have.
If you want , try out google gemini or other AI . Give it all the info you can when you ask your first question and you may be surprised how this could save you a lot of time. If you have the Schneider communications documents , attach that to the question.
I like your hardware build.
You may also want to look into using Home Assistant which can do a lot of getting data , sharing it , automations, etc.
Larry
If you want , try out google gemini or other AI . Give it all the info you can when you ask your first question and you may be surprised how this could save you a lot of time. If you have the Schneider communications documents , attach that to the question.
I like your hardware build.
You may also want to look into using Home Assistant which can do a lot of getting data , sharing it , automations, etc.
Larry
#55
The "Classic" charge controller / Re: ClassicBridge - Classic to...
Last post by RJD18 - March 12, 2026, 12:55:07 AMA picture of the Hardware build for this interface . Classic RS232 RJ12 interface on the left , ESP32 H/w Middle , Combox RS485 to Combox on the right. 55.6 milliamps at 9Vdc.
#56
The Rosie / Re: Maximum output using gener...
Last post by Wirenut - March 11, 2026, 10:03:52 PMSo there isn't officially gen support? I didn't realize that. I thought I had seen it in the menu before. Maybe it's there but disabled? The system I'm designing would bee 3 Rosies in parallel and a 26 kW generator. My customer was asking if he could use the inverter and generator together if he needed more amps to run some shop tools or something. I was trying to make sure that was possible.
#57
The Rosie / Parallel Rosies not sharing ge...
Last post by Wirenut - March 11, 2026, 09:27:10 PMI have an off grid system installed with 2 Rosie inverters in parallel. The AC input is a 14 kW generator. When generator charging the Rosies don't share equally. Also, sometimes, not long after a generator auto start charge cycle is completed there is a fault code for AC overload on L1.
I've attached 3 pictures. One shows the FW in each component. Left and Right are two different MNGP2 displays. Master is the master Rosie. Rosie is the slave Rosie.
The others pictures are summary's of the inverters activity on the same day when a generator auto start occurred to charge the batteries. As you can see, one Rosie took in over 7,000 watts for long enough to take in over 49 kWh. The other Rosie shows all zeros for the same day.
I thought maybe the parallel threshold was set to high at 40% but I didn't think that affected charging, just inverting. I changed the parallel threshold down to 25%. At the time the generator wasn't running and total load on the inverters was about 1 kW. When I lowered it to 25% the slave inverter came on which seemed strange with such a low load.
Any ideas are appreciated. I don't know if this is multiple problems or if they are related.
Thanks for your help.
I've attached 3 pictures. One shows the FW in each component. Left and Right are two different MNGP2 displays. Master is the master Rosie. Rosie is the slave Rosie.
The others pictures are summary's of the inverters activity on the same day when a generator auto start occurred to charge the batteries. As you can see, one Rosie took in over 7,000 watts for long enough to take in over 49 kWh. The other Rosie shows all zeros for the same day.
I thought maybe the parallel threshold was set to high at 40% but I didn't think that affected charging, just inverting. I changed the parallel threshold down to 25%. At the time the generator wasn't running and total load on the inverters was about 1 kW. When I lowered it to 25% the slave inverter came on which seemed strange with such a low load.
Any ideas are appreciated. I don't know if this is multiple problems or if they are related.
Thanks for your help.
#58
The "Classic" charge controller / Re: Classic data on Home Assis...
Last post by J4501 - March 11, 2026, 06:34:09 PMThanks for posting this. I have wondered how this is done
#59
The "Classic" charge controller / Hydro configuration options
Last post by J4501 - March 11, 2026, 06:31:25 PMGreeting all, I have a possibly odd situation I couldn't find via searching. If I missed something please let me know.
Battery nominal 48vdc. I have several Classic 150's managing solar for the last 5 years. In addition I have a Classic 200 managing a permanent magnet Hipower (homehydro) 800 watt hydroelectric unit. The 200 is in hydro mode, mppt is pinned at 80 volts (per the Hipower manual roughly one half open circuit voltage). The output is 800watts. I have aux-pwm configured on two classics some-tenths of a volt apart providing redundant load diversion to 2 fan cooled SSR's and 2 air heaters.
I have plenty of excess flow to add another hydro. I anticipate a total of 1.6kw @ 80vdc.
Now to my question: can I add the 2nd hydro in parallel to the line to the classic? That is two hydro sources of 80vdc behind one Classic?
I see discussions in unrelated topics around mppt fighting, which I *hope* disappears with my 200 pinned at 80vdc.
I am off grid remote WFH and value best practices as logistics are slow and complicated and no power/internet = no job. That said Classics while worth every penny, cost a lot of Pennies, so if I can avoid adding another I would like to.
Battery nominal 48vdc. I have several Classic 150's managing solar for the last 5 years. In addition I have a Classic 200 managing a permanent magnet Hipower (homehydro) 800 watt hydroelectric unit. The 200 is in hydro mode, mppt is pinned at 80 volts (per the Hipower manual roughly one half open circuit voltage). The output is 800watts. I have aux-pwm configured on two classics some-tenths of a volt apart providing redundant load diversion to 2 fan cooled SSR's and 2 air heaters.
I have plenty of excess flow to add another hydro. I anticipate a total of 1.6kw @ 80vdc.
Now to my question: can I add the 2nd hydro in parallel to the line to the classic? That is two hydro sources of 80vdc behind one Classic?
I see discussions in unrelated topics around mppt fighting, which I *hope* disappears with my 200 pinned at 80vdc.
I am off grid remote WFH and value best practices as logistics are slow and complicated and no power/internet = no job. That said Classics while worth every penny, cost a lot of Pennies, so if I can avoid adding another I would like to.
#60
The Rosie / Re: Maximum output using gener...
Last post by Wizbandit - March 11, 2026, 01:11:59 PMIf AC INPUT = GENERATOR then Grid Support is DISABLED. There is no "generator support" in the Rosie Inverter.
Grid Support only works in AC INPUT = GRID MODE. If your generator connects and runs in AC = GRID mode then you may get support or the generator may just go "wawawawawawa" and start acting funny. So please don't call support and say you are having issues getting grid support to work with a generator. It's not supported officially.
Grid Support only works in AC INPUT = GRID MODE. If your generator connects and runs in AC = GRID mode then you may get support or the generator may just go "wawawawawawa" and start acting funny. So please don't call support and say you are having issues getting grid support to work with a generator. It's not supported officially.