classic resetting during day

[TomW]

Ok so it sort of sounds like it is the other way around from what I had in mind. The older one is the misfit. Hm I assume you are gathering info on the Pi over TCP/IP not serial right? Maybe an idiots guide on how to run that software here on my Pi may be in the works?

Ryan

Yep, TCP/IP. Serial data is enabled but USB cable is not connected to anything.  I tried that awhile but with no error checking on data streamed to USB it was tough to get viable data over time. It is a known issue that the rPi has a very busy job handling communications and, if I remember correctly its all on one chip. I assumed that was the issue with malformed data it recorded over USB and writing to a USB thumb drive. I don't want to confuse those 2 issues but they may be related?

Ross is better suited to explain how to use his app but for local logging you just need to cd to the newmodbus directory do a chmod +x newmodbus then execute it like this: ./newmodbus -l /pathto/logdirectory/ IP_of_classic and it will write a log file "XXXX.log" in that directory where "XXXX" is the serial number of the classic. I have entries in my /etc/hosts file for each Classic so I call them by name "solar" or "wind".

I run it from crond at one minute intervals:

(* * * * * /home/tomw/newmodbus/runit&>/dev/null)

"runit" contains:

Code Select Expand


#!/bin/bash
/home/tomw/newmodbus/newmodbus -wl /PI/ wind
/home/tomw/newmodbus/newmodbus -wl /PI/ solar


/PI/ is an NFS mount from the thumb drive on the PI mounted on the Slug that is running the app right now. The -w feeds data to RossW's server where he creates some graphs and statistics.

Hope that helps.

Tom

[boB]

So, Tom, are you only having problems with the Classics and the rPi ?

And you have the latest code revision in your Classic(s)

Do you have a windows computer ?

One problem I have in trying to figure out the problems I see over the internet
(forums and/or email) is that I don't have a concise list of people's serial numbers,
battery voltage, firmware revisions, how the unit is set up, whether they are using
the Ethernet or not, is Web access enabled or not, are they using the Local App,
do they have a Lite or have an MNGP remote, are there more than one Classic
connected up in Follow-Me mode, etc.

All that information really helps.  I could take all of the information in this forum for
people's Classics and make a list but I don't always know if parameters have changed from
one post to another.

Maybe what we need to do is to get a couple of Classics working in a similar setup as you
have here at the shop and then swap them out with yours and see if you still have the
same problems ?
boB

[RossW]

One problem I have in trying to figure out the problems I see over the internet
(forums and/or email) is that I don't have a concise list of people's serial numbers,
battery voltage, firmware revisions, how the unit is set up, whether they are using
the Ethernet or not, is Web access enabled or not, are they using the Local App,
do they have a Lite or have an MNGP remote, are there more than one Classic

Let me kick off the list!

Serial No: 5007
Nominal Battery Voltage: 48V
Nominal Battery Capacity: 1000AH
MNGP Firmware: 1370
Classic Firmware: 1401
Modbus Address 4101: 0x496  (HW Rev 4, Unit type 150)
Software Build Date: June 8th, 2013
Ethernet: yes
Web access enabled: no   
Using Local App: no   
Using MyMidnite: no   
Standard Classic 150 
MNGP: yes 
MNGP Remote: no 
More than one Classic: no
Nominal PV capacity: 3500W
Nominal PV voltage: 105V
Short Ethernet cable (1.8m): yes
USB connected: no

[TomW]

As I was checking the info for this list I noticed my solar Classic #1871 lost communication awhile ago with very low light, minimal charging and 25.5 volts at the battery or so. No reset.

Using the Slug for TCP/IP logging.

My specs:

Serial No: 7805 & 1871
Nominal Battery Voltage: 24V
Nominal Battery Capacity: 450 AH
MNGP Firmware: 1370
Classic Firmware: 1401
Ethernet: yes
Web access enabled: no   
Using Local App: not normally 
Using MyMidnite: no   
Standard Classic 150
MNGP: yes
MNGP Remote: no
More than one Classic: yes: 2 with Follow Me enabled
Nominal PV capacity: 1500W
Nominal PV voltage: ~100V
Short Ethernet cable (1.8m): yes
USB connected: no

Anything else be of interest?

Tom

[zoneblue]

Bob/Ryan, just to be clear there are two issues here. The one Tom and I are talking about isnt a classic reset per se, the controller carrys on, never reboots, just the ethernet port shuts up shop under certain as yet undetermined circumstances.

Tom im with you, theres no point in having an ethernet monitoring interface if it needs a 100W computer to work with it.

On the rPi/, dont forget  that the it has half the memory that cubieboard has and its memory controller is quite a bit slower aswell. Floating point math on both is not flash, but said to be quicker on the rPi.  Slug has minimal resources too so i doubt that will help.

Ive had newmodbus running without fault on the cubieboard for a few days now, but it did lock up this morning again after i started putting some more load back on the board last night. Load average overnite was 0.15 overnite. Below 0.1 it appears stable.

Are you saying that the only thing running on that board is that bash script that calls newmodbus once each minute and appends a log file. Nothing else? Can you paste in the output of these:

Code Select Expand


dpkg -l
uptime
free


Other than cpu load (which doenst tell us all that much) the possibility of overlapping calls from newmodbus to the same device should be ruled out. With all the testing im doing trying to get this software out the door, i cant be certain that there are zero concurrent connect attempts. Ill be able to rule that out tomorow i think.

Heres mine:

Serial No: 4037
Nominal Battery Voltage: 24V
Nominal Battery Capacity: 400AH/c10 AGM
MNGP Firmware: na
Classic Firmware: 1370
Model: Classic 150 LITE Rev4
Software Build Date: ?
Ethernet: yes
Web access enabled: no   
Using Local App: not usually/rarely.   
Using MyMidnite: no   
MNGP: no
MNGP Remote: no
More than one Classic: no
Nominal PV capacity:  1800W
Nominal PV voltage:  75V
Ethernet cable length (to first powered device): 10m
USB connected: no

[TomW]

zoneblue:

Code Select Expand


tomw@SLUG:~$ dpkg -l
343 packages
Too much text to post according to the forum software 20,000 character limit. I can mail it to you if you want
tomw@SLUG:~$ uptime
19:21:21 up 6 days,  6:40,  1 user,  load average: 0.56, 0.17, 0.10
tomw@SLUG:~$ free
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:         28844      26656       2188          0        336       3288
-/+ buffers/cache:      23032       5812
Swap:     29358068       8192   29349876
tomw@SLUG:~$


Not sure what you are looking for but this machine {SLUG} only runs the logging from crond. It has a load average of .2 to .3.  The previous rPi was the same but load avg. was less.

Tom

[boB]

Hi guys !   thank you for the concise list of settings !

OK, one thing I do not quite understand is this...

MNGP: yes
MNGP Remote: no

Does this mean that your MNGP/remote just has a short cable ?

the MNGP IS the remote so I don't quite follow that.  follow-me ??

HA...  get it ?  follow me ??

boB

[RossW]

Hi guys !   thank you for the concise list of settings !

OK, one thing I do not quite understand is this...

MNGP: yes
MNGP Remote: no

Does this mean that your MNGP/remote just has a short cable ?

the MNGP IS the remote so I don't quite follow that.  follow-me ??

You specifically asked about the MNGP Remote. I wasn't sure if you might have meant a remote (ie, away from the Classic) display. Also knowing that the Lite for example doesn't have the MNGP (which you refer to as the "MNGP") I took the literal interpretation that "MNGP" was the one in the Classic and "MNGP Remote" was some remote-reading version. If they're the same thing, fair enough.

Other thing just struck me - when I changed from my (failed) classic back to the FM80, I also moved the battery temperature sensor. I can't see it making any difference, but the fact that it's been unplugged from the Classic and plugged into the FM80 is something else co-incident with mine stopping resetting!

[boB]

Other thing just struck me - when I changed from my (failed) classic back to the FM80, I also moved the battery temperature sensor. I can't see it making any difference, but the fact that it's been unplugged from the Classic and plugged into the FM80 is something else co-incident with mine stopping resetting!

I don't quite understand what you're saying here.  First, when you say failed Classic, do you mean one that is completely dead or one that resets ?

Also, what do you mean by you moved the temp sensor ?  Does that mean you are using the Classic's temp sensor on the FM80 ?
That will probably work.
But if you changed a Classic over to an FM80 then I would expect that Classic to stop resetting because it is unplugged !

Sorry, must be a language translation ?

WoW !   Lightning and thunder here !   Power just went out for a few seconds and then heard a large boom !

There is went again !  WoW  !   I love this but my dog doesn't She's up in my lap !

boB

[TomW]

boB;

I took "MNGP Remote" to mean a Classic Lite that displays to the MNGP on another Classic (remote)?

Tom

[RossW]

I don't quite understand what you're saying here.  First, when you say failed Classic, do you mean one that is completely dead or one that resets ?

I'm talking about the one that stopped doing anything, we removed R57 and went to legacy mode to get "something" happening. Ie, the one that "failed".

Also, what do you mean by you moved the temp sensor ?  Does that mean you are using the Classic's temp sensor on the FM80 ?

When the classic arrived here it didn't have a battery temperature sensor. In discussion with you and Ryan in IRC, I was assured the one that was on the FM80 was the same, and since I was decommissioning the FM80 to use the Classic, I "stole" its battery temperature sensor. When I reconfigured to go back to the FM80, I put its temp sensor back on it.

That will probably work.

It does

But if you changed a Classic over to an FM80 then I would expect that Classic to stop resetting because it is unplugged !

Sorry, must be a language translation ?

I currently have the FM80 connected to 3KW PV, and the Classic with a 500W array.
The FM80 doing "most of the work" until the Classic can be fixed.

RossW

[boB]

I currently have the FM80 connected to 3KW PV, and the Classic with a 500W array.
The FM80 doing "most of the work" until the Classic can be fixed.

RossW

We need to talk more about this but one thing that we will really want to test before you swap that failed Classic
out is to re-connect the 3KW PV array, still with legacy mode on and see if it still resets.  That will be a BIG indicator
of what is going on with the resets.   Changing two things at once makes it extremely difficult to tell
which one, or both made a difference.   Is it somehow related to switching noise or the R57 circuit that who know,
maybe was going bonkers before it really went totally out ?   Really hard to say.  Then there is the Ethernet
connection but that didn't change of course.

One more great burst of a finale' of information waiting to show itself !

We'll make it right for you guys !

Thanks,
boB

[boB]

boB;

I took "MNGP Remote" to mean a Classic Lite that displays to the MNGP on another Classic (remote)?

Tom

Here I am trying to respond to the forum and I have similar problems that the Classic has.
My internet connection goes down, I have to reset the modem several times and my laptop's (Dell)
WiFi has a problem where I need to reset it and sometimes reboot the whole laptop to get it
all back again.  So, we are not lonely for networking problems !   Where is the forum to talk
with Dell and Westell modem people ?  Man, makes me want to just go live on a deserted island
with no electricity or communications or anything ! 

OK, so, I see what you're saying about the "remote" remote....  Cross Classic-Traffic !  Yes,
good point.  I appreciate that part of your report, Tom.

this does not make sense of course that that Classic's MNGP AND Slave port have stopped
talking.  I think I heard from Ryan that you tried both MNGPs on both ports and neither
works anymore but the Classic itself charges.
There is separate circuitry for the MNGP jack and the Slave jack so I don't think that
is the problem.
You have "Got Comm" so the power for the MNGPs are working from each jack.

Resetting the Classic doesn't help and changing to address 255 will not get them to talk
I hear...

Does the Local App still work on that low serial number Classic ?

One thing I was going to suggest was to connect the Master jack and the
slave jack on that same unit together, put it into Follow-Me mode and watch
to see if you get a long blue LED or short blue LED blinks indicating communication
BUT the Local App does not have LED mode adjustment on it yet so nevermind
trying that I suppose.

Time for an RMA and I NEED to see that Classic as soon as it comes in.
boB

[Halfcrazy]

boB you need to get some sleep.

RossW= Resets and then hardware failure (Resolution = I am sending Ross the Classic 150 off my wall as I know it does not reset now)
RoyB= Got Comm on both serial ports (Resolution=ot sure yet a bit more troubleshooting is in order)
TomW=Flaky Modbus when talking to the older of the 2 Classics. (Resolution=I am likely going to send Tom a newer Classic as an experiment)


Ryan

[TomW]

boB you need to get some sleep.

Yeah, that after midnight Sunday post read like a Mandarin Chinese manual translated to French and then to English with an online translator.  The scary part is I kind of knew what he meant. Sort of.

Sleep is good.

I have to agree with boB on the desert island with no technology much beyond fire.

I think we are seeing progress on these issues.

Tom