I monitor  my 2 Axpert/Sjnerji inverters with Watchpower. So far so good. It displays electrical values of selected inverter with their PV input and total load, total charging current as well.

However the event log does nothing. Is it possible to have it at least log the switching to bypass and switching back to battery mode? I'm also missing energy metering.

Is there a better software that would work on a W10 laptop with RS232/USB connection?

http://www.multisibcontrol.net/

the software is free

I used a standard printer usb cable between my windows 10 and the inverter

 

Edited December 22, 20213 yr by Nitrious

18 hours ago, Nitrious said:

http://www.multisibcontrol.net/

the software is free

I used a standard printer usb cable between my windows 10 and the inverter

 

Thank you for the hint.

I downloaded and installed it. However it seems not to read from the inverters, tried all settings. Have the RS232 line connected with a USB adapter. No BMS is connected since I have others than Pylontech. On the left bottom of the monitoring screen it says in red: "Inverters stopped", "Pylon stopped". I noticed that there is no setting to select and configure the COM port. And find no instruction witch COM port it uses. I'm also troubled in "Inverter settings" with "Inverter serial". What does that mean?

Yes, the USB printer cable works also on my laptop with Watchpower. However I do want to monitor the inverters from my office, not in the remote location of the inverters (a concrete slap ceiling and double brick-wall away, accessible only from outside the house).

Apologies, I saw USB and figured it was the standard USB cable only connection. 

I never used it with rs232, however I did extend the traditional USB only cable to around 9m by placing a USB 1 hub in the middle, which I found kept comms stable. 

USB extenders via ethernet cable are also commonly available and cheap, even matrix sell them. 

In the end I went with icc/icm installed on Ubuntu on an old android tv device I was no longer using as I wanted my laptop freed up.

Cost wasn't to bad, and I have wireless remote access using remote desktop from my phone and laptop. 

I will check it out in the morning and see if standard serial comms will work however

Edited December 23, 20213 yr by Nitrious

3 hours ago, Beat said:

Thank you for the hint.

I downloaded and installed it. However it seems not to read from the inverters, tried all settings. Have the RS232 line connected with a USB adapter. No BMS is connected since I have others than Pylontech. On the left bottom of the monitoring screen it says in red: "Inverters stopped", "Pylon stopped". I noticed that there is no setting to select and configure the COM port. And find no instruction witch COM port it uses. I'm also troubled in "Inverter settings" with "Inverter serial". What does that mean?

Yes, the USB printer cable works also on my laptop with Watchpower. However I do want to monitor the inverters from my office, not in the remote location of the inverters (a concrete slap ceiling and double brick-wall away, accessible only from outside the house).

Connected the inverter to laptop with normal Axpert USB and it is  connected. 

Connected Pylontech 3000 with Pylontech B cable at console port to laptop. Display pylon stopped. 

What cable should I get to connect. Thanks

Hi 

I used a RS485 to usb converter to connect to my Pylontech.

from the softwares website -

NB : below for pylontech batteries only - you stated you have other batteries -> "No BMS is connected since I have others than Pylontech." so don't expected the pylontech procedure or cable to function.

- Connect Pylontech batteries. You can use RS232 connection to console port or RS485 connection to the dedicated port on Pylontech batteries.

So your cable will work.

Steps appear to be -> settings -> pylon -> select pylon comms, choose serial rs232 (console port), then choose port, click save

Note : this software has a comprehensive license module built in, so likely wont remain free forever, in addition the license will date time timeout at some point in the future, so keep this in mind. I'm guessing they're waiting for some kind of critical mass before beginning the license mode.

I checked the internal workings, libraries in use, basically looking at what I was using and potential future issues, the low (ancient) 3.5 .net requirement was the reason.

for those interested I used a 905x to install ubuntu on, it also has wifi and maybe bluetooth, cant remember, but a pi 3b is also good enough, and quite cheap. I add this because at some point an embedded solution will make sense, and pi isnt the only option, in fact anything that can run ubuntu will work.

ensure its the rk322x board, as above

Edited December 24, 20213 yr by Nitrious

11 hours ago, Piper said:

Hi 

I used a RS485 to usb converter to connect to my Pylontech.

Thanks for your response. Can you please post a photo of the Pylontech battery connection and the pin out. 

1 hour ago, Nitrious said:

so don't expected the pylontech procedure or cable to function.

Thank you all for your comments. No, as I expressed, I do not expect monitoring the BMSs. But I do expect to monitor the inverters. The Multisibcontrol claims to be able to read RS232 connection: "You can use either USB or RS232 connection cables."  The bottom line is: This claim is either true or false. If Watchpower can do it, why not Multisibcontrol with the same hardware.

It's free software with no guarantee's, maybe have a look on the site and direct the rs232 queries/issues to the developer directly. 

Personally I think you're doing yourself a disservice by not monitoring the bms and inverter together with software that supports both in an integrated fashion, allowing the system to work as a unified whole, plus your batteries will no doubt thank you should you do this. 

Plus if you go for a "paid for" solution, you have a much better chance of your expectations being met, and access to actual support. 

Perhaps mention your batteries brand and model, along with your axperts brand and model, and a suggestion could be made that suits your purposes. 

Since I upgraded to icm, I have a spare icc license, perhaps they'll allow you to have my icc license, no promises and no embedded device, but pi 3b are easy enough to get. 

Edited December 24, 20213 yr by Nitrious

4 hours ago, Chris Louw said:

Thanks for your response. Can you please post a photo of the Pylontech battery connection and the pin out. 

Note that this is for the US3000C pylontech

Pin 6 = CAN-GND    = Green        =GND

Pin 7=  485A            =Br/Wh         =A+

pin 8=  485B            =Br                =B-

Have a look see in the manual PG 8.

So this works for me ,,USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

us3000c-manual-eng-inutec.pdf

Thanks a lot. I have Pylontech B batteries. Best I get the pin out for them. 

I made a cable for the console port on master US3000c rj45 one end and DB9 the other plugged into serial port on my trusty old laptop

Pinouts

rj45 pin3 to db9 pin2

rj45 pin6 to db9 pin3

rj45 pin8 to db9 pin5

Software found all 3 batteries in the stack and is working great.

now I need to connect my Sofar ME3000SP to the lappy which is where I am struggling a bit.

I have a serial to usb converter but dont know if i can connect that to 485m or 485s ports on the inverter or if I have to get a 485 to usb converter.

 

 

On 2021/12/23 at 1:07 PM, Beat said:

I downloaded and installed it. However it seems not to read from the inverters, tried all settings. Have the RS232 line connected with a USB adapter. No BMS is connected since I have others than Pylontech. On the left bottom of the monitoring screen it says in red: "Inverters stopped", "Pylon stopped". I noticed that there is no setting to select and configure the COM port. And find no instruction witch COM port it uses.

I reported the problem to multisibcontrol.net/ more than 3 weeks ago but to date no response. Is that a good programmer's behavior?

 

for a guy that made it quickly in his spare time (and nicely done, had a brief look through the source code, unofficially of course) for his own purposes and decided to release it and make it free

while holding down a day job, and if things on my side are any indication, its getting busy now the covid situation is calming down. 

so at a guess I'd say your delayed response is workload related more than some other reason.

but on the other hand interesting things are happening with .net 6 and windows forms apps should be able to run on linux soon, so maybe something to look forward to if it gets upgraded.

icc on the other hand responded to my few requests even during the xmas period, and average turn around is a day, usually less, sometimes hours.

Edited January 20, 20223 yr by Nitrious

Connected easy to Pylontech and Axpert. I am impressed.