blackhole_sun Posted September 9, 2022 Share Posted September 9, 2022 Hi all, not the sharpest pencil in the case, but please help... I want to order a Pi from solar-assistant for monitoring purposes. I can see from their web shop they have the option of a power supply that takes 9-60Volt dc that can connect to the battery so that I dont need a plug close to the inverter itself. Where do I connect this power supply to he inverter? Anyone running this setup? I have 4 Sohto batteries in a cabinet. Also can it co-exist with the existing dongle already installed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mzezman Posted September 9, 2022 Share Posted September 9, 2022 it can co-exist with the dongle. I also have mine connected to the Inverter battery terminals - will post a pic for you if i get a chance to open it up (black to black and red to red) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackhole_sun Posted September 9, 2022 Author Share Posted September 9, 2022 Great please send photo! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackhole_sun Posted September 9, 2022 Author Share Posted September 9, 2022 Oh and is there a mobile app available for iphone? Did not find any in app store.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mzezman Posted September 9, 2022 Share Posted September 9, 2022 22 minutes ago, blackhole_sun said: Oh and is there a mobile app available for iphone? Did not find any in app store.... No standalone app - mine is a PWA (progressive web app) on android. instructions here zsde and blackhole_sun 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mzezman Posted September 9, 2022 Share Posted September 9, 2022 3 hours ago, blackhole_sun said: Great please send photo! Sorry for the delay, busy day. Hopefully the image is clear and you can see where they are connected. Had to remove the screws holding the battery cables of course then inserted the SA cables blackhole_sun 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiTech Posted September 9, 2022 Share Posted September 9, 2022 5 hours ago, blackhole_sun said: Hi all, not the sharpest pencil in the case, but please help... I want to order a Pi from solar-assistant for monitoring purposes. I can see from their web shop they have the option of a power supply that takes 9-60Volt dc that can connect to the battery so that I dont need a plug close to the inverter itself. Where do I connect this power supply to he inverter? Anyone running this setup? I have 4 Sohto batteries in a cabinet. Also can it co-exist with the existing dongle already installed? Preferable to connect your PI directly to battery terminals, as in the event of power output tripping through overload or earth leakage, you would loose the function of Solar Assistant plugged into normal power socket and not be able to diagnose any issues remotely. The PI power supply connectors are attached directly to the same terminals on the batteries as your Inverter DC feed is connected. I prefer to connect them to one of the batteries as to avoid any poor connectivity on the inverter itself, where the most power is evident and connections must be 100%. The Solar Assistant can co-exist with current dongle. You are attaching PI to RS485 (RJ45) connector in inverter (as below) and the dongle using RS232. As spec'd on SA site: https://solar-assistant.io/help/deye/configuration Great to have the real time visibility from Solar Assistant, backed up with your Inverter portal providing other specifics. Solar assistant uses any browser and you can access it directly on your own network IP address or through the SA portal once registered. blackhole_sun 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackhole_sun Posted September 19, 2022 Author Share Posted September 19, 2022 Ok solar assistant installed and really enjoying the added metrics. I have the Rg-485 connected to inverter and all good. Question how do I go about getting some more info from batteries? From Solar assistant site it mentions that either the Inverter does the monitoring (current setup via CAN interface) or the Pie. Surely the inverter needs to be connected to the battery? Is it wise to remove the monitoring from inverter and use the solar assistant instead? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zsde Posted September 19, 2022 Share Posted September 19, 2022 (edited) On 2022/09/09 at 12:07 PM, blackhole_sun said: Hi all, not the sharpest pencil in the case, but please help... I want to order a Pi from solar-assistant for monitoring purposes. I can see from their web shop they have the option of a power supply that takes 9-60Volt dc that can connect to the battery so that I dont need a plug close to the inverter itself. Where do I connect this power supply to he inverter? Anyone running this setup? I have 4 Sohto batteries in a cabinet. Also can it co-exist with the existing dongle already installed? You need an additional cable to connect the other Pi USB port directly to your battery. That will then provide you with independent BMS data. Just check with SA if your specific batteries are supported yet. https://solar-assistant.io/shop/products/shoto Edited September 19, 2022 by zsde Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackhole_sun Posted September 20, 2022 Author Share Posted September 20, 2022 yes understood, the question really is can the inverter co-exist without a communication to the batteries? It can be either monitored from the inverter or Solar assistant, not both.... NB: If the Shoto battery is already being read from the inverter via CAN, then it's not readable via RS485 as the master is using it to communicate with the slave packs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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