Hey Guys,

I bought solar assistant this week and just cannot get it to run. I've tried on 3 different pi's, re-downloaded and re-flashed about 10 times. I can connect to the wifi, but I cannot get their page on the wifi setup, and it comes up with another local IP in my dashboard if I plug it into my LAN. I can see the pi if I scan the network while its on LAN, but the IP just times out when I try to connect to it.

I assume they put some file on your build to identify the install as yours, am wondering if there was an issue there.

I mailed info@ with my issues twice and have not had any response. I also tried calling them but the phone is off. Has anyone else had an issue like this? I thought from the forums here that they were quite snappy and its supposed to be simple.

Thanks

 

24 minutes ago, NoNoodles said:

Hey Guys,

I bought solar assistant this week and just cannot get it to run. I've tried on 3 different pi's, re-downloaded and re-flashed about 10 times. I can connect to the wifi, but I cannot get their page on the wifi setup, and it comes up with another local IP in my dashboard if I plug it into my LAN. I can see the pi if I scan the network while its on LAN, but the IP just times out when I try to connect to it.

I assume they put some file on your build to identify the install as yours, am wondering if there was an issue there.

I mailed info@ with my issues twice and have not had any response. I also tried calling them but the phone is off. Has anyone else had an issue like this? I thought from the forums here that they were quite snappy and its supposed to be simple.

Thanks

 

If memory serves, then SA is node locked on hardware. So if you successfully configured your access from one pi, you cannot access the same licence from other pi. 

Contact Pierre on SA website. 

Edited March 12, 20232 yr by BritishRacingGreen

3 minutes ago, BritishRacingGreen said:

then SA is node locked on hardware

That is the case. They may consider one hardware change but that as far as I know means you have to request a new file download for the new Pi.
I have had zero issues with mine and have always had good support.
https://solar-assistant.io/help/general/transfer-license

[email protected]

Thanks for the replies, but I haven't got to the point of even accessing the PI or activating it on the SA website. As my post said, I cant access the PI config page on WIFI or LAN method.

I have tried them 3 times this week to contact them, no response.

Can you ping the pi on its IP address (or even its hostname)?

Have you tried HTTP and HTTPS?

Have you tried a different browser?

I was having a similar issue. Customer service isn't that great. He didn't know basic things about their own software. 

After hours or this and that  I ended up changing my SSID to one word only.

(The tech guy said this would not make a difference.)

Before it was two words. This solved it. I don't believe it likes spaces. 

 

I did eventually get hold of support, but they didn't solve the issue.

What did solve the issue was getting a new SD card. It turns out the 2 in the cupboard where older and the PI/SA really didn't like them. With no monitor on it was impossible to see what was going on. I cant explain the other issues I was having, but all is working now.

On 2023/04/14 at 9:03 PM, NoNoodles said:

With no monitor on it was impossible to see what was going on.

On a related note,because the Pi doesn't have a traditional BIOS unless the memory card works(ish) there wouldn't be display either

Dont buy this software it's a scam to get you to buy their rip off priced data cables.

The software just thumb sucks and makes up grid power and battery usage logs. I have measured actual usage it's no where close. Also not even close to the inverters values. Numerous other bugs which the developers just won't acknowledge.

7 minutes ago, GTiDon said:

Dont buy this software it's a scam to get you to buy their rip off priced data cables.

The software just thumb sucks and makes up grid power and battery usage logs. I have measured actual usage it's no where close. Also not even close to the inverters values. Numerous other bugs which the developers just won't acknowledge.

Solar assistant just reads the data off your inverter. Perhaps your inverter is at fault.

48 minutes ago, GTiDon said:

Dont buy this software it's a scam to get you to buy their rip off priced data cables.

The software just thumb sucks and makes up grid power and battery usage logs. I have measured actual usage it's no where close. Also not even close to the inverters values. Numerous other bugs which the developers just won't acknowledge.

SA works great for me.

You not forced to buy their "rip off priced data cables", you can use any cables, even make your own:
see https://www.robotics.org.za/communication-wireless-Industrial/RS485-devices

In terms of grid power, battery usage, seems you did not read the warnings:

Quote

The following affects the numbers you see above:

• The power used by the inverter(s) themself are not included in the total load, but is supplied from either grid or solar PV.
• A battery doesn't discharge the same amount of kWh it took to charge it due to battery efficiency.
• Depending on your inverter model, measurements isn't perfectly accurate. Some are far from it.

I use the SA mqtt interface to send real time data to Home Assistant and also save readings to a PostgreSQL database.
I have a Juntek couloumb meter on the batteries and DDS238-2 on the load and DDS238-2 grid which also send data via mqtt to PostgreSQL.
SA readings and charts correspond closely with all three meters.

This image shows "Load Power" from SA and 28House from a DDS238-2 meter.
As you can see the lines are very close.  SA data is accessed via mqtt and averaged per minute.

Here is another example on the SoC reported via SA vs the Juntek and battery BMS


What inverter do you have?
Are you using "Emulated BMS"?

Edited May 26, 20231 yr by system32

On 2023/03/12 at 4:06 PM, NoNoodles said:

Hey Guys,

I bought solar assistant this week and just cannot get it to run. I've tried on 3 different pi's, re-downloaded and re-flashed about 10 times. I can connect to the wifi, but I cannot get their page on the wifi setup, and it comes up with another local IP in my dashboard if I plug it into my LAN. I can see the pi if I scan the network while its on LAN, but the IP just times out when I try to connect to it.

I assume they put some file on your build to identify the install as yours, am wondering if there was an issue there.

I mailed info@ with my issues twice and have not had any response. I also tried calling them but the phone is off. Has anyone else had an issue like this? I thought from the forums here that they were quite snappy and its supposed to be simple.

Thanks

AFAIK, the SD card image you download is generic.
EDIT: According to SA website "NB: The SD card image is linked to your account. Do not share it with other users."
SA runs in a evaluation mode until you register via the http://solar-assistant.lan/configuration page.

In terms of the WiFi / LAN, try plugging it into the LAN, check on your DHCP server/router/nmap to find the IP address.
SA should register itself using the DNS name "solar-assistant".
Open a browser to "http://solar-assistant/" or "http://IP-from-dhcp-server/" and go to the configuration tab and configure your SSID and WiFi password.
Once done, click the shutdown button on the configuration tab, unplug and relocate the Raspberry PI to near your inverter.
Check that you have WiFi signal by your inverter - On Android use WiFiMan or WiFiAnalyzer to check.

There is also a Bluetooth config option, but I've not tried that.

Edited May 26, 20231 yr by system32

17 hours ago, GTiDon said:

Dont buy this software it's a scam to get you to buy their rip off priced data cables.

The software just thumb sucks and makes up grid power and battery usage logs. I have measured actual usage it's no where close. Also not even close to the inverters values. Numerous other bugs which the developers just won't acknowledge.

Between the 8 inverters i've used the Data has been spot-on with what other tools such as WatchPower,MultiSIBTools and the requisite dongles/software have produced. I've also used cables from Takealot,included with the inverters and some from Solarassistant's store (for the less generic stuff)

This seems to fall under the "Your Inverter might not present accurate data"

The one time I got junk values I had selected the wrong Inverter model and the readings were apeshit

On 2023/05/26 at 4:05 PM, GTiDon said:

Dont buy this software it's a scam to get you to buy their rip off priced data cables.

Actually the cheap cables are the scam.  Original FTDI cables cost R500+, here is the official store: https://ftdichip.com/products/usb-rs485-we-1800-bt/

That said you can safely use cheap Chinese clones with SolarAssistant because it's Linux which won't break your hardware.  Using fake FTDI chips on Windows has bricked them sometime in the past: https://hackaday.com/2016/02/01/ftdi-drivers-break-fake-chips-again/

On 2023/03/12 at 9:06 PM, NoNoodles said:

Hey Guys,

I bought solar assistant this week and just cannot get it to run. I've tried on 3 different pi's, re-downloaded and re-flashed about 10 times. I can connect to the wifi, but I cannot get their page on the wifi setup, and it comes up with another local IP in my dashboard if I plug it into my LAN. I can see the pi if I scan the network while its on LAN, but the IP just times out when I try to connect to it.

I assume they put some file on your build to identify the install as yours, am wondering if there was an issue there.

I mailed info@ with my issues twice and have not had any response. I also tried calling them but the phone is off. Has anyone else had an issue like this? I thought from the forums here that they were quite snappy and its supposed to be simple.

Thanks

 

Yea there support is quite terrible.

I can't get an answer to an Felicity inverter to SA connection. They keep sending me the battery cable pinouts. So sad because it looks like a product that can go places. But not with terrible support.