HowardB Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 Me again... Ok, so everything hooked up, powered on and running well - installed WatchPower from the CD, hooked up the Axpert (green/black 5000VA/5000W model with parallel card - I initially thought it was the 4000W model...) via USB to my laptop, but could not change any settings via the software. After reviewing the settings and making the changes via the inverter control panel functions, the Pylons are charging - went with the following settings (no PV yet, so utility only): (26) CV Bulk Charging @ 53.8v (27) Floati Charge @ 53.2v Max Charge Current @ 30A all round So, after fiddling with the login password, I finally got in as the administrator and WatchPower was reflecting the inverter's status and charging status. Now here are a few issues with this software I cannot seem to fathom: The inverter is only connected to the laptop via USB - I cannot see any way of using the serial connection cable, as the laptop does not have a serial port (neither does my desktop PC) When changing settings in WatchPower, most kick out an error/failed when hitting the Apply button? Although, after disconnecting the USB and connecting it again, the values do in fact seem to be updated to what I had input... According to the manual, you can change the Device Name, however this does not change no matter what I try. The Data, Event Log and Fault Data Log do not reflect any logged data at all - I see that there are numerous listed devices, but not my current connected device? Even after scrolling down the list If I input the date range from 1 Jan 2018 to 17 Feb 2019, it returns some data from only one of the "historic" devices, dating back to Feb 2018!? The sealed box the Axpert came in shows a manufacture date of Jan 2019 though??? So are these "historic" devices just in the software image install? I've tried deleting all the data on the device name, but there is an error message "failed". How do I then remove them? Finally, how do I get WatchPower to reflect and log the details/status of my device? I also bought a remote display unit for the inverter, which is connected to the inverter using the supplied RJ45 cable and dry contact cable. Per the inverter and remote manual (which is not the best when it comes to details), it should be plug and play, however, if the inverter is connected to the laptop via USB, then the remote unit thows a fault (20) - whatever that means, as there is no reference to this in the remote unit's manual - there is no fault on the inverter though. If the USB is then unplugged from the laptop, the fault goes away and the remote unit works as intended. My question is then "how do I use the remote unit AND have the USB connected to the laptop, so it can log the data in WatchPower?" Maybe I'm missing something very simple...other than using the serial cable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coulomb Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 (edited) 31 minutes ago, HowardB said: Maybe I'm missing something very simple...other than using the serial cable. I believe that you have to connect the PC to the helpfully labelled "COM OUT" port on the remote box, via the RS232 to RJ-45 cable that comes with the inverter. You need a USB to serial adapter for the 99.9% of computers that have no serial port. You have to supply the USB to serial adapter. "COM IN" of the remote box connects to the serial (RJ-45, not the correct connector) port of the inverter, but you must have that right if it works at all. Using the USB port of the inverter and the COM port of the inverter at the same time is bad; they both are connected to the same serial port of the DSP, so they will interfere with each other. The remote box seems to "intercept" the serial data stream to display values, and it must send commands to the inverter to change settings, etc. Edit: the USB to serial adapter will look something like the below. So the PC will talk to the inverter via this chain of cables and devices: PC <--> USB-to-serial-adapter <--> D9-to-RJ45-cable <--> remote-box <--> long-RJ-45-to-RJ-45-cable <--> inverter Edited March 17, 2019 by Coulomb Added image and last three lines of text. HowardB 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HowardB Posted March 17, 2019 Author Share Posted March 17, 2019 (edited) Great, many thanks Coulomb - have ordered the adapter so long. Thought I might have one lying in a box of PC spares, but no luck... Edited March 17, 2019 by HowardB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Louw Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 2 minutes ago, Coulomb said: I believe that you have to connect the PC to the helpfully labelled "COM OUT" port on the remote box, via the RS232 to RJ-45 cable that comes with the inverter. You need a USB to serial adapter for the 99.9% of computers that have no serial port. You have to supply the USB to serial adapter. "COM IN" of the remote box connects to the serial (RJ-45, not the correct connector) port of the inverter, but you must have that right if it works at all. Using the USB port of the inverter and the COM port of the inverter at the same time is bad; they both are connected to the same serial port of the DSP, so they will interfere with each other. The remote box seems to "intercept" the serial data stream to display values, and it must send commands to the inverter to change settings, etc. The USB and Com port does not work together at all . Fault 20 . I use the Com port with serial connection on old PC to use watchpower . The USB cable is problematic looses connection a lot . The remote was connected to a 4000 watt before I bought the 5000 watt . The remote displayed a lot more info with the 4000 watt , a lot of info missing when used on the 5000 watt . Is it the firmware U3 01-03 . ??? HowardB 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HowardB Posted March 17, 2019 Author Share Posted March 17, 2019 1 hour ago, Chris Louw said: The USB and Com port does not work together at all . Fault 20 . I use the Com port with serial connection on old PC to use watchpower . The USB cable is problematic looses connection a lot . The remote was connected to a 4000 watt before I bought the 5000 watt . The remote displayed a lot more info with the 4000 watt , a lot of info missing when used on the 5000 watt . Is it the firmware U3 01-03 . ??? Yes, same version from what I can see. Will try again when the adapter cable arrives. USB disconnected for now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arandoza Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 If you are looking at monitoring your a axpert maybe have a look at this. http://iccsoftware.co.za/ it’s locally grown georgelza 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HowardB Posted March 17, 2019 Author Share Posted March 17, 2019 9 minutes ago, Arandoza said: If you are looking at monitoring your a axpert maybe have a look at this. http://iccsoftware.co.za/ it’s locally grown Thanks Arandoza - will take a look at this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HowardB Posted March 19, 2019 Author Share Posted March 19, 2019 On 2019/03/17 at 3:34 PM, Arandoza said: If you are looking at monitoring your a axpert maybe have a look at this. http://iccsoftware.co.za/ it’s locally grown Just ordered the full kit from Riaan! Riaanh 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
georgelza Posted March 22, 2019 Share Posted March 22, 2019 quick question, my circuit breakers are 20amp on all my plugs circuits... multiple plugs consolidated onto a circuit. Thinking, with the Sonof... being only 10Amp... I should place them at the plug point, inside the plug box, 1 sonof, 1 plug, that way i can manage/monitor, switch on/off a single plug/appliance ? Currently have a Rpi with SCT-013 current sensors at the DB, around the outgoing/load side of the breakers. each circuit breaker/20 amp got a single 20amp sct-013 hall effect, all data being fed into OpenEnergyMonitor. So this ICC offering might fit in nicely in that i can get per appliance data and also manage the appliances on time schedules and battery load/reserves. Comment. G Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HowardB Posted March 30, 2019 Author Share Posted March 30, 2019 Just an update - Serial/USB arrived and it seems WatchPower can only connect/monitor the Axpert device if there is a direct connection using the Serial-to-USB cable; if connected via the remote display unit on the COM Out, the Axpert cannot be seen by the software... the remote display unit has the COM Out with an ON/OFF switch next to it - whether the switch is on or off makes no difference. Oh well, canned that idea and will return the serial/USB cable and will try the ICC/PI that arrived yesterday. Only issue now is I cannot log into the PI to remote view/monitor via VNC Viewer - the default user/pwd does not work (pi/raspberry), so I'm stuck until I have a response from ICC. Added my setup woes to the ICC thread here. Does everyone have these types of issues when setting up, or am I doing something fundamentally wrong? Granted, I've never used monitoring software, a PI or VNC, but after reading various threads it seems like it should be a very easy process... not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HowardB Posted March 31, 2019 Author Share Posted March 31, 2019 OK, so ICC up and running after 5hrs of strife today. I had to disconnect my Axpert remote unit as it will not work properly with the USB plugged into the Pi for the Axpert monitoring - kind of beats the object of providing a remote unit if the rs232 and USB on the Axpert can't work together at the same time... Real VNC Viewer (on both my Windows 7 and 10 x64 desktop and laptop) would not keep the connection to the Pi, no matter what I tried. Kept dropping and trying to reconnect every 30-60 seconds, wifi signal throughout the house is 90%+ using repeaters, so the network is not seemingly the issue, nor congested. The android app version on both my phone and tablet work perfectly though, no dropping at all... I guess the windows version is buggy or plain rubbish? The ICC software is really good, so many settings at a glance. The Pylons are now showing the correct battery details/reporting and it's fairly easy to use. Still have some reading an learning to do before going to the next stage of adding some PV panels. francois 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
francois Posted April 1, 2019 Share Posted April 1, 2019 23 hours ago, HowardB said: OK, so ICC up and running after 5hrs of strife today. I had to disconnect my Axpert remote unit as it will not work properly with the USB plugged into the Pi for the Axpert monitoring - kind of beats the object of providing a remote unit if the rs232 and USB on the Axpert can't work together at the same time... Real VNC Viewer (on both my Windows 7 and 10 x64 desktop and laptop) would not keep the connection to the Pi, no matter what I tried. Kept dropping and trying to reconnect every 30-60 seconds, wifi signal throughout the house is 90%+ using repeaters, so the network is not seemingly the issue, nor congested. The android app version on both my phone and tablet work perfectly though, no dropping at all... I guess the windows version is buggy or plain rubbish? The ICC software is really good, so many settings at a glance. The Pylons are now showing the correct battery details/reporting and it's fairly easy to use. Still have some reading an learning to do before going to the next stage of adding some PV panels. Nice Howard, glad you are able to monitor the system now and get some useful info on everything. HowardB 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HowardB Posted April 2, 2019 Author Share Posted April 2, 2019 19 hours ago, francois said: Nice Howard, glad you are able to monitor the system now and get some useful info on everything. Thanks Francois. The real-time stats are great; nice to see where the peaks and loads are. I ran some basic Sonoff POW rev2 power consumption meters from various plug points in the house to establish what loads I was using and what critical loads needed to be run on the inverter setup - the ICC stats are so much more accurate and provide a much better overview. Really happy this is now sorted. Just need to figure a way on incorporating the remote unit again as where the Axpert is located is not the ideal LCD viewing location... The remote unit I got with the Axpert MKS-5K (green/black model) is like this one (noting the disclaimer that: WILL GIVE INCORRECT READINGS ON THE NEW VMII and PF1 and above models; please only use for the original KS/MKS models) - mine is the MKS unit, so should theoretically work fine - I suppose it does, until the USB is plugged in between the inverter and the PI, but if the USB is not used the remote unit doesn't seem to allow "pass-through" with the RS232 cable to the PI. I also tried Coulomb's "Pi<--> USB-to-serial-adapter <--> D9-to-RJ45-cable <--> (OUT)remote-box(IN) <--> long-RJ-45-to-RJ-45-cable <--> Inverter" connection guidance as the base, but the "COM OUT" on the remote unit does not seem to do anything and the Pi does not read the inverter... However I see there is another similar version of the remote unit, but at twice the price - I wonder if the one I got with the Axpert is not necessarily the correct one, or maybe it's for a different Axpert setup. I see there is also something called a "ModBus Box" which says it provides the Axpert or Infinisolar inverters with the functionality for communication with PCs through MODBUS protocol - RS485 and RS232. Would this possibly work? Will try and read further on this... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
francois Posted April 2, 2019 Share Posted April 2, 2019 Hi Howard, Unfortunately I know nothing about the Axperts and remote units. Sorry. Let us know how you get on. HowardB 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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