HI All,

I recently decided to bite the proverbial bullet and invest in some solar equipment in a attempt to at least start to gain some independence from this power situation that we find ourselves in.

After some research and maybe foolishly believing that I somewhat understand what the hell is going on I went out and got the following and had is installed.

My system consists  of the following:

Mercer Infini Solar Super 4KVa  

12 * 290W PV panels

2 * 3.5 KWh Pylontech batteries

Raspberry Pi with CCI and Pylontech cables

 

Initial setup before I was able to get my hands on the batteries was to run the system as a Grid tie. All have been working pretty neatly however where my solar story starts to get a little off track is I have been battling to get either laptop or Pi to connect to the inverter. I have downloaded more versions of watchpower than I care to remember. I have changed every imaginable power setting , USB root hub driver I could read up about. I have tried 2 Windows 10 laptops/ old windows xp mashine and a MacBook and I'm still no closer to getting any info either via the USB cable or a RS232 cable that I also got. In an attempt to get the issue isolated I have tested the cable (seems to work just fine on my printer) . I also had the installer come and check the inverter and that connects just fine with his windows 7 machine. The closest I think I got was via the RS232 cable that I could pick up the com port in watchpower ( checked all the different baud rates and and and) but still under the pc in the left window it doesn't show the port or receive any data.

I'm basically ready to get the batteries online as soon as I'm able to connect to the inverter and do the setting changes required to move it from grid tie to grid tie with battery backup as well as do the basic battery setup.

 

Has anyone come across this yet ? I have searched wide and it seems that there is a whole bunch of knowledge on this forum.

 

Thanks

Joggie

@Joggie,

Morning and welcome to the forum.

Nice setup you have, almost similar to mine.

I would advise to skip the Watchpower...I never even installed it on a PC, and focus to  get ICC up and running. You will not be sorry.

Do the basic Infini setup from the LCD panel, Battery voltages and operational settings, etc.... 

Once you have inverter running, (which you have), simply connect and older USB (the one with the square connector) cables between the infini and Pi. I suggest to install and get VNC running on the Pi and your PC. Connect the Pi to your local home internet or Wifi (cable preferred, but Wifi will also do if you have a Pi 3B+). Setup the newish VNC cloudconnect service, then you don't need to worry about static IP's and Port forwarding. It just connect's from any device, anywhere in the world, specially from a phone.

Hope this helps!

Hi Sidewinder,

I got the Pi up and running to an extent. I was able to get it connected to my home Wifi (all be it not the best connection, drops every now and again) I was able to set up and get VNC running and I'm able to connect to the Pi without any issues. What I'm not getting right is the Pi being able to see and read data from the inverter. 

Is it a matter of I have to first set up the inverter first to to grid tie 3 (I think) then do the charge settings via the lcd panel before the pi would read it ? I'm thinking it should at least pick up the PV watts in ? 

Not sure what you mean by the "older square USB connector" Are you just referring to the square end that plugs into the inverter ?

Thanks for the help.

 

 

Yes, the square end plugs into the inverter, so the regular rectangular one into the pi.

ICC should pick up inverter immediately, and is not dependant to inverter settings, The inv. spews out data all the time. 

I have found a few times where ICC data does not show, then all that is needed is a disconnect @ inverter i.e. pull cable out and reseat a few seconds later.

Also assuming you have activated the ICC license (temp or permanent).

5 hours ago, Joggie said:

I have downloaded more versions of watchpower than I care to remember.

Um, the Infinis need SolarPower, not WatchPower.

5 hours ago, Joggie said:

what you mean by the "older square USB connector"

I assume he means the type B USB connector, like you typically find on a printer, as opposed to the type A connector, which typically plugs into your PC [ edit: or your Pi. ] .

Edited April 10, 20197 yr by Coulomb

Mmmm. I got like 5 different CD in the inverter box with software. I'll try to uninstall everything and look for a SolarPower one thanks.

OK . Cool I have two type B USB connector cables both working. I'll try disconnecting and reconnecting from the inverter end. 

Willing to almost try anything at this point. Considering reloading the old laptop from scratch with windows 7 or 8

 

Edited April 10, 20197 yr by Joggie
Edit to add

Try: SolarPower V1.09SP2  see:  https://www.dropbox.com/s/w94i4bwkte51rem/SolarPower_1.09SP2_Windows.zip?dl=0

I used this link to send it to another forumite

3 hours ago, Mark said:

Try: SolarPower V1.09SP2  see:  https://www.dropbox.com/s/w94i4bwkte51rem/SolarPower_1.09SP2_Windows.zip?dl=0

I used this link to send it to another forumite

Thanks a mil... uninstalled everything installed this and as if by magic it all works beautifully now..

 

Now to try the Pi and get that running.

OK so looking at ICC I have noticed a few things. 

1. on the info logs I get a date time then "resetting 001 087" 001 looks like the usb port

2. I also see on the inverter &mqtt settings that usb is selected / serial rs232 there is something in but it's disabled and my inverter selection is axpert 5kva but it's disabled and I cannot change to infini super 4.

3. on the Theads info I see everything running but PV and battery is blank(Battery I understand I haven't switched that on yet). The return string is "0" if I unplug the usb I see : ''rror receiving data"

 

OK... finally got it.

I had to stop the services from running , then did the changes to the port , could also then select the correct inverter.

Then save changes.

Rebooted the whole lot.

Started the services 

Got data !!

Now to finalise the config and settings for t he batteries and see if I can get the lot started up.

 

Thanks !