January 30Jan 30 Good morningThere are 4 x 5kW SHOTO SDA10 batteriesBattery 1 is connected to its RS485A port via a Shoto/Rentech LAN cable that was purchased in March 2025. Batteries 2, 3, 4 are connected from RS485B on battery 1 in a chain. All LAN cables test okThis what is visibile on the configuration page Tapping Disconnect has no reactionThe other measurements: Solar PV, Load are correctAny suggestions about how to get this working?
January 30Jan 30 2 hours ago, chrisc said:Shoto/Rentech LAN cable@chrisc , Please verify that this cable is actually a RS485 to USB cable, and not just a "LAN" cable.If so, I would suspect you need to connect to the batteries "COM" port (normally RS232), and use the Shoto Battery Tool SW to enable RS485 comms. (Assuming your Shoto has a separate RS485 port)This is the reason why when selecting Batteries for a solar system, one needs to ensure that the BMS supports all these ports. Typically, it should have 5 ports nl. CAN, RS485, RS232 and 2 x RS485 (A & B or In & Out)
February 2Feb 2 Author The Shoto LAN/USB cable was one purchased from the SA shop for R499. It has a RJ45 on one end and USB on the other. Judging from the size of the USB plug, I suspect there is a small circuit board withinThe instructions state it is attached to the port labelled RS485/RS232 and not the CAN port on the battery / batteriesI am getting another Raspberry Pi in case this one is faulty
February 3Feb 3 7 hours ago, abd7 said:Check the dip switches are set correctly on the batterieshttps://solar-assistant.io/help/battery/seplos-bms
February 3Feb 3 Hence my comment about getting batteries with multiple RS485 ports, like the PACE BMS based batteries and others.Then you can run CAN for Inverter Comms & RS485 for Battery Comms to SA or HA. Edited February 3Feb 3 by Sidewinder
February 3Feb 3 Author Well, I cannot afford to buy another 4 batteriesWhat would help is an answer from Solar Assistant. 4 emails to SA over a month and not one replyI purchased a new RP, 64Gb SD card and set it up againHowever, nothing is reporting so its useless. The only response I get is if I want to buy a new licence, but the licence is perpetual (or has that changed?)
February 3Feb 3 @chrisc ,I feel for you. SA won't answer, as the info is posted on their www.If you really need the battery data (you should...specially if you are a bit OCD like me), maybe try to run the SS's in Voltage mode, and then you have access to the battery data via RS485. Then you might just discover things you would never see in SA.Be warned that SA's battery data available is fairly limited i.e. no individual cell data, balancing info, Temps (yes, some batteries have up to 6 temp probes), SOH, etc, etc. (from what I know using SA a few years ago, this may have changed) See below what I capture from my BSL's. I've moved on/over to HA for this very reason. Yes, SA have improved a lot of items over the years, but the flexibility of HA makes it a gamechanger for me. If I don't like a screen view/layout, I change it to suit. Having real-time info from the SS's also a plus for me.
February 4Feb 4 On 2026/01/30 at 8:05 AM, chrisc said:Good morningThere are 4 x 5kW SHOTO SDA10 batteriesBattery 1 is connected to its RS485A port via a Shoto/Rentech LAN cable that was purchased in March 2025. Batteries 2, 3, 4 are connected from RS485B on battery 1 in a chain. All LAN cables test okThis what is visibile on the configuration page Tapping Disconnect has no reactionThe other measurements: Solar PV, Load are correctAny suggestions about how to get this working?Looking at your screenshot again, under connections its showing “No matching devices found”, it seems like its not detecting the cable is plugged into the Pi.If you press Disconnect, what options do you see in the “Connections” field? You should see some options if it’s detected the cable and you would need to select the cable then hit “Save” and “Connect”.You would need to have done the same for the Inverter cable. See my pic for the inverter connections you would need to select the cable
February 4Feb 4 Author I must admit that I am flummoxed with thisA new Pi 3 and SD card was purchased, the software loaded and local access arranged.The site was given a new name and registered, but if I choose Activate, nothing seems to happen. Is this the problem for not seeing any data at all?and, when choosing "Invite User", the screen does not changeIf you can pinpoint what step I have missed, that will assistThank you
February 4Feb 4 5 hours ago, chrisc said:I must admit that I am flummoxed with thisA new Pi 3 and SD card was purchased, the software loaded and local access arranged.The site was given a new name and registered, but if I choose Activate, nothing seems to happen. Is this the problem for not seeing any data at all?and, when choosing "Invite User", the screen does not changeIf you can pinpoint what step I have missed, that will assistThank youIf you purchased SA prior to their new License Model, you can't transfer the license yourself from one device to another. SA Support will need to do this for you - I had to request it a few times when my first Pi got fried, then I had a faulty Pi and then eventually got the one I am using now.I am surprised by the no response from them as every time I emailed I got a response at the latest the following day, wonder if your emails are getting through to them?Secondary option just get to this Pi working - Activate with a trial license for now it gives you 30 days I think.
February 4Feb 4 Author I think I must have 3 faulty PisThe first one lasted 11 monthsThe second I got last week. It appeared to load the OS ok but won't read anythingThe third I got this morning, and a new 16Gb SD card. It loaded the OS and if I look on the list of devices connected via LAN, it shows 192.168.0.88But SA. when running the command https://solar-assistant.io/sites/local shows me the address of the previous Pi, 192.168.0.157 and I cannot get any further, so am a bit stuckIs there a way to remove the prior IP addresses from SA's screen?
February 4Feb 4 2 hours ago, chrisc said:The third I got this morning, and a new 16Gb SD cardI recently loaded Home Assistant onto a Pi. It didn't go well at first. Then I read the fine manual. HA are saying to not use any old SD card. Us an A2 (Application Class 2) card. These, as I understand it, are better at dealing with high volumes of small reads and writes - more like a disc drive. The regular SD cards are good for media - moves more data but less actual reads/writes.
February 4Feb 4 6 hours ago, chrisc said:I think I must have 3 faulty PisThe first one lasted 11 monthsThe second I got last week. It appeared to load the OS ok but won't read anythingThe third I got this morning, and a new 16Gb SD card. It loaded the OS and if I look on the list of devices connected via LAN, it shows 192.168.0.88But SA. when running the command https://solar-assistant.io/sites/local shows me the address of the previous Pi, 192.168.0.157 and I cannot get any further, so am a bit stuckIs there a way to remove the prior IP addresses from SA's screen?Try this: https://192.168.0.88/sites/local or just https://192.168.0.88
February 4Feb 4 Author I did that. The message is "192.168.0.88 refused to connect" for both addresses (ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED)
February 5Feb 5 Author I have decided not to bother any moreToo many hours wasted and money spent on things that do not work
February 6Feb 6 15 hours ago, chrisc said:I have decided not to bother any moreToo many hours wasted and money spent on things that do not workChris, that is a shame, cos SA really is a great system and one that works exceptionally well for a lot of users.I am surprised you have had bad comms luck with them. TBH, any email I have sent through has usually been answered within a day.MdF Edited February 7Feb 7 by MdF
February 6Feb 6 22 hours ago, chrisc said:I have decided not to bother any moreToo many hours wasted and money spent on things that do not workNoooo, lets put a little more focus on this I think its almost there and you will absolutely love it.Start from scratch but this time follow the method of not using WIFI or Ethernet to get started...so you connect directly to the Pi via the SA SSID it broadcasts, then once you in we can get it setup and then connect it to your WIFI as a start and then figure out the LAN afterwards.https://solar-assistant.io/help/getting-started/start-device-wifi#start > this method... Edited February 6Feb 6 by Carl Anthony Added link
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