RE: Re: Solar PV ?

[Marcus Warrington <marcus.warrington@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Peter,

After my installer has been talking to the SMA support guys, it transpires
=
that the RS485 card only works with their webbox (=A3350!) and not with
the=
ir Sunny Explorer software. I'm not convinced that's necessarily true but
p=
robably safe to say it certainly wouldn't be the "plug and play"
solution I=
'd envisaged.

Anyway, given this new piece of information I'm back to having to make do
w=
ith Bluetooth like yourself. My server is probably only about 7M away from
=
where the inverter will be so I'm pretty confident I would be abler to get
=
away with using a simple passive USB/Cat5 extender to get the receiver
into=
the same cellar as the inverter (i.e. within line of sight).

When you say that Sunny Explorer is "flakey" what do you mean ?
Does it cra=
sh or just loose connection, if it crashes then that's probably easier to
a=
utomate a solution for.

Marcus

From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of P=
eter + Jane
Sent: 13 July 2011 14:46
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Re: Solar PV ?



Marcus

FYI I played with USB to cat 5 baluns + bluetooth
dongle. Worked, but dropped out occasionally. I
now use 2 x 10m plus 1 x 5m active USB cables
plus a dongle. Cost =A325 total. Stable and works
with Sunny Explorer software, which itself is a
bit flakey. CSV files downloadable so still ok!

Yes I did get a deal on Sanyo. Shape of my
available roof was perfect for them, so no
brainer (as long as they last!) Not proven technology.

Rgds
Peter

At 11:36 13/07/2011, you wrote:

>Intersting you mention the Bluetooth, as I was a
>little concerened about coverage because it
>would be below ground level rather than at a
>high point. I was planning on using a cheap BT
>dongle to gather statistics from the inverter on
>the house server, but maybe I'll invest in the
>optional RS485 card for the inverter and use a cable instead.
>
>
>I looked at Sanyo HIPS but again, for me, they
>cost more (added about an extra =A32K to the
>quote!) than they'd return. I think if you've
>limited roof space ,or you get them cheap, they make more sense.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



------------------------------------

<*> Join the Automated Home Forums
http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/vbulletin/