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| Xantrex: 9-pin D connector? http://solar-guppy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=23 |
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| Author: | wpns [ Fri May 02, 2003 7:58 pm GMT EndGMT ] |
| Post subject: | Xantrex: 9-pin D connector? |
There's a note in the manual not to connect to the 9-pin D connector on the STXR boxes, does anyone know if it's a serial port (maybe without level shifters?) or just a handy 9-pin connector for analog voltages? I'm looking for as many as four grid-tie inverters, but the serial interface on the SunnyBoy really makes me lean towards those units, unless there's an easy way to log data from the STXR... Thanks! |
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| Author: | Mark Lopez [ Fri May 02, 2003 9:15 pm GMT EndGMT ] |
| Post subject: | 9-pin D connector? |
See this thread http://www.solar-guppy.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgibb?ubb=get_topic&f=9&t=000011 and read some of the FishBowl threads below. [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img] |
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| Author: | wpns [ Fri May 02, 2003 9:21 pm GMT EndGMT ] |
| Post subject: | 9-pin D connector? |
Doh. Poked around some more and noticed the "Fishbowl" threads. Sounds much better! Do the inverters continually output a stream of data, or do they have to be queried? Thanks! |
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| Author: | Mark Lopez [ Fri May 02, 2003 9:35 pm GMT EndGMT ] |
| Post subject: | 9-pin D connector? |
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by William P N Smith: Do the inverters continually output a stream of data, or do they have to be queried? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Constant stream. |
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| Author: | Solar Guppy [ Sat May 03, 2003 12:34 am GMT ErdGMT ] |
| Post subject: | 9-pin D connector? |
You get pretty much the same data on the Suntie with FishBowl and you would polling the Sunnyboys. If your looking into a 4 inverter system I would guess your talking lots of panels and as you can see from other posters , the new suntie is an ideal canidate in the large system installs. The only thing you MUST do is use an opto-isolator for each Suntie. I can't stress the importance of this enough !! You can log 4 inverters off of one PC with FishBowl version 1.2 , and when I get 1.3 released , you can do 8 ... with more options You won't regret selecting the new suntie , its a true work horse. In large systems , it WILL out perform the sunnyboy due to better thermals and TRUE 2500 watt performance |
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| Author: | wpns [ Sat May 03, 2003 9:24 am GMT ErdGMT ] |
| Post subject: | 9-pin D connector? |
Yeah, now that I know the data stream exists, it's a lot more useful, and I'm leaning towards the STXR again! A couple of related questions: Anyone know of a cheap, small, rugged PC that'll allow at least 4 serial ports, draw very little power, and run FishBowl for months at a time unattended? Ethernet would be good, as I _may_ be able to harvest the data remotely, and low power consumption is pretty important! How much data is output from the STXR in the course of a typical day? Is it Ascii, binary, or what? I'm guessing that 40K data records per day might add up pretty quickly... Anyone have a sample CSV file of a long period of FishBowl output that I could fiddle with? I wrote a 'decimation' program in Perl to read weather data that's sampled every 10 seconds and stored every 5 minutes. It outputs individual hourly, daily, daytime, nighttime, weekly, monthly, yearly, and global data files. It would be fairly straightforward to convert it to sort thru the STXR data stream, but I need a sample of that... Thanks! |
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| Author: | wpns [ Sat May 03, 2003 9:28 am GMT ErdGMT ] |
| Post subject: | 9-pin D connector? |
/* The only thing you MUST do is use an opto-isolator for each Suntie. I can't stress the importance of this enough !! */ I certainly understad that! One thought, if the connecting hardware hooked up to the remote meter port (which I gather supplies power, which could be used to power the opto-isolator!), then there would be much less temptation for people to use the DB9. The converter might even cover (or plug a dummy connector into) the DB9 to prevent it's use... |
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| Author: | Mark Lopez [ Sat May 03, 2003 9:50 am GMT ErdGMT ] |
| Post subject: | 9-pin D connector? |
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by William P N Smith: Anyone know of a cheap, small, rugged PC that'll allow at least 4 serial ports, draw very little power, and run FishBowl for months at a time unattended? Ethernet would be good, as I _may_ be able to harvest the data remotely, and low power consumption is pretty important!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Well, what do you consider cheap? The opto-isolators most of us are using are USB based, but cost about $90 or so each. With monitoring 4 ports, that can get pricey. I am using a laptop running Windows XP so that I can use remote desktop to monitor from anywhere. I have set all of the power settings real low so it doesn't draw much power and it has a small footprint. <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by William P N Smith: How much data is output from the STXR in the course of a typical day? Is it Ascii, binary, or what? I'm guessing that 40K data records per day might add up pretty quickly... <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> My current logs (for one inverter) are a little over 4MB (yes that's mega)per day. But that is because Fishbowl currently logs data once per second. I beleive Henry is working on a a version that has selectable sampling intervals that should cut the size down quite a bit. |
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| Author: | Mark Lopez [ Sat May 03, 2003 10:07 am GMT ErdGMT ] |
| Post subject: | 9-pin D connector? |
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by William P N Smith: One thought, if the connecting hardware hooked up to the remote meter port (which I gather supplies power, which could be used to power the opto-isolator!), then there would be much less temptation for people to use the DB9. The converter might even cover (or plug a dummy connector into) the DB9 to prevent it's use...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> The port on the Xantrex does not supply any power. The opto-isolator needs to get it's power from the computer or external supply. The USB isolator that I am using gets power from the USB port. However, I agree that it would have been nice if the inverter would have had isolation hardware in place already. |
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| Author: | wpns [ Sat May 03, 2003 10:58 am GMT ErdGMT ] |
| Post subject: | 9-pin D connector? |
/* Well, what do you consider cheap? The opto-isolators most of us are using are USB based, but cost about $90 or so each. With monitoring 4 ports, that can get pricey. */ Well, less than the cost of four of the Remote Meter would be a good start, and those go for $180 or so each. /* I am using a laptop running Windows XP so that I can use remote desktop to monitor from anywhere. I have set all of the power settings real low so it doesn't draw much power and it has a small footprint. */ I'm looking for something I can bolt to the wall next to the inverters and walk away from for several months at a time. Keeping a PC running 24x7 isn't always that easy, nor is it particularly low-power... |
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