Hi,

First I would like to thank Henry for all his hard work. If I hadn't found his website I probably would have never reconsidered using the Suntie. It would be nice if HomePower did a follow-up to the Suntie vs. Sunnyboy comparison done over a year ago now that the bugs have been worked out of the product. (Or maybe I missed the article?) Almost everybody is buying Sunnyboy's w/o looking into the Suntie.

Anyway, on to my questions. I live in MN and because of a rebate program that just went into effect, I am planning on installing a 4kW solar electric, grid-intertie system. (2) Sunties or (2) Sunnyboys.

While shopping on-line I ran into a rather good deal on Kyocera 158 panels. These panels produce a max. voltage of 23.2v. (Made for string inverters) Multiply them out by 3 and you get a value of 69.6v which is in spec for the Suntie.

I have been told though that these panels may be a problem for off-peak times or when sky conditions aren't so good. The combined voltage of 3 panels may drop down too low to fire-up the Suntie. Any opinions???

Secondly, I have been trying to find (here on this web site) information regarding pulling statistics off of the Suntie via a RS-232 connection. I plan to put the inverters quite a distance from the house (100') and I would like to know if there is any way to hard-wire the RS-232 connection.

I would like to save the data to a .txt file and have my website read the data via a Flash actionscript application. I have the software expertise to do this, but I'm not sure how to hard-wire the Suntie(s) to my computer.

Thanks for the help,

Alan

Hi Alan,

I am very happy to hear you are considering the Suntie. The KC-158's will work just fine , who ever is telling you they won't doesn't know solar basics

The KC-158 SPEC

VOC = 28.9
VMP = 23.2 (This is what the inverter tracks to and is called mppt)

Three in a string

VOC = 86.7
VMP = 69.9

Compare this to the KC-120-1

VOC = 21.5
VMP = 16.9

Four in a string

VOC = 86
VMP = 67.6

As you can clearly see , there very similar in values

As far as monitoring , you will only need to purchase an opto-isolator for each inverter and use FishBowl !. The Opto should be at the inverter so the long RS-232 runs don't get noise from the Switchers , you can go about 1000 ft. This way.

FishBowl is Free , has all the features you are looking for and more !. I am currently beta testing version 1.4 that has a neat feature for having live web data. Take a look at the Main solar-guppy page and click on the link for live data on my systems

All the Beta Tester systems from a year ago are still running strong and the New Suntie is a very solid performer , you will be pleased with its features and performance

If I can answer any other questions , please feel free to post any questions you might have

Henry

Thanks Henry,

If the opto-isolator is attached to the Suntie, how do you hardwire from the opto-isolator to the PC if the distance is 100'?

Sorry for being dumb here, but I'm having a hard time visualizing the complete run from the inverter to a PC that's quite a distance away.

The second part of this has to do with your software...is it capable of monitoring two Sunties simultaneously?

~Alan~

Hi Alan,

The Suntie db9 connections is just two wires , pin #2 (transmit data) and pin #5 (pv minus) which go to the receive data and ground connection on one side of the opto , other side of the opto , which is electrically isolated transmits the data and ground , now referenced to the PC’s ground (two wires again) into the db9 of a PC. See the FishBowl Manual , it should answer your questions. The Opto is powered from a wall wart.

You can get the db9 connectors and shells for about a buck per connector online and just use stock cat5 wire and route it anyway you physically choose

To monitor more than one inverter , you just run more than one instance of FishBowl (this means you have two directories each with a copy of FishBowl program and there own .ini file , so each running FishBowl program monitors a different comm. port)

Look thru the Manual and also read thru the other FishBowl post for the opto and such and it should help

You can Download FishBowl and run it , of course you won't any data , but it will show you what it looks like and its options and setting

Don’t sweat it if you don’t “get itâ€￾ right now … it works and my live web on my dual systems are built this exact way

Henry

Hi Henry,

I get it now -- twisted pair between the halves of the opto isolator. I've got plenty of cat 5 cable!

Thanks!

I think he means
Suntie |wire| opto |wire| your PC.

This is a typical method for isolating communications, not to be confused with
Suntie |wire| opto | fiber optic cable | opto |wire| your PC.

Although the RS-232 specification limits the cable length to 50 feet, there are tricks to extending it...

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by AJ:
Hi Henry,

I get it now -- twisted pair between the halves of the opto isolator. I've got plenty of cat 5 cable!

Thanks!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[ 01-26-2004: Message edited by: Glenn Burt ]