Dan, you hit the nail on the head when you said that Optics requires a robust internet connection. Most of my systems on OpticsRE (19) have been changed from WiFi at some point. Using a WiFi extender just seems to add another failure point. I have had to manually reboot the wireless setups many times. My own system at home, using the AXS port finally works consistently after I broke down and cleared the trap door to my crawl space under the living room and snaked the cat 5 cable 50’ to my power room from the satellite router. Otherwise, I think it is a great system now that lots of bugs have been worked out of the system during the last year or so.
John Blittersdorf Sent from my iPhone > On Mar 16, 2018, at 10:43 PM, Dan Fink <[email protected]> wrote: > > Esteemed Wrenches; > > We recently installed OpticsRE monitoring for an existing off-grid site in > Southern Colorado. It is 24v battery bank, 2.2kW PV, 2 Outback Flexmax 60 > controllers, nice old Trace SW inverter, and new wind turbine + controller to > replace a failed Whisper 200 with worn out furl and yaw bushings. > > We installed a FlexMaxDC shunt monitor into the Outback Hub, with the old > TriMetric shunt set as "inverter" and a new wind turbine shunt set as "wind" > > We removed the existing Bogart TriMetric and replaced it with the Mate 3s and > , everything is working fine for remote monitoring. But because the Mate > can't talk to the Trace inverter, it appears the PV input is subtracting from > the inverter output on that shunt. Thinking that moving the PV input to the > other side of the shunt will fix that, as the charge controllers are talking > to OpticsRE just fine. > > Questions: > > When the gasoline generator starts from low SOC (from the Trace SW relay) > will the FlexMaxDC Shunt A show a positive charging gain from the generator > or does FlexmaxDC only show one way (load or charge)? I don't see any way of > separating inverter load vs. generator gain. We will test this next month > down there, but it's 5 hours away, we just want to be prepared. > > Is there any way to graph the FlexMaxDC shunts on the main online dashboard? > They seem like a neglected child, only accessible by clicking multiple menus, > and just downloading data to a spreadsheet. The idea was to show the client > on a real-time graph how much the wind turbine is contributing versus PV. > > For that main dashboard, we realize that without an Outback inverter/charger, > the graph will never show gasoline "generator" but if it showed inverter > loads as a gain, that would be enough. > > Still getting our heads wrapped around OpticsRE, but the setup and > commissioning was very easy, and it does work, after running a bunch of CAT5 > hardwired; Concrete/Adobe structure filled with remesh blocked all efforts > for wifi, The wifi router is located in the solar thermal room downstairs > (the ReSol monitoring works great on the thermal) and barely a whiff of it > upstairs at the electrical control room....OpticsRE seems to need a pretty > robust internet connection. > > Any thoughts appreciated, this is our first OpticsRE install. > > > > > Dan Fink > Professor of Solar Energy Technology, Ecotech Institute > IREC Certified Instructor™ for: > ~ PV Installation Professional > ~ Small Wind Installer > Executive Director, Buckville Energy > NABCEP Registered Continuing Education Providers™ > 970.672.4342 > > > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > List Address: [email protected] > > Change listserver email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List-Archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html > > List rules & etiquette: > www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out or update participant bios: > www.members.re-wrenches.org >
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