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Solar assistant is good stuff. As an FYI, if you connnect to the smart shunt for overall battery power monitoring, you cannot connect directly to the batteries at the same time. I think thats an oversight on SA's part, because I want to see an overall view, but then be able to drill down into each battery for the Cell info. SA told me they do not have plans to enable that feature, which sucks.
I couldn’t but smile watching this! It was fun to see your excitement! And also interesting what you did! I am about to order the solar assistant and looking for inspiration which way to go…
Hi Roll, I'm opening a showroom for solar installations in South Africa. I've been using solar assistant for a while on our installations and had the idea to incorporate a touch screen in the showroom. We use the orange pi 3 NTS too. Could you please offer some wisdom on how you got the touch screen to work?
Well, I built the same thing, mine's not as pretty as yours, but it works! EXCEPT! If you accidentally click on 'kiosk mode', how do you get out of that mode without rebooting the Solar Assistant...I can't seem to figure out how to do ESCAPE! lol Thanks for a great idea!
@@Roll2Videos Thank you for the reply. This issue is not really related to Solar Assistant, because you have a keyboard attached and can hit ESCAPE and the kiosk mode reverts back to standard. What I have not figured out is, when you only have a touchscreen available, how do you hit (emulate) ESCAPE?!! Maybe some others reading this thread might have ideas.. thanks!
It's relatively similar; This device will pretty much work across all platforms. I will continue making videos on it and see if anything stands out to me.
I like it. Wouldn't a $50 android tablet do about the same thing and easier to set up? Assuming this is all browser based that is... I guess you wouldn't have ports for peripherals though...
@@Roll2Videos Thank you for the answer. SA is already working on the computer for 6 months, so set up ??? I do not know. Or did you disable the password in "configuration" "general" "configure local acces" ? For the moment I connected the screen via hub and added a hardware keyboard. Was able to type the password and SA appeared on the touch screen. Only the pointer could be moved by touch, nothing else. And the SA screen did not refresh. Made a video and returned the screen to Alie.
Very nice solution for the Touchscreen location, I'm sure many people will be inspired. I hope they can figure out a way to make the Touchscreen run nonstop. I'd be interested in that: If multiple batteries are used, Smart Shunt is used to calculate the true SOC, so in Solar Assistant it selects Smart Shunt for this purpose and displays only the data from SmartShunt. And in this case, the BMS data of the other batteries will not be displayed in Solar Assistant, or am I wrong? Ideally, all possible data from each battery would be displayed as informative, just like the Smart Shunt data, but only the Smart Shunt data would be taken as the real SOC, is this possible in Solar Assistant? Thank you for the answer.
Yes, you are correct; the shut will be overall; I will also be able to look at each better separately. Or any batteries I have that will communicate with each other.
Yeah man that's pretty cool. Some people don't understand this as a hobby but I too am kinda addicted to this solar stuff. Seems the more products we get the more we want and I'm beginning to think this is gonna be a never ending thing us diy solar people have gotten ourselves into. Yes sir cool addition
@@Roll2Videos I too love it. It's like my wife is much happier with me spending money on this stuff than when I was spending so much on making my truck loud or buying things that go boom. Upgrades to the home always go over a little easier I'm my house lol
I can configure them the same, But if I didn't one would could stop taking a charge before the others, Same at the discharge and the system wouldn't even notice. The inverter is looking for voltage.
@@Roll2Videos ok good to know as the suppliers here in south africa says u cant mix battries on the same inverter and i cant find the same battery i currently have so i will need to add another brand one
@@Roll2Videos i have the battery on lead acid mode as its not pickup up with the network cable and bms so i have to input charge and floating voltage manually
except solar assistant dont have video output... only a webinterface acessed via bt or wifi unless you have the obscure orange pi thing instead of ordinarry pi3/4. kinda important thing you missed...
I can only use the touch function to move the curser, and scroll on the side. I cannot select any of the tabs or open any of the functions. is there a setting in on the pi that I need to change to enable these functions? If so, I don't know how to get into the orange pi LTS to change anything.
Is your display USB plugged into the PI? Or did you plug it into a separate power supply? That is strange, I never had to set anything to tap "click" items. Maybe the touch screen you have doesn't support tap 🤷
@@Roll2Videos It is plugged into the PI. FYI I have tried this touchscreen monitor in other configurations not involving an Orange PI LTS, and it worked just fine, so i don't think it is the monitor. I did send an email to Solar Assistant but have not received a reply. By the way, the software version that I am using is 2023-02-28. Which one are you using?
@@Roll2Videos I got it to work. The problem was that I was entering the wrong password That I had set up awhile ago. It was auto-filling, so I didn't have to remember it. I should have written it down. If you enter the wrong password. It doesn't tell you it was wrong. It just opens the Solar Assistant Dashboard tab and you see some things, but nothing is selectable with the touchscreen or even a mouse.
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That cabinet is awesome! The display is such a great addition. Nice work!
Thank you, Sir.
Solar assistant is good stuff. As an FYI, if you connnect to the smart shunt for overall battery power monitoring, you cannot connect directly to the batteries at the same time. I think thats an oversight on SA's part, because I want to see an overall view, but then be able to drill down into each battery for the Cell info. SA told me they do not have plans to enable that feature, which sucks.
I couldn’t but smile watching this! It was fun to see your excitement! And also interesting what you did! I am about to order the solar assistant and looking for inspiration which way to go…
I really like the solar assistant. I found it to be incredibly easy to set up and use. All the best on your solar journey
Looks very slick! Awesome idea to have it all integrated into the cabinet!
Thanks
Totally sick setup nice job man
Thank you very much 😁
Hi Roll, I'm opening a showroom for solar installations in South Africa. I've been using solar assistant for a while on our installations and had the idea to incorporate a touch screen in the showroom. We use the orange pi 3 NTS too. Could you please offer some wisdom on how you got the touch screen to work?
Plug it in.
totally jealous of the rack, I wish I had the room for something like that.
You like my rack eh? Lol
thanks a lot for a great video! Can i connect this subsystem to any brand of MPPT inverter and any BMS lifepo4 batteries?
You can check their website solar-assistant.io/
Well, I built the same thing, mine's not as pretty as yours, but it works! EXCEPT! If you accidentally click on 'kiosk mode', how do you get out of that mode without rebooting the Solar Assistant...I can't seem to figure out how to do ESCAPE! lol
Thanks for a great idea!
I'm sorry, I don't know how to. I've never experienced that before. Try looking at their website. They have great information there.
@@Roll2Videos Thank you for the reply. This issue is not really related to Solar Assistant, because you have a keyboard attached and can hit ESCAPE and the kiosk mode reverts back to standard. What I have not figured out is, when you only have a touchscreen available, how do you hit (emulate) ESCAPE?!!
Maybe some others reading this thread might have ideas..
thanks!
With the monitor are you able to set audio alerts for events? Im looking for some kind of alert for loss of grid power.
No alert function.
I just use an old 10" Tablet that I can put where I want works exactly like yours, very easily
Great idea! I use my cell phone for remote monitoring
Awesome👌🏻
That is so cool!
I had no idea devices like that existed. how does compare to the Growatt monitoring stick.
It's relatively similar; This device will pretty much work across all platforms. I will continue making videos on it and see if anything stands out to me.
I missed the bit where you told us where to buy .. cost ? Specs? Thanks.
Thank you, it's in the description of this video below.
beautiful. Im going to steal this idea. is this connected to your growatt inverter? or a different inverter?
I haven't made it to that point yet. Future videos 😉
I'll watch your future vids for sure but I couldn't wait so I went back through your older vids and did some sleuthing 😀
@@jl9678 Hope you enjoy 😁
I like it. Wouldn't a $50 android tablet do about the same thing and easier to set up? Assuming this is all browser based that is... I guess you wouldn't have ports for peripherals though...
Yes you could, it would be laggy not as crisp feeling. Spending all this money I didn't see the point in trying to save a few bucks on a cheap tablet.
Where did you get the server cabinet?
Second-hand FB marketplace 😁
How did you get past the white screen asking to sign in locally to the solar assistant (I can't find a keyboard) on the touch screen?
@@stoomheier Connect to it on your phone to set it up. Much easier
@@Roll2Videos Thank you for the answer. SA is already working on the computer for 6 months, so set up ??? I do not know. Or did you disable the password in "configuration" "general" "configure local acces" ? For the moment I connected the screen via hub and added a hardware keyboard. Was able to type the password and SA appeared on the touch screen. Only the pointer could be moved by touch, nothing else. And the SA screen did not refresh. Made a video and returned the screen to Alie.
Very nice solution for the Touchscreen location, I'm sure many people will be inspired.
I hope they can figure out a way to make the Touchscreen run nonstop.
I'd be interested in that:
If multiple batteries are used, Smart Shunt is used to calculate the true SOC, so in Solar Assistant it selects Smart Shunt for this purpose and displays only the data from SmartShunt. And in this case, the BMS data of the other batteries will not be displayed in Solar Assistant, or am I wrong?
Ideally, all possible data from each battery would be displayed as informative, just like the Smart Shunt data, but only the Smart Shunt data would be taken as the real SOC, is this possible in Solar Assistant?
Thank you for the answer.
Yes, you are correct; the shut will be overall; I will also be able to look at each better separately. Or any batteries I have that will communicate with each other.
Yeah man that's pretty cool. Some people don't understand this as a hobby but I too am kinda addicted to this solar stuff. Seems the more products we get the more we want and I'm beginning to think this is gonna be a never ending thing us diy solar people have gotten ourselves into. Yes sir cool addition
@@matthewknight5641 it's a productive hobby. I love it!
@@Roll2Videos I too love it. It's like my wife is much happier with me spending money on this stuff than when I was spending so much on making my truck loud or buying things that go boom. Upgrades to the home always go over a little easier I'm my house lol
@@matthewknight5641 hahaha RIGHT! 🤣
I didnt know u could run different battries makes together on one inverter wont the charge and discharge settings be different between the battries
I can configure them the same, But if I didn't one would could stop taking a charge before the others, Same at the discharge and the system wouldn't even notice. The inverter is looking for voltage.
@@Roll2Videos ok good to know as the suppliers here in south africa says u cant mix battries on the same inverter and i cant find the same battery i currently have so i will need to add another brand one
@@everts50 If your inverter is communicating with the batteries and using the Li setting reconfigure your inverter to use voltage
@@everts50 Then I used a Victron smart shunt to calculate the SOC
@@Roll2Videos i have the battery on lead acid mode as its not pickup up with the network cable and bms so i have to input charge and floating voltage manually
except solar assistant dont have video output... only a webinterface acessed via bt or wifi unless you have the obscure orange pi thing instead of ordinarry pi3/4. kinda important thing you missed...
Followed up by the link in the description of the video. Thanks for commenting
I can only use the touch function to move the curser, and scroll on the side. I cannot select any of the tabs or open any of the functions. is there a setting in on the pi that I need to change to enable these functions? If so, I don't know how to get into the orange pi LTS to change anything.
Is your display USB plugged into the PI? Or did you plug it into a separate power supply?
That is strange, I never had to set anything to tap "click" items. Maybe the touch screen you have doesn't support tap 🤷
@@Roll2Videos It is plugged into the PI. FYI I have tried this touchscreen monitor in other configurations not involving an Orange PI LTS, and it worked just fine, so i don't think it is the monitor. I did send an email to Solar Assistant but have not received a reply. By the way, the software version that I am using is 2023-02-28. Which one are you using?
@@dougschrag1637 I'm using the same version. That is strange.
@@Roll2Videos I got it to work. The problem was that I was entering the wrong password That I had set up awhile ago. It was auto-filling, so I didn't have to remember it. I should have written it down. If you enter the wrong password. It doesn't tell you it was wrong. It just opens the Solar Assistant Dashboard tab and you see some things, but nothing is selectable with the touchscreen or even a mouse.
@@dougschrag1637 👌 Happy to hear you got it working
Did Solar Assistant ever fix the screen shutting off after a few minutes?
No, 😔 It still times out.
@@Roll2Videos That's too bad. Thanks for the update.
“Your not tech savvy” haha ur funny
I believe dsmonitoring do the same
🤔
Lots of cha-ching but definitely a great way to monitor system from what I've seen.