Raspbian image with WebSolarLog included

We frequently get the question from people;
Do you have a pre- installed/configured image with WebSolarLog?

And we always need to answer that with:
No we don’t have that.

Until now….

We are working on a pre- installed/configure image based on Raspbian and the recently published manual and hope to release it very soon!

The image is based Raspbian (2013-02-09-wheezy-raspbian.zip released at RaspberryPi.org) and WebSolarLog (at the moment of backing the image) build.

The image is designed for the RasperryPi 512MB model and can also be used on the 256MB model. The size of the image is 4GB (probably also for 2gb, needs testing) and can be extented with the raspi-config tool.

The image contains the following:

Be aware that the above supported inverters need some extra programs. These are not installed unless we have native support for it.

We choose these packages because of their lack for hunger on CPU and Memory resources.

The download is approximately 660MB big and you could download it from our servers.

Enjoy!

Rasberry Pi WebSolarLog Trunk 20130508 (629.5 MiB, 1835 downloads)

md5-Checksum: 
2c481b837a6361510413d902e0243ff1

Support for SMA Sunny Boy BlueTooth

Today we added full support for the SMA Sunny Boy BlueTooth solar inverters.
This means that WebSolarLog can log the Sunny Boy inverters with a BlueTooth connection.

The connection with the inverter is made by SMA-spot version 2.0.4 only.
Follow the installation guide of SMA-spot and add the Full path of SMA-spot to the WebSolarLog admin in the Advanced tab and WSL now logs your SMA BlueTooth inverter.

We have tested the WebSolarLog SMA blueTooth support with the following inverters:

  • SMA SB3000-TL21
  • SMA SB2000-HF30
  • SMA SB2500-TLST-21

Language and Localization

It is possible to localize WebSolarLog and, at this moment, it uses the language settings of your browser. We are working on the ability to set the language from the front end  so every visitor of your solar logger can look/read it in his own language (if the language exists).

WebSolarLog uses the PHP gettext function to translate the page on the fly.

In the WebSolarLog root directory you can find the “locale” subdirectory. Below you see the tree of the Locale directory:

  • Root
    • Locale
      • en_GB
        • LC_MESSAGES
          • default.po
          • default.mo

You can make your own localization by making a subdirectory in locale with the language code of you language. When that’s done, you can download a PO-editor and load the WebSolarLog root directory in the tool. Now you can translate the English default language to your language.

With the following command, you can get your current locale code:
root@server:~$ locale

In my case i get:
….
LANG=nl_NL.UTF-8
….

This gives me the language code “nl_NL” and so i make a directory “nl_NL”:

  • Root
    • Locale
      • en_GB
        • LC_MESSAGES
          • default.po
          • default.mo
      • nl_NL
        • LC_MESSAGES

Now open the PO-editor and load the WebSolarLog root Directory as the project home.
The editor now gives you the ability to translate all the translatable string in WebSolarLog.
Translate everything and save the files in the LC_MESSAGES directory of your locale directory (in my case “nl_NL”).

If you have any questions relating on the post, feel free to post it in our help/support forum.

Supported Solar Inverters

WebSolarLog is a web based online solar logger that supports a wide range of solar inverters. We can support these devices because of third party software that connects WebSolarLog to the inverter. There for we would like to thank all of the programmers who made all these wonderful library!

We now support the following brands and types:

SMA

  • All Sunny Boy inverters with support for RS485
  • All Sunny Boy inverters with BlueTooth support.

PowerOne

  • All the Aurora Uno inverters with support for RS485
  • All the Aurora PVI inverters with support for RS485
  • All the Aurora Trio inverters with support for RS485

Diehl

  • All the PLATINUM® H serie inverters  with support for Ethernet

Kostal

  • All Kostal Piko inverters with support for Ethernet

If you have any questions, suggestions or what so ever regarding this post, feel free to post on our google support forum:
http://www.websolarlog.com/index.php/help-support/

Planned support for Effekta solar inverters

Currently we are working on the support for the Effekta ES solar inverter series.

We hope to support the following inverters:

  • ES2200 – 2000watt
  • ES3300 – 3000watt
  • ES4200 – 4000watt
  • ES5000 – 5000watt
  • ES 5000 – 2000Watt – 2 MPPT
  • ES 5000 – 3000Watt – 2 MPPT

The support for the Effekta will be added in version 1.1 and we hope to release this version soon. With this release it is possible to log your Effekta inverter with WebSolarLog and it gives you a very powerfull online webbased solar logger.

If you have any questions, suggestions or what so ever regarding this post, feel free to post on our google support forum:
http://www.websolarlog.com/index.php/help-support/

RS485 converters

To communicate with a RS485 solar inverter, WebSolarLog needs a RS485<>USB converter. Almost every RS485 converter is compatible, and you can find cheap ones at DealExtreme.com or Ebay.com.

We tested a couple of RS485 converters on the RaspberryPi. Based on these tests, we advise to buy a converter with an PL2303 or CH340T chipset.

Currently we run multiple test RaspberryPi’s with PL2303 or CH340T chipsets on SMA, and PowerOne solar inverters.

If you have any questions, suggestions or what so ever regarding this post, feel free to post on our google support forum:
http://www.websolarlog.com/index.php/help-support/

RS485 protocol for (solar) inverters

The RS485 is a serial protocol for communication between digital devices. Solar inverter manufacturers often use this protocol let their inverters communicate with the outside world.

The RS485 protocol has, for (solar) inverters, a couple of advantages against RS232:

  • works over a big distance (till 1200 metres (4000 feet))
  • supports a maximum of 32 – 256 devices, which makes possible to communicate with a 32-256 inverters on a bus.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RS-485

These are the 2 biggest advantages and make it possible to connect a big number of inverters on a bus and let them communicate over a big distance.

To let WebSolarLog gather data from the inverter, it needs a RS485<>USB converter. The converter makes it possible to read the data from the inverter.

If you have any questions, suggestions or what so ever regarding this post, feel free to post on our google support forum:
http://www.websolarlog.com/index.php/help-support/

Hardware specifications

The design of WebSolarLog makes it possible to run WebSolarLog on a low-costs and low-power device.

We recommend the following minimal specs:

  • processor: 800MHz
  • memory: 256MB
  • diskspace: 2GB

WebSolarLog is successfully tested on the following devices:

Energy consumption of the RaspberryPi:
The RaspberryPi is a very low powered ARM device and consumes around the 4 – 4,5W.
We did a endurance test of a couple of day with the following setup:

The RaspberryPi can be powered by a USB-port. So we connected the USB-HUB to the grid and connected the RaspberryPi to one of the USB-ports of the HUB. The WiFi-dongle and RS485 converter were connected to the HUB. This setup consumed 130W a day, what gives it a average of 5,4W a hour. This setup consumes a whopping 47kWh a year, for this you have a fully functional Webbased Solar Logger.

 

If you have any questions, suggestions or what so ever regarding this post, feel free to post on our google support forum:
http://www.websolarlog.com/index.php/help-support/

The first Stable Release of WebSolarLog

Yesterday we released the first Stable-release of WebSolarLog with release number: stable-release-1.0.0 (build 571)

WebSolarLog is a logger for your Solar/PV installation and can log a lot of inverters.

It can be downloaded fromSourceforge or Update your current installation with the WSL-update in the admin.

This release is compatible with 3 inverter brands:

Also it can log the DutchSmartMeter (SlimmeMeter) with a P1 connection.
This release can output to:

Hope you enjoy this version, we are already working on new stable release: version 1.1

 

If you have any questions, suggestions or what so ever regarding this post, feel free to post on our google support forum:
http://www.websolarlog.com/index.php/help-support/