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Solar inverters

PeterGroenewegPeterGroeneweg Member
edited March 2015 in Archive
Emile,

Are you supporting some sort of inverters for solar panels. I want to connect Homey to my solar panels in the future. I just have to buy a complete system :P. But before that, are you planing some corporation with a manufacture? It has no real hurry because I must save some money first.

Kind regards

Comments

  • MarcoFMarcoF Member
    There are hundreds of inverter (re)brand/types/models.
    Almost all big companies are using there own communication protocol, cloud solution, etc.
    Almost all big companies are using different "interfaces" RS232, RS485, WiFi, Ethernet,

    Its nearly impossible to create one solution to connect all sorts of inverters...

    Which solar inverter do you have?
  • PeterGroenewegPeterGroeneweg Member
    I have to buy it so it doesn't matter which manufacture it is. It's just that when I want to buy one, I want it to communicate with Homey. Therefore It isn't necessary to support all manufacturers.
    SolarEdge for example uses the Zigbee protocol to communicate.
  • MarcoFMarcoF Member
    edited March 2015
    ok you just want Athom to support the inverter you want/going to buy?
    Seems fair :)

    https://www.frijmann.nl/

    Here you can find my WebSolarLog which i developed with some other guy.
    The software uses various thirdparty script to communicate with several Inverter brands/types.

    My Vera3 polls the API of my WebSolarLog every 20 secs. to see how much the inverter produces, how much power we push/pull to/from the grid. Based on these figures i switch some devices on/off :) 1,5 week ago we received our Heatpump and one of the project is to switch the Heatpump on when we push power to the grid. This way we can maximize the use of our own produced solarpower and prevent problems with the Dutch "saldering"rules.
  • JeroenKleijnJeroenKleijn Member
    i think he means it the other way around. he wants to know which inverter is supported by homey so he can buy that one.
  • MarcoFMarcoF Member
    edited March 2015
    I known! ;-)

    Chicken <> Egg

    Which brand should Athom choose to support?
    SMA (choose from BlueTooth/RS485/WiFi)
    Abb/PowerOne (RS485)
    Diehl (has an ethernet connection with an own webserver)
    KostalPiko (has an ethernet connection with an own webserver and different to Diehl)
    sunnyRoo (RS485 and different to SMA/ABB/PowerOne and is re-brand of SAMIL)

    Steca(Grid) 500 is former Philips
    StecaGrid's own types (different to the Steca 500)
    Mastervolt has (as far as i known atleast 3 different protocols/interfaces)
    Mastervolt bought Soladin and Soladin is completely different to Mastervolt

    So with hardware interface should Athom choose? Ethernet, RJ-45/10/11/6/8?
    Which wireless connection should the support? WiFi? Bluetooth? or ?
    Should the support SolarEdge (couple of brands supports it in there own way) or should the support SMA with there own protocol and which connection should the support of SMA (BT/RS485/WiFi)?

    It nearly impossible to support ALL brands or to choose one.

    I vote for PowerOne and RS485.

  • JeroenKleijnJeroenKleijn Member
    i think a poll is needed here :-P
  • MarcoFMarcoF Member
    edited March 2015
    Speaking about polls;
    Maybe its an idea for Athom to introduce polls for which Homey features the community wants to see :)

    I Vote for "DutchSmartMeter support" :)

    Implementation and hardware is very straightforward. It will give the enduser awesome options for switching device in the household :)

  • PeterGroenewegPeterGroeneweg Member
    Marco, your website is wonderful! I want something like that but then integrated in Homey.
    I like the idea of using RS485 but because Homey doesn't uses it natively I don't think that is very handy. If a inverter uses WiFi, Bluetooth or ZigBee, it should be much easier to connect to it with Homey because you don't have to think about an interface.

    And about the polls... maybe it's handy for the line-up to decide which device to develop first. But in the end, all users want all there devices be supported... Welcome to the human world :-).

    As a third threat in this discussion a little question. Is it possible to rename Homey? I taught, maybe it should be nice to call him "Inspector Gadget" or something like that.
  • MarcoFMarcoF Member
    edited March 2015
    Thanx!

    As far as i know, there's no inverter with Zigbee.
    BlueTooth has an very limited reach and in most cases inverters are placed on attics or in sheds.
    Very limited inverters has WiFi and my WiFi signal doesn't reach the attic and in the sheds it very unstable.

    I always prefer wired connections and therefore my Rpi is connected by Ethernet cable to the network and i use RS485 to connect it to my PowerOne inverter (it only has and RS485 connection and bought it because of that).

    Of course every one want everything. But the Neeo project uses some sort of voting system where users can vote to features the want to see asap.

    In another topic Emile told that you could "rename" Homey.

    We will call him to the English butler; "James"


  • Fire69Fire69 Member
    Hm, apparently I won't be the only one to rename my Homey to James... :D
  • EmileEmile Administrator, Athom
    We're currently not focusing on solar panels ourselves. If you'd like support, please find a developer who can help you out here!
  • WebsterWebster Member
    Solaredge gives me error 429 to many requests

    Is it possible to set it to 15 minutes interval according to documentation from api
This discussion has been closed.