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corbinbs / solarshed

A Python library to help monitor solar charge controllers typically used in off the grid applications.
MIT License
86 stars 25 forks source link

Awesome Project! Is there any chance you could add configuration management for the Renogy Rover Controller #7

Open madmacks59 opened 5 years ago

madmacks59 commented 5 years ago

I’m completely off grid and use Macs, Raspberry Pis and Arduinos for a variety of things. One of them is controlling my solar powered well pump located about 1,500 feet downhill from my cabin. I don’t want the pump running unless there is sufficient solar power being generate to get water up the well bore and then push it up the hill to my storage tank. So, I’m rigging up a Pi to monitor the output from my panels and when a specific volt/amp level is reached I’ll turn on the well pump using a heavy duty DC relay. I was having to setup a variety of sensors to monitor all this but with your code it looks like I can directly query my Renogy Rover 40Amp controller. So, THANK YOU for this code base.

One other problem I have is that the Renogy provided software is WinDoze only, so configuring my controllers is a pain unless I spring for their extra control/display panel.

With the work you’ve done do you think it’s possible to build a config file that could be pushed to the Rovers via the APIs you’ve identified? It would be very useful if the various charging parameters could be configured via a text file and then “flashed” back to the controller. Just wondering if that’s even doable?

Anyway, thank you for this code base...very helpful!

corbinbs commented 5 years ago

Hi @madmacks59 ,

I salute you for your completely off grid status! 👍

I do believe there are some registers in the Rover that allow for the configuration of the unit (basically all of the same things you could do via the Rover directly by scrolling through the different options). When I started tinkering on this interface, I mainly wanted to collect the data from the unit after it was set up... but now I can see the benefits of being able to save the desired configuration and then push it out to a Rover (or Rovers). I'll set this issue as a feature request and will see if I might be able to get a window of time to test that out with my own Rover 40Amp controller. I appreciate the feedback!

Thanks, Brian 🚜💻