Open source monitor for Morningstar

Hello,

The biggest problem for me, is that I only have Apple computers.

I have two TS-60 Mppt's that have a 1,200w 24v array to each MPPT. Two 600w 3-phase wind turbines rectified to 24v DC connected directly to the main battery bus bar to assure the turbines are always under load, and three TS-60 PWM's in diversion mode to assure my bank never over-charges in my single system. I am using the MeterBus hub's for the remote monitor, as well as four RSC-1 so I can connect all controllers from RS-232 to EIA-485 into one TS-60 MPPT to use the Ethernet.

I simply want to see the battery bank SOC. All the solar charging amps coming in, and what is being diverted. In real time, and over time.

It is so frustrating that I have all this kit, and I can only use a Microsoft Windows computer with MSview to see only one controller at a time, download files into a spreadsheet, and then see what happened... There has to be some easier and convenient way to monitor a system with more then one Morningstar controller. I am a DIY person (limited computer language knowledge), and can't see paying some company to remote monitor my system to get the accumulated data this is inside the hardware I already own !!

Alan

hkalan said:

Hello,

The biggest problem for me, is that I only have Apple computers.

I have two TS-60 Mppt's that have a 1,200w 24v array to each MPPT. Two 600w 3-phase wind turbines rectified to 24v DC connected directly to the main battery bus bar to assure the turbines are always under load, and three TS-60 PWM's in diversion mode to assure my bank never over-charges in my single system. I am using the MeterBus hub's for the remote monitor, as well as four RSC-1 so I can connect all controllers from RS-232 to EIA-485 into one TS-60 MPPT to use the Ethernet.

I simply want to see the battery bank SOC. All the solar charging amps coming in, and what is being diverted. In real time, and over time.

It is so frustrating that I have all this kit, and I can only use a Microsoft Windows computer with MSview to see only one controller at a time, download files into a spreadsheet, and then see what happened... There has to be some easier and convenient way to monitor a system with more then one Morningstar controller. I am a DIY person (limited computer language knowledge), and can't see paying some company to remote monitor my system to get the accumulated data this is inside the hardware I already own !!

Alan

If you're a DIY person, there are a number of ways you can monitor multiple Morningstar Tristar TS-MPPT-60 units.  You can, as mentioned above, connect them to Ethernet, but you'll still have to log into two separate controllers.  However, if you have experience with Arduino/Basic Stamp/Microchip PIC/Parallax Propeller or any other related microprocessor platform, it's relatively trivial to wire up several RS-232 cables from the MPPT units to the microprocessor, have it read the MPPTs, and do pretty much anything you want with the resulting data.  It could send the data to your Mac via serial-to-USB converter, log it for storage, display it on a cheap LCD screen, etc. 

Me personally, instead of buying a $100 Morningstar Tristar meter to see what was going on, I just made my own with a Parallax Propeller and VGA touchscreen...easy does it for about $30!  I am more than willing to share the "Spin" source code for the Propeller if anyone's interested in making their own display unit.  The TS-MPPT-60 uses the MODBUS communication protocol over RS-232 @ 9600bps (8 bits, 1 stop bit), which is standard, and a piece of cake for most microcontrollers to handle.  (Code in this screenshot not quite finished: solar temperature/percentage are placeholders.  Note that the MPPT does not update the "max power point sweep" registers if it's not in Bulk mode.  I still haven't figured out how output wattage can be higher than input wattage, though!)