Fronius Interface Card Easy script

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System
System Posts: 2,511 admin
in Advanced Solar Electric Technical Forum #1
My 4KW system has been up and running for about a week now, and I have
created a VBScript to communicate with the Fronius Interface Card Easy
and pull the data. I've also created a set of spreadsheet graphs to
display the data nicely. These are both available for everyone's use
at: http://theconnectedhome.biz/Solar.html
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  • foosman
    foosman Solar Expert Posts: 38 ✭
    #2
    Re: Fronius Interface Card Easy script

    Congrats and thanks for sharing. I'm in the middle of creating my monitoring software. I don't have my system installed yet, so I can't verify the following, but
    According to the latest Fronius interface documentation you can address the interface easy card as follows:
    "Commands are addressed to the interface card easy. The interface card easy can
    directly output inverter data via an internal bus system."

    Where the device value is either:
    0x00 - General data query or query to the interface card (the „number“
    byte is ignored)
    0x01 - Inverter

    You addressed the 'Inverter' directly using device=1 and number=1. I am curious if you've tried using the broadcast mode vs the directly addressed mode? It seems you could set device=0 and number=whatever and this would also work. My concern is it looks like it is possible to change the inverter address (IG nr.) on the panel to something other than 1. If this occurred then direct address mode with a fixed address would be an issue. Or in other words if you set your IG nr. on your panel to 2, then you would have to change your packet from:
    MSComm1.Output = chr(&H80) & chr(&H80) & chr(&H80) & chr(0) & chr(1) & chr(1) & chr(&H10) & chr(18 ) to
    MSComm1.Output = chr(&H80) & chr(&H80) & chr(&H80) & chr(0) & chr(1) & chr(2) & chr(&H10) & chr(19)

    Whereas in broadcast mode, this would always work:
    MSComm1.Output = chr(&H80) & chr(&H80) & chr(&H80) & chr(0) & chr(0) & chr(1) & chr(&H10) & chr(17)
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  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,695 admin
    #3
    Re: Fronius Interface Card Easy script

    foosman,

    You might try sending a PM or following the link to 01's website--It does not appear that he(?) has been back since the original posts.

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
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  • foosman
    foosman Solar Expert Posts: 38 ✭
    #4
    Re: Fronius Interface Card Easy script
    BB. wrote: »
    foosman,

    You might try sending a PM or following the link to 01's website--It does not appear that he(?) has been back since the original posts.

    -Bill

    Thanks, I will do that.
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  • System2
    System2 Posts: 6,290 admin
    #5
    Re: Fronius Interface Card Easy script
    foosman wrote: »
    Congrats and thanks for sharing.

    <snip>

    You addressed the 'Inverter' directly using device=1 and number=1. I am curious if you've tried using the broadcast mode vs the directly addressed mode? It seems you could set device=0 and number=whatever and this would also work.

    I only have the 1 inverter, so I haven't tried changing the addressing. I'll probably upgrade the system in a few years and will play with it then. I know that's no help. Sorry.

    01000111
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  • foosman
    foosman Solar Expert Posts: 38 ✭
    #6
    Re: Fronius Interface Card Easy script

    Well, now that my monitor is complete, the installer said: "I forgot to mention, we are using SMA instead of Fronius." They decided to go with 2 Sunny Boys instead of a single Fronius. I'm actually happier about this as the arrays face different orientations (1 east and 1 south) and I think this will give me better power tracking. On the down side I need to revamp the monitor to talk with the Sunny Boys and also get an RS232 to RS485 converter. There's a chance they are including the webbox, at which point my monitor project will go on the shelf.
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