Help configuring my inverter/UPS

[vanidasen]

Hi
Just a query on the WatchPower application for PC. My inverter unit came with only an ethernet port. The cable is ethernet to female serial (RS232). I now need to get a male serial to USB as many computers dont come with RS232 anymore. Does anyone have experience of this working or not with the additional cable?

Tried a normally wired ethernet cable but did not work. Does anyone know if an ethernet crossover cable will work?

 

[wingnut771]

Hi
Just a query on the WatchPower application for PC. My inverter unit came with only an ethernet port. The cable is ethernet to female serial (RS232). I now need to get a male serial to USB as many computers dont come with RS232 anymore. Does anyone have experience of this working or not with the additional cable?

Tried a normally wired ethernet cable but did not work. Does anyone know if an ethernet crossover cable will work?

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[vanidasen]

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thanks

I assume your response is that the additional USB to serial cable should work and of course the takealot option is cheap enough to give it a try.

 

[wingnut771]

thanks

I assume your response is that the additional USB to serial cable should work and of course the takealot option is cheap enough to give it a try.

It was more to show you what to look for, a usb to serial converter. It basically gives you a rs232 port for pcs that have none. I didn't research prices though, I just picked the first thing that came up. I've used this kind of converter before for other terminal services, and it works normally, I sometimes you have to change the baud rate depending on which machine I'm working on.

 

[vanidasen]

It was more to show you what to look for, a usb to serial converter. It basically gives you a rs232 port for pcs that have none. I didn't research prices though, I just picked the first thing that came up. I've used this kind of converter before for other terminal services, and it works normally, I sometimes you have to change the baud rate depending on which machine I'm working on.

Thanks again. I am a little impatient so going to pick up one from matrix warehouse for R169. They allowing me to return if it does not work.

 

[vanidasen]

It was more to show you what to look for, a usb to serial converter. It basically gives you a rs232 port for pcs that have none. I didn't research prices though, I just picked the first thing that came up. I've used this kind of converter before for other terminal services, and it works normally, I sometimes you have to change the baud rate depending on which machine I'm working on.

i got the serial to usb cable. Installed the driver through device manager. Not getting any life from the inverter though. The application does see the new com port but no data coming through at all. Also tried allowing SNMP trap through the firewall but no luck. Anyone with any experience here?

 

[wingnut771]

i got the serial to usb cable. Installed the driver through device manager. Not getting any life from the inverter though. The application does see the new com port but no data coming through at all. Also tried allowing SNMP trap through the firewall but no luck. Anyone with any experience here?

Is the com no. correct? eg: com 1? I know sometimes windows selects a higher number than what the software is looking for like com 6 or something. Also baud rate, some of my printing machines use 9600, others 19200.

 

[vanidasen]

Is the com no. correct? eg: com 1? I know sometimes windows selects a higher number than what the software is looking for like com 6 or something. Also baud rate, some of my printing machines use 9600, others 19200.

i selected COM 1 on the device manager instead of default COM10. The software picks up the availability of COM1
i matched different baud rates both from device to the software from 1200 to 9600. And sweet nothing.
Think there may be something wrong with COM on the inverter.

 

[wingnut771]

i selected COM 1 on the device manager instead of default COM10. The software picks up the availability of COM1
i matched different baud rates both from device to the software from 1200 to 9600. And sweet nothing.
Think there may be something wrong with COM on the inverter.

and if you go higher than 9600?

 

[vanidasen]

and if you go higher than 9600?

next one higher than 9600 is 19200. I set it to that on both the device and the WatchPower app. Still nothing

 

[wingnut771]

next one higher than 9600 is 19200. I set it to that on both the device and the WatchPower app. Still nothing

Sorry man, I'm all out of ideas.

 

[Tun@]

i selected COM 1 on the device manager instead of default COM10. The software picks up the availability of COM1
i matched different baud rates both from device to the software from 1200 to 9600. And sweet nothing.
Think there may be something wrong with COM on the inverter.

What com port number is the usb to serial showing in device manager?
Use that one

 

[vanidasen]

What com port number is the usb to serial showing in device manager?
Use that one

The application, WatchPower, does see the new com port number every time i switch USB ports. The baud rate on the device defaults to 9600 and i set i to that on the app but no luck. Possibly an issue on the inverter.
Thanks wingnut771 and Tun@
Going to give up now :-(

 

[Colin62]

I hate those USB to serial converters. They work, but only just. Breathe on the thing and it stops.

We use them at work for connecting to scales. I’ve had some luck by trying a different USB port, and letting it select a different COM port, but it’s one of those things that you fiddle and try something you’ve tried already and suddenly it starts working. I eventually bought desktops with COM ports. It didn’t help - everyone still uses the converters and they still have hassles and no-one knows where all the serial cables went. Eventually we found some scales that have USB, now all I’m waiting for is the last of the RS232 scales to fall off a workbench so that I never have to see them again.

The most common setting is 9600 baud, 8 bits, no parity and 1 stop bit.

 

[wingnut771]

I hate those USB to serial converters. They work, but only just. Breathe on the thing and it stops.

We use them at work for connecting to scales. I’ve had some luck by trying a different USB port, and letting it select a different COM port, but it’s one of those things that you fiddle and try something you’ve tried already and suddenly it starts working. I eventually bought desktops with COM ports. It didn’t help - everyone still uses the converters and they still have hassles and no-one knows where all the serial cables went. Eventually we found some scales that have USB, now all I’m waiting for is the last of the RS232 scales to fall off a workbench so that I never have to see them again.

The most common setting is 9600 baud, 8 bits, no parity and 1 stop bit.

I've never had issues with them.

 

[Slinetpixel]

With regards to the buzzer, setting 18 might be what you're looking for (if it's based on an Axpert inverter). Should be bON by default, changing it to bOF will cause the beeping to stop when pressing buttons.

Setting 22 is "Beeps while primary source is interrupted"

 

[vanidasen]

I've never had issues with them.

I hate those USB to serial converters. They work, but only just. Breathe on the thing and it stops.

We use them at work for connecting to scales. I’ve had some luck by trying a different USB port, and letting it select a different COM port, but it’s one of those things that you fiddle and try something you’ve tried already and suddenly it starts working. I eventually bought desktops with COM ports. It didn’t help - everyone still uses the converters and they still have hassles and no-one knows where all the serial cables went. Eventually we found some scales that have USB, now all I’m waiting for is the last of the RS232 scales to fall off a workbench so that I never have to see them again.

The most common setting is 9600 baud, 8 bits, no parity and 1 stop bit.

possibly i had a lemon of a cable or the inverter has issues, because the youtube video shows that it works pretty hassle free. Anyway gave up on the monitoring by PC.

 

[Duane Steele]

Hi
Just a query on the WatchPower application for PC. My inverter unit came with only an ethernet port. The cable is ethernet to female serial (RS232). I now need to get a male serial to USB as many computers dont come with RS232 anymore. Does anyone have experience of this working or not with the additional cable?

Tried a normally wired ethernet cable but did not work. Does anyone know if an ethernet crossover cable will work?

Try this converter, it should work. See attached

 

[leon.davibe]

Try this converter, it should work. See attached

For the serial port

The axperts needs no adaptor on the usb port , just a printer cable

watchpower is so slow that it irritates the crap out of you if you want to use any stats

though i find the nicest way to manage them is via either solar assistant or SMH (subscription model currently R50+vat)

handles the data better (power of database) data is just about realtime, ie every 2-3 seconds on old hardware pi b+ on newer hardware i believe on the second

really helps making managing load shedding battery management easy

using kodak off-grid with SMH for management

ie i have a profile set up for load shedding prep

an hour or two before shedding i can assess if i need to top up from eskom and can remotely apply the profile via android app

or if the weather changes you can change the profile from sbu to uti

or set a soc % to not go below i have mine currently set to 50% so if weather changes and battery hits 50% it will change profile to uti for load and charge battery via solar and once it hits preset % it can go back to sbu

 

[leon.davibe]

I

The application, WatchPower, does see the new com port number every time i switch USB ports. The baud rate on the device defaults to 9600 and i set i to that on the app but no luck. Possibly an issue on the inverter.
Thanks wingnut771 and Tun@
Going to give up now :-(

Found that it takes a bit of time for watch power to connect
I think it queries every 30 seconds so don't unplug too quick thinking failure

And from what i recall it took longer than that to recognise the inverter