Sunsynk + Home Assistant

DTB74 said:
Can you very briefly explain how to deploy HA directly or point me to a guide I can follow (please excuse my ignorance).

As for the cable, my inverter is installed in my garage, and my IT equipment is quite a distance from the inverter. I was hoping to run a long network cable.

The Sunsynk cable from Solar Assistant (https://solar-assistant.io/shop/products/sunsynk_rs485) as you know is only 1.5m in length.

I assume I would be able to use a female-to-female RJ45 connector to extend it with a made up LAN cable?

Thanks once again for all your help, much appreciated.
Click to expand...

Yup just put an extension on it, mine is 15m long I seem to recall.

You can just install the Generic X86 package.

www.home-assistant.io

Generic x86-64

Install Home Assistant on Generic x86-64 systems such as the Intel NUC
www.home-assistant.io www.home-assistant.io

Mine runs on an old Google Chromebox and has been untouched for probably 2+ years.

If you have two Macs you could possibly use Target Drive mode to image from the one machine to the other and basically do method 1. Or you could take the hard drive out too and do it directly with Etcher.

But Method 2 will work just fine as well just takes a bit of effort.

****

They really could create an installer version by now.
 
SauRoNZA said:
Yup just put an extension on it, mine is 15m long I seem to recall.

You can just install the Generic X86 package.

www.home-assistant.io

Generic x86-64

Install Home Assistant on Generic x86-64 systems such as the Intel NUC
www.home-assistant.io www.home-assistant.io

Mine runs on an old Google Chromebox and has been untouched for probably 2+ years.

If you have two Macs you could possibly use Target Drive mode to image from the one machine to the other and basically do method 1. Or you could take the hard drive out too and do it directly with Etcher.

But Method 2 will work just fine as well just takes a bit of effort.

****

They really could create an installer version by now.
Click to expand...
Brilliant!

Thanks so much, that makes a lot more sense, and is way less complicated than the route I have been trying to follow.

I also just ordered the cable from Solar Assistant, at least I will then be assured that I can rule out any issues related to the cable.
 
Hi to all,

Just some feedback. I finally received my official Sunsynk cable, and everything is now working as expected.

All the inverter stats (which I selected) are appearing within Home Assistant.

Thanks for the input.
Cheers
 
DTB74 said:
Hi to all,

Just some feedback. I finally received my official Sunsynk cable, and everything is now working as expected.

All the inverter stats (which I selected) are appearing within Home Assistant.

Thanks for the input.
Cheers
Click to expand...

And this still in VMWare? So it was the cable after all?
 
Hi there SauRoNZA,

Fortunately yes it was the adaptor which after reading loads of info on the Internet seems to have some or other "pirated" form of the "Prolific" chip.

I literally plugged in the Sunsynk cable, configured Home Assistant to use it, and the stats started pulling in.
 
DTB74 said:
Can you very briefly explain how to deploy HA directly or point me to a guide I can follow (please excuse my ignorance).

As for the cable, my inverter is installed in my garage, and my IT equipment is quite a distance from the inverter. I was hoping to run a long network cable.

The Sunsynk cable from Solar Assistant (https://solar-assistant.io/shop/products/sunsynk_rs485) as you know is only 1.5m in length.

I assume I would be able to use a female-to-female RJ45 connector to extend it with a made up LAN cable?

Thanks once again for all your help, much appreciated.
Click to expand...
Hi DTB74

I'm planning to follow similar solution to yours. But just for clarification - is a "made up LAN cable" just a regular LAN cable as extension? Or did you rewire the pins?

Thanks
 
chrisefranklin said:
Hi DTB74

I'm planning to follow similar solution to yours. But just for clarification - is a "made up LAN cable" just a regular LAN cable as extension? Or did you rewire the pins?

Thanks
Click to expand...
Hi there chrisefranklin,

Thank for your question.

Unfortunately not, there is an actual chip within the cable/housing, so it is not just a straightforward pin 1 to pin x type cable that you require unfortunately (AFAIK).

If I can offer my 2 cents worth, I would just go the route of purchasing an actual Sunsynk cable from "Solar Assistant". It is more expensive than purchasing an adaptor of sorts, but it saved me a lot of frustration in the end.

Their delivery service is also very quick and efficient.

Here is the URL to the specific cable I am referring to which now works 100% perfectly.

SolarAssistant

solar-assistant.io solar-assistant.io

Cheers for now,
 
This is also something I have been working on in HA with Nodered to get all the data off the New SunSynk Logger website

SunSynk Logger Integration into Home Assistant

Hi All... This is something I have been working on for a while based on my own work with some information gathered from others on this forum and probing what is available. I have spent the last few days cleaning things up so that they can be easily imported into new environments There is a node r...
powerforum.co.za
 
w1tw0lf said:
Solar was installed over a week ago, went with this setup, https://github.com/kellerza/sunsynk and been solid without issues. Went with R485 to ethernet and was a pain at first as it needs modbus tcp protocol to work correctly.
Click to expand...
Hi w1tw0lf,

Great to hear!

Did you get the modbus tcp protocol to work yet, I am still having issue where is simply states something down the lines of connecting but it is as if it never manages to communicate correctly.

I will see if I can get the exact message it gives when I get home tonight.

Cheers
 
w1tw0lf said:
I originally bought this one, https://www.robotics.org.za/W16529?search=wave rs4 which didn't support he modbus tcp, exchanged for this one https://www.robotics.org.za/USR-TCP232-410S?search=usr, once configured correctly it just worked without issues.
Was told the modbus tcp needs certain hardware to work correctly, not sure if it is true, but come from the manufactors of the waveshare one.
Click to expand...
I purchased the original Sunynk cable after experiencing issues with the first adaptor I had purchased, and it too then worked without issues in terms of pulling in stats from the inverter into Home Assistant.

I think I am doing something wrong in terms of the modbus configuration however. Did you have to change/specify anything specific to get yours to work/communicate correctly?

Thanks
 
w1tw0lf said:
Have a look here where I managed to solve it after doing some testing, https://github.com/kellerza/sunsynk/issues/96
Click to expand...
Hi there w1tw0lf,

Just a quick question, what is the difference between using the Sunsynk cable which I purchased (https://solar-assistant.io/shop/products/sunsynk_rs485), vs. the USR Industrial Serial to Ethernet Converter (https://www.robotics.org.za/USR-TCP232-410S) device which you purchased.

Please excuse my ignorance, but I still have lots to learn and would appreciate your feedback.

I am trying to understand what the purpose of the Sunsynk cable is vs. the adaptor you purchased, and do you use them together (at the same time), or does the one replace the other?

I am a bit confused at the moment...

Thanks
 
DTB74 said:
Hi there w1tw0lf,

Just a quick question, what is the difference between using the Sunsynk cable which I purchased (https://solar-assistant.io/shop/products/sunsynk_rs485), vs. the USR Industrial Serial to Ethernet Converter (https://www.robotics.org.za/USR-TCP232-410S) device which you purchased.

Please excuse my ignorance, but I still have lots to learn and would appreciate your feedback.

I am trying to understand what the purpose of the Sunsynk cable is vs. the adaptor you purchased, and do you use them together (at the same time), or does the one replace the other?

I am a bit confused at the moment...

Thanks
Click to expand...

Biggest difference is your Sunsynk cable is a rs485 to usb where mine is a r485 to ethernet. They both work completely different from each other but should give the same functions as per the addon. Although I am not sure if yours will work, all I can say is that you need to use a different approach. From the documentation:

1677655817049.png
 
w1tw0lf said:
Biggest difference is your Sunsynk cable is a rs485 to usb where mine is a r485 to ethernet. They both work completely different from each other but should give the same functions as per the addon. Although I am not sure if yours will work, all I can say is that you need to use a different approach. From the documentation:

View attachment 1484683
Click to expand...
Thanks w1tw0lf,

That clears that up, as you say it is not guaranteed that the cable I purchased would work.

I haven't had much luck till yet, and was hoping someone else on the forum could way in if they managed to get modbus to work with the cable that I purchased.

I am in Stellenbosch today (near to Micro Robotics) and wanted to buy the adaptor you bought, should the Sunsynk cable not work with modbus.
 
I don't se a reason why the cable shouldn't work, unless the way it is made is different than how it needs to be.

Honest suggest, grab the device that I bought and make your own cables as needed. Would be a lot easier to resolve and get yourself up and running. But up to you if you want to spend more money to make it work,
 
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