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Post by mediadogg on Oct 27, 2019 15:23:17 GMT
Sorry, wrong thread.
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raydas
Solar Devotee
Posts: 166
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Post by raydas on Oct 27, 2019 16:09:09 GMT
The name of this thread is Solar Station Monitor program. There is big problem when the thread gets high jacked. In an earlier post I showed exactly what is contained in the .csv file, in terms of fields. My interest, at the moment, is how to interpret the data that was collected by the .csv file. If somebody wants to bloviate about how to read the Rover CC LCD screen, please start your own thread. It is hard enough keeping this thread on tract, in spite of all the distractions.
I think what I might have to do is take the .csv file and use the Libre BASE program to have it as a database. At that point I will be able to create some graphs and plots of specific data sets. Also this would give me a long term record of what MY solar system was/is doing. Instead of having a response of "my system works perfectly", so there!
This thread is supposed to be about using software tools that will help in expressing the data. I am not interested in a manual reading of the Rover CC LED for 'Accumalated AH', I want it logged, by a software program, and not hand copied.
Since the .csv file contains the 'Array Current(A),Array Voltage(V),Array Power(W)', I might try to do a graph of those data sets just to see what the correlation is between those items during the active time of the solar panels.
Yes, it would have been a nice feature of the 'Solar Station Monitor program' if one of the fields in the .csv file would have been 'Accumalated AH', for 10/24/2019, or any other date.
So please, if you want to brag about how well your solar system works, or how expert you are at reading the Rover CC LCD, or express some sort of commentary, start your own thread.
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Post by mediadogg on Oct 27, 2019 16:12:27 GMT
Sorry, wrong thread.
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Post by bupkis on Oct 27, 2019 16:21:56 GMT
raydas, Is there any way to get piece of the your csv file? I use excel to do cell/row/column math/graph. not heard of your software but there is an office suit that includes a spread sheet very similar to excel. A shareware program Apache OpenOffice.
I see LibreOffice, will down load it and look at it spread sheet software.
If subtraction of the one row's time and another row's time is hrs then the calc is simple.
Can you cut and paste 3 rows of data to this thread?
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raydas
Solar Devotee
Posts: 166
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Post by raydas on Oct 27, 2019 17:06:11 GMT
LibreOffice is the software, if I just write Calc, then somebody might assume OpenOffice. I thought Libre Calc would suffice. My bad, I assumed again. Another problem with the .csv file is the first field contains the date and time. I think it would get a little tricky in a spread sheet. In a database that would not be a problem, I think.
I was using the spread sheet just to get an idea of how well, or how I could work with it. Not used to working with spread sheets in a more complicated way, no less trying to display graphs and plots.
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Post by bupkis on Oct 27, 2019 18:31:13 GMT
that some crummy data with all zeroes!!!! When you open the .csv file you get the import screen, go to the bottom and highlight the first column. just above that is a drop down with 'standard', change it to 'US English'. then complete the import. The above imports the date in a format of so many days since some start time (43764.2923032407 days ago), a a number and not time. Insert 2 columns after the DateTime column. So now in column B, on the third row do the math of column A3 - A2, this will yield the fraction of a day difference in the two dates. Copy this down the page. Now column C, do the math of B3*24, this converts it to fraction of an hour, copy down the page. To get power multiply panel power * frac of hr to achieve watt hrs for each time step, add them up.
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raydas
Solar Devotee
Posts: 166
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Post by raydas on Oct 27, 2019 18:56:16 GMT
Thank You bupkis, You are the expert. Now, since I usually scroll down through the page, is their some way to make the first row stationary, so it does not disappear when you scroll. That would make it easier to keep a name above the column.
Using the data set, I wonder if I can compare, or at least get a close enough read of what the CC LCD is showing, and what the acquired data set reveals. For instance, it was suggested to read the 'Accumalated AH', from the LCD. I can write down the time I looked at the 'Accumalated AH' and use that for a value in the data set. I will assume that the 'Accumalated AH' starts at 00:00:00 hours.
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Post by bupkis on Oct 27, 2019 19:06:13 GMT
at the top File Edit View Insert, select View and then select freeze cells/freeze first row
accum ah would be time difference [frac of hr] times [Array current(A)], then add them up
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raydas
Solar Devotee
Posts: 166
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Post by raydas on Oct 29, 2019 12:24:01 GMT
People were mentioning the use of CC 'Accumulated AH' LCD reading. Yesterday, at about 19:00 hours, I checked the reading, it was 5Ah. This morning, 07:00 hours, it read 5Ah. So now I am wondering, when does it roll over to 0Ah. I wish they had that as one of the fields, in the Monitor program. Or, maybe the moon was so bright that I picked up another 5Ah of work from the moon panels.
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Post by playersz28 on Oct 29, 2019 14:10:32 GMT
Now I can see why you need to spend $30,000, if not more, for a solar system that powers your house. And I am thinking all the conveniences, that one enjoys at the moment, would be powered. If you are looking to replace a grid connection in "regular" home then yes, takes some big dollars and payback is long. If I wanted to take my house off the grid I'd need a load of panels and a big battery bank so I can run the kitchen draws, my workshop, the welder, etc. I'll continue to just pay the electric company for the convenience of the connection. My RV is a different story though. I have 640w & 450ah of AGM w/2kw PSW inverter and I can easily supply my power needs. I spend the winter in the US SW though where I get plenty of solar gain. Wouldn't work at all up in Ontario for the winter.
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raydas
Solar Devotee
Posts: 166
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Post by raydas on Oct 29, 2019 14:42:58 GMT
" So now I am wondering, when does it roll over to 0Ah."
About an hour and a half later, I checked again and CC 'Accumulated AH' LCD reading was 0Ah. I also checked the 'Array Voltage(V)' and that was reading 12.4V. Not sure, but 'Accumulated AH' might be rolling over when the 'Array Voltage(V)' drops down below 12V. That would be a problem, if you had a storm during the day where the 'Array Voltage(V)' dropped and then went above 12V, would that reset back too 0Ah. That would create a big problem if you were trying to track array production, on the not so perfect days.
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Post by Admin on Oct 29, 2019 18:26:09 GMT
**UPDATE
Some comments have been deleted for going off topic and argumentative language. Please remember to stick to the topic of the posts.
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Post by tattoo on Oct 29, 2019 19:15:38 GMT
**UPDATE Some comments have been deleted for going off topic and argumentative language. Please remember to stick to the topic of the posts. Thank you............
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russ
Solar Advocate
Posts: 63
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Post by russ on Oct 30, 2019 5:53:53 GMT
" So now I am wondering, when does it roll over to 0Ah." About an hour and a half later, I checked again and CC 'Accumulated AH' LCD reading was 0Ah. I also checked the 'Array Voltage(V)' and that was reading 12.4V. Not sure, but 'Accumulated AH' might be rolling over when the 'Array Voltage(V)' drops down below 12V. That would be a problem, if you had a storm during the day where the 'Array Voltage(V)' dropped and then went above 12V, would that reset back too 0Ah. That would create a big problem if you were trying to track array production, on the not so perfect days. I believe the amp hour measurement resets to zero and start accumulating again when there is enough sun to indicate charging on the charge controller. The moon symbol goes away and the sun symbol appears on the charge controller display.
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raydas
Solar Devotee
Posts: 166
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Post by raydas on Oct 30, 2019 11:13:54 GMT
Yesterday when I looked at the CC at about 08:30 I stated that the Array Voltage(V) was reading 12.4V. The other readings, Array Current(A) and Array Power(W), were reading 0. So far it looks like the Array Voltage(V) is the controlling factor. Todays weather here, looks like it will be rainy and cloudy for the next couple of days. I will keep an on the 'Accumulated AH' to see what the numbers are.
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