23 febbraio 2013

Aurora Inverter, Raspberry Pi, 123solar: photovoltaic solar monitor and logger

In this post I will explain how build a solar monitor and logger with


1. Update and Upgrade system
1.1 Update the Package Index:

To update the local package index with the latest changes made in repositories, type the following:

$ sudo apt-get update 
 
1.2 Upgrade Packages:
To upgrade your system type:

$ sudo apt-get upgrade

2. Install Apache webserver

2.1  Install package

$ sudo apt-get install apache2 apache2-doc

2.2  Enable and Configure Apache2 Userdir Module
Apache2 userdir module is used to create a webroot in the user’s home directory. By using userdir module each user that is in the system will have the Apache2 root directory with the folder name public_html  in the home directory, If you using any web browser to access the webroot folder in the user directory you should use the “~” afterwards username. So, the url address to be http://[hostname]/~username/

$ a2enmod userdir 

2.3 Edit the file  userdir.conf 
with nano:


$ sudo nano /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/userdir.conf

and make it so:

userdir.conf


2.4 Create public directory "public_html" and provide grants

$ mkdir /home/youruser/public_html        
where youruser for example is pi

$ chgrp www-data /home/youruser/public_html
$ chmod -v 755 /home/youruser

2.5 Restart Apache service


$ service apache2 restart

3 Install PHP
3.1  Install package

$ apt-get install php5 libapache2-mod-php5 php5-curl

3.2 Configure php.ini

$ sudo nano /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

add to "Module Settings" section the below string:

date.timezone = "Europe/Rome"
choose your timezone

add to "Dynamic Extensions" section the below string:

extension=calendar.so

4 Install others packages

4.1 RRDtool
A useful open source tool for storage and retrieval of time series data.

$ sudo apt-get install rrdtool

4.2  systemd
It is a system and service manager for Linux, compatible with SysV and LSB init scripts. systemd provides aggressive parallelization capabilities, uses socket and D-Bus activation for starting services, offers on-demand starting of daemons, keeps track of processes using Linux cgroups, supports snapshotting and restoring of the system state, maintains mount and automount points and implements an elaborate transactional dependency-based service control logic. It can work as a drop-in replacement for sysvinit.  
 

$ sudo apt-get install systemd

5. Install AURORA 1.8.3

5.1 Download package

$ cd /home 
$ wget http://www.curtronics.com/Solar/ftp/aurora-1.8.3.tar.gz

5.2 Unzip package

$ tar -xzvf aurora-1.8.3.tar.gz
$ rm aurora-1.8.3.tar.gz

5.3 make and install

$ cd aurora-1.8.3
$ make
$ make install
$ cd /..

6. Install 123Solar
123Solar is a set of PHP/JS files that will create a web solar logger to monitor Power One Aurora and SMA Inverters.

6.1 Download package

$ cd /var/www
$ wget http://123Solar.googlecode.com/files/123solar1.5.3.2.tar.gz
$ tar -xzvf 123solar1.5.3.2.tar.gz
$ rm 123solar1.5.3.2.tar.gz 

6.2 Install service

$ cd /etc/systemd/system
$ wget http://123solar.googlecode.com/files/123solar.service
$ systemctl enable 123solar.service

6.3 Install 123solar

$ cd /var/www/123solar
$ ./install.sh


at the end you will see something such as:

now, in your local browser, you can open the administration page at address:
http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/123solar/config/index.php

6.4 Configure 123solar configuration page



123Solar Administration page - General Section
123Solar Administration page - Inverter, Front page, Info details, Dashboard


123Solar Administration page -Expected Production, Notification and report, Alarms and Warnings, PVoutput.org

in the future if you will want come back in administration page, you must type:
$ 123solar admin

7 Change usb-serial speed and autostart 123solar

$ sudo nano /etc/rc.local

edit file and add 2 rows before the "exit 0":
stty -F /dev/ttyUSB0 19200
sudo 123solar start


8 Update RPI firmware

$ sudo -s
$ cd /..
$ wget http://goo.gl/1BOfJ -O /usr/bin/rpi-update && sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/rpi-update
$ apt-get install git-core
$ rpi-update
$ shutdown -r now


9 Change boot config information

$ sudo nano /boot/cmdline.txt



make sure retain all informations in just one row


The end

12 commenti:

Anonimo ha detto...

Works beautifully! The only part I missed was that 123Solar Administration page has a separate "Save" button. I was pulling my hair out as to why clicking "Save" at the bottom seemingly did not save the parameters I had so painstakingly set!

Paga ha detto...

Try to use another browser ;-)

Anonimo ha detto...

Su quale piattaforma è incentrato il S.O del RPI.?

Paga ha detto...

I used Raspbian “wheezy”.
You can download it at the address http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads

Andrea ha detto...

Hi Francesco,

I am going to install your Solar Monitor solution, I have only one question about connection with Inverter. Is it required RS485-USB converter like this?

http://www.power-one.com/renewable-energy/products/monitoring/aurora-vision/accessories/pvi-usb-rs232485/series

Thanks in advance

Paga ha detto...

Yes, but probably on ebay you could find out an cheaper solutions.

http://www.ebay.it/sch/i.html?_odkw=rs232+usb&_osacat=0&_from=R40&LH_PrefLoc=3&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=rs485+usb&_sacat=0

Anonimo ha detto...

Hi I have some problem with smtp settings, I'm using whezzy. Do you have any solution?
Tks

Paga ha detto...

Probably in this page there is your solution:
http://www.123solar.org/guide.php

In particular, you must follow the paragraph "Installation and configuration of SMTP" .

please let me know a follow up and more details

Bye

Anonimo ha detto...

Thanks for the tutorial. It is working very nice... I already regret I didn't install it earlier

Claudio ha detto...

Very nice guide!
Everything has been gone properly.

Just one question: is it possible to connect the raspberry directly to the usb port of the inverter?
In this case what do I have to do to create the ttyUSB0 device? it is not automatically created

Bye

Paga ha detto...

Claudio,
in the manual is deprecated and recommended the use of the serial port.
please, let me know.

Bye

Unknown ha detto...
Questo commento è stato eliminato dall'autore.