Configuration

Module Configuration

Figure 1. Module configuration

The SolarMax Client module allows the creation of multiple connections in the Model Panel by clicking on the burger menu icon. Each connection is named Channel. See below for an explanation of the different configuration options.

Channel Configuration

A channel represents the physical medium for connecting one or more devices. Each channel object has the following configuration options:

• Enable data collection: When Disabled, the channel will remain inactive. The default value is set to Enabled.
• Timing
  • Request Timeout: Maximum amount of time to wait for a valid response, displayed in milliseconds. The valid range is 100ms to 600,000ms. The default value is set to 3,000ms. 
  • Retry attempts: Number of communication retries before considering the target device as unreachable. The valid range is 0 to 100. The default value is 3. 
  • Inter-request delay: Delay before sending the next request to the target device, displayed in milliseconds. The valid range is 0ms to 600,000ms. The default is 0ms. 
• Connection:
  • Type: Specifies the connection type that will be established:
    • TCP: TCP socket.
    • Serial: Serial Port.

When connecting through TCP, the following options are displayed:

• Config:
  • Host: Hostname or IP address of the target device. 
  • TCP port: Sets the TCP Port to connect to during communication. Valid values range from 1 to 65535. The default value is 4001.
  • Reconnect delay: Time before trying to re-open the connection after a failed attempt, displayed in milliseconds. The minimum value is 1,000ms.

The image below shows an example TCP channel configuration: Figure 2. TCP channel configuration

Serial channels offer the following options:

• Config:
  • Port name: Serial port as displayed by the operating system. For example, if N3uron is running on Windows, valid port names would be COM1, COM2, and so forth, whilst if running on Linux, valid port names would be /dev/ttyS0, /dev/ttyS1, etc.
    Note:

    The dropdown menu for serial port selection is available from N3uron version V1.21.7 onwards.
    

    
    
    

  • Reconnect delay: Time before trying to re-open the serial port after a failed attempt, displayed in milliseconds. The minimum value is 1,000ms. 
  • Port settings:
    • Baud rate: Serial port transfer speed in milliseconds. Valid values are 110, 300, 1,200, 2,400, 4,800, 9,600, 19,200, 38,400, 57,600, or 115,200. The default is 9,600.
    • Data bits: Specifies the number of data bits per data word. Valid values are 5, 6, 7, or 8.
    • Stop bits: Specifies the number of stop bits per data word. Valid values are 1 or 2.
    • Parity: Specifies the parity type for data. Valid values are None, even, mark, odd, or space.
    • Flow Control: Enables the use of RTS and DTR control lines. There are 3 options: None, RTS/CTS (RS232), and RTS (RS485/RS422).
    • Buffer size: Specifies the Serial communication buffer capacity. The valid range is 128 to 65,536. The default value is 1,024.

The image below shows an example of the serial channel configuration:

Figure 3. Serial Channel configuration

Device Configuration

Each channel can have one or more devices associated to it. A typical example of a channel containing a single device would be a direct TCP or serial connection to a SolarMax slave. An example of multiple devices in the same channel would be when SolarMax slaves are connected within the same serial bus. 

Figure 4. Creating a new device

Set a name for the device and proceed with the configuration. In this example, the device name is 001.

Figure 5. Device configuration

The configuration parameters are as follows: 

• Enable data collection: When set to No, the channel will remain inactive. The default value is set to Yes.
• Device Address: Specifies the destination address assigned to the device.
• Auto-demotion: Defines whether a device should be temporarily placed as “off-scan” when the device is not responding. If set to “off-scan”, read requests will not be sent to the device and any data associated with these read requests will automatically be set to “bad quality”. By placing a non-responsive device offline for a specified time period, the driver can continue to optimize its communications with other devices in the same channel. Once this demotion period has been reached, the driver will re-attempt to communicate with the non-responsive device. If the device is responsive, it will be placed as “on-scan”; otherwise, the off-scan time period will be restarted.
  • Enabled: When set to Yes, the data collection for the device will be automatically paused during the time specified in the Delay field after the number of successive failures set in the Failures field.
  • Failures: Specifies the number of successive failures required before pausing data collection from the device. The minimum value is 1 and the default value is 3.
  • Delay: Determines the demotion period and indicates how long the device should be placed “off-scan” when the value of the failure has been reached. When the specified period expires, the driver will place the device as “on-scan” and allow another communication attempt to be made. The minimum value is 1,000. The default value is 60,000 milliseconds.

At this point, the connection should be fully established.

Tag Configuration

The channel and device configuration fields define the settings used when establishing connections to Solarmax devices. After configuring these elements, users will be able to create and configure any tags associated with the data received from SolarMax devices. Each device can have multiple associated tags, which will allow different types of information to be extracted, depending on the group and variable selected. The following image shows an example configuration:

Figure 6. Tag configuration

The only mandatory settings that need to be configured are those contained within the source section. These parameters are listed below:

• Source
  • Enabled: When set to No, the tag will behave like a memory tag. On the contrary, when Enabled, the source module will provide the tag's value, quality, and timestamp.
  • Module Type:  Defines the type of module used to obtain the tag's value, quality, and timestamp, in this case, SolarMax. If the desired module type was not available on the list displayed in the drop-down menu, it would mean that such functionality has not been installed yet. 
  • Module Name: Enter the name of the moduleinstance that should have been previously created.
  • Config
    • Device: Specify the device that was previously created to work as a slave for this connection. The format must be Channel/Device.
    • deviceType: Select the device type according to the Solarmax protocol specifications. The available options are SolarMax Inverter, MaxMeteo, and MaxCount.
    • variable: Select the variable according to the Solarmax protocol specifications. The items in this list vary depending on the deviceType selected.
    • Scan rate: Poll interval for the tag, displayed in milliseconds. The minimum value is 1,000 ms.

The following table shows the different types of devices with their associated variables: