PvOutput with SMA inverter

**sensij** · 05-31-2016, 02:08 PM

Look for information on SBFSpot. That is what most "Team San Diego" SMA owners are using. If the 6.0 has made changes to the communication protocol, it is possible that the script will need some revision to be compatible.

**sunnyguy** · 06-01-2016, 08:21 PM

SB 6.0 has built in WiFi and can't push data to pvoutput on its own?

**DaveDE2** · 06-03-2016, 02:08 PM

Good question.
I'm not a software guy so I barely know what I'm talking about here, but what I've found out so far is that the 5.0 and 6.0 units have wifi and LAN and can interface to Sunny Portal directly but do not have the FTP push capability that previous SMA inverters equipped with the SMA Webbox have. PvOutput supports FTP push from Webbox without any other hardware. As far as getting 5.0/6.0 data the PvOutput, I'm not sure. SBFspot v3.0 has raspberry pie, Linux, and Windows support to retieve data from the inverter and store it on a local computer and (in the Windows case) a SQLite or MySQL database. The SBFspot program (service) then reads data from the database and uploads to PvOutput. I'm off in the weeds as to whether the 5.0/6.0s can be queried for this information, and information about that is scarce and SMA tech support is clueless.

...another leg up for Solar Edge I guess...

**sensij** · 06-04-2016, 04:38 AM

Your understanding looks correct to me. The webbox is an external add on, and should still be available for use with the latest generation of inverters. It is just much more expensive than the SBFSpot+Pi system.

For what it is worth, even SolarEdge inverters don't push directly to PVOutput.. only to the SE portal. SE has chosen to make the portal data freely available via an API, while SMA has not (and charges commercial customers for that access).

**sunnyguy** · 06-05-2016, 01:22 AM

Interesting. Fronius primo has a lot of configurable data push options.

**DaveDE2** · 06-05-2016, 12:38 PM

That's a big plus for Fronius.

It looks like the new SMA inverters are not even compatible with Webbox because they don't have the RS-485 interface that the older models have. The only way that I know of to FTP push with the new SMAs is to interface it to a $1500 Cluster Controller, a definite non-starter for me. The new SMAs apparently still have Modbus capability which allows "advanced" drill-down into individual string voltages, current, etc, but getting that data probably requires programming skills that I don't have and in any case does nothing to help get the data to PVOutput. In these respects SMA seems to be living in a closed wall garden much like Apple. They expect the end user to be happy with Sunny Portal which doesn't even give individual string data. I spoke with two different tech support guys at SMA and they'd never even heard about PVOutput.

My guess is that there will eventually be third party support or that SMA will come around, but I'm not counting on that happening anytime soon. For the foreseeable future I'll be monitoring my system in isolation, a bit of a disappointment but not huge deal considering the main objective is lowering my utility bills.

**DaveDE2** · 07-05-2016, 03:11 PM

Just got the system working on PVOutput.

SBFSpot does indeed work with the new Sunnyboy 6.0's. It pulls all kinds of data from the inverters including dc string voltages, currents, ac current, voltage and power, etc.

My situation uses the wifi connection of the inverters to the router. SBFSpot (running on a Windows PC) queries the inverters and then uploads it to PVOutput. Some hair pulling was involved to get both inverters to aggregate their output to PVOutput but it appears to be working now (with manual upload). Have not had much luck with any auto-uploading yet. Have to click a button every time I want to upload....

Edit:
Created a batch file for auto-upload and set it up in Windows scheduler. Works like a champ now. Thanks sensij for SBFspot info.

**huge** · 07-06-2016, 11:01 PM

Does your set up have any shade? I would like to get a 6.0, but this shadiness business is annoying to get around

**DaveDE2** · 07-07-2016, 03:17 PM

I have a little early morning shade and slowly increasing afternoon shade starting at about 4pm. This time of the year I'm losing about 3-4% or so because of it. If I had microinverters or optimizers I'm estimating that might be more like 2-3%. Your mileage may vary depending on your shade situation. Since insolation is so low during those times, shade doesn't hurt all that much. If you have mid-day shade on part of your array, then a string inverter may not be the way to go. You can get a better handle on shading effects if you download the SAM program and put your location specifics in. For an example, the attached file is a drawing I created in SAM for shade analysis. SAM takes this and runs a simulation using historical weather data for the whole year including shading from clouds.
By the way, the 6.0's have very high efficiency, more than I was expecting, on the order of 97-98% throughout the day if you load them correctly with string voltages toward the upper end. Good luck.

Attached Files

shading.jpg (57.3 KB, 4 views)

**DaveDE2** · 08-12-2016, 05:06 PM

fyi, after a few weeks my system quit uploading to PVoutput. Some sort of Windows problem (imagine that). So I ditched running SBFspot via my Windows PC and bought a Raspberry PI. Now the PI runs SBFspot and communicates over a wireless lan with the inverters. That's its only job in life and consumes about 2 watts. I'm hoping it will be a lot more reliable.

http://tiny-url.org/liUCW1HV

**mrh1282** · 03-06-2017, 06:53 PM

Hey dave, I just seen this post and i have some questions. I have the SMA 6.0 with wifi and im would like to monitor my system and see what its doing. I contacted the company that installed it and said i need to by more equipment and spend 1,000 more which i think is BS. I see my inverter when i look at my wifi list. I just dont know what to do next, Can you help me out or point me into the right direction. Thank you very much.

**DaveDE2** · 03-07-2017, 01:37 AM

All you need to do to monitor it on your PC is open a web browser, enter the inverter's IP address and then when the inverter web page opens, enter the user name and password. Get those from your installer. That gets you local direct access to all kinds of detailed inverter info.
Another way to do it is to go to sunnyportal.com and register. Then you can get most of that same data from any web browser or on your mobile phone. There is also a sunny portal app which works pretty well. All of the above is free and your installer must st least know about the inverters local web page or else they would not have been able to install it in the first place.

**aleenoor** · 06-09-2017, 09:56 AM

Originally posted by DaveDE2

fyi, after a few weeks my system quit uploading to PVoutput. Some sort of Windows problem (imagine that). So I ditched running SBFspot via my Windows PC and bought a Raspberry PI. Now the PI runs SBFspot and communicates over a wireless lan with the inverters. That's its only job in life and consumes about 2 watts. I'm hoping it will be a lot more reliable.

http://tiny-url.org/liUCW1HV

Hi Dave,
I am feeling lucky to have found this thread. I have 2 SB 6.0 Inverters and would like to upload my data to PV Output. I want a reliable but simple solution. Could you please point me to the right direction. I would really appreciate to be able to benefit from you experience. Thanks.

**DaveDE2** · 06-12-2017, 06:47 PM

The $40 raspberry PI solution works great. Also, the PvOutput app is awesome, about the only thing I look at these days regarding solar.

if possible, post an email address and I'll try to help you get set up.

PvOutput with SMA inverter

PvOutput with SMA inverter

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