raspberry pi 2 for solar pannels?

hi i have a question about useing a raspberry pi 2 for looking on and keeping track of some solar pannel and if it can or has been done yet ?

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0 gadget.iom over 10 years ago

The real question is whether or not you need something as powerful as a Raspberry Pi to do this.
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0 rew over 10 years ago in reply to gadget.iom

Well Paul, I'd say that modern people would after gathering the data want to present it to the user in a usable way. If possible "from anywhere". That would mean "network" and tcpip stack. Then a "complete linux system" becomes very attractive. Just present the info as a web page, all the rest is "standard" (poke a hole in the router, etc).

(The "other" way would be to use an arduino with and SD card. That would mean regular "walk up to the thing, take the SD card, download the data, plug it back in". Way less convenient. Or equip the arduino with an ethernet shield. Then you run into codesize problems if you program the webserver yourself there. Or you need another computer to log and present the data. A raspberry pi for instance.... )
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0 gadget.iom over 10 years ago in reply to rew

This is very true. But the Raspberry Pi's lack of native ADC support would cause me to look at other avenues as well.
This is one of many occasions where the host hardware has been selected as the solution before the question has been fully considered.

Some basic research (using a term such as "raspberry pi solar panel monitor") yielded 152,000 in 0.40 seconds, so the question about wether it has been done yet is basically null and void.

There are plenty of articles out there such as:
https://hackaday.io/project/2333-my-off-grid-solar-system-monitoring
http://www.briandorey.com/post/Raspberry-Pi-Solar-Data-Logger.aspx
http://ictoblog.nl/raspberry-pi/raspberrypi-pvoutput
https://binaryfury.wann.net/2014/04/solarbatteryload-power-logging-with-raspberry-pi-and-ina219/
http://www.switchdoc.com/project-curacao-solar-power-subsystem-part-2/
http://www.monkeysandgorillas.com/index.php/2013/10/24/raspberry-pi-setup-to-monitor-aurora-pvi-5000-solar-inverter-part-3/
http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/125937/solar-power-monitoring-with-raspberry-pi
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0 michaelkellett over 10 years ago in reply to rew

The other, other way would be to use a simple micro (Arduino if you like) and a little WiFi adapter board (about £2-3 from China).

MK
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0 rew over 10 years ago in reply to gadget.iom

I'm not so worried about the "analog inputs" issue. First there are plenty of analog input addons for raspberry pi. Second: you most likely don't have analog interfaces to the solar panels anyway. Most likely you have a serial connection from the inverter that gives you regular updates on what the solar panels are doing.

@michael: .... and then you can use a raspberry pi to collect and store the data.... ??? :-)
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0 michaelkellett over 10 years ago in reply to rew

No, I'll use a PC or a MAC or a phone or a BBB or a clay tablet - anything but a PI !

More seriously it all rather depends on the application - if it's a one off for fun then use whatever you know best, Pi or Arduino - neither is ideal but cheapness and familiarity count for a lot - if it has to be reliable, manufactureable, maintainable and secure then neither Pi or Arduino is a good choice.

MK
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0 gadget.iom over 10 years ago in reply to rew

https://github.com/Nurgak/Electricity-usage-monitor
Not a Pi in sight.
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