1. Introduction
I take no responsability in case of injury, damage, death or anything that could happen resulting from trying things described here.
This is not the usual disclaimer. The voltage inside the inverter can really kill you.
Work on an inverter should only be performed by qualified people according to the precautions set forth in the inverter manual. In particular, the inverter MUST be disconnected from both the solar panels and the mains power for at least HALF AN HOUR before opening its cover. The connections inside the inverter also must be made with extreme care so that they remain completely insulated from high voltages inside the inverter.
If you dont understand where the danger exactly lies, please request that a professional performs the intervention.
It's the contraction for SMA MySQL Logger. A logger for SMA Inverters using a MySQL database.
In late 2010, we decided to install photovoltaic panels to reduce our carbon footprint (how poetic ;-)), among other things.
Although we subscribed to a remote system monitoring contract, that monitoring has a few drawbacks (logging done via the output counter, so only the output power is available, non-realtime (daily update), only 7 days of history, etc.)
I then tried to see what information I could get directly from the inverter, the aim being to interface it with my Synology NAS that happens to sit right next to it.
So this project is a record of my experience in achieving this goal, in the hope it can help others...
Click for a larger version - Click here to see a video of the logger in action
