Looking for 12 volt DC Sensor that reports in to Hubitat

If you're open to Node-red, you can interface this voltmeter to HE.
I have the modbus version for DC, accurate and fast reading, provides V & A, so W and also kWh summary in real time

any cheap rs485 to rs232 will work

Peacefair node-red

Thanks! I haven’t touched Node-red yet, so probably not something for me at this stage. However, I’m sure others will come along eventually that might be interested to know about it!

Just thinking out loud here, but if you end up realizing/thinking that you don't really need all this connected to Hubitat, they DO make super cheap controllers to do exactly what you're looking for, like this from Amazon.

I have various cheaper timers that you program by tapping wires together. Solid-state, non-volatile memory, etc. Useful for stuff in my car, like allowing a tablet to charge for a certain amount of turning off ignition, etc. The ones I currently own do not work with voltage cut-offs, but I've seen them around.

Perhaps something along those lines exists you can get for like $10. the ESP8266 is a neat idea, but they draw much more power than the tiny things I'm talking about, that look something like this.

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Wow! This is an excellent option! Buying one right now. I’ll still use the Hubitat connection, and have this as a backup at a lower/higher voltage.

I'm sure your charge controller does all this stuff for you, but if you were DIYing it a bit, you could actually use the cut-off to prevent low-voltage from even hitting the charger.

I love reading about solar stuff, and how people wire them up. I always found it crazy when they were set up in massive series, where if even one panel got blocked, it would kill the whole thing. I'd think it makes more sense to keep the voltage lower, with more parallel circuits, then run thicker wire to the charge controller. (Assuming the distance isn't cost prohibitive.)

Anyhow, good luck!

Thanks! I’ve only got one panel, so not to worried about running it in series vs parallel... :smiley:

I had the inverter plugged to the charge controller initially, but it worked for a bit, then stopped working and I had to reboot it, and the cycle re-started. I learned since that it is not a good idea to plug the inverter to the charge controller. Not sure I ever found out why though...

I wanted to learn how solar works and since I learn better from doing, I got myself a panel that I put in place on my wall using my old dish arm. Works great and makes it easy to setup the angle!

It’s a pretty simple setup, but I think I have an inverter that is too powerful for my setup, so it kept draining my battery.

I started shutting down the inverter at night, but want something that will work better, hence this thread.

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ah yeah typically you'd have a BMS/charge-controller combo that can do the low-voltage cut-off, etc. Depending on your setup, you might have to connect the inverter straight to the battery with the module I linked.

Seems fun. I still haven't purchased any solar, because I rent and not sure a small panel does me any good.

I can confirm that, in my case anyway, it doesn’t do much. I had to make some changes to save my battery a while back, and ended up just being on solar for a few minute per day... It should be better now though. I haven’t spent much time tweaking the settings back to their default values.