Data logging for a epSolar Tracer 4210

Projects General Guidance
1

so in a effort to boost the efficiency of my home-brew solor system I purchased a tracer 4210
unfortunately it doesn't offer any data-logging so I set about googling and researching and I stumbled across this post which isn't english and google translate makes it hard to follow
http://www.energialternativa.org/Public/NewForum/Discussione.php?211451&3
theirs a skech included but little understandable detail about the what exactly he did
I also found several references about the protocall.

as well as a github for some kind of usb-ttl wrapper ( I think) .. also abandoned ... sigh

so my question is what am I looking at to make this all play nice
Ideally it needs to log the following
rate of charge in percent over x time
panel voltage
panel input amperage
panel in amprage
battery charge amprage
all time stamped and saved to the tf storage
I have moderate (pure c) programming experience but I have never really had the pleasure of getting down and dirty with ARDUINO
currently I have the following sitting in my amazon cart..
one ARDUINO R3 uno ATMEGA
one rtc shield
one TF reader shield
*not sure on the TTL cable yet can't make sense of what he used
thx -bob

2

so I ordered the uno R3,rtc and tf
now what I need is to make sense of the wiring
anybody?

3

Here is a great "Serial Data Logger":
http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=252905.0

http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=281091.msg1973467#msg1973467

This basically puts the data logging function on an external Arduino.
All you have to do is send your data (in the the text format you want) out on the serial port.

4

the output from the MPPT ins't serial tho I am not sure what it is ... supposedly the skech does the datalogginb but the code isn't commented in english

still don't know how to wired up the RJ45 cable to the uno
he neglects to list pinouts

5

ok so further reading indicates I don't need to use a TTL cable a strait Ethernet cable will work
so now I am getting down to the nitty gritty to what pins on the u3 do I connect the Ethernet cable
he has it wired like so its hard to tell from the pictures
does anybody have a pin out I can follow ...

I plan on skipping the rj54 connector and just using jumper connectors

I will also be using a plugin style rtc/datalogging combo shield that I found on ebay
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Data-Logger-Module-Logging-Shield-Data-Recorder-Shield-for-Arduino-UNO-SD-Card-/400556844893?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5d430c675d
so what I need now is a schematic
also is that combo shield going to be a issue for the sketch I have ?

6

wiring pinout ?

link came from the instructable link to github

7

I know the pinout for the cable but what I need to know is what pins to connect the cable to the arduino
also will that combo shield be a problem

8

Hi all,

I just accidentially came across this thread and although it's quite old, I just wanted to give some feedback, in case anyone is still interested.

I also have an epsolar tracer (3215RN) and I just finished my data logger: Arduino connected to tracer display (resp. data) port saving a set of values every 5 seconds to a mySQL database. Two arduinos showing everything on 4 OLED displays (SSD1306) in a 'black box'. And 2 web pages for live and day view. Here're some pictures:

tracer and black box
black box only
wire plan (made with fritzing)
web live view
web day view

If anyone's still interested, just let me know...

Have sun :slight_smile:
Oliver

9

@owitte

I'm also working on reading data from a Tracer-2210RN

i'm very curious, how did you embed the images in the web pages??

10

Anyone working on a version to use with the Tracer 2215 BN?

11

can u send mo the code sir. jlj0425@yahoo.com.ph

12

Waking this one again. Any code would be really appreciated! Been looking around and there is some bits and pieces to be found but nothing really finalized....