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ProcessPV

ProcessPV is a utility to enable data logging from Fronius inverters. These are typically used with Photo-Voltaic (PV) installations - in other words, solar panels. The utility can show you summary information locally, or upload it to http://pvoutput.org/ where it will create all sorts of pretty graphical summaries.

Fronius offer data-logging facilities themselves, but they're a rather expensive add on. By default the inverters have no external data interfaces, but they do have space to add expansion cards, much like the expansion cards in a PC. Fronius offer a range of cards, including a general purpose RS-422 card (used to link multiple inverters together) and a relatively simple RS-232 card (to get data out of a single inverter).

This utility is intended for use with the RS-232 card. In addition to that you will need.

• Null modem cable
• USB <=> Serial converter (assuming your computer has no serial port)
• Linux computer (e.g. Sheevaplug, RaspberryPi)

Obviously you could use a much more powerful computer, but since it needs to be on all the time it makes sense to use something which uses as little power as possible.

You also need a copy of the Fslurp utility, which is available from SourceForge - http://fslurp.sourceforge.net/

The main analysis script is written in Ruby, and is tested to work with both Ruby 1.8 and Ruby 1.9. More details about how it works are here