10Kw of Solar Power in the Santa Cruz Mountains!

I need Help!

I need more information.

Help: Above is a sample image of what the live data page should look like. If you aren't getting something like that, then you may need some help:

Symptom	Potential Solution
I'm only getting a placeholder or gray background rectangle, or nothing at all.	All of the data is presented by a Java applet. The applet must download and run correctly in order for you to see any live data. The download of the java applet failed the first time. Try refreshing this page. You have no java runtime in your browser. You'll have to find a java runtime plug in or obtain a different browser that supports java. Your browser is configured to require security certificates to run applets. Because this applet is not mine, but supplied to me by SMA Regelsysteme of Germany, I cannot supply a certificate. You must configure your browser to allow java applets to run without obtaining a certificate. This may allow others to breach the security of your PC.
I get the background picture, but no data is shown. I get a small dialog box that says Server not available! There may be firewall problems!	The Java applet must communicate successfully with the Castle Power System server in order to put up any data. The Java applet communicates with the server over TCP Port 18500. This port must be open on your PC in order for the communication to work. You may have a firewall program that has this port closed. Opening this port should not provide a security hole that someone can use against your PC. You may be using a Proxy Server to access the internet, and it may be configured to prevent use of TCP Port 18500. Talk to your ISP/Network Administrator about opening this port.
The bottom panel acts weird sometimes.	You may be (accidentally) clicking in the bottom panel. Clicking on one of the 5 panes causes that pane (and any nearby ones) to get magnified by about 2x. You can get back to the normal view by right clicking.

Info: If you are getting live data, then perhaps you're just wondering about what it all means. Refer to the picture at the top of the page while reading below:

• The upper left panel, with the graph, shows the system output over about the last hour.
• The upper right panel shows a number of parameters about the system, updated whenever the graph is updated (approximately once per minute):
  • Current Power: Instantaneous power output from the system
  • Energy Today: number of kilowatt-hours generated today
  • Total Energy: total number of kilowatt-hours the system has produced over its lifetime
  • Operating Time: total number of hours the system has been on (eg, at least one inverter has been active)
  • Total CO2 Reduction: this is approximately the amount of CO₂ that was not emitted into the atmosphere because the power wasn't generated by burning coal.
  • Operating Days: the number of days that the system has been on. Note that the system may not be on for a fixed number of hours every day.
  • Error: an error code will appear here if there's a fault in the system
  • Mode: an indication of what the overall system is doing
• The bottom panel has 5 panes spread (seemingly) randomly over the background picture. In fact, the four lower panes each represent an inverter, and are (roughly) aligned with the racks their inverter controls.
  • The upper left pane provides overall system data, and restates a lot of the data in the upper right panel. Power On is the number of times the Sunny Boy Control unit has power cycled. Since it stays plugged in, it's unusual for it to be down. This can happen during a power outage or when I have to clean around the unit.
  • The 4 lower panes each represent one inverter. Each inverter controls 2 racks, one below and one above, in the photo. The data items the panes have refer only to the output of their individual 24 panels and inverter:
    • Pac is the instantaneous AC power being emitted from the inverter to the grid. The sum of the four inverters is what is reported in the upper left pane.
    • Ipv is the instantaneous DC amperage that the inverter is seeing as an input
    • E-Total is the cumulative energy generated over the life of the panels
    • h-Total is the number of operating hours the inverter has been running
    • Power On provides the number of power cycles the inverter has gone through. Note that this is at least once a day. It may also power cycle for grid power failures, when it's down for maintenance, and when the sun is blocked by intense atomospheric events (eg, dark, heavy rain)
    • Mode is a keyword to indicate what the inverter is doing right now
      • Mpp - Maximum Power Point, indicates that the inverter is operating correctly and has found the optimal power generation level
      • Mpp-Search - the inverter is still looking for the optimal generating level
      • Waiting - the inverter senses that the panels are energized, and that the grid is on, but is waiting for its circuits to stabilize
      • Synchronizing - as above, but the inverter is synchronizing frequency of its generated AC power with the AC on the grid
      • --- (three dashes) - no power is being generated and the inverter is shut down; or, communication to the inverter is lost
  • The colors of the panes represent power levels. The following strip gives an indication of what the colors mean:
    

    Blue background represents the lowest power output, gradating up to thehighest output in red.
    |	|	|
    0 Kw	5 Kw	10 Kw

  • You can left click to enlarge a pane, right click to return to normal size.
  
  
  
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