ICC-PI V4 & ICC-GPIO MQTT RELAY CONTROL (software only)

Solar systems have taken off at a rapid pace, with a need in the market for a Voltronics monitoring system to record, gather and store information.

Intelligent Customised Coding (ICC) have proudly been able to fill this gap with our comprehensive and user friendly monitoring system that not only allows the User to remotely monitor their inverters, batteries and data, but also allows data to be sent to the Installer, who can intervene if problems arise.

Pi

• ICC Pi was developed as it offers a compact solution for monitoring your solar system. The main advantages of using ICC Pi is:

Main Advantages:

• Cost:

• The total cost of a Raspberry Pi is relatively cheap. The general Kit supplied for ICC Pi consists of the following:
  • Raspberry Pi Model 4
  • Micro SD Card 16GB.
  • Raspberry Pi enclosure.
  • Power supply.
• Additional options include:
  • Touch screen LCD Monitor.
  • Raspberry Pi cooling components.

• Stability:
  • The Raspberry Pi with either Raspbian Jessie or Stretch have proven themselves to be both stable and reliable.

ICC support most Voltronic inverters.

With ICC you can do the following:

• Monitor multiple solar systems on a single dashboard, perfect for installers that need to monitor all of their installations at once.
• Upload everything happening in your solar system to the internet in real-time. You can view the data from any web browser (local or cloud).
• Monitor your solar system with IOS or Android app directly on your phone.
• Will warn you of any faults in your system.
• Support for Victron Energy BMV battery monitor, used for true state of charge (SOC) monitoring.
• MQTT for live display values. For Android devices you can use MQTT dash.
• Switch between grid and battery mode based on time setting or state of charge.

ICC Features

• Real-time monitoring of all the different power sources in use in a solar system (solar panels, batteries, grid power, etc).
• Calculating the total cost savings brought about by the solar system.
• Can gather over 50 different values from every connected inverter.
• All data is captured, stored and can be exported for a specific time period.
• Multiple dashboards available anywhere in the world presenting everything happening in the system in real-time.
• Specific monitoring of the batteries in use.
• Can monitor up to 9 inverters in parallel.
• Support for a host of different Voltronic inverters, including the new InfiniSolar 4 Super inverter.
• Can monitor grid tie as well as hybrid inverters.
• Support for both Blue Nova and Pylontech batteries with true SOC and voltage monitoring.
• Hourly trend analysis of the load, the solar panels, the batteries as well as the utility consumption and/or production.

ICC Pi compatible Raspberry Pi devices:

• Raspberry Pi 4

The GPIO application function was specifically designed to enable the general Raspberry Pi user to switch relays on and off in certain conditions directly from the Raspberry Pi. Now support MQTT.
With this in mind we need to understand that this is for users who are at least a little bit technically inclined.
It will involve the user to connect the relays with jumper wires to the Raspberry Pi, while still ensuring they adhere to general safety standards during this process.
In short the Relays need to be of type 5V DC coil with the ability to switch 240 VAC and at least 1,5 times the Ampere rating of the device intended to be connected.

With the hardware part out of the way, let us look at the software/control side.
Once the file is downloaded, all the user needs to do is extract the executable and copy it over to the Pi in question.
Once the user run the application, it can be configured to switch the relays as setup by the user using all the options included in the application.