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Can I run MobileLink Wifi and Genmon RS-232 at the same time? #183

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jimland58 opened this issue Sep 22, 2018 · 51 comments
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Can I run MobileLink Wifi and Genmon RS-232 at the same time? #183

jimland58 opened this issue Sep 22, 2018 · 51 comments
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Evolution 2.0 Evolution 2.0 question

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@jimland58
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Have a 22kw Generac (7043) with Evolution 2.0 Controller with MobileLink Wifi. The MobileLink is plugged into the 8 pin Port 1 connector on the controller. It appears the MobileLink uses pins 1,2,5,6 and the GenMon RS-232 connection is thru pins 7,8. My question is can I have both the MobileLink and the GenMon connected at the same time and they will both work?
@jgyates
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jgyates commented Sep 22, 2018

Hi @jimland58

Since Evolution 2.0 is so new, I don't have a data point on compatibility. In short, I don't know that it works with 2.0, much less if it will work at the same time as MobileLink WiFi. This thread has some limited 2.0 discussion (#149), but you are the first person that I know of who actually has one installed that has commented in this forum.

If you do decide to try this let me know and I can help you.

@jimland58
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jimland58 commented Sep 22, 2018 via email

@jimland58
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jimland58 commented Sep 23, 2018 via email

@jgyates
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jgyates commented Sep 23, 2018

Thanks for the register dump! It has helped a lot. I can duplicate the problem with the logs in my simulation. I should have an update in the next day or two that will correct this. At a quick glance, the log data looks like it is there, but I am guessing is may be formatted differently. I will investigate this soon.

@jgyates
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jgyates commented Sep 23, 2018

@jimland58

Can you validate that your logs in the controller look like this:

Alarm Log : 
    09/21/18 15:07:46 ESTOP Pressed : Alarm Code: 2800
    08/27/18 17:14:07 Low Battery : Alarm Code: 0000
    03/28/18 19:40:46 Low Battery : Alarm Code: 0000
    03/28/18 19:42:26 Low Battery : Alarm Code: 0000
    01/01/17 00:00:02 ESTOP Pressed : Alarm Code: 2800
    01/01/17 00:00:02 ESTOP Pressed : Alarm Code: 2800

Service Log : 

Start Stop Log : 
    09/23/18 08:45:02 Switched Off 
    09/22/18 09:17:04 Stopped - Auto 
    09/22/18 09:16:46 Switched Off 
    09/22/18 09:15:49 Running - Manual 
    09/21/18 15:09:41 Stopped - Auto 
    09/21/18 14:46:35 Switched Off 
    09/18/18 12:36:29 Stopped - Auto 
    09/18/18 12:30:42 Running - Exercise 
    09/15/18 16:37:12 Stopped - Auto 
    09/15/18 16:37:04 Switched Off 
    09/15/18 16:33:22 Running - Manual 
    09/15/18 16:33:14 Switched Off 
    09/14/18 14:26:08 Stopped - Auto 
    09/14/18 14:25:32 Switched Off 
    09/14/18 14:24:25 Running - Manual 
    09/14/18 14:24:17 Switched Off 
    09/11/18 12:36:22 Stopped - Auto 
    09/11/18 12:30:34 Running - Exercise 
    09/07/18 05:48:28 Stopped - Auto 
    09/07/18 05:48:22 Switched Off 
    09/04/18 12:36:14 Stopped - Auto 
    09/04/18 12:30:27 Running - Exercise 
    08/29/18 19:14:57 Stopped - Auto 
    08/29/18 19:13:09 Switched Off 
    08/28/18 12:36:06 Stopped - Auto 
    08/28/18 12:30:19 Running - Exercise 
    08/28/18 10:00:10 Stopped - Auto 
    08/28/18 09:39:28 Running - Utility Loss 
    08/28/18 09:28:44 Stopped - Auto 
    08/28/18 09:28:37 Switched Off 
    08/28/18 09:22:52 Running - Manual

@jgyates
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jgyates commented Sep 23, 2018

Also, when you have a moment can you enter this URL

http://YOURIPADDRESS:8000/cmd/sendlogfiles

Replace YOURIPADDRESS with the IP address of your pi. This will send me your log files, there may be some info in there that will help..

@jgyates
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jgyates commented Sep 23, 2018

I just checked in an update with some of the things I have found. You log and outage page may be a separate issue, will need to see your log files (see above for how to submit those). You can update the software from the Monitor page.

@jimland58
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jimland58 commented Sep 23, 2018 via email

@jgyates
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jgyates commented Sep 23, 2018

I got your log files. You system is showing some errors that I have seen before when the system is low on disk space. You can check your disk space by issueing the "df" command on the console:

 pi@genmon:~ $ df
 Filesystem     1K-blocks    Used Available Use% Mounted on
 /dev/root       29833596 1559960  27029140   6% /
 devtmpfs          495480       0    495480   0% /dev
 tmpfs             500088       0    500088   0% /dev/shm
 tmpfs             500088   31620    468468   7% /run
 tmpfs               5120       4      5116   1% /run/lock
 tmpfs             500088       0    500088   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
 /dev/mmcblk0p1     43539   22500     21039  52% /boot
 tmpfs             100016       0    100016   0% /run/user/1000

The above is what my system shows when I type "df". If the % use is very hight then you may need to free up disk space or get a larger SD card. Let me know how the test goes.

@jimland58
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jimland58 commented Sep 23, 2018 via email

@jgyates
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jgyates commented Sep 23, 2018

Not for Evo 1.0 air cooled. Transfer switch status only shows up on Evo Liquid Cooled units. We will have to do some additional debugging to see if there are things that the 2.0 controller displays that the 1.0 does not.

Do the log and outage page show up?

@jimland58
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jimland58 commented Sep 23, 2018 via email

@jimland58
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jimland58 commented Sep 23, 2018 via email

@jgyates
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jgyates commented Sep 23, 2018

ok. Let's try this from the genmon directory:

 sudo bash ./genmonmaint.sh install

This will reinstall all of the libraries needed. You can select No when prompted to copy the config files or make genmon start at boot if you have already done this.

Once that is finished then type:

 sudo bash ./genmonmaint.sh updatelibs

this will update the libraries to the latest version.

Then restart the software:

 sudo bash ./startgenmon.sh restart

Then go the to web interface and see if you have logs or an outage page.

@jimland58
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jimland58 commented Sep 23, 2018 via email

@jimland58
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jimland58 commented Sep 23, 2018 via email

@jgyates
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jgyates commented Sep 23, 2018

You can check the file /var/log/genserv.log to see if you have any errors. Werkzeug is related to flask so if you see any odd behavior with the web interface we an look into it, but otherwise I would ignore the errors on updatelibs.

One thing we ca do to make sure we don't have any other outstanding issues is this:

Let it run for a few minutes, and click on every web page, then send your log files again.

On the Maintenance page you should see some info about your generator, if you want to validate this info is correct, that would be helpful. Also making sure your logs displayed in the software match the test in the logs that you view from the controller screen would be useful also. These things will let me know if there are any issue that are not causing errors ,but report incorrect data.

@jgyates
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jgyates commented Sep 23, 2018

you latest logs look good. Only one issue related to your incoming mail settings (see /var/log/mymail.log). This is likely due to the fact that you have an email folder in your settings that does not exist on your inbox. If you don't want to use email to send commands to the generator you can disable incoming email on the settings page and this error will go away. If you want this functionality you can create a mail folder named Generator and another named Generator/Processed (these are the default values, but you can change the names if you like) .

Let me know if you have a chance to validate the info on the web interface with the data from the controller screen.

@jimland58
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jimland58 commented Sep 23, 2018 via email

@jimland58
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jimland58 commented Sep 23, 2018 via email

@jgyates
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jgyates commented Sep 23, 2018

Can you look on the registers page at register 0033, it should be labeled "Unknown Sensor (EvoAC)". Does this value ever change (you can see the history of the registers, but the history is only kept if the web interface is open, you don't have to be on the registers page). Does this decimal value correspond to the ambient temp?

Regarding Hours of Protection, Ambient Temp, Utility Recovery volts, and Charging Status, I have attempted to look for these values before on the Evolution Air Cooled 1.0 controller and I was unable to find them. I have found what the controller exports via modbus varies depending on the controller / firmware variants. The different variants are : Nexus Air Cooled, Nexus Liquid Cooled, Evolution Air Cooled, Evolution Liquid Cooled, and now Evolution 2.0 Air Cooled. To data, Evolution Liquid Cooled exports the most data, but it looks like Evolution 2.0 may be a the one with the second most exported data.

I was able to find the UTIL RECOVERY VOLTS and will post this update shortly, It is labeled Pickup Voltage on the outage page (again some controllers call this pickup voltage, others call it Utility Recovery Voltage, but is is the same thing, the voltage that the controller should assume the utility voltage is restored from a previous outage). It looks like it is in the same modbus register as the Evolution Liquid Cooled Controller. The Hours of Protection is exported by the Evo Liquid Cooled, but at first glance I don't see it in the Evo 2.0.

The data of service due in the other controllers, I had to add one day to the value read from the controller to get it to match up, looks like I don't have to do that with Evo 2.0. This fix will be checked in shortly also.

I have changed the name of the "Start / Stop Log" to the "Run Log". This is just what I called it, but it should probably match the naming convention used by the controller to be consistent. This change will be checked in shortly.

Regarding the "ESTOP Pressed" vs "Auxiliary Shutdown", this is the error text for error code 2800, it all means the same thing, some generac generators call it Emergency Stop and but the Evo 2.0 looks like it is callin it Auxillary Stop. Unless you have an emergency stop button you will likely not see this again (some odd error messages can show up during the generator installation depending on how the controller is powered up so the instance you have in your log now you should be able to ignore). Short story, I will likely leave this labeled that way for now.

Regarding the Engine Run Hours. The Evolution Controller supports reading run hours and run minutes via the modbus. At first glance run minutes does not appear to be exported on Evo 2.0.

Having said all of this, it looks like we have the basic support up and running on Evo 2.0, however we can take this a step farther if you are willing to do some simple tests on your end. These test involve editing /etc/genmon.conf and making this change:

Change this:

enabledebug = False

To

enabledebug = True

this will enable an additional thread in genmon that will read more registers and look for values that change. These values are stored internally and emailed to me. Once the test runs for around 30 min the debug thread will sleep doing nothing. We need to run this test when the system is idle, and again when the generator is running. It does not have to run the engine time, about 10 min should do it.

Another thing we can to that may help determine if the battery charging status is exported is to leave the web interface up in your browser for 24 hours. The register page will color registers that have changed in red (recent changes are deep red , and the red changes to a light red as time passes, black denotes no change). If you hover your mouse over the register you can see a graph of the register over a 10 min, 1 hour and 24 hour range). You can also export the register graphs to a PDF. You can email these to me after it has ran for 24 hours. In the Evolution Liquid Cooled Controller the status of the relay that controller the battery charger is exported via a modbus register, it is not exported in Evo 1.0 Air Cooled. The battery charging cycle last about 18 hours and restarts the 18 hour count if the generator starts so this is a test we would need to run over a period of time that the generator is not going to be operating.

Let me know if you have any questions.

@jgyates
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jgyates commented Sep 23, 2018

Updates are checked in.. let me know if you have any problems.

@jgyates
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jgyates commented Sep 23, 2018

I forgot to mention, if you turn on enabledebug you also have to have Automated Feedback enabled on the Settings page. This enables the software to email me if really strange errors happen. Automated Feedback will email me of the debug thread is enabled and when it is not enabled if any of these conditions occur:

  • You generator has information in the model ID register that is not know by the software
  • You generator has an engine state unknown to the software
  • Your generator has an alarm condition not known by the software
  • You generator has a log entry not know by the software

@jgyates
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jgyates commented Sep 23, 2018

I checked in one final change. If you enable the "Display Unknown Sensors" on the settings page, a new section of data will show up on the Status page titled "Unsupported Sensors". this is where I display values that I am not sure about. There is an alternate method for determining the battery charging status tha works on Evo LC, but not others that I have found. It monitors the current transfomer for the battery charger to determine if the charger is active. I put this and two candidates for ambient temp in the "Unsupported Sensors" section for Evo 2.0 controllers.

@jimland58
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jimland58 commented Sep 23, 2018 via email

@jimland58
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jimland58 commented Sep 23, 2018 via email

@jgyates
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jgyates commented Sep 23, 2018

ok. I will. I assume the Ambient Temp is in Farenheit?

@jimland58
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Yes, it is in Farenheit

@jgyates
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jgyates commented Sep 24, 2018

I have enough data now for the case where the generator is not running. It does not look like the hours of protection is exported via modbus. When debug is enabled, software polls the first 8000 mod bus registers looking for changes. Nothing looks like a value incrementing once every hour.

Give me a day to digest the info I have and then we can try the debug test again with the generator running. For now you can set enabledebug = False in /etc/genmon.conf and restart.

@jimland58
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Thanks for checking for the Hours of Protection register. Not a big deal not knowing this one.

I've disabled the debug so I'll report back tomorrow and see how it goes over 24 hrs.

@jimland58
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I just saw where the webpage stopped working and when I ran genloader is said genmon was already running but started genserv. Genserv log file showed this error:

2018-09-24 15:31:30,230 : Error in app.run: [Errno 5] Input/output error : genserv.py:896

@jgyates
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jgyates commented Sep 24, 2018

OK. I will add this to the list. This is related to the Flask library not shutting down properly. The longer term fix is to make flask use apache, but I have not gotten around to that yet. Using flask does have it's limitations when used in a stand alone web server, but the plus side it it is very simple to setup and reliable once it is working.

@jimland58
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Updated to V1.10.7 and everything seems to be working as configured with my 22kW Generac generator with the Evolution 2.0 controller. It did it's weekly exercise today for 5 minutes and I got all the text messages reporting this happening and I also saw the Voltage, Frequency and RPM indicators on the Status webpage responding.

Thanks for developing, sharing and providing outstanding support on this fantastic project!

@jimland58
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More good news! I connected the MobileLink WiFi and Gemon which both use the same 8 pin port on the Evolution 2.0 controller (different PIN numbers) and they both work at the same time.

Next is to test Genmon while performing a Utility Undervoltage transfer to check that it reads all real time values from the generator (I.e. volts, frequency, kW, rpm’s, etc.)

@jgyates
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jgyates commented Sep 30, 2018

@jimland58

That is good new. Thanks for the update on Evo 2.0. Let me know how the tests go.

@jgyates jgyates mentioned this issue Sep 30, 2018
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@jgyates
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jgyates commented Oct 4, 2018

Closing this issue, feel free to comment here if you have any additional data.

@jgyates jgyates closed this as completed Oct 4, 2018
@jonathanpisarczyk
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More good news! I connected the MobileLink WiFi and Gemon which both use the same 8 pin port on the Evolution 2.0 controller (different PIN numbers) and they both work at the same time.

Next is to test Genmon while performing a Utility Undervoltage transfer to check that it reads all real time values from the generator (I.e. volts, frequency, kW, rpm’s, etc.)

Hey @jimland58 can you send a picture of how you connected both MobileLink and Genmon? I'd like to do the same thing.

@jonathanpisarczyk jonathanpisarczyk mentioned this issue Feb 4, 2019
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@jgyates jgyates mentioned this issue Dec 5, 2019
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@waynewarburton
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I'm just fabricating a Raspberry Pi system for my 20KW Generac ad came across this string.
To clarify, "MobileLink uses pins 1,2,5,6 and the GenMon RS-232 connection is thru pins 7,8". Using this information with the Evolution 2.0 Controller, we could just cut the existing manufacturer's wires connected to terminals #7 and #8 and extend/reroute them to our serial port (#2 and #3 on the RS232)?

@jgyates
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jgyates commented Dec 6, 2019

Yes, as long as you also use pin 2 (ground). This page has the pinout: https://github.com/jgyates/genmon/wiki/3.1--Making-a-Cable

@waynewarburton
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waynewarburton commented Dec 6, 2019 •
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If I'm using the generator's battery to power the Pi, should be able to get away without using the pin (2) gnd?

@jgyates
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jgyates commented Dec 6, 2019

I do not know for sure, but I would guess no. The answer depends on how the USB battery power supply is wired internally (are the two grounds isolated across the internal transformer?) and how the controllers RS-232 circuit is designed (is the RS-232 isolated from the battery ground?). Since I do not know the answer to these two questions I use the ground on the controller and power the pi from the battery. In short, you could try, but if you see comm errors then you then add the ground from the connector.

@waynewarburton
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Thanks for the speedy response!

@deh2025
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deh2025 commented Feb 9, 2024

I am thinking of doing same on new 26kw Generac, allowing Mobile Link and Genmon to run simultaneously. I am planning to use a Pi 3B+ in conjunction with a HAT and Molex cable fabricated by PintSize.Me. Shoutout to PintSize.Me for their excellent support! I am considering remoting the Pi in the house given the generator's close proximity to house. I have both power and signal at the location power enters the house. If I understand the previous threads correctly, I should be able to port signal and ground from the generator to the Pi via DB-9 to RS-232 to RS-442 then back RS-442 to RS-232 to TTL via a Cat 5e or better shielded cable. Unless there is a simpler method is available. Any input would be greatly appreciated!

@skipfire
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skipfire commented Feb 9, 2024

If you are looking for an off-the-shelf option I (PintSize) also sell an RJ45 Splitter/Adapter designed specifically for the use case you describe. It lets you use Ethernet cables to do distance runs, but to be clear it is not a network device, just uses network cables. It functions as a splitter to let you keep MobileLink and also adapts the 8-pin Molex to 8-pin RJ45 and back again. https://pintsize.me/store/ols/products/generator-splitterinjector/v/GSI-RJ4-SPL

@deh2025
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deh2025 commented Feb 9, 2024 via email

@skipfire
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skipfire commented Feb 9, 2024

@deh2025 the RJ45 splitter/adapter has a splitter that goes in the generator, similar to the one you have except the GenMon side has an RJ45 plug instead of a Molex plug. This would keep MobileLink at your generator (with the installs I've seen it's not easily removed or leaves a big hole if it is). Then it also comes with an RJ45 ejector that has an RJ45 port on one end and an 8-pin Molex on the other to get it back to the Molex that the HAT accepts. The RJ45 Splitter/Adapter is expected to have power on the other end and should not be powered over the Molex in this case due to the extra power loss from the longer wire run.

I also have 3 units of a HAT designed for use away from the generator that includes an opto-isolator to completely segregate the electrical of the generator from the electrical of the Pi. The HAT is quite a bit different and hasn't had a full production run because I haven't seen interest in the product, it has very different fan support, no 1-Wire temperature support, and has a single channel analog input (such as for a tank monitor) tied to an ADC1115 chip. If you are interested in swapping out what you just got feel free to contact me directly and we can work something out.

@k5map
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k5map commented May 18, 2024

Has anyone in the SW or South experienced a heat issue with the RPi being installed inside the generator enclosure?

@skipfire
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skipfire commented May 18, 2024 •
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@k5map I'm outside New Orleans and have no problem with mine inside the enclosure or attached to the outside of the enclosure. The only time it overheated was after Hurricane Ida when shut down after 6 days and then the lack of airflow through the engine let the radiant heat of the engine spike the air temp, opened the lid for an hour and it was fine.

@k5map
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k5map commented May 18, 2024

@skipfire... ok that's great news... one additional question; do you have your RPi in case or just mounted with open air flow?

@skipfire
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When inside the enclosure I had an acrylic base plate with magnets just holding it onto a metal plate under the controller. Right now I have a plastic electrical box on the back of the generator to facilitate easy access when I need to test something. The enclosure is a big faraday cage so moving it on the outside gained about 20db of WiFi strength.

@k5map
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k5map commented May 18, 2024

@skipfire... much thanks again for answering my questions.

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@jgyates @skipfire @jimland58 @k5map @jonathanpisarczyk @waynewarburton @deh2025