FTC Trackers

Plugin to read FTC Solar Voyager zone controllers and connected tracker

Purpose

The purpose of this plugin is to collect data from FTC Solar "Voyager" model trackers and zone controllers (ZCs) via Modbus.

Usage

This plugin reads data from the FTC Zone Controller (ZC). It reads both the ZC data and the data from the trackers connected to it. It uses the Modbus specification, and collects data via TCP. It will be run every 5 minutes, by default. Sensor data will be collected to the tracker table. There are different configuration files reflecting the different number of trackers connected to each ZC. The following configuration files available are for trackers with the following number of trackers: 41, 99.

The ZC data is split between a 5 minute frequency config file and a 1 minute frequency config file. The 5 minute frequency data being collected is listed here:

Variable Name               	Units
=====================================
Zone ID		    					
Latitude								
Longitude								
Altitude			m		
Plant Location							
Hardware Version						
Software Version						
Wind Direction		        °		
Flood Level		        mm		
Snow Depth		        mm		
Ambient Temperature		°C		
Rainfall			mm		
Solar Radiation			W/m^2	
System Time in EPOCH		s		
Total No of Rows						
Battery Voltage			V		
PV Voltage		        V		
BQ Upload Error						
BQ Connection Error					
Wi-Fi Hot Spot Error					
Zigbee 2 Error							
Zigbee 1 Error							
Snow Sensor Above Threshold			
Snow Sensor Connection Error			
Flood Sensor Above Threshold			
Flood Sensor Connection Error			
Wind Sensor Above Threshold			
Wind Sensor Connection Error			
GPS Time Sync Error					
NTP Time Sync Error					
DLTS Service Enabled					
BT High Temperature					
SD Storage Limit Exceeded				
PV Voltage Error						
Battery Voltage Unhealthy				
DB Storage Limit Exceeded				
DB Connection Error					
Time Zone								
Number of Active Rows					
Offline								
Auto									
Manual									
Wind Stow								
Emergency Stow							
Snow Stow								
Clean Stow								
Night Stow								
Hail Stow								
Idle									
Commerror Stow							
Cycle Test								
Arom									
Wlock Stow								
Wlock Rel								
Rstmanual								
Lock-Calib								
Lowbat									

The 1 minute ZC data being collected is listed below.

Variable Name       Units
=========================
Wind Speed			m/s

The tracker data being collected is listed below.

Variable Name       			Units
=============================================
Tracker ID		    				
Latitude							
Longitude							
Altitude				m	
Device ID		    				
Present Angle				°	
Present Timestamp					
Battery Voltage				V	
PV Voltage				V	
Tracker Mode	    				
SPA Present	    			°	
SPA Targeted	    			°	
Battery SOC						
Status								
Over Current Fault					
Minimum Battery Voltage			
Over Board Temperature Fault		
Motor Stall Fault					
Zigbee Fault						
Communication Fault				
Inclinometer Fault					
SPI Flash Memory Fault				
OTA Fault							
EEPROM Fault						
RTC Fault							
Unknown Fault						
Low Battery Stow Fault				
Mechanical Overload Fault			
Battery Charger Fault				
Estop Fault						
BLE Fault							
External EEPROM Fault				
Mechanical Overload Occurred		

Arguments

Arguments are as follows:

• endpoint. This is either a serial device like /dev/ttyS0 or an IP or DNS like 192.168.1.15

• Configuration File: This is a file that matches the SPCs in the NCU, for the Nextracker.

• --port. This is an optional parameter used in an Ethernet gateway, and is the TCP port used for the gateway. Default is 502

• --attempts. This is an optional parameter, and determines how many times to times to attempt to read an inverter value. Default is 1

• --delay. This is the delay in seconds between inverter send and receive commands, AND if attempts > 1. Fractions like 0.3 can be used. Default is 0.05