# Tristart MPPT Charger

### Purpose

The purpose of this plugin is to collect data from Morningstar’s TriStar MPPT battery charger.

### Usage

This plugin reads the data from Morningstar’s TriStar MPPT battery charger. It uses the Modbus TCP Specification, and collects from RS485 or TCP connected units. Data will be collected to the `storage` table, and will be run every 5 minutes, by default. This plugin relies on the `Modbus Ardexa` plugin. The following data is collected from the units:

```
Variable Name               Units
=================================
Battery Voltage             V
Array Voltage               V
Battery Current             A
Array Current               A
Heatsink Temp               °C
RTS Temp                    °C
Regulator Temp              °C
Fault Status
Charger Status
```

### 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`
* `bus_addresses`. An RS485 address in the range 2-63. This can be a hyphenated list like `3-10` or a list like `2,5,7,9`
* `--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`