Solar Powered Computers

Purpose

The purpose of this plugin is to read from the Kirkton Power Board. This is used to manage solar powered computers.

Usage

Data is collected from the Kirkton power board via serial USB. It will automatically identify a connected Kirkton board via its unique USB signature, and connect to the USB port. The discover and log features of the plugin will collect data from the serial port, which is streamed continuously, write the log to the cloud and return. During a log operation, if a low battery signal is received, the plugin will issue a Linux shutdown command to the host computer, to save battery power and undertake a graceful shutdown. The Kirtkton board will repower the computer when there is sufficient charge. A shutdown will not be issued during a discovery. For compatability purposes, Values21 and Values22 telemetry data are both able to be collected. This plugin collects the following telemetry data from the Kirkton Power Board. All data will be sent to the power_board table.

Variable name, type and units              Example
===============================================================
identifier(keyword:)                       values21
Battery voltage(decimal:V)                 13.284
Battery current(decimal:A)                 -0.08
PV voltage(decimal:V)                      10.31
PV current(decimal:A)                      0.01
Mainboard voltage(decimal:V)               5.16
Mainboard current(decimal:mA)              141
Irradiation sensor voltage(decimal:V)      0.00
Powerboard PCB temperature(decimal:C)      28.00
Mainboard PCB temperature(decimal:C)       23.67
Irradiation sensor temperature(decimal:C)  -999.0
USB Port Status(keyword:)                  11111100
State of Charge(decimal:%)                 98.96
SMB Bus Alert(bool:)                       0
Charge State(keyword:)                     charger suspended
Charge Status(keyword:)                    ok
System Status code(keyword:)               2211
Charger State Alert code(keyword:)         0
Charger Status Alert code(keyword:)        0
Limit Alert code (keyword:)                0
Battery chemistry(keyword:)                LiFePO4 programmable
Battery cells(integer:)                    4
State of Health(decimal:%)                 99
Measuring system active(bool:)             1
MPPT active(bool:)                         1
QC Test(keyword:)                          47453
Pulse WD(integer:)
Mode_State(keyword:)                       Mode 0: Normal
WD_Counter(integer:)                       0
Shutdown(keyword:)                         ok

The kirkton_ardexa script will also enable control of the USB ports. To turn on/off a USB device use the command: kirkton_ardexa control-usb 2 on

Arguments

The plugin takes no arguments for the discover and log commands. The control-usb command takes 2 arguments:

• usb_port. This is an integer number greater than 0.

• action. This is either on or tog (toggle ie; turn off then on again)