Mac, I have installed several Rosie and Hawkes Bay systems, all with Powerflo16 batteries. The Powerflo16 batteries are great, and it’s easy to extract BMS data to other platforms such as Schneider and Victron. I wish they had some sort of standalone user interface other than a SOC bargraph, but that’s just because I like screens on my individual devices.
The Hawkes Bay and Rosie products seem robust and well designed, but I’m underwhelmed by the user interface, which seems both somewhat confusing and also lacking in the abundance of features and incredibly detailed settings that we’ve come to expect from Midnite. All settings have to be changed from the MNGP2 interface, and there is only one battery setting page for all linked devices, which makes sense but takes some getting used to. Firmware updates are fairly easy through Bluetooth and a smartphone app, but you have to have wifi on site for it to work. Battery coms were easy, but you have to use a special cable that comes with the batteries and you have to plug it in the right way, and there are no instructions about any of these things, other than some labels on the cables. Once it was properly connected, the BMS data just appeared in the MNGP2 SOC field, but there is no information to reassure you that the BMS is actually controlling the charge and discharge settings of the inverter and charge controller. I had to call Midnite tech support multiple times to get confirmation on various things that seemed critical. With other brands of batteries you would likely need to make up special connection cables depending on whether the coms are CAN or RS485. My biggest gripe, though, is the fact that there is not a native monitoring platform solution. Midnite stopped development on their own Combox device and you have to use the third party Solar Assistant platform with an Orange or Raspberry Pi device as the web gateway. It’s not overly hard to set up, but gathering all the various parts and paying for a Solar Assistant license is annoying and time consuming. Then all you get is read-only monitoring that is tailored for monitoring grid-tied AIO devices, so there are blank data fields here and there on the Solar Assistant Dashboard. There is no way to change settings remotely and the Solar Assistant dashboard feels very bare-bones. The lack of a full featured monitoring and control solution for these products in this era feels like a major fail. The other shortcoming of the Rosie system is that there is no provision for communications with the Classic line of charge controllers. If you don’t feel you need a 600V charge controller like the Hawkes Bay or Barcelona you can’t use a Classic and link it to the other devices. It has to run standalone, which means you can’t use BMS data to control charging, etc. Maybe not a big issue in the scheme of things, but annoying to not have compatible coms across a product line. I have always been a Midnite Solar enthusiast, and I had high expectations for the Rosie/Hawkes Bay/Barcelona line, but I was a bit let down by the actual products. I have not used the AIO yet, but I understand that it has a completely different monitoring solution that actually works well. Luke Christy Renewable energy consultant NABCEP Certified PV Installation Professional™: Solar Gain Services, LLC PO Box 531 Monte Vista, CO 81144 719.588.3044 sgsrenewab...@gmail.com > On Mar 27, 2025, at 7:21 AM, Mac Lewis via RE-wrenches > <re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote: > > Hello Wrenches, > > I would appreciate opinions about the Midnite product line up, strengths and > weaknesses in regard to off-grid deployment. > 1. Midnite AIO > 2. Midnite Rosie, Barcelona, Hawkes Bay system > 3. How is the online monitoring/control platform for these systems? Last I > checked it was in development, but its been a while. Can you adjust system > parameters remotely? Receive warning/error emails? > 4. Any issues with battery communications? > > Generally, Im a big fan of Midnite, I really like how you can call them and > talk with someone smart. > > Thanks in advance! > > -- > > > > Mac Lewis > > "Yo solo sé que no sé nada." -Sócrates > > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org > > List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org > > Change listserver email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try the > other: > https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/ > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List rules & etiquette: > http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out or update participant bios: > http://www.members.re-wrenches.org >
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