Solectria Corporation Solectria PVI Installation Manual

Site Preparation

SolarVu is an energy portal that enables remote monitoring of renewable energy
TM
generation sites over the internet. It requires the installation of a K135 gateway
which continuously transfers data from the inverter(s). This guide explains
how to connect the K135 gateway to Solectria PVI3000 and PVI5300 inverters.
Each inverter has two RJ45 connectors on the bottom with RS232 and RS485
serial ports as shown in fig 2. To access SolarVu from a browser, the inverters
are connected to the internet through a Cachelan Kyoto K135 gateway DB9F
connector. The K135 connects to multiple inverters over RS485 using twisted
pair wire, typically cat5e, daisy chained to multiple inverters. An RJ45 ethernet
jack, connected to the LAN network and a 120VAC outlet for the gateway power
dongle are required. The LAN must have high speed internet service to an ISP
to provide a gateway to the internet as shown in figure 1.

K135 Installation

Mount the K135 gateway in an enclosure with conduit to the inverters or on the
wall with a wire feed where mechanical protection is not required.
Power Supply: Plug the K135 power supply into a 120VAC receptacle and the
the 5VDC connector into the K135.
Ethernet: Use a standard ethernet patch cable (not supplied) with RJ45
connectors of the appropriate length to connect from the K135 to the network
ethernet at a RJ45 wall jack or the router/switch.
RS485 Serial Local: Normal installation is to mount the K135 gateway near
the inverters. Plug one end of a standard ethernet patch cable into the K135
DB9M-RJ45 adapter supplied and the other to the left RJ45 jack of the first PVI
inverter. Daisy chain ethernet patch cables from the right RJ45 jack (out) to the
left jack (in) of additional inverters. The terminator switch of the last inverter in
the chain should be set on and the others off. See the PVI instruction manual
for further details.
RS485 Serial Remote: If the inverters are more than 300 feet (100m) from the
LAN connection point which exceeds the maximum ethernet distance allowed,
use either wireless ethernet or RS485 over the Cat5e cable as shown in fig 2.
LOCAL
ETHERNET
LAN SWITCH
RJ45 -Ethernet
K135
232 & 485
1
485 B-
2 232 Rx
3
232 Tx
4 DTR
5
GND
6 DSR
7
RTS
8
CTS
9
485 A+
DB9M
DB9F
RJ45 to DB9M
Adapter
RJ45
ethernet
patch
cable
K135 PVI
DB9F SIGNAL SIGNAL
RJ45L RJ45R
1 485 B- 485 B- 8 8
2 232Rx D 232Tx D 1
3 232Tx D 232Rx D 2
4
5 GND GND 5 5
6
7
8
9 485 A+ 485 A+ 7 7
GE704
© 2010 Copyright CACHELAN
TM
SolarVu for Solectria PVI Inverters

Installation Guide

COMMUNICATION SETTINGS
K135 Gateway & inverter
comms settings must match
SERIAL COMMS
19,200
BAUD
none
PARITY
DATA 8
STOP 1
FLOW off
Solectria PVI5300 Bottom View
Alternative Connection - K135 remote from inverters
View from wire side
DB9F
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9
PIN NAME Cat5e WIRE
1 B- Blue
5 GND Green
9 A+ Blue White
cachelan.com contactus@cachelan.com
Fig 1 Internet Connection
ROOFTOP SOLAR ARRAY
+
DC
RJ45-L RJ45-R
K135
GATEWAY
Ethernet
CABLE/DSL
MODEM
Fig 2 K135 near PVI connections
#1
#2
RS485
RS485
Set terminator ON only on
last inverter in chain
Inverter address is preset at factory by Solectria. Contact
Cachelan with inverter serial number when replacing
inverter so gateway can be configured to enable serial
communication.
Solder Cat5e cable to a DB9M & DB9F
connector and plug in at both ends
LOCAL
ETHERNET
LAN SWITCH
RJ45 - Ethernet
DB9M
PIN NAME Cat5e WIRE
1 B- Blue
5 GND Green
DB9F
9 A+ Blue White
>300 feet (100m)
RS485
Type Cat5e CMX UV direct burial
SolarVu Installation for Solectria PVI Inverters Guide
All rights reserved
+
DC
RJ45-L
RS485
SolarVu
LOCAL
Server
ACCESS
CORPORATE
ETHERNET
LAN
INTERNET
FIREWALL
ROUTER
#N
View from wire side
5 4 3 2 1
9
8 7 6
RS485
DB9M
RJ45 patch cable
to PVI RJ45L
DB9F to RJ45
Adapter
REMOTE BROWSER
ACCESS
ISP
GE703
T-568B
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
RJ45 plug RJ45 plug
Viewed from Viewed from
pin side pin side
PLUG
T-568B
JACK
T-568B
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
View looking
into RJ45 connector
from plug side
1