Please convince me to keep using Genmon. Tell me something is wrong. #1104
Replies: 13 comments 31 replies
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I don’t use a PI. I used HA, esphome with a serial bridge (Esp32), and run
genmon on the same machine as HA. Very stable and I have all the cpu power
needed.
Hope that helps.
…On Wed, Apr 17, 2024 at 8:54 AM jasonrusso7 ***@***.***> wrote:
I got a preloaded Raspberry Pi in December. To say it has been frustrating
is a gross understatement. I have spent DAYS of my life messing with this
thing. Instead of giving me piece of mind that my generator is monitored,
it has been one more thing that I need to CONSTANTLY babysit. At first, it
would stay connected for 1 day at the most. Every day the green LED would
be solid indicating that it was overloaded. It was so bad that I wired in a
toggle switch to disconnect the power to reboot it several times a week.
This went on for a few months.
Working with @pintsizeme we figured out the SD card was bad. I wrote a new
SD card and figured out how to install Genmon (defeating the purpose of
buying a preloaded unit). The made it better, but still not good. Now it
was lasting maybe 3-4 days. This week I started getting another error and
I'm back to losing connection every few hours.
I want to monitor Genmon through my ISY (because I have no faith the
program is running and will send me notifications), so I installed nodelink
on a mini PC. I got everything working but it is so unreliable I am
constantly checking. Between the Pi losing connection and nodelink needing
to be restarted it has been an awful experience. Yesterday I installed Home
Assistant in a virtual Linux PC with the hopes of monitoring it that way,
but that is now turning into a headache. I can't access the HA console and
the Pi is frozen up again.
I have the Generac Mobile link on my table, but I hate to admit defeat. I
also don't want to spend another $180 and $50 a year.
Please tell me it gets better and something is wrong, because I can't
imagine that this community tolerates this level of aggravation.
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Something is wrong. This is not normal to have to babysit the software or a raspberry pi unless something is wrong somewhere. First, let me get a good idea of what is working and what is not working. When you say the pi is disconnected, are you referring to the wifi/network, serial or is the pi not staying powered up and accessible? You also reference a green LED, is this the LED on the controller or on an enclosure for the pi? If it is an LED for the enclosure I am assuming this is one that came with pintsize.me enclosure? I have used the HAT, but I don't have an enclosure from them. @skipfire is the pintsize.me guy. A few questions:
Assuming you connection issues are network related and you are using wifi can you look on the Monitor page and get the WLAN signal level, signal quality and signal noise? A marginal wifi signal can cause intermittent network issues. |
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I would also monitor to see how hot the CPU is getting. Having intermittent
hardware failures usually tells me things are getting too warm. Make sure
you keep it cool below the 60 degree C value.
…On Wed, Apr 17, 2024 at 9:50 AM jgyates ***@***.***> wrote:
The instructions for using a serial bridge with genmon is in the wiki:
https://github.com/jgyates/genmon/wiki/Appendix-F----Serial-over-IP
The above is for the genmon setup for serial over TCP (serial bridge), the
page contains a link for ESP based serial bridges or you can buy one from a
retailer (links included in the wiki page).
Feel free to use any platform you like however most people do use the pi
with success. Based on the feedback and logs submitted over 98 percent of
genmon use is with the pi. Having said that there are folks who use virtual
environments and stand alone PCs with success.
If you wifi signal is marginal you will likely have another set of issues
if you opt to use serial over wiif. If marginal wifi is your issue there
are a few things you can do to make this issues not as bad if you are using
serial over wiif, but the best solution is to either use a Ethernet
connection to the pi, or a longer serial connection and power the pi closer
to you house. RS-232 has a limit of around 50 feet, but some folks use
RS-422 or RS-485 for longer cable lengths.
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I followed this setup "https://github.com/gregmac/Genmon-ESP32-Serial-Bridge"
and used an external antenna on the esp32 to get a better wifi signal. I
use docker on a Ubuntu system to run genmon, HA and esphome.
A few things that could affect your wifi strength. 1) What type of siding
do you have? 2) What type of wifi equipment? I am using a tp-link ax3000 AP
that has a directional antenna to talk to the ESP32.
With the symptoms you are having I would try some different hardware. You
just might have a bad board. Make sure everything stays dry and cool. Note
time of day things are failing, is it the hottest part of the day.
…On Wed, Apr 17, 2024 at 10:26 AM jasonrusso7 ***@***.***> wrote:
Can you elaborate on my questions on the prior post? I'm interested in
your setup
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I got this one. Reviews say it's plug and play on a 3A+
Cable Matters Plug & Play USB to Ethernet Adapter with PXE, MAC Address Clone Support (Ethernet to USB 2.0 Adapter, Ethernet Adapter for Laptop) Supporting 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Network Black https://a.co/d/cWcIton
Thanks,
Jason
…
On Apr 17, 2024 at 2:55 PM, jgyates ***@***.***> wrote:
The 3A+ has one micro USB for power and one USB-A for peripheral support. I would use the USB-A for USB Ethernet and get an adapter that interfaces USB-A. The micro USB on the 3A+ does not support data.
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It is in the link that I sent you on GitHub. You have to copy some files
over in HA.
…On Thu, Apr 18, 2024 at 11:02 AM jasonrusso7 ***@***.***> wrote:
@djstroh <https://github.com/djstroh> Is there a tutorial on installing
genmon on Home Assistant?
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Cool, I'll look through it
Thanks,
Jason
…
On Apr 18, 2024 at 2:28 PM, djstroh ***@***.***> wrote:
It is in the link that I sent you on GitHub. You have to copy some files
over in HA.
On Thu, Apr 18, 2024 at 11:02 AM jasonrusso7 ***@***.***>
wrote:
> @djstroh <https://github.com/djstroh> Is there a tutorial on installing
> genmon on Home Assistant?
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I am running a Pi Zero W and my Wi-Fi was weak ( yellow range ) but not in the red like yours in the pic. Set a static IP address for your pi. My install is still fairly new but has been running 24X7 without any issues for about 50 days straight. Its worth the effort to get it up and running correctly and some very sharp people here to assist. |
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The only set up issues I had were self imposed from security settings on my network and flipping the correct dip switch on the HAT because I did not read the instructions. Hard wired should be the best connection but my WIFI has been 100% thus far. |
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I don’t remember changing the yaml file. You do need to setup Mqtt and an
Mqtt server. Enable the mosquito one in HA OS.
I have not found any tutorial on setting that up. Just a few comments on
the GitHub page.
…On Fri, Apr 19, 2024 at 4:08 PM jasonrusso7 ***@***.***> wrote:
This stuff makes me feel dumb. Are there tutorials on how to write code in
this? I am pretty sure I put the generator.yaml file in the right place,
but the dashboard data says there is something wrong.
Do I need to make any changes in the genmon dashboard?
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@jasonrusso7, were you able to get genmon working reliably with a wired connection? |
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Try creating a new dashboard, enter edit dashboard (upper right), enter raw
configuration editor (upper right). I then cut and pasted the
dashboard into the raw configuration editor.
…On Sat, May 4, 2024 at 12:41 PM jasonrusso7 ***@***.***> wrote:
It seems to have!! The temperature is still a little weird, but it has
been much much more stable. I had to reboot it after a week because I was
getting no data from generator warnings. After the reboot, I haven't had
any issue.
I'm still trying to figure out how to integrate it with Home Assistant.
I'm pretty sure I put the yaml data in the right place, but I can't figure
out the dashboard.
Thanks for the help!!!!
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The first few lines of my yaml look like:
views:
- cards:
- type: vertical-stack
cards:
- type: custom:mushroom-title-card
title: Generator Status
- type: custom:mushroom-template-card
primary: '{{ states(''sensor.generator_engine_state'') }}'
secondary: ''
Yaml code needs a very precise indent and make sure you have no tabs!
…On Sat, May 4, 2024 at 5:45 PM jasonrusso7 ***@***.***> wrote:
This is what I did.
image.png (view on web)
<https://github.com/jgyates/genmon/assets/167337356/8c96c1b5-27db-473c-8e0e-0d32b1138326>
image.png (view on web)
<https://github.com/jgyates/genmon/assets/167337356/4b7f4d73-4b55-4f38-93d6-5d84394b322d>
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I got a preloaded Raspberry Pi in December. To say it has been frustrating is a gross understatement. I have spent DAYS of my life messing with this thing. Instead of giving me piece of mind that my generator is monitored, it has been one more thing that I need to CONSTANTLY babysit. At first, it would stay connected for 1 day at the most. Every day the green LED would be solid indicating that it was overloaded. It was so bad that I wired in a toggle switch to disconnect the power to reboot it several times a week. This went on for a few months.
Working with @pintsizeme we figured out the SD card was bad. I wrote a new SD card and figured out how to install Genmon (defeating the purpose of buying a preloaded unit). The made it better, but still not good. Now it was lasting maybe 3-4 days. This week I started getting another error and I'm back to losing connection every few hours.
I want to monitor Genmon through my ISY (because I have no faith the program is running and will send me notifications), so I installed nodelink on a mini PC. I got everything working but it is so unreliable I am constantly checking. Between the Pi losing connection and nodelink needing to be restarted it has been an awful experience. Yesterday I installed Home Assistant in a virtual Linux PC with the hopes of monitoring it that way, but that is now turning into a headache. I can't access the HA console and the Pi is frozen up again.
I have the Generac Mobile link on my table, but I hate to admit defeat. I also don't want to spend another $180 and $50 a year.
Please tell me it gets better and something is wrong, because I can't imagine that this community tolerates this level of aggravation.
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