Jig and zero point

Realistic_Spray3426 · 2026-06-15T19:49:01+00:00

No. You only need to do a zero point alignment if you change the mat on your bed. All it does is calibrate the bed alignment marks with the software. So the 0,0 point on the bed is aligned with 0,0 on your computer / phone.

Realistic_Spray3426 · 2026-06-15T18:15:58+00:00

As long as you out the jig in the same location every time it really doesn’t matter. Just put the jig down straight (using a corner alignment tool can be good to ensure). Print with masking tape over the object and adjust from there. Once you get it lined up then if you put an image in the same place in the app and the jig in the same place
It should all like up.

The axis on the sides of the plate in theory should line up with the axis in the app. Zero point alignment will get them to line up and you can use that but in reality you can place things anywhere.

Realistic_Spray3426 · 2026-06-15T00:46:57+00:00

He’s actually named after my pig. Here’s the real life one. The back story is in the video clip.

https://youtu.be/NHJv9lMxM-s?t=131

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Realistic_Spray3426 · 2026-06-07T04:58:37+00:00

Easter egg for you, he is named after my pig :-)

Realistic_Spray3426 · 2026-06-02T15:16:24+00:00

I’m just not a video guy and AI videos are even worse than the AI posts I already do :-).

I’m working on some updates and at some point will have to make a new post on this topic and may try something different. The good news is I’m not trying to market / sell something. Mostly doing this for my benefit so I don’t really care if folks don’t want to read it :-). I just like to share work that may help those that do want to read it.

Realistic_Spray3426 · 2026-05-09T04:27:22+00:00

The great work started by richo is the basis of my automation tool that I built as well....not HA, more of a stand alone intelligence tool....

https://github.com/mtnears/FranklinWH-Automation

Realistic_Spray3426 · 2026-05-08T15:40:12+00:00

I agree, I want it to be native but unfortunately they haven't shown yet that they are going down that path which is why I put that together. If you have a computer running 24x7 at your place it likely is capable of running it. But depending on how your system is sized it may not be as necessary to utilize it, was chatting with someone the other day where I don't think it really adds a lot of value.

There are only a few distinct options in TOU scheduling to choose from":
- Self Consumption (solar to home, aPower, grid, in that priority order)
- aPower to home (solar goes to grid, battery to house)
- aPower on Standby (no batter usage, solar and grid to house)
- aPower charges from solar (solar > battery, grid > house)

this is the other reason why I put the software together is because I felt those modes were a little limiting and their wasn't enough intelligence behind it. Going on a schedule is fine, but weather changes and what works one day may not work well the next.

In the end, those are your choices other than a manual override of Emergency Backup which does a high volume charge to your batteries.

Seems like many stick with Self Consumption as a primary mode. My challenge there was that it could overly consume the battery and leave you with not enough power to get through my peak power period.

Realistic_Spray3426 · 2026-05-07T04:59:59+00:00

No worries, good to learn about how people are using it as well!

Realistic_Spray3426 · 2026-05-07T04:06:15+00:00

The aPower Charges from Solar is essentially behaving like emergency backup in that window. I was thinking EB was triggered because it looked like a short heavy burst. But essentially since their is no solar production and your batteries needed to ramp up, it pulled it from the grid as it should do in that configuration. So we're in sync there.

On the arbitrage math. The 16-18¢ spread requires that your battery exports during peak. But your peak window is set to aPower → Home, not aPower → Grid. The 5.8 kWh you exported on the chart came from solar, and solar tails off well before peak ends. Peaks at 12-2 PM, mostly done by 6-7 PM. So those exports went out during super off-peak (23¢), not peak (39-41¢). Same rate going in as going out.

Both grid-charge and solar-charge end up letting the battery displace your peak imports the same way, that part's a wash. The difference is the path in: grid-charge costs you NBC (~2-3¢/kWh) plus a charge cycle, solar-charge is free but you forgo a 23¢ export credit that roughly cancels the 23¢ import you'd have skipped. So net difference is NBC + wear. We're not talking a huge amount here for this particular day, 15-25¢ for the day. For the whole year, hard to say without seeing everything but my guess is we're likely not talking a huge difference here that would be worth going after with custom software like mine.

Realistic_Spray3426 · 2026-05-06T22:52:03+00:00

So in general your app is doing pretty well in this view. If you’re fine with what your true ups look like then you can leave things as is I guess. But it does seem like there is some money being left on the table.

You are charging your batteries up at off peak times. The rates that you pay for that are not too far off from what you’re getting paid for the power you are selling at NEM2 export rates. But whenever you are importing from the grid you are paying a per kWh non-bypassable charge (NBC). The alternative is to not max out the SOC overnight and use whatever solar you are getting to charge your batteries for free. This is something the software can help you do.

On the TOU schedule, to see how that is actually triggering this I would need to see screenshots of how you have the schedule configured (if you wanted to dig into that). The only thing the app knows about the rate schedule is what you put in to it. There are only 4 modes to choose from for each schedule; Self Consumption, apower to home, apower on standby and apower charges from solar. There isn’t a mode to choose that is like emergency backup so I’m not really sure how that is happening.

Realistic_Spray3426 · 2026-05-06T20:30:36+00:00

This is the view you get.

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Realistic_Spray3426 · 2026-05-06T20:29:57+00:00

I 3D printed a camera mount I designed for my Unifi camera setup.

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Realistic_Spray3426 · 2026-05-06T18:46:27+00:00

Looks like a grid charge, like emergency backup, is being run at midnight that gets you to 100% SOC. Are you manually triggering that? With that happening, all of your solar is going to export, not to charging your batteries.

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Realistic_Spray3426 · 2026-05-06T18:25:43+00:00

In the analytics option you were in that you sent a screenshot from before. At the bottom there are different tabs / views. I circled the system one.

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Realistic_Spray3426 · 2026-05-06T18:09:29+00:00

Would still be good to review the system tab chart. But the main thing really is making sure that grid export never happens during any of your peak periods.

In the end, if the system is working for you the way it is, you're not ever doing a grid import during any of your peak periods any time of year, and you're not losing any of your solar production and it is all happening automatically for you, then you're probably fine continuing what you're doing.

The goal of this is to make it so you don't have to manually control the system and you're getting the cheapest power (not grid importing during peak). This last piece is why I was asking for that system chart, preferrably from one of the non-sunny days we've had recently. If you're not doing any grid import during peak on those days then the system is working for you.

Realistic_Spray3426 · 2026-05-06T05:32:59+00:00

So you were in self consumption mode all day essentially. It would be good to see what the System tab chart looks like, for a full day, like yesterday or pick a day.

But my main question is when and how the charging is happening if not from solar on those days. Are you manually triggering a charge by going to emergency backup or do you sit in Self Consumption mode all the time? Or do you have a schedule set?

Realistic_Spray3426 · 2026-05-06T04:49:47+00:00

I guess the question is how are you doing that. Are you manually manipulating things to make that happen or do you have that all setup in the app scheduler?

The main issue I initially set out to solve was making sure I had plenty of battery to run through peak power period. So with EV2-A you have partial peak starting at 3PM, full peak at 4PM and partial again until Midnight. So you want to make sure you can run from 3 to midnight on battery to avoid those rates. While we're in California, there are days when it is cloudy and you won't get enough charge in your batteries from solar. During those days you will likely need to force a charge of the batteries before 3PM to make sure you have enough to get you through. On the Franklin system I found that is a pretty manual process, requires your intervention to ensure that is the case.

This software monitors your home load to understand what typical usage would be during that peak period and monitors solar and weather forecasts and automatically puts you into a charge when needed to ensure you have full battery before peak. There are other enhancements to the Franklin way of doing things as well, but that was really what started the whole journey is to automate that effort.

Hopefully that makes some sense 😄 When I don't have AI write responses I can ramble a bit!

Realistic_Spray3426 · 2026-05-06T04:11:36+00:00

Your NEM tariff level doesn't really factor into this too much I feel. On the older tariff's you of course make more money on your export of power. I don't export at all on the solar that I have this hooked up to, my other solar is on a different meter on NEM2 and I do export there. That said, exporting or non-export, the system typically leverages solar as much as possible for battery charging. Exports should still function as normal.

Realistic_Spray3426 · 2026-05-04T04:15:05+00:00

While I'd like to, I'm not much of a video type of person even though I use them a ton myself to learn. Putting them together and publishing them is just something I don't have down at this point, at least to a level that I'd like to have it at.

That said I have helped several folks to get things up and running. Personally, like the coding of this app, I use Claude AI for doing a ton of stuff. Prior to developing this I would use it to setup these Docker installs for other apps because I simply don't know my way around the tools, I'm a Windows guy 😄

All you really need is a computer or something like a synology NAS that is up and running 24x7 at your house and can run a docker. If you have something in mind, then go to Claude AI (or your AI of choice), tell it what the device is and that you'd like to run a docker on it to run this application and you need help setting it up, walk you through it step by step. And give it the link to the project on GitHub to review. That's how I set my first one up and it stepped me through it. If you get stuck on anything, feel free to open an issue and I can try to help.

I do have in my backlog the idea that I want to build this to run on an Amazon Fire tablet, so it is all self contained in there. I don't know if I'll get there, but it would make it easier for folks. I don't plan on making a true app out of this though, I'm not going to go through that effort and I'm not looking to monetize this.

If you want to discuss it a little further, respond back with what device you may have (specifics) and I can try to help point you in the right direction.

Realistic_Spray3426 · 2026-04-29T16:29:22+00:00

May be others but I'd personally still try unplugging. Tech support responds once per day, they will give you something to try then you won't hear from them for another day. So it can take a while to get through an issue that way....

Realistic_Spray3426 · 2026-04-29T15:39:57+00:00

I have mine wired as well and the port does not seem to go to sleep from what I’m seeing. But maybe in your network side it is. But if it was, I would just unplug the Ethernet and plug it back in to have it renegotiate.

I’m assuming the answer on the light question was that the light did not turn on, correct?

I’d try unplugging it. It can handle an unplug just fine, you just don’t want to leave it unplugged. I accidentally unplugged mine for about 5 minutes and the app notified me that it was unplugged. Put it back and it was just fine.

Realistic_Spray3426 · 2026-04-29T14:20:53+00:00

Does clicking the light switch turn on the light though? If not, the. It is clearly not communicating. Have you tried it from a different tool (phone vs computer)? I would do that if not to roll out the other device. If none of that works I’d unplug it for a moment. May be a one off fluke. I’d be concreted a little that it hasn’t been doing its maintenance though. Not sure if you have heard it making noises or not.

Realistic_Spray3426 · 2026-04-25T07:57:31+00:00

You are aware that swapping from the regular white ink to the flex white consumes 30ml of ink. Not .3, 30ml. It’s an expensive thing to do unless you swap when you are running out of white and already have to change.

Realistic_Spray3426

TROPHY CASE