Briggs&Stratton unmapped registers/documentation

[zinglo]

Checklist

• I made sure that there are no existing issues or discussions - open issues,closed issues,open discussion, closed discussion - which may answer my question or that I could contribute my information to.
• I have read the Known Issues Wiki Page and my question / issue is not listed.
• I have provided the version of the software and the operating system in my post.
• If I have an issue with genmon not communicating with the controller, I have read and followed the serial troubleshooting guide.
• I have included the generator make and model in my submission.

Version

V1.19.07

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What is/are your question(s)?

Generator model: Briggs & Stratton GC-1032 Controller
I have been curiously poking around looking at raw register data... mostly trying to understand but also looking to see if there was more data that is not currently being utilized (by me).

I have a couple of questions...

• I noticed the various alarm registers and dug through the custom controller file looking at them. My presumption here is: since genmon is targeted towards Generac, these are likely not really being utilized on a Briggs, correct? I have not knowingly experienced an alarm condition. I'm considering adding these into SNMP and monitoring them that way. (My current method of monitoring generator health is using a script that runs on a Nagios server. This script just does multiple snmp queries and compares snmp values vs "healthy" values. Adding in alarm registers here would be quite easy.)

• I am seeing a handful of unused registers that seem to have some data in them. If anyone has any hints on where to find documentation on Briggs modbus values, I would be grateful. Or if you have any ideas on sleuthing their meaning, that would also be helpful. I've scrolled through the display options on the Briggs controller and tried to compare values to the registers, but I've only been able to guess one register doing this.

Additional information

No response

[jgyates]

Hi @zinglo

While generac residential was the first generators supported by this project, the code dependency was removed long ago so the fact that generac is supported does not limit the Briggs (or other generators) supported by this project. I don't know the specific registers you are referring to as you do not mention them by modbus address, but there are several alarm registers that are used by genmon. you can view all of the registers along with some comments about their use here:

genmon/data/controller/Briggs_Stratton_GC-1032.json

Line 28 in 2a5a7ab

"input_registers": {

This page has info on the Briggs and Stratton support in this project and there are links to video clips as well

https://github.com/jgyates/genmon/wiki/Appendix-P-Briggs-and-Stratton-Controller-Information

My first suggestion would be to compare the registers you are refering to in your comments above to the registes used by this project.

My second suggestion: Genmon also has a live view where you can view the modbus registers and see how they change over time. If you installed genmon you can add any registers you wanted, alloing you to view any registers read from the briggs controller and see how they change over time.

As a data point, genmon currently reads about 79 registers from the Briggs and Stratton controller, but it uses about 41 of them (15 are alarm registers). The others are read in hopes of discovering what they do better.

Let me know if you have questions.

[zinglo]

Note in my description above that I did have to also update the controller json in order to get the regex to match on Load Total Percent. It seems the regex takes first match it finds and matches Load Total (kVR) instead. This may be related to why I could not get regex matches for Utility Voltage Minimum/Maximum.

[jgyates]

@zinglo

Thanks for pointing that out. I updated the json per your copy. Let me know if you have any other issues or if I missed anything else.

[zinglo]

I did also have questions on L1/L2 and total Power factor and "Hours of Fuel Remaining" (see above longish reply)

[jgyates]

I updated the power factor in the json. I will look into the Hours Fuel remaining.

[jgyates]

To display the info on the Maintenance page related to fuel estimation and usage calculation you need to have:

1. a controller that supports power reporting (Briggs does)
2. You need to input the two parameters on the Advanced Settings page named "Fuel Rate Half Load" and "Fuel Rate Full Load".

The values for fuel consumption rate are specific to your generator. They must be entered for any generator other than Generac Evolution as those are pre loaded because they are published on the data sheets.

Once these values are set then as the generator runs the power is logged to the power log. From the power log the fuel estimations are displayed. You have to have entries in your power log for any estimates to be displayed.

Let me know if you have any questions.

[Twilliamson3]

@zinglo , looks like you are working the Briggs V2 Issues. Also noticing that there are no longer any Controls to Start/Stop, Auto Manual anymore. Also, despite the genset not being in alarm, genmon is reporting it to be in alarm state. Are you seeing the same things?

Update: After restarting the pi we see control now. but still showing weird alarms. Also apeared that when upgrading it changed the state of the genset from auto to manual.

@jgyates If you need access to a briggs i can help you with that.

[jgyates]

The phantom alarm is a known issue that I think is caused by these 2 issues:

1. I don't have all the info needed on how the controller behaves
2. The controller may report some alarm condtions if inputs are unused or not connected.

I added a way to ignore alarms on custom controllers (Which @Twilliamson3 asked for in the past in this thread #1395). It is described here:

https://github.com/jgyates/genmon/wiki/Appendix-P-Briggs-and-Stratton-Controller-Information#phantom-alarms

Let me know if you have any questions or if things are not working as expected after you make this setting change.

[zinglo]

@Twilliamson3 The alarm suppression list fixed my phantom alarms. I also have controls under the maintenance tab, though I have not tried using them. (I think I have manually started/stopped from genmon only one time since I started using it.)

[jgyates]

Regarding the start / stop / auto, etc controls, what does your Maintenance page look like. This is how it is displayed on my system running Briggs with emulation.

If you are not seeing them, try refreshing your browser.

[zinglo]

@jgyates @Twilliamson3
I just tested the start/stop/manual/auto controls on the maintenance tab. They work as expected for me.