Are you still messing about with Excel in order to make sense of your OutBack AXS Port or MATE3 data
logs? Save yourself the bother,
and get industry-leading views into your system performance. Turn that pile of data into information with
WattPlot™ SumMATE!
WattPlot™ SumMATE is one of the more powerful tools in the WattPlot 5 suite of programs
for monitoring your OutBack renewable energy system:
A single mouse-click will grab all relevant data files from your
MATE3 SD card,
analyse the data, summarize it into a single monthly spreadsheet, and copy or move the source data.
Another mouse-click will bring up that monthly summary as a unique combination line and
bar graph. Double-click on any day-column to drill down to a Daily Summary.
Viewing the data as one of WattPlot's signature pen-plots, you can continue to drill down
for more detail - down to the second for each OutBack device in your system.
Produce interval reports, showing your system's daily performance at whatever intervals
you choose.
If you work with data from multiple systems, WattPlot™
SumMATE will keep it all organized, and even alert you if device signatures don't match.
Note that WattPlot™ SumMATE is just one of whole
suite of software tools for monitoring performance data from OutBack systems.
Other tools have more powerful capabilities:
Plot performance data in real-time, as it happens
Record production statistics and system activity down to the second
Monitor multiple systems, locally or over the internet
Respond to system conditions with automatic commands, email, etc.
The OutBack MATE3 device supports a very powerful capability: built-in data logging on to an SD memory card.
Unfortunately, there are some drawbacks: The data can only be accessed by physically removing the card, and the
data is not very user-friendly. WattPlot™ SumMATE makes the best of the first
limitation (speedy processing for a fast SD Card swap), and turns that data into beautiful information!
The MATE3’s SD Card configuration screen is accessible through the following menus:
Main Menu – Settings Menu – MATE3 – Data Logging
The default mode is Disabled.
We recommend that you enable SD Card Data Logging in "Compact" mode. (In fact, Compact Mode is an
implementation of our suggestion to OutBack for improved MATE3 capabilities. Excel Mode takes about 25% more
storage space.) In Compact mode, an average SD memory card
(941 MB) has the capacity to store about 200 device-days at 1-second resolution. That means that if your
OutBack renewable energy system has four devices, you could store about 50 days of data if your DataLog Write
Interval is set to 1 second (system status captured every second). A system with eight devices and a
DataLog Write interval of 5 seconds gives you about 125 days of storage. When
WattPlot™ SumMATE is processing your MATE3 SD Card data, it can
automatically move the files on to your PC as a backup, clearing all but the current day's files from the card.
The MATE3 offers DataLog Write intervals of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 15, 20, 30, or 60 seconds. If your DataLog
Write interval is greater than 1 second, WattPlot™ SumMATE will 'back-fill' the
values for each log into the preceding time gap. We generally recommend a Write Interval of between 1 and 6
seconds.
If you currently use the WattPlot Monitor program to monitor your OutBack system,
WattPlot™ SumMATE can still open all of your .EPD, .OBM, and .CSV files
generated by the earlier program. Your upgrade of data logging solutions is seamless!
SumMATE Specifications
All WattPlot 5 software tools run under any current flavour of Windows (or Windows emulation) from Windows
XP on up. They are
also able to organize and view data from multiple systems. WattPlot
SumMATE allows you to define multiple systems, select which one the data applies to, and keep the data
separate. It will even create 'device signatures' for each system and double-check that you are
assigning data to the correct system.
Possible input files:
.CSV files from MATE3 Data logging - Excel format
.CSV files from MATE3 Data logging - Compact format
.CSV files from AXS Port Data logging
.OBM files from WattPlot Raw Data Capture - Original MATE (Serial)
.OBM files from WattPlot Raw Data Capture - MATE3 (UDP/IP or USB)
.CSV monthly summary files from WattPlot SumMATE or Monitor program
.EPD files - daily device data from a WattPlot Monitor program
Output files:
.CSV monthly summary files (1 file per device per month, 1 line per day)
Copy of MATE3 .CSV files for backup purposes
Copy of AXS Port .CSV files for backup purposes
.CSV interval reports - spreadsheets of selected data at specified intervals
Presentation formats
Daily Summary - by system or by device
Daily Pen-plot - by system or by device
Combination line and bar graph - by month by device
Ability to cross between formats and view value details at any time