Sep 18, 2026 · 1 hr 14 min · 12 segments
What products are the DIY solar manufacturers missing, and what would they make a killing on if they built it? Eric walked in blind to the topic, so every idea is worked out live, with the chat pile…
So, Something that I've been thinking about, and it was one of those things that I was trying to figure out what we're going to talk about tonight, and I couldn't think of anything.
But I am honestly surprised that we don't see more companies similar to Victron in this aspect where they have a single hub that everything communicates to that you then So if you're not familiar with Victron, if you want communications between different devices, you can get their Serbo, which is a centralized hub.
or it can send data up to their remote management console in the cloud so that you can see your information.
If you lose an internet connection, it buffers the data locally until the internet connection is restored.
But I'm surprised that we don't see more of these companies that have one single interface device instead of, well, you got to set up this dongle and you got to set up this dongle.
So if you get four inverters, you got to go through the dongle setup process four times.
Or... you're stuck having to deal with no remote data whatsoever, no visible data other than what's on the screen or the little SOC dots.
I know there can be some times that stuff can be annoying from Victron because I don't like some of their software, but I mean, how come more aren't doing this? Why are we, we're in 2026 folks.
yeah and then sometimes you get to leave the dongles in place sometimes they don't make you sometimes they force you to remove it i've kind of run the gambit and that but if memory serves when i went through the the victron um training i went to sulfur springs and checked that out and went through a two-day class it was a royal pain to set all that stuff up because it was all, you gotta set this one up, you gotta set that one up, you gotta set that one.
And there was like three different softwares that they were trying to turn into one.
Maybe they've fixed all of that since then.
So I can't say it was a smoother process to get it up and running, but I do hear what you're saying.
And I think if there was a centralized unit, for crying out loud, just that would store the information, that would be huge.
When the internet goes out, I mean, it doesn't take much hardware to just store it to a little chip.
I mean, throw an SD card in there, if nothing else.
That would be great.
So, I'm sure if we look back at even some of the products that we have seen, even in the last year or two, they probably came about because of some need somebody saw.
So, Something that I've been thinking about, and it was one of those things that I was trying to figure out what we're going to talk about tonight, and I couldn't think of anything.
But I am honestly surprised that we don't see more companies similar to Victron in this aspect where they have a single hub that everything communicates to that you then So if you're not familiar with Victron, if you want communications between different devices, you can get their Serbo, which is a centralized hub.
or it can send data up to their remote management console in the cloud so that you can see your information.
If you lose an internet connection, it buffers the data locally until the internet connection is restored.
But I'm surprised that we don't see more of these companies that have one single interface device instead of, well, you got to set up this dongle and you got to set up this dongle.
So if you get four inverters, you got to go through the dongle setup process four times.
Or... you're stuck having to deal with no remote data whatsoever, no visible data other than what's on the screen or the little SOC dots.
I know there can be some times that stuff can be annoying from Victron because I don't like some of their software, but I mean, how come more aren't doing this? Why are we, we're in 2026 folks.
yeah and then sometimes you get to leave the dongles in place sometimes they don't make you sometimes they force you to remove it i've kind of run the gambit and that but if memory serves when i went through the the victron um training i went to sulfur springs and checked that out and went through a two-day class it was a royal pain to set all that stuff up because it was all, you gotta set this one up, you gotta set that one up, you gotta set that one.
And there was like three different softwares that they were trying to turn into one.
Maybe they've fixed all of that since then.
So I can't say it was a smoother process to get it up and running, but I do hear what you're saying.
And I think if there was a centralized unit, for crying out loud, just that would store the information, that would be huge.
When the internet goes out, I mean, it doesn't take much hardware to just store it to a little chip.
I mean, throw an SD card in there, if nothing else.
That would be great.
So, I'm sure if we look back at even some of the products that we have seen, even in the last year or two, they probably came about because of some need somebody saw.
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