For those using the official 7" display you can use MMM-Screendimmer

Or write directly to /sys/class/backlight/rpi_backlight/brightness

I don’t have any ideas for you, except to say that I never even thought about trying this - I’m going to try it on my Samsung tv!

I would reduce the config down to the default, and then eliminate modules to see if anything works.

I’m terrible with the soldering iron but here is what I did

I used a 12v 5a power supply with the same board - you don’t have to stick with 3a, that’s a minimum recommendation for the controller. So getting a 5a power supply should cover easily the controller and the rpi.

-Earle

In the spec sheet you posted, see where it says CN3 on page 4 &5. This is an optional connector that may (or may not) be on the board.

Pins 3 & 4 are 5v and 5 & 6 are GND.

Note, however, unless you want to do some simple PCB soldering this isn’t the way to go. What I did was attach some header pins to the board, cut one end off a USB cable and attached it to the pins, then plugged it in the normal way into the RPi.

I wrote one for pulling data from the Enphase Envoy-C (directly, but only ones with old firmware). There is also one for pulling from Enphase Enlighten API (couldn’t get an API key for reasons to date I can’t figure out)

I also believe there is one for PVOutput.

You may also find an openHAB plugin exists for your system, and then you can use MMM-Openhab.

My MMM-EnphaseEnvoy module could easily be modified to fetch data from other sources if you want very simple display - it is limited to current power, generated today, this week, and lifetime.

-Earle

More specifically:

(http://www.panelook.com/upload/201511/MNT686762A_12516-Specification_A2_(1)_201511187301.pdf)

Supplies 5v on the CN3 pins (probably headless on the board, but 5v is there)

This guy says it’s good up to 1.5 amps (https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=67312)

I’ve confirmed that this is there and can indeed power the rpi - however, you if you need to power USB devices from the pi, it may not be enough.

-Earle

Depending on which controller board you actually end up with (sometimes ebay gives out different ones) - the controller itself may have a 5v output already on it that you can use.

Someone suggested this about a year ago, but I don’t think anyone has tried.

But BENJA in theory might work: https://benja.io/

I have an inexpensive Astromaster LT80 AZ - but the cheap tripod mount really is difficult to. Been wanting to upgrade, but haven’t managed to yet.