The Sun never sets on CraftStrom

Vienna | Cologne | Paris | Houston | Zagreb | ShenZhen

    MISSION

    It is our goal to provide anyone the opportunity to invest in renewable energy and join us in this revolution. All you need are standard power outlets & a wifi connection. No matter your circumstances, our plug&play products are your solution. Zero-export means no requirement for permits or electricians.

    Vision

    We look forward to a future of 100% decentralized energy production. With constant improvements in efficiencies with renewable technology we really don’t see the need for big energy to provide our households with power produced by burning fossil fuels. We are making a huge step in that direction by providing our customers a true plug & play experience! Our modular battery design intentionally paves the way to multiple applications that are in the pipeline. Mobility & Audio are just a few of them. Stay tuned!

    Core Values

    Ingenuity
    Sustainability
    Safety
    Cooperation

    The Team

    We are a dedicated team of industry professionals with over 40 years of experience from a wide variety of fields. Our team consists of multiple engineers from the fields of electrical and mechanical engineering, software development, with specializations in battery development, energy efficiency, and machine learning. Industrial design, energy economics, marketing, and other, equally important industries round out our team.

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    Stephan Scherer

    Stephan has an MSc in Industrial Engineering and worked in automotive and oil & gas before venturing into renewable energy. Previous ventures include an automated solar container system for oil & gas companies and a energy infrastructure consultancy. Stephan manages CraftStrom together with his brother, Michael.

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    Michael Scherer

    Michael (BA, MBA), Stephan’s brother, is a trained product designer, who founded and sold a company that manufactures fitness products. It was there that he garnered first experiences in production planning, logistics, etc, as he manufactured in China. He is now responsible for the design, production, testing and certification of Li-Ion batteries. His experiences and contacts are vital for the production of our smart hardware products.

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    Christian Möhlen

    Christian is a lawyer by trade (PhD), but worked as a consultant in the oil&gas business, where he met Stephan. They worked together in strategy consulting and M&A, where they fast became friends. Christian heads the CraftStrom holding company. Not only is he vital on the strategic side, but he also handles our IP and general legal side.

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    Trista

    Trista was one of our first employees and is essential to managing suppliers, shipping and projects. Especially in times of a Covid pandemic, we rely on excellent managers like her to keep us running.

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    Tomislav

    Tomislav is a software engineer and programmed not only our App backend, but is also responsible for AI development.

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    Elisabeta

    Elisabeta is an expert in user experience and interaction design. She designed our App’s look and feel.

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    Ramon

    Ramon is a software engineer and developed our App frontend. He ensures that the App continues to work flawlessly and keeps adapting to new ideas andchallenges.

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    Need Help?

    Follow steps below OR chat with us live!

    Physical Requirements

    Please securely mount your solar panel & connect the leads to the micro-inverter. Then attach the AC cable to the Inverter and plug it into an outdoor outlet. If your Inverter shows a blue light, then you are good to install the Inverter in our App or desktop. If the LED on the micro-inverter is red, it is better to wait for some more sun or to better position your solar panel!

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    Software Requirements

    Download the CraftStrom mobile app from Apple App Store or from Google Play and sign up by creating your CraftStrom user account & password. You can now install the Micro Inverter in our App by scanning the barcode on it or on the box it came in.

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    Factory Reset

    If durning the installation process you can not find the HF-A11 network of the inverter, please make sure you are using a 2.4Ghz network and enable WPA security settings. If you still can not locate the HF-A11 wifi signal, then you may need to factory reset your device, you can locate the “RESET” button on your CraftStrom micro-inverter. Follow these steps: First delete Inverter ID in App under Settings  – Devices! PRESS AND HOLD FOR 5 SECONDS – RELEASE FOR 2 SECONDS – PRESS AND HOLD AGAIN FOR 5 SECONDS Once you’re done, the solar inverter will flash blue shortly and will initiate a factory reset and a reboot which will take a few seconds. After the device is booted up again, you will see that there is a HF-A11x_AP WiFi network available in your App or if you check from your computer’s network settings.

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    Web interface configuration

    Connect to your device’s WiFi access point First, connect your laptop or desktop computer to the solar inverter’s WiFi access point – its SSID will be CS- or HF-A11x_AP if you’ve done the factory reset. After connecting to this interface you will temporary lose internet access, as you’ll be connected directly to your solar panel’s micro-inverter. Now open a new tab or window in your web browser and enter the url http://10.10.100.254/ . You will be asked for a username and password – they are admin / admin. Press “Sign in” and you will be taken to the CraftStrom micro-inverter’s web interface which we will next use to set the correct preferences.

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    I. Working mode configuration

    In the section “Mode Selection” select STA Mode, i.e. Station Mode and press “Apply”.

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    II. STA interface settings

    Next in the STA Interface Setting section (you can skip the AP Interface Setting section) press “Search” and choose your home WiFi network from the list. Note that your network needs to be configured as a 2.5 GHz WiFi network. If it isn’t, please consult your network administrator to enable this WiFi frequency. After selecting your WiFi network from the list, you will be asked to enter the pass phrase. Enter your home WiFi password into this field and press “Apply” below STA Interface Parameters. The security settings will be configured correctly automatically, so you don’t need to change them.

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    III. WiFi-Uart settings

    Now open the Application Setting section and select “client” mode from the dropdown and enter the following information for the two Network Setting fields: Server Address: 40.113.218.238 Port: 8899 Do this and press “Apply” below Network Setting. Leave everything else as it was.

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    IV. Reboot the device

    Lastly, in the Device Management section press the “Restart” button. After this your device will be rebooted to apply all the settings. After it boots up, it will connect to your home WiFi network. Now that you’ve configured your CraftStrom solar panel to connect to the internet, switch your laptop or desktop computer back to your home WiFi network as well, so that you get internet access again. You’ll need internet access for the next step.

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    Register your device

    After you have correctly connected your CraftStrom solar panel to the internet, please register your device on our registration website using your CraftStrom email and password (that you chose when creating your account in the CraftStrom mobile app). You can read the device ID from the barcode sticker on your solar panel’s micro-inverter. This registration tells our server to which account your new CraftStrom solar panel belongs to, so that we can help you visualise your solar power generation data in your CraftStrom mobile app. Finishing up If you followed all the steps successfully, you should see the data in your mobile app shortly after your solar panel starts generating power. Congratulations! If you experience any issues, please contact our customer support and we will hopefully sort everything out.

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