I am a newbie building my first windmill, an Ametek-style setup with an Indiana 36VDC motor. For a dump load controller, I chose to build an Oatley K241 kit (without the 3 phase rectifier portion).
http://secure.oatleyelectronics.com/files/K241notes.pdf Seeing as how this is my first circuit board soldering job, I am hoping that it is put together correctly. I am a little confused about some things.
For connecting a dump load, the instructions say " a resistive load ...can be connected across the two pads (two long pads on the underside of the board near the MOSFETs).... " I have done that. I have set the switching voltage to 14V with the trimpot, using a DC power supply that puts out 13.8V (I set it a hair over the 13.8V point).
To see what happens when the regulator switches to dump mode, I have turned the trimpot down so that at 13.8V, it is in dump mode. The green "charged" LED comes on. When I do this, I see a voltage of 4V across the long pads. Is this what I should be seeing?
I am unclear on the concept of the dump load diversion. For example, in the above case, if the trimpot is set to switch at 13V, the battery voltage is above this so the power is diverted to the dump load, and the generator is putting out an open circuit voltage of 18V, would I expect to see 18V - 13V = 5V across the dump load pads? Or is the voltage I see always held to the voltage of the batteries (in this case it would be 13V) so I should see 13V across the pads?
The other question is the red "charging" LED. This is not on when the regulator is hooked up and the battery voltage is below the switching point (actually it is very faintly lit, visible in a dark room). I have replaced the LED and it's the same. I have checked all the soldered connections and they seem fine. Any troubleshooting tips?
Thanks.