An Proto-Teach Éireannach

[Scruff]

You not noticed how much the computer works when you type REALLY HARD

I remembered your advise about never opening my machine again each of the 4 times since I did. 10 year old ASUS ROG it's got more GB per € than anything you'll find on the high street.
I replaced the fans, and another keyboard, and the thermal paste and pads. Have you a RS232 interface I can borrow for one of these?

...scale that up and make a bigger one.  You might like to think about making a bigger battery. It would be just stupid to weld a load of small ones together....

More potential liability per cell. Less cooling surface area. Knock yerself out.

Did you son ever get his toy back 

What!? ..er...we traded...

[Scruff]

I have a suitable application for Li-ion!! Something Lead can't do with more capacity per buck taking names in the snow!

Oh but Ni-Cd can without a BMS or retrofit if you use rechargeable cells.



We've outfitted for the garage loft nighttime dakar rally.

The stewards said you can't have one off-roader be cooler than the other Dad!



So we retroffitted a LED kit.



I could wire and mount a real LED bar as fast...

[Scruff]

...you can't have one off-roader be cooler than the other...

That escalated.   

[Bruce S]

What?! No twinkle lights  .

I am a continuing user/believer in NiMiH/NiCD. I still have and use the same ones  that were left over from our trip to the Banaue region in the Philippines back in 2012.

[Mary B]

I have had horrible luck with NiMH... cells go bad...

[Scruff]

What?! No twinkle lights  .

Reverse lights are pretty easy do with polarisation of the motor output...workshop is outtov white LED atm. I should stop creating work for myself....

[Scruff]

Micro Dakar Stage 1: Workshop Loft
Race Report.

The 4x4 dominated the circuit from start to finish. The track was OSB and obstacles heavily favouring rubber tyres.
The tracked car struggled throughout the stage and retired early to address certain performance issues.

When we joined the team in the pit lane they said they'd worked through the feedback from the driver to address the issues brought up by today's leg.
Our engineers report they're confident tomorrow's stage on mixed carpet & varnished floor is anyone's race and they're hoping to climb the standings thanks to the tireless upgrades the deck crew have managed to pull off after the vehicle was returned to the pitlane for an overhaul.

We spoke to the driver, he had had this to say;...

"Hay dya expect me to compete against a gazelle with a donkey?!
She d'nay have da poower ti pull a pint!
The nose's as light as me wallet.
The tracks; harder than parmesan.
Change the name, Team Li-ion ti Mutton dressed as lamb!
She's all show an' nay go!
If ye'll excuse me I gorra spanner ti throw ata monkey!"

Stern words indeed!

We returned to pitlane to consult the chief engineer.

He said, "Nothing to worry about!". We've raised the redline.

We've studded the tracks with our special hot glue compound, she won't break traction leaving the start line and stops like the hitting a wall.




A necessary mod he advised now that the drive regulator is no longer current limiting. It's a drift/burnout monster on stock tracks over lacquered wood with the new motor drive power unit.




The Fuel Cell has been changed for a higher torque larger capacity unit and the motor voltage set to allov it, regulated. Weight was brought forwards and lowered.



Dual motor powered reverse thrust stall is no problem to the new setup.

Micro Dakar Stage Two: Downstairs Double-back should be an exciting one.

Early test trials on carpet with our contestants have the top speeds competitively matched, still favouring the 4x4 by a hair, it's all down to the driver now {..and turning circle  ...}.



100% Rated, Continuous!






 

[DamonHD]

FWIW Scruff, amongst my other ramblings here:

    http://www.earth.org.uk/diarycast-20211228.html

I support some of your opinions that behind the meter batteries are not an unalloyed good.  My now deliberately-oversized (in some ways) Enphase system is making the point, though a few engineering tweaks to allow for deeper sleep at this time of year would help; no rocket science required.

Rgds

Damon

[Artful Bodger]

workshop is outtov white LED atm.

Given your earlier posts showing pretty much your entire house lit with white LEDs, I am uttlerly flabergasted by the news that you're all out 

As for that RS232 lead I have plenty of implementation suggestions 

[Scruff]

I'm very curious what the Enphase RTE is Damon. Have you measured it? It's DC->AC not AC -> DC -> AC so maybe better than I project.
Indeed. 80% of eff all you can't use is not a lot.

The operating temps for that is -20°C to xxx°C. I suspect the inverter works at -20°C but the charger doesn't come online until much higher. If it was really good it'd have temperature proportional charge rates. I think people undestimate how fragile they are in the cold or rely on users to not have a lot of generation capability in the cold.

If I take a trip to the shop for a box of AAs it costs the planet 50kWh of petrol on top...batteries oughta displace gensets & ICEs that's what they're good at.

I could go on about embedded energy in solar versus battery too...but I won't.

I am uttlerly flabergasted by the news that you're all out 

er...all outtov 6000°K through hole 5mm jobbers...

[Scruff]

Micro Dakar Stage 2: Downstairs Doubleback
Race Report.

We began the second stage of this prestigious event after a hard night pulling out the stops.

Team Ni-Cd went out on the town cruising and boozing...they said their car was tip top, change nothing!
Team Li-Ion were keen to prove a comeback was on the cards!

The cars made it to the stage early for marshall inspection.



Li-Ion certainly proved to now have a capable machine on their hands! Slightly outpaced but unrivalled in the turnback gaining 10 car lengths on the U-turn {_{narf narf}}.
Reliability issues plagued the team however and took it's toll.
Team Li-ion took an early pitstop and heavy time penalty for midstage mods.

The engineering team said the gearing was to low and there was too much unnecesary junk...

The car returned to the track after lightweighting and regearing.



While that was happening the fabrication team upgraded the wheelie bars to more functional robust members.



There was a clear improvement on stage times but the 4x4 was still faster on the straights...

...the scene in pitlane wasn't so cheerful... a marshal observing the scene said the sponsor was beating the chief engineer with a lego manual...

We got a chance to talk to the engineering team for this exclusive interview..after having a few pints with team Ni-Cd who had nothing to improve.

"We've had a hard two days keeping pace to the Ape in the Nickelmobile. She's light, she's lifted, she's got a motor per axle and she's rubber tyres.
We didn't come to the Micro Dakar to pose! We're here to take the lead!
Yes, we've been having over-complicating the yolk to it's own detriment issues holding us back and the inherent lack of reliability intrinsic to that method. We're not faltering tomorrow. We have to admit now Lego didn't make a drag racer.
We've done nothing less than reinvent the wheel."



"We've upgraded the tracks to a much higher gearing and added a new ultra grip membrane we call elastic, in a band, to help hook up the increased performance to the road..it's like tyres except more complicated and not as good.

She's a lean, mean machine now!"

"What's that you're working on I asked?"



"Oh we're also reinventing front lower control arms. They need to be super extra strong because we've no suspension!"

"How're you set for tomorrow?" I asked after the pits closed.

"It's ours to win. We've the power where it needs to be...we've tank turning and the sharpest driver on the scene...as long as those cats don't catch him he should have that ape in the rearview all day"



"What about the rock crawling stage Saturday?"

"The what?! ..ah carp..'cuse me.." ....

[JW]

This is a good topic, pretty much anything goes (within reason:) To the diary's section.
https://www.fieldlines.com/index.php/board,20.0.html

[DamonHD]

I'm very curious what the Enphase RTE is Damon. Have you measured it? It's DC->AC not AC -> DC -> AC so maybe better than I project.
Indeed. 80% of eff all you can't use is not a lot.

The operating temps for that is -20°C to xxx°C. I suspect the inverter works at -20°C but the charger doesn't come online until much higher. If it was really good it'd have temperature proportional charge rates. I think people undestimate how fragile they are in the cold or rely on users to not have a lot of generation capability in the cold.

I did a crude calculation March 2020 using the then-solo Battery's own claimed flow figures, which seem honest:

https://www.earth.org.uk/Enphase-AC-Battery-REVIEW.html#Round

Crudely, and ignoring overheads of the Envoy unit and all the data processing going on in the 'cloud', this is an overall round-trip efficiency of ~82% (rounded up).

BTW, I did see data that suggested that the charge rate dropped as temperatures got low.  Now is not the weather to test that theory (~14C) but I could possibly pull that out of the data after a cold Jan/Feb/Mar coming if they are bright.

Rgds

Damon

[Scruff]

I could go on about embedded energy in solar versus battery too...but I won't.

Perhaps I ought to. I'm referring to energy return of investment (EROI).
Solar 9:1
Battery 1:1*

_{* if death by natural causes.}

Crudely, and ignoring overheads of the Envoy unit and all the data processing going on in the 'cloud', this is an overall round-trip efficiency of ~82% (rounded up).

I expect it's significant. These are truth finders and very inexpensive.
I also expect there's an acceptable amount of backfeed bleed before the battery will charge...even if the installation has zero load.

this is an overall round-trip efficiency of ~82% (rounded up).

Thanks for sharing Damon.

Didja hear that AB? When was the Studer Xtender launched? 1990's?
79% efficient round trip they are. Wanna talk features?

BTW, I did see data that suggested that the charge rate dropped as temperatures got low.  Now is not the weather to test that theory (~14C) but I could possibly pull that out of the data after a cold Jan/Feb/Mar coming if they are bright.

I've never seen it implemented outside of an MS ProStar MPPT and they only have low-temperature foldback. High-temperature wasn't on the radar.. I complained, they said "Thanks for the feedback!"

Reduced upper SOC operation & charging envelopes are next to impossible to implement with LFP thanks to the memory effect & flatline Vmp curve...often when people say 3000 cycles they are refering to 20% to 80% operation but every charger out there goes to 100% (600 cycles...to 70% rated*...unlike lead's 80% rated benchmark...oh fudge)

In response to your link Damon;

For my lead-acid off-grid system I expect less than that. For example, I see that ~40Wh is typically 'wasted' daily in the necessary topping charge out of ~200Wh cycled through the (failing) battery bank daily at the moment.

Why expect less? I expect more. They're brutes and they deliver if you know what you're doing or use a BMS that's programmed by someone who does.
I don't waste any power topping up any battery chemistry. The utility network is my diversion load.
You could waste spill power if a small battery was full..but lead's usually big because price and functionality.
You waste a lottov power off-grid alright. A larger percent of a much lesser nominal consumption specifically.

The battery isn't the least efficient part by a long shot. The charger is, then the inverter.



I've overlaid lead-acid charger end of charge battery SOC on top of the battery efficiency curve.


This ~18 month sample involves about twice as much 'winter' as 'summer', so this efficiency figure is possibly on the low side for the ACB (AC Battery) unit itself.


I retract my earlier. Sounds like AC-> DC -> AC

which suggests that any winter/summer effect is small. That further implies that losses from the ACB while empty and idle are very small, maybe <1%.

It might also suggest it's not accounted for, for instance does anyone measure the 10% loss through a GTI or just accept it because the GTI only reports output?
DC coupling puts 80% of that 10% into a battery or DC load...I've seen my old 150W van "array" outperform 2kW grid tied on useful power in heavy overcast skies because it's more efficient and a near-zero quiescent.

[Scruff]

Micro Dakar Rally: Stage 3
Upstairs Around Every Bed.

It certainly was a spectacular leg!
Team Li-Ion is fast on the straight, and in the corners and in the technical....

However team Ni-Cd can fly... , , ...every time they hit an obstacle instead of reversing they lift-off over the finish line in a trail of laughter...

The marshalls weren't sure if that's legal....there's nothing in the rulebook about it...neither is entering a 4 wheel drive and then converting it to dual independent mid-event...

Reliability is still a major problem for Team Li-Ion...
Chief Spanner Monkey had this advice to give the driver: "Listen mate...it's Lego...don't hit anything!"

The highlight of the day was a tied finish...Team Ni-Cd managed to crash onto the roof of Li-Ion and piggy-backed over the finish line.

After the stage, as usual, Ni-Cd's had nothing to fix or improve and hit the town...

Jobs for the boys in team Li-Ion though!

We got another exclusive interview with the boys in pitlane!

"What are your feelings about today's happenings gents?"

"Robbed! We were robbed! We're three times the weight and on land we're outta sight!"
Ain't no flying machine though! 

Listen! I'll tell you! We're not taking it lying down!
We've not only reinvented the wheel once..

...not twice...(wheels driven by tracks)



But three times!

We're getting hit below the belt and there's only one answer to that!

Behold! THE UNHOLY MATRIMONY of Lego AND Junior Mechano!!



Tyres! You can't reinvent the wheel without reinventing the tyre now can you?
Most important part of an automobile.

And we still can't put all the power on the ground off the start line...

...but we can bunny hop now!! 

We're running a full set for every terrain. Massive 3" off-road rubber at atmospheric pressure. Solid rubber pizza cutters for drag racing, Front skids for wood and carpet and tracks for posing for the photos.

The rears are as good as we're getting! Gearing highered by increasing the wheel diameter. If it was a fair race...it wouldn't be fair!! 


Not only that but to protect the Lego Tracks we've extended Lego bar-work!

Better wheelie bars too...easier steer...



At this point in the event I don't think we're gonna win the tournament but first loser's in the bag!

The sponsors are advising we enter some drift events after this."
Team Ni-Cd responded. "Bring it! Less is more...we'll race on the rims...with 4 wheel drive!! 

The competition standings may be already determined but the race isn't over.

Tomorrow 's stage is rock crawling...Team Li-Ion aren't putting the Lego tracks back on? 
 

[Scruff]

Interesting link on the relative pointlessness of batteries on a network.

Here's a more up to date one.

Just type battery EROI into google..you'll get loads of other helpful advice.
Like don't bother. Less is better. Seriously close the curtains at night you'll save more energy.

Solar freakin' roads bro. I smelled that t*rd in seconds. Some idiots had to build it first...no offence. Propaganda...don't fall for it.

[Mary B]

Speaking of batteries and low temps... it was -16 last night and a friend 2 blocks away was coming back from visiting family for the holidays. Their Tesla died 150 feet from my driveway. They managed to push it to where the road widens in town and get it on the side of the road out of traffic. Knocked on my door... "can we plug in and charge for an hour to limp it home?"

So I had guests for an hour at 2AM as they charged enough to finish their trip. Little baby with so being in the cold was bad news. 150 mile round trip in very cold temps. Cabin heater running full blast to try and keep it above 60 in the car. Wind chill was hitting -30...

I have a 100 foot 12 gauge extension cord that JUST reached the car. He had to put supports under it so the sag didn't make it to short. He knows I have a bad back so pushing it closer wasn't an option.

THIS is a prime reason I will NOT buy a battery car. The technology just isn't there for long range use in deep cold.

[Scruff]

uh ooh!!

Careful where you point that thing MaryB!! 



Which tesla motors is this? I have some running my fridges. Can't complain.

Neo-Tesla?

with the switched reluctance DC motors?
promoting distributed mini-grids backed by DC injection from a DC battery?
Capitalist come prophet armed with social media skills of making libelous profanities & accusations towards sub-sea rescue workers et al?
the same who once said cars setting fire wasn't as bad as cars spontaneously combusting and then followed up with infernal combustion engines burn people to death all the time after they did start spontaneously combusting...followed in turn by a non-elective firmware update to all privately owned vehicles with this ailment inserted to remove the overclocking on the charger, derating the battery capacities by 10% overnight?
The EVs with super heavy glass roofs, microwave switches for door handles and panel gaps you can hide immigrants in?
Anyone up to date on the recall count for manufactured obsolescence in central display panels and underspec-ed front suspension linkages?
Anyone got a spare electronic oil pressure pump?....of course not...

I like EVs





T-shirts versus anoraks MaryB.
If there's ever a good one takes my fancy I'll park it beside my Jap Scrap and soon as they depreciate enough.

At least the battery was warm MaryB so you didn't spend loadsa power running the preheater for the battery and your driveway.

Range claims are based on results from a rolling road on racing slicks...I don't think it requires steering inputs.

[Scruff]

Australia's warmer than Ireland.

(If we had a clue we could wind + hydrogen)
We've the best offshore wind in Europe with the only possible exception being Scotland...it's still there...no turbines yet...

[Scruff]

Micro Dakar Event Suspended.
Weather window not approved.

The teams never cease improving though!
Er....well Ni-Cd's mostly have craic and recharge batteries.

Team Li-Ion did have an interesting rock crawler that was unflippable due to having a wheel diameter larger than the rest of the vehicle. It did involve a Ni-Cd conversion and the sponsors threatened to pull out so they went back to the drawing board...

At this point we suspect Team Li-Ion haven't a clue what they are doing and just wrote "Li-Ion! More Better!" on the fuel cell.

They made a controversial shift to FWD with a 4:1 front-loaded weight distribution. Then they put the shell and weighty Li-Ion battery onto the slim, lightweight Ni-Cd frame they had built that was compromised for the new payload after substantial light-weighting and lack of lateral underbelly support due to running out of lego on the track protectors...

The longer wheelbase of a skid steer was warrant for another round at the bar from Team Ni-Cd!




Our Teams have been running practice runs waiting for the outdoor stage to dry out.

Team Li-Ion put in a blistering 3second quarter house time on a carpet launch matt. An entire second faster than the stalworth Ni-Cds..

Here's a snapshot of the cars returning to pit lane!



The team assure us they'll find the most complicated solution they can to address the "minor" reliability issues they're having.

[Scruff]

Didn't Thomas EDISONs' think tank invent patent an EV and a battery for it (Nickel Iron....lead was probably a better choice but hadn't that same proprietary flair to it)?

What was NIKOLA Tesla doing at the time? Inventing a transformer for unified wireless power transmission utilising frequency instead of current and making the planet's fundamental resonant frequency the primary winding? Only validated by a "peer" 50 years later to have correctly calculated that value without the help of 50 years more advanced measurement technology.

Good question! I'll show you exactly where you'd put an import meter in that system...can you turn around one sec. please?

[Scruff]

What has Electric Jesus done for us?
Thanks for Ebay....infinite source of cheap MS charge controllers that never break.

Cars built: 1.91 million.
Cars recalled: 613 000...that I'm aware of.

Called lane assist self-drive until the robots killed people then called it lane assist.
Are they using the market as beta testers?

Cyber Truck: Joke
Semi: Brown-Out generators...will never have a supporting charge infrastructure.

Poowerwall: 300W atmospheric heater, internet reliant and anti-islanding. Solar system efficiency reduction devices.

Solar Slates: 6 times the cost and complexity of conventional solar.

Reusable rockets: Glorified spaceship recyclers. How many have relaunched versus broken for parts to put on a new one?
Shot a car into space...why?...would a liferaft not be better detritus to jetison up there?

Are the cars making any money or does the company rely solely on selling bogey "green credits" to ICE manufacturers as a way for those parties to avoid government carbon emission production technology financial penalties?

What's a supercharger?



Spare me!

Leave it to the Japs gents. I need 4 spanners to fix my car.

[Mary B]

One of SpaceX's first stage boosters has been reused 9 times, I think 10 is their lifespan goal. And I think it was turned around in 2 days and launched again for that 9th flight. SpaceX is doing this testing on their own payloads(StarLink).

[Scruff]

I forgot to mention the Presales Capital they hold for goods that haven't been built/invented yet.

Yerrrsh MaryB that's a substantial part but it's not the whole ship and it is "refurbished" each time. Reentry to atmosphere costs heat shielding...the metal just disintegrates...no way around it other than mitigate or leave it up there. ...clickbait headline marketing...

Besides he's a face on the brand and an expense account, would you let him into an engineering meeting for aerospace devices?

[Scruff]

Micro Dakar Race Report
Stage 4: Suspended.

The stage is glazed in snice.

***

Ni-Cd's took the opportunity to get to the early house!

Fearless Team Li-Ion hit the bricks at first light!

We caught up to the happenings late today.

"Lads! Tell me! Have you made any significant changes to the setup?"

"Oh by gollY, We have...she's right tight now!
Any eejit can re-invent a wheel!
...but four times!? That takes a professional!*
_{(*money for the jobs for the boys)}



We threw out the manual...._{so my boss can't beat me with it} and started from the ground up!

We've a continuous full body dual rail sub-frame. With a 60:40 weight distribution having a rear axle bias.



RWD...because Hot Rod.
Shortened wheelbase. 3X the tyre contact patch...no more wheel spin leaving the line...



Unibody track protectors and wheely bars!



4 second quarter house time! 1 second faster than team Ni-Cd!!"

"Any reliability issues?"

"Bulletproof!**"

_{**This in not a fact.}

"We gotta hand it to the Li-Ion boys they may be late to the party but they know where the kettle and tea bags are!"

[JW]

Hmm this is going to have to-
At the time of the 3rd Genesis of the forum I wanted to put diary/channel with a login type of viewing/off the recent posts list. What do you guys think?

Everything is good just curious 

[Scruff]

I'm open source. Vote nay.

[JW]

Don't mind me I went  through a phase with cooking recipes.

[Scruff]

It's an allegorical tale with parallels to modern society & undertones of teaching your son how to hot rod. It's the next 1984! I thought that was obvious? ...I better work on the script harderer..

I meant to say "I vote nay"...I wasn't lobbying..

[JW]

https://www.google.com/search?sitesearch=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fieldlines.com&q=+smoker

[Bruce S]

It's an allegorical tale with parallels to modern society & undertones of teaching your son how to hot rod.

What!? I thought it was a cool race with Ni-Cd in the lead and some rather RAD wheels 

[Scruff]

The Rock Crawling Stage of the Micro Dakar was won by team Ni-Cd.
Team Li-Ion did manage to finish a stage for a change but only limping, after pulling a tyre off a bead.

They said that they'd decided to buy wheels and that re-inventing them was a thing of the past. 6000 years we estimated. Maybe 50 for lego wheels.

Team Ni-Cd have chronic coil-over shock mount fracturing from picking up 6 year old hitch-hikers on victory laps and summer-salting down stair cases on several occasions.
They said if she's coming into the shop then she's leaving with more power on top...and maybe reverse lights.
Li-Ion are running a boost regulator they said...two can play at that...reliability? They only teach that after class _{in the pub}

[Scruff]

Tiny House in the Wild.



What's a tea-light?



Mains In, TN-S Earthed




Too the Frame



Genset Neutralised at the fly lead.


Bittova Hondo fancier this weather..




16A in 32A Out (on a 16A socket with a 20A MCB)



13A Double Gang, Iphone charger and 24V SubDistro available externally.
Bone dry inside..yes it is! 


It' growing...







Connected a BSP.
It's a +20IQ for your inverter brain.



It enables display of SOC metering on the Remote.
and helps it understand to not cook the battery if the MorningStar is dancing.



I asked it to play nice with the genset, setting an input limit 12A.

Smartboost enabled to augment genset throughput with battery 3.5kVA.

I advised the Xtender to not upset the genset too much.



And clean up the mess because she is a filthy hondo afterall.



Firmware updates, chargers dialled to 29.6V Absorption +60mV per °C below 25°C across all charging devices. Each with heat-sinked temperature sensors.
EQ enabled 31V, 4 hours 28 days, solar and or inverter-charger.

Solar panels pointed at the sun and shadows moved.

I told Paul he needs some more, he'd only 4 meters until now...