An Proto-Teach Éireannach

[Scruff]

Hohoho..
Solar Bonanza!



We've a 900W temporary PV Feed to Froya of a now designated 1.2kW



Commissioned @ 15:00 in the rain.



Temporary wiring was not available for comment.

I've Reinvented Shore Power.



Galvanically Isolated!


Li-Fi likes to ride shotgun.





The ProtoHouse PowerPlant has been bolstered.




My SB1700 now has a 2.5kW array on String Input 1

My Array consists of
6 different makes.
& 7 different models

Voc 333V
Imp Average 8A



Mrs Scruff made me make it look arty as my hitherto agricultural methods were not inspiring as to warrant more landscape.   
Somebody will be along to fix those clamps and cable management after it stops raining.

The Battery Hospital now has the thin film 300W stand.

[SparWeb]

I've Reinvented Shore Power.

Never really stops raining there does it?

[Scruff]

Liquid sunshine we callit SparWeb.
Aye Summer is a fortnight I think t'was in April this year.

Every time I  do a  solar install or major solar upgrade it rains or overcasts or summat, I pretty much count on it.

I built a tilting panel mount onto a van roof.

Postcard from the field trials;

[SparWeb]

You got a little stove in that van, too?

[Scruff]

'tis. Aye.
Police magnet. Any excuse for a nosey.
I'm constantly being saved from flaming doom and death by carbon monoxide.

Curtain twitchers have called the fire brigade on several occasions.
I'm going hydronic diesel heater in the truck.

I must give you the tour...she's a wee bit scuppered at the moment her rear axle has been removed the last year while I've had more urgent matters to attend to than reverse entropy. It seems rude to parade her when she's not moved for a year. Still though she's the second-best van electrical fit-out in the country. 365 autonomy in her hayday.

This photo is old much has changed.


The TriStar mutated into a SunsaverMPPT, a DC-DC charger was added the inverter was deleted and replaced with a suresine...not that I use it much.

I've my car almost back on all fours (looks almost exactly like the shore power delivery unit photo'd above except much straighter...clone cars people...so many benefits). Another genset back from the field, slightly reworked....I'll have that axle back on her by the end of next week! ....then I'll drop thuther side and finish the last of the leaf spring hanger rebuilds.

[Scruff]

Never really stops raining there does it?

I keep catching myself smirking at this on the dry days I'm running an air needle descaler on a 50L compressor with 2 series water separators and I get oh about 10 minutes before there's seafoam air, oil-water mix spraying out the exhaust ports.

My daily's done...ish. Inner/outer track rod ends, exhaust, ignition, fluids, timing belt, water pump, front brake rebuild, underbody seal, headlamp restoration, engine mounts, block de-rusted and painted rack and pinion steering, leak fixed, body holes plugged, air and fuel filter, sway bar bushings.

JFM is back from the field.



350VA
12V External Battery
250W Charger
2 x USB 1A
1 x 12VDC Car Lighter Socket






The battery hospital has expanded...it's infinitely expandable at a cost of one relay per battery.




I've invented a new kind of fuseless fly lead called "The Welder's Buddy!"



It's an industrial inline C16 MCB on fusless 13A plug


Utility Power Networks have informed me of an upcoming power cut on Monday!
I've since cobbled some off-grid-tied interfaces.



I'm gonna power my house with Lead-Fi, WuPOG is running workshop and contingency and I'm DC coupling the solar to the battery hospital which is Lead-Fi's aux in.

Yurp...that is what you think it is!... with a Safety Neon mind!





Self-explanatory Off-Grid-Tied changeover interlocking system?

[tanner0441]

Hi

Doesn't everyone with a generator have at least one suicide lead somewhere in their box? Your inclusion of the neon does at least remind you when you have plugged in the wrong end first.

Brian.

[SparWeb]

No Tanner.
Absolutely not.
Un-uh.
Really not worth even mentioning it...

[Scruff]

Blimey, we're getting it all. Storms, powercuts, pandemics, comms dropping (during powercut 2 hours after because I suspect the reserve batteries are expired) and my keyboard is defective so I haven't been internetting much. I have to open my laptop and reseat the connector every time I want to use a T,P,5,3, u, . ,  or →...sigh...something to do with Z stacking a ribbon flex I imagine.

Has climate change started already?

Where was I? Ah yes, the widow-maker, AKA suicide lead. It's a lockable three-phase switch Tanner there's no wrong end as long as the switch is off. 

Meanwhile, if your genset is TN-S and your house is TN-S and the changeover is how I'm doing it rather than the right way (Later...much later) then you'll be needing one of these too... (and don't get too friendly with the genset chassis!)



We've had three days of power cuts and another coming on Monday.

Lead-Fi has been a trooper. Turns out it's AC coupling despite it's AJ 1300VA not officially having a charger...I've seen it charge up to 35A. The Sunny boy pushing 1700W will make it trip overtemp and then anti-island but handier with a little management than reconfiguring the solar array from 330Voc to 120Voc

Li-Fi made a guest appearance to bolster Lead-Fis charger and the next day charged off my hover van.



...and WuPoG sh1t the bed



I had it trying to synchronise with lead-fi as it says it can in the manual. 6A from the incomer and 10a from itself.
If you connect external power while the load exceeds 6A it will do this.
If you drop the load at any point it will sit there letting a 1300VA push 8A and just throttle it's charger.

Lead-fi tripped overcurrent, WuPoG bricked it's charger.
It's not coming back. I'm writing off ApprenticeVolt once and for all.

I spent €200 on an interface to edit the charger settings..it's just a teal RS232 to TTL
I spent €200 on a B-Type RCD because it's high frequency
I spent €600 on control gear because the charger is too slow & the alarm contacts and voltage protections don't work in any practical application.

Hrmmm I think I have a synopsis....



ApprenticeVolt recommends 35mm² cable for a 50A appliance and 6mm² earth which ought to light up nicely under a DC fault fused at 80A.
No sense terminals.
Charger derates above 57V
Inverter is 10A not 2500VA (2300VA at 230V)
Tail current setpoint does not work.
Charger is single-stage constant voltage.
Marketing says it's silent compared to low frequency. I measured 55dB last night of dubstep electronic noise and SanAce fans.
PE is relay switched
Load and SOC indicators are inaccurate.
Potential free relay is tied to the inverter shutdown threshold. You cannot start a genset with them until after the inverter sits down.
Over-voltage protection turns off the inverter but not the charger.
Monitoring voltage and current are inaccurate.
Voltage sense ±5% 
Not galvanically isolated.
No surge capability.
2.5mm² throughput cabling rated at 50A
80% efficient.

Charger death with 50kWh on the Odo


€8 of lecky.

She's going into the pile of shame and I'm replacing it with a Studer XTM

This is the second time I killed it. The first I blew the H-bridge with about 4 hours on her.
Flimsey, lightweight shyte the hardware is 75% marketing.

Apple of power electronics.

[Scruff]

Behold!
We can do better.

A Souper-Charger is born!



2kW solid state (oh come on it's one relay and a changeover contactor!)....passively cooled
Solar mains Hybrid

Multi-voltage 9V -> 80V inclusive

2kW

Comprehensively programmable.
Does 100% rated.
Programmable interfance is €30.

Prototyping and testing...I'll make her pretty later



The rain is louder





Stand-alone charger and inverter is better imo, it's double-conversion UPS...

I'll get her some Anderson plugs down the road.

Oh look I can set the battery charge current to 1000VA or whatever I want instead of 4 dip switch options that are not very suitable!

[Scruff]

Froya is in a coronvirus hot-spot/no-fly zone.

I've been doing bits and pieces...I may get back to that presently..

Mary B I hope your Dad would approve of my Master fusing?









 

[Mary B]

Fuses? LOL Circuit breaker has been standard now for years...

[Scruff]

Arah have both.
I put circuit breakers in the subdistro

How much are 400A DC rated MCBs?

[Mary B]

Haven't priced one lately... expensive!

[Scruff]

Quite, Mary B...especially reputable ones. I've affordable telecoms breakers for the bits that need to be switched or might conceivably trip. The Masters ought to never blow (I supply spares anyway...try finding a class T fuse in the far-flung boglands late at night...it'll be a week at least) and if you're as familiar as I am with a bittov battery cable welding it's highly unlikely 660Ah of 12v lead acid can blow a 400A because I've vaporised M8 brass studs with 200A and the fuse holds just fine unless the short is clamped.

I've swapped the 250A house battery fuse for a 400A for the 2.5kVA LF inverter load and sundry. The 250A was a place holder. I'm starting the overhaul tomorrow and I'd very much like to see the engine producing 200A which is in the order of 8hp after system losses.

These boaty people are mental....I must start building 48v/60V alternators.


I best bring my thermal imager and lucky underpants...whoop! 

Comms are restored, I've uploaded the new keyboard firmware from Qwertz to qwerty....oh that's so much better than fisting the flat flex from the "L" key connector region. 5th keyboard this machine has eaten now...



Looks like I'll be living on boats for the rest of the week and living the dream turning screws in crawl spaces...I'll keep yee posted.

[Scruff]

Oh my aching knees....tales from the bilge.

Late one night I got the main players mounted.
A shiney new 400A Master Distribution with radial equidistant battery feeders. Much jankiness was jettisoned.



Batteries were relocated complete with terminal insulators and appropriate fuses for cable gauge. The + cables are all red and the negative ones are all black (I'm told it'll never catch on)

Integrating an automatic bi-directional split charge system and a Sterling Boost regulator without feedback loops and with redundancy for when the Sterling CapXon Electrolytics give up the goo.

Engine Battery relocated and strategically located as an excitation field for the linked PMG alternators for downstream boost regulation.



It turns out the Sterling does work with PMGs but that needs a wire that was never installed by the last professional fitter.

I'm using a battery instead of a wire...I never trust Sterlings...you'd understand if you opened one.



I built a 210A alternator because more better than 50A + 160A competing.

Here's the front end of the third alternator. the 230V 3.5kW. It feeds a mains charger...this is all. Discontinued product.
I told the owners if they ever need 5kW off the engine just let me know.




We have meters because they're useful, accurate...and calibrated....er....well the TriMetric is..that does B1 (house battery) and B2 (engine battery) the eBay trinket is B2 with an embedded -250mV offset...it was fitted to prevent the user having to press a button.



Engine electrical generation tested to 250A.
4x plus change better than the day it was bought with mostly the hardware that was already there some extra cable, contactors and know how.


Is anyone noticing a brand theme?



I have no affiliation other than I'm at this long enough to not bother with another manufacturer.


We have accessible DC rated Disconnects; Inverter, All 12V loads, Solar PV and a circuit breaker for the TriStar, Bow Thruster and Mary B.



Boaty breakers with labels!




A bilge pump with a waterproof connector and an uncomfortable friendliness to the prop shaft.




Mains distro was deleted...it was all a bit too cowboy...right stuff not right implementation and twas in the way and a bittova mess and too artic cable.



I'll reinstate a neater Mk-II after I fabricate it.

B3 is fighting fit after a stint in the battery hospital. In the interest of something better than nothing, I gave it a diode yolk and a meter until I get around to a proper jobber and see if I can regulate the circuit to 60A by the righteous application of shyte under wiring.



These meters are so bright you just can't photo them...I'm told it makes a good go to the loo in the middle of the night light



+100mV cal offset (the last 4 I got were bang on).


1220Wp of solar up and we can peg the TriStar on a reasonably sunny day.



Meter Sold! To the man who painted the display!


Charge to house battery after engine battery, bow thruster and running loads.



Running an electric kettle off a boat battery...
Induction hobs are up to the plate next.

[Scruff]

Li-Fi had a grump and lost favour. She blew a very inconvenient to get to 200A inverter input fuse attempting to run a hot air gun and work-lighting.
The 160A Battery Master Fuse that's very convenient to get to did not blow. There is heat sinking at play.

I gutted her in the field, bypassed the fuse, put a band-aid on her and continued heat shrinking between overload trips.

The next 2 days day I took Lead-Fi, proving to be the most reliable, versatile and capable. She ran the hot air, a laptop, and the lights with no fuss and longer.
100VA extra.. ..more like 500VA!

Oh the joys!...I built 5 next gens...I seem to average 3 operational ones...

Li-fi has been turned around. Cable up-spec, fuse deleted and now I'm replotting my top-secret CC LiFePO₄ charge profile to compensate for the 20°C cooler cables.

Lead-Fi is 600W solar ready. Li-Fi is 200W...12 volt problems, I don't think I'll ever go lower than 24V again for my own stuff...what's the point?!


I'm entertaining ideas of how to put 48V in a Truck. Does anyone have any good alternator ideas that are cheap and powerful?

WuPoG has a new front end in the post..whoop! Teal got sh*tcanned.

(Leadite you haven't met yet...she's waiting for the rest to pitch together and buy her a new combi after I lumoxed the last...prototypes sure take a long time to gradute)

[PaulJ]

"I'm entertaining ideas of how to put 48V in a Truck. Does anyone have any good alternator ideas that are cheap and powerful?"

Any 12V alternator should do the trick provided 1) you can bypass the regulator to access the field coil, and 2) the output diodes are suitably rated (most are). It will have to spin quite a bit faster to hit charging voltage.
I use an old 12V 55A Bosch alternator driven by a small engine to charge the 48V house battery, with 12V through the field coil and at a guess  spinning at 7000 rpm or so it happily puts out 40A at 60V.

Paul.

[Scruff]

Hrmmm interesting Paul....

...I may be having second thoughts. 24v is handy for relay controls, truck appliances, fridge compatibility, led native voltage and some other reasons....I might just throw cable at it instead.

...but for academic reasons I'm still interested. Would a 24v alternator not be a better start? What do you substitute the alternator regulator with if anything? A wire-wound pot or something cleverer?
Can I feed the field sense (D+) from a 24v centre tap instead?

The spinning fast thing...well I can gear it on a pulley to start with but I want to pull ~2kW from it and it'll be coupled to a low RPM hi-torque diesel, there may be limitations to how small the pulley can be.

[PaulJ]

Yes a 24V alternator probably would be better, I just used what I had lying around.

No regulation at the alternator, just a full 12V to the field coil. My system is set up with dump loads for wind power which takes care of the voltage regulation, a bit wasteful when burning petrol but I don't need to very often.

You may have to drop the field voltage to stop the alternator bogging down the drive motor if it's only a few horsepower.

I did try to get all fancy a few years ago using a mosfet to pwm the field coil, kept blowing them up though. I suspect you need a really fast, beefy diode across the mosfet to cope with what must be pretty serious inductive spikes from the coil.

Paul.

[Scruff]

  ah no problem with engine torque. The application is a 4.5L 7.5ton turbo diesel.
I definitely want field control though because engine temps and longevity. Iirc a 50ohm wire wound pot in series with the D+ will allow for primitive manual control.
I've had success before split charging and D+sensing the less well wired engine battery while B+ing the house battery.
I guess if I kept it 24v I can run twin alts...mmmehyeah....nice to know how but I think it's a throw copper at it situation..

[Scruff]

I was chatting to ApprenticeVolt about their Mass Combi bricking itself while failing to meet specification.

They apologised for being so bad at hardware functionality implementation and said that they'd rectify this prevalent issue they were engineering into their products without trying to sell me more extortionate hardware that wouldn't do what it was supposed to nor fail to fix the issue.
They also apologised for their marketing department lying about the features their products have as being beneficial to anyone. Like lightweight and no surge or doesn't hum at 30dB 50hz instead makes high-frequency dubstep and 60dB fan noise.

They issued me a firmware update and agreed that if this didn't fix the issues I was having then they'd proceed to attempt procreation with their headwear.

Here's what they sent me to resuscitate WuPoG.
Bigger, better, genuine, less expensive & Morah Powah!



Thanks ApprenticeVolt yer a star! I'll just stick that teal box in the pile of shame with the rest of my anchors as soon as I upload the genuine article (anyone wanna buy it? The inverter is functional, PM me, interface included, interface for interface also included).

Oh and I got a third apology for cutting a now pointless hole in my Peli case for a €100 on switch (maybe included).

[Scruff]

I'm offta Froya tomorrow to reinstate a more featured but smaller mains distro (RCBOs instead of RCD + MCBs). In my almost street legal daily after the government made me give her a new set of ball joints and a pre-emptive "you'll need an alignment because what you can do in a car park with two spanners is clearly good enough to pass benchmark judging by the fail report".

I kept the interlock it's a delay relay coupled to a NC relay and an NO relay. It came setup as; shore off - hold - genverter on, & genverter off shore on instantaneous setup...ah that's right right? I could do better but budget constraints.

She's also getting a bow thruster split charge upgrade.



For my next trick I'm going to link 660Ah of lead to 1500CCA of lead across a 12v 4kW motor and not trip that 63A breaker. 



I cut out the contact window as a low power status indicator.

Target of opportunity;
Ctrl+X this janky thing.



and Ctrl+V
a nice Disconnect Rated one that's ignition protected.




Hover van has progressed to the last quarter.

[Scruff]

Ha that was ambitious...I didn't make it to the bow.

Mains distro reinstated, shrank with increased functionality. Genverter neutralised TN-S.



My clients are running microwaves, expresso machines and kettles tipping 100% SOC daily with no engine running despite it all.  I'll take that as a compliment and subtly point out that that's not normal.
The neighbours are queuing up to get a look and hold of me...time for a rate hike...



Vessel earthed, grounded and galvanic isolator landed 70mm² to the inverter. The correct size for an inverter PE conductor is one size smaller than the DC feeders. If the manufacturer says otherwise or they don't give you an ample stud then run away from their products they're morons. (Pic not taken..will follow up). You can always tap a stud into the chassis if you like working with morons.



I like the "you need an isolation traffo" warning indicators...noice touch Sterling.
I can't stand the noise their inverter lump makes...I'd retire it on that basis alone...not my call...

I did fit an output meter.



We can use the TriMetric to see input and the AC DIN rail to see output, the difference is the inverter inefficiency/vessel heating capability.
I'll post a result when I get a clean one.

They say this about themselves:
"Sterling has reversed this trend with this Pro Combi range by stripping away the unnecessary features from a complex combi saving money."

BS-o-meter tripped...I'll decipher that into a measured figure for curiosity.



Crosshair on target.



 

[Scruff]

Today's post is brought to you in association with manufactured obsolescence;

My new keyboard is failing. Typing on it breaks it. It work hardens the flat flex. Maybe I should buy an Apple instead...  



I've removed ApprenticeVolt and associated cabling from my life. I will never buy another of their products again...I could go on, I've had a few...but I won't.



Next up my MorningStar SureSine was sitting down. Now, this genuinely flabbergasted me. They're a genuine manufacturer!  It's the first time I'd seen any of their products fail that wasn't killed.
Then the penny dropped...it was probably something else.

Melted fuse holder.



This thing runs 15A peak, input not output.  1.5A nominal and physics is telling me an automotive-grade bought in a franchise store "100A" fuse holder can't hack it. 15% duty tops....
I'm quickly approaching having melted everything on the automotive market below rated...how do they get away with it?



Here's a more recent pic of the hover van powerplant. I'll knock the cobwebs off after all the chassis krust.

[DamonHD]

I've not been impressed with a a lot of recent automotive-grade stuff of mine, albeit consumer grade.

I'm not at your pay grade and current levels (and none of my fusing is over 20A IIRC), etc, etc, but I had 4 (four!) 12V cigar-plug USB adaptors fail in quick succession, two as I was actually plugging them in for the first time.  I've also melted a number of cigar plugs themselves, the latest powering the adaptor for the MacBook Air that I'm typing this on...

Annoying and worrying.

Rgds

Damon

[Scruff]

My paygrade.. ...mates rates!

I was/am a stage lighting/event power technician before the pandemic.

Ah yes, the 12v plug! The single worst receptacle in production. A friction fit for high vibration applications terminal with an onboard fuse and a steel spring interface. More resistor than a conductor. I have melted every one I've owned for a laptop. That's normal. I rate them as 2Amp and remove them with extreme prejudice in favour of hella/din [for trucks).



 I still have to fit the sockets for clients though...no getting away from them.

[dnix71]

I've melted the 12v dash power port in my Toyota trying to run a 12v air pump long enough to fill a tire. The dash port gets too hot to touch in spite of the draw being well below the 15 amp fuse rating. A next door neighbor set his dash on fire and destroyed the car doing the same thing. Car makers don't use heavy enough wire and connectors and a few years ago, Harbor Freight ordered a recall on Chinese made fuses that would not blow reliably at their rated current. They were ordered destroyed because they were considered so unsafe.

If you want something that won't melt, get fuse holders made for high powered car audio amps. I've used this style for a/c disconnects

[ Specified attachment is not available ]

[Scruff]

It's usually the plug I find is the problem not the socket. Specifically the weedy steel spring interface to a fuse. The sockets are supposed to be high temp. tolerant and ceramic for cigarette lighters...well they used to be anyway. I don't drive anything newer than 15 years old. I've not noticed underwiring as an issue either, 1.5mm² is sufficient for 15A and thats generally the minimum gauge.

I'm very wary of those grub screw fuse holders also. I slieve the cable in a lug compress it and saw the eyelet off or just use copper pipe if I have the right size available. The grub screw tends to push finely stranded cable aside and make a poor mechanical interface. Another other thing is sealed fuse holders are a poor choice for high current applications [>50A) as the resistance of the fuse comes into play and the heat can't escape. It's not an issue for a genuine gold plated Audio fuse but most on the market are zinc plated gold-coloured thanks to Chinese ingenuity.

I'm not in disagreement Dnix, just a few caveats to add. Principally this is the best course. Put something wholesome on the battery or from the fusebox rather than take what you are given because more often than not it's not suitable.

I've never had an issue with hella/din and I have put up to 12a continuous across them. If changing the socket and every plug you buy thereafter is an option...

[Mary B]

A quick way to check if that fancy gold plate is zinc is put a drop of muratic acid on it. Zinc will bubble, gold will not.

[Scruff]

Cool. I never thought of that...Battery acid works a treat too as I recall from a chemistry lesson I had this one time I was checking cell voltages..
Sounds like a great way to get free fuses on Ebay.
I've usually just melted them and then gone for more industrial versions.

Incidentally, you can get screw type maxi blade fuse holders, Blue Sea make rebrand them, this would solve the SureSine issue I've found. I'm just gonna throw an ANL at it.
I'm swapping WuPoG's ANL battery master fuse for a Class T, that'll do. The 100a SureSine is for inrush it's a 60A max rated load.

I dunno about you but making melty fuse-holders seems irresponsible to me.

Then again they're all lying tunts...I wouldn't know what to do with an honest one.

[Scruff]

Froya had some 12yo cable from the same supplier. They're definitely shaving it.  The older stuff was meatier. They paid me off about €300 of cable to not take the matter further like to an independent lab. I said thanks very much, now you sort your naughtiness out or you'll be hearing from me again next batch I buy.

Sometimes I just can't be bothered. If I want 35mm² automotive cable I buy 50mm².
I could get a refund every time. Try it yourselves!
It fails benchmark on CSA, strand thickness, insulation thickness, voltage drop, "rated load" etc.

[dnix71]

Scruff I usually twist and tin the end before using a compression fuse holder like the one I showed. The tinning plus the red strain relief sleeve the holder has make a pretty safe connection.

Plus in the US anyway, there is "reclaimed" wire used in cheaper cable. Radio Shack used to sell it for audio use. That stuff is junk even if the cross-section matches specs. It's softer than new wire and best saved for making crafts.

Remember, too that you get the skin effect only with AC, not direct current.  Wires intended for high frequency ac may be fine braided litzwire to minimize the skin effect. Braided wire does not have the apparent cross section diameter. Tinning the ends at least makes the end a true cross section because the solder fills the voids.