121
Solar / Re: Fixing solar panels, I did something stupid
Last post by bigrockcandymountain -Permatex ultra grey rtv gasket maker i think is what it was. I know the orange stuff smells like vinegar, but this stuff did not.
Permatex ultra grey rtv gasket maker i think is what it was. I know the orange stuff smells like vinegar, but this stuff did not.
122
Solar Trackers / Re: My tracking system
Last post by Bruce S -
.Nice looking panels!!
Cheers
Bruce S
123
Forum Help & Suggestions / Re: Image uploads
Last post by Xeonpony -124
Solar Trackers / Re: My tracking system
Last post by Xeonpony -125
Solar Trackers / Re: My tracking system
Last post by Xeonpony -Ah chinesium, But well made, and they knew it, still get these some what cheap!
But like any thing china they over blow the realistic current handling of the onboard relays and I cooked one, luckily easy enough to order new relays and repair the board, but lets not do that again, good thing same people sell some thing for that, while add it lets add a 40 amp psu!
Well great, I have the brains and one axis working, but following it up and down isn't too useful, we need azimuth, lets see the junk pile and see whats laying about!
126
Solar Trackers / My tracking system
Last post by Xeonpony -Crude but worked excellent, far better than the panels ever did!
Getting sick of the garbage I finally ordered some real solar panels, whopping 540w and man did they crank the juice out and work fantastic.
Back then 3k! including shipping!! (Now days I could buy a 4kw array with that! but still going 16 years later I got my dollars worth from them!)
Gave away the crappy amorphous panels and lived off those for some time, but after enough moves I put them on the old static manual tracking mount.
Effective, but gets tedious having to go out side and push it into the sun especially in winter! So lets automate! but on a budget!
127
Heating, Cooling, Lighting / Re: My miniture waste oil heater
Last post by Xeonpony -Guy I know in the next small town east of me used to burn waste oil... he got tired of nozzles plugging despite filtering the old oil, filter prices went way up... he put in an outdoor wood boiler instead. Less work since he has kids who cut wood for him. Most doesn't need splitting, just shove in a bunch of 4' long logs and let it go! Will burn 24 hours on a crammed full load. His neighbor doesn't like that though! Gets a wee bit heavy white smoke when throttled back and packed full.
We have that too, gravity does the bulk of the filtering for you! where most go wrong is they try and run on the bulk tank, imo that is just for mixing and pre-settling, you want a small heated day tank, the heat causes the crap to fall out of suspension.
You drain sludge just before you fill it, then you filter the sludge, as for the feed filter you only get the reusable ones and have a couple spares, so just swap em as needed
It is a hands on venture and cleaning every month to 3 months depending on design, but once tuned, it just works.
128
Forum Help & Suggestions / Re: Image uploads
Last post by Xeonpony -Some of those images are quite large. I’m trying to save space, so I don’t have to triple my server cost for storage.
I increased the attach image size to 7mb and the number of images per post to 7. Hopefully that will be enough.
Ed
The image I was trying to upload was 400kb, yet it flags it right away, I'll try and see. This was in the solar tracking sub forum
129
Forum Help & Suggestions / Re: Image uploads
Last post by MaryB -Some of those images are quite large. I’m trying to save space, so I don’t have to triple my server cost for storage.
I increased the attach image size to 7mb and the number of images per post to 7. Hopefully that will be enough.
Ed
Most forum software has an option to autosize images to the forum needs... I haven't looked at what the forum software package is so no clue if it is an option.
130
Heating, Cooling, Lighting / Re: My miniture waste oil heater
Last post by MaryB -131
Alternators, Generators, Motor Conversions / Re: I finally finished my Toshiba motor conversion!
Last post by MaryB -... I used to sell some astronomy accessories into Canada, a group who combined orders to cut shipping costs.
I was one of those customers! Still have the Bahtinov mask for my scope. Still use it, too. Always got the stars pin-point sharp.
to bad they got so stupid on shipping up there! USPS went nuts on pricing...
132
Forum Help & Suggestions / Re: Image uploads
Last post by eColumbus -I increased the attach image size to 7mb and the number of images per post to 7. Hopefully that will be enough.
Ed
133
Forum Help & Suggestions / Re: Image uploads
Last post by Xeonpony -134
Forum Help & Suggestions / Re: Image uploads
Last post by SparWeb -It looks like it just accepted a 4 MB image, but not a 5.1 MB image. The limit seems to be set at 5000 kB, now.
135
Alternators, Generators, Motor Conversions / Re: I finally finished my Toshiba motor conversion!
Last post by SparWeb -... I used to sell some astronomy accessories into Canada, a group who combined orders to cut shipping costs.
I was one of those customers! Still have the Bahtinov mask for my scope. Still use it, too. Always got the stars pin-point sharp.
136
Alternators, Generators, Motor Conversions / Re: I finally finished my Toshiba motor conversion!
Last post by SparWeb -e-mail sent.
137
Forum Help & Suggestions / Re: Image uploads
Last post by Xeonpony -138
Alternators, Generators, Motor Conversions / Re: I finally finished my Toshiba motor conversion!
Last post by SparWeb -I do remember on the original forum that several founders did the same of skewing the magnets to lessen the cogging problems. If I remember correctly, this wasn't a big problem until the Sumerian-Cobalt <-sp? and higher powered mags started coming down in prices. I don't thinks this is/was ever a problem with ceramic mags.
I could be wrong.
Cheers
Bruce
139
Heating, Cooling, Lighting / Re: My miniture waste oil heater
Last post by Xeonpony -Now I am working on a small heated carburetor from an old pot burner for it, as mixing gasoline in is getting tedious
I did the math and for 4L per hour I need 250 to 300w to ensure cold oil will be at proper temp.
140
Growing Food & Cooking / Re: 2026 garden season, what are you growing?
Last post by Bruce S -It was Alaska, not Canada!
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