Last post by Bruce S -
Forest Fire smoke. Just checking to see how everyone's doing with this smoke making it's way even this far south. Made for a pretty orange-ish sunset yesterday here. Stay safe !!
Last post by SparWeb -
Progress update: It's exported 8.7 kWhr to the grid since being installed. I had it shut off while I was away on a trip for several days. Waiting for a windy day to switch it back on. It's July, so it's basically not going to be windy again until September, or a tornado blows past.
The changes have been made but it still not perfect.
That is why I created a new board named: Forum Help & Suggestions. That gives everyone the opportunity to contribute by making suggestions. Anything that you would like to see, or would like different, you can participate by posting it there. Then we can eventually make it perfect
There will be some changes coming to the forum soon. Not major changes, but a restructuring of the Categories and Boards. They will be simplified in a way to stay focused mainly on DIY alternative energy and off-grid and remote living. And they will be reorganized to make it easier for users to figure out the best place to post their questions or projects.
When I put this forum together, I didn’t have much experience with forums. I created too many categories and boards that made the forum look confusing, so I decided to ask for help from some of the experienced forum members.
You have probably wondered why some members have the title “Driver” under their names. Those are members of a group called Steering Group.
The members of this group will be able to suggest and recommend forum structural changes, like new sections, categories, boards, etc. They can provide input on key decisions like major website changes or upgrades, and they will help to maintain technical credibility and accurate evidence-based discussions to ensure that we build a database with high-quality content that will provide useful material for the users of the forum.
Basically, they will help to guide the forum’s long-term direction to make sure that we grow this community in a healthy way that will benefit all members and users.
This Group does not have moderation or administration roles; that will be the responsibility of the moderators and administrators. I chose the team members based on their experience with forums and also based on their knowledge with DIY alternative energy, especially wind power. So far, this team has done great work.
Personally, I haven’t had much time to dedicate to the forum. There have been a lot of exciting things happening in my life that require a lot of work and time. Also, some not so exiting everyday breakdowns and annoyances that have taken a lot of my time because I am by nature a DIY type. Now, I’m finally getting caught up.
I have a lot of projects that I want to post that I think will be of interest to the users.
The projects that I want to post include:
An axial flux alternator using neodymium magnets with the magnets of different thickness that can be stacked to create thicknesses from .25 inch to over 1 inch. I want to compare power output at different thicknesses.
A medium-size axial flux alternator using ceramic (ferrite) magnets.
A small alternator using small neodymium magnets to be powered with a regular bicycle to charge a battery. This system will have a USB regulated power supply output that can be used to charge a cell phone.
I also want to build a medium-size Hugh Piggott type alternator.
All these projects will have lots of clear pictures and complete specifications including output power at different RPM. That way anybody that want to build a similar system will know exactly what to do. Most of the projects will use inexpensive and easy to find parts.
I also want to post about some experiments that I’m doing growing vegetables, and many other projects that can be useful to users.
The restructuring of the categories and boards will be taking place in the next few days. In order to complete the changes, the website will be in maintenance mode for a day or two.
Thank you all for continuing to post and a special thank you to the Drivers for all their help.
Last post by SparWeb -
DESIGN CRITERIA OF VERSION 2: 1] Fully Automatic. No need to check on things or flip switches every hour. I can leave home for a week and return to a happy system. 2] Reliable. Fail Safe. Fuse protection. Known ratings on all components, suitable for their purpose. 3] Self-Contained. Despite having numerous inputs, and dependent on an external Microinverter, otherwise "just wire it up".
I just finished installing and getting it "commissioned". I had just as much fiddling around to get it installed as the first one, but that's the fault of the manufacturer ("me") not thinking through a bunch of the installation process, and forgetting to hook up a few bits inside the box before trying to install it over the battery system. Now that I've finished the fussing around, it works well.
It's controlled by a PIC micro-controller, a compact IC with 8 pins. I gave it a tiny DC buck converter for its power supply. The AC is switched with a micro relay and the relay is controlled by a FET. Just a few other bits to provide input filtering of the PWM signal coming from the charge controller's resistor and a LED to tell me the ON state. All the rest is managing interfaces around the box.
HOW IT WORKS:
The controller passes the DC right through, using some of it as power for the Microcontroller as its brain. I've used a PIC microcontroller in this one, because I wanted to drastically simplify it and also because I was feeling old-school at the time. Although I had to build a power supply for it, rather than buy it, well frankly I wasn't having much luck finding a DC-DC power supply that went from 60V to 5V that didn't cost 100 bucks and cover half a square foot of circuit board. I found a very simple compact DC buck converter in a 5-leg package that easily installed on my prototyping board. I just had to feed it with inductors and capacitors, and for such a low-power purpose this thing works great.
I built the control board on two simple proto-boards (photo above): Each is powered by the 48-60V supply from the batteries. The PIC operates at 5V so there's a DC Buck control used as a voltage regulator. For those interested: - Texas Instruments LM2576HV - Motorola PIC12F683 (has been flashed with an interpreter by PICAXE) - International Rectified IRL540N power MOSFET, N-channel - Panasonic DPST relay
Using a PIC micro-controller meant I went back to basics to program it, but my program is very simple. In words only (pseudocode):
INITIALIZE: - declare pin 4 as output' controls the gate of the FET - set pin 4 low ' turn the FET off, to start - declare pin 2 as input ' detects the state of the charge controller diversion
MAIN: - if pin 2 is LOW GOTO QUIET ' The diversion is off - if pin 2 is HIGH GOTO ACTIVE ' The diversion is on - End MAIN ' it never gets here, just oscillates between the two subroutines
sub QUIET: - set pin 4 LOW' turn the FET off, Microinverter stops - wait for a minute' The micro-inverter is off - GOTO MAIN ' Loop back to where we test pin 2
sub ACTIVE: - set pin 4 HIGH ' turn the FET on, activates the Microinverter - wait for a 20 minutes ' The micro-inverter is active for this time - GOTO MAIN ' Loop back to where we test pin 2
That's it, aside from switching an LED on and off, and spitting the On/Off status out to the COM port, it doesn't need to do anything else. If it's windy, the diversion load will be active, and trigger the controller. If the wind stops, then within about 20 minutes the controller will shut down. If the wind continues, then the controller continues. If the battery gets low, the diversion won't activate, therefore this controller won't activate. The controller doesn't run the battery down because the diversion doesn't run in those conditions either. The controller only operates when it detects voltage at the "dump load" heater resistors.
First a bit of background. I was inspired by a discussion on another forum, DIY Solar, hosted by the YouTuber Will Prowse. Several years ago several members compared their projects, all doing roughly the same thing: interfacing Microinverters to Batteries. They all had different reasons, but overall they wanted the ability to export more power, and control when it happened (not just when it was sunny). The main thread was from 2021 to 2025. Now that I have stuff that works, I could add a chapter to the discussion, and share some useful information. I also want to share it here, too. Get the word out, as they say.
GOALS: My goals were different from the majority of contributors who posted to the threads above. I have a wind turbine and I want to export its excess energy into the grid. This is something I should do safely, SO I rule out a lot of convenient and cheap stuff from China that I just won't look at. It would be arrogant of me to claim that anything I solder together is any better, far from it, but by designing and building it myself I will have much more control over exactly how it works, and understand much more quickly what's wrong when it fails.
I have a 48V, 210 Ah battery for backup power. Meanwhile, my wind turbine has always been the type for battery charging, therefore my backup batteries are being charged by the wind turbine. I experimented with connecting the batteries to the Hybrid inverter in my system, but it doesn't play nicely with the charge controller and diversion load that also have to exist in my system to regulate battery charge when it's windy. So the batteries are there for backup power, but not normally connected to the Hybrid Inverter unless actually needed.
As is often the case with wind that charges batteries, I use a charge controller that will divert power into a heater when the batteries are fully charged. This energy is wasted unless I can use it for something. After experimenting with many other things, I now want to direct the excess energy to the grid for export. I found the DIY Solar threads above at just the right time to help me do this.
Since I already have solar, and I don't have a monthly/yearly export cap like some people do, I thought that using Microinverters this way would be a solution. At the same time, my friend Pierre came for a visit and gave me a number of Microinverters he had taken out of his system, to repair or to keep if I wanted to try inventing some things. Well, indeed it didn't take me long to put all of this together into a working solution.
MICROINVERTERS: The Microinverters Pierre gave me were all AP Systems YC600 models, which have inputs for 2 panels each rated up to 440Wp. Given that the YC600 has a rated output of 600VA, putting a total 880Wp of panels means that it is designed for substantial "overpaneling", and this is handy in my application. Everything I am working with is for North America, therefore 240V split-phase AC with a neutral and separate chassis ground is what it design to use. The YC600 only uses the 2 Line and chassis Ground wires, not the Neutral. It's DC input range is 16-55V, but its MPPT range is 22-45V. Since by battery is always going to be above 48V, I don't expect the MPPT function to be useful or needed. If it exports using 55V x 11A, that's 600 Watts, equivalent to its maximum power rating anyway. (spoiler alert, this is exactly what it does).
VERSION 1: You've seen my posts from my first tries at this, rather ad-hoc, built mostly out of stuff I had sitting around, taken out of old printers, appliances, and in liquidation store bins. It worked much better than I expected, but not very well, considering it's a device that should be safe to leave running unattended for months.
I'll break up the posts so that I can pace myself, and compose a description of Version 2 more clearly.
More progress: Last weekend, I powered up the board, interfaced it to the computer, uploaded the program into the PIC, and it ran for the first time. Some subtle tweaks made it seem to run OK.
No problems running the power supply off of 12V, even through this Texas Instruments LM2576HV device is designed to handle up to 80V. To clean up ripple on the 5V output, it needs an inductor/capacitor set. These are the biggest parts on the board. I had to divide everything into 2 separate boards. Next I need to box it up, then do all the external wiring. I received more supplies from Digikey this morning to finish that..
In the meantime, the rough-and-ready prototype I built 2 months ago is still running. The buck converter is not only unnecessary but has now developed a loud noise in its cooling fan. But it still works and certainly exporting when its windy.
Last post by SparWeb -
More progress: Last weekend, I powered up the board, interfaced it to the computer, uploaded the program into the PIC, and it ran for the first time. Some subtle tweaks made it seem to run OK.
No problems running the power supply off of 12V, even through this Texas Instruments LM2576HV device is designed to handle up to 80V. To clean up ripple on the 5V output, it needs an inductor/capacitor set. These are the biggest parts on the board. I had to divide everything into 2 separate boards. Next I need to box it up, then do all the external wiring. I received more supplies from Digikey this morning to finish that.
In the meantime, the rough-and-ready prototype I built 2 months ago is still running. The buck converter is not only unnecessary but has now developed a loud noise in its cooling fan. But it still works and certainly exporting when its windy.
Last post by SparWeb -
Hi Joe, I'm hoping for better than 3 years! On the other hand, I have accepted that the previous AGM set that I had, which lasted almost 20 years, were freaks and not typical. Something half-way between would be nice.
Last post by Joestue -
I bought two 12v 35ah batteries 14 years ago and accidentally overcharged one, which electrolyzed some of the water away (how much u known but i think 20 to 30 extra amp hours went into the battery at a 2 to 4 amp rate. and raised its nominal voltage from 12.6 to 12.8v.
I found out years later that agm batteries run at higher acid level, which helps explain why they dont last long, dying in 3 years due to positive grid plate disenigration when floated at 80F or 25C at 13.8V
I look forward to seeing how the programming goes, never got very good at it. One of my instructors told me my brain was too many steps ahead of what my fingers would do. I understand the fun part, I still figure out ways to rebuild even newer laptops, it gets kinda ZEN like when looking at how stuff is assembled .
Cheers!! Bruce S
I hate the snap together cases on some new laptops... give me a little heavier and use screws LOL
I hear ya on that!! Luckily we use the Military grade computers from that are IP65 /IP66 rated laptops and they are all screws and rubberized gromets :-). IF you ever need one go looking for the Getac brand, not easy to work on or upgrade but definitely durable. We even found a cell phone that is Firefighter resistant . Takes more time to get into them than it does to fix or replace the part.
I look forward to seeing how the programming goes, never got very good at it. One of my instructors told me my brain was too many steps ahead of what my fingers would do. I understand the fun part, I still figure out ways to rebuild even newer laptops, it gets kinda ZEN like when looking at how stuff is assembled .
Cheers!! Bruce S
I hate the snap together cases on some new laptops... give me a little heavier and use screws LOL
Last post by Xeonpony -
Well, after using it much sooner than expected did the math and if I haven't said it yet, real world testing it is doing between 35k and 40k BTU/H or apx 10 to 13Kw with the current configuration.
The preheater assembly is on hold as the level control body was rather more corroded than I thought and I need to repair it and have some aluminium brazing wire ont he way, will try the cheap china stuff and see if it works, if not will be the very expensive alumiweld or muggy weld low temp alu alloy.
Got some nice mini carbide burrs for the prep work, pretty well all ells is ready to go.
Last post by Bruce S -
I look forward to seeing how the programming goes, never got very good at it. One of my instructors told me my brain was too many steps ahead of what my fingers would do. I understand the fun part, I still figure out ways to rebuild even newer laptops, it gets kinda ZEN like when looking at how stuff is assembled .
Last post by SparWeb -
I'm getting more and more excited about this project. My first try is still on the wall in the garage, exporting energy every time it's windy. I haven't given it a meter to track how much has been exported. For the first try, functional was the winning goal. Anything is better than zero!
I've designed a new version. Actually I discarded version 2 and moved on to a version 3 already. It will more fully exploit the capability of the micro-inverter that it interfaces to.
Today, the box of parts for V3 came in from Digikey. I'm really looking forward to this one!
Compact relay!
Controlled by a FET!
Controlled by a PIC microcontroller!
Yes, I'm programming in microcode again!
Every memory bit on those chips is precious!
Things like this are fun. To me. Hard to explain to others. My wife says "uh-huh, okay"
Last post by SparWeb -
Correction. #6 turns out not to be necessary. Selecting just the right microinverter may give a unit that is tolerant of 60+VDC. This eliminates the need for the buck controller. The system gets MUCH simpler.
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