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31
Wind Power Machines / Re: Interfacing wind turbines to the grid
Last post by SparWeb -
Quote from: MaryB – on
Feed it thru a rectifier and monitor the DC current via your micro... a full wave bridge with electrolytic has 1.4 times the voltage output so some math involved...

For now, I'm monitoring DC current, which is pulsed.  Where I tap off the power resistors with a voltage divider determines the scaling factor I need to satisfy the microcontroller's ADC input.  I figured out that a 1 to 10 uF capacitor is all I need, and doesn't have too slow a time constant for these devices.
32
General Discussion / Re: How is everyone surviving the cold and snow?
Last post by SparWeb -
When the Germans "went solar", they soon encountered the winter doldrums which get cold and dark, and then sometimes even the wind stops...  ...so they came up with a word for it:  Dunkelflaute

There's always a long Dunkelflaute here, where we get virtually no sun or wind for about a week.  Solar panels covered in snow makes it worse, but there's not even any point brushing them off.  Last December, about Christmas-time, the temps were -20C for a week.

In early January both the weather and I perked up, and I got in a lot of skiing.  Since then, it warmed up, melted the good snow, and turned the rest into ice. So much for skiing around the house.
34
Wind Power Machines / Re: Interfacing wind turbines to the grid
Last post by bigrockcandymountain -
I looked at your circuit diagram and read the explaination, and I'm trying to picture exactly how it would all work and i think i see some light.  I have "Electronics for Dummies" open in my lap right now.  That helps too. 

I have something I'm wondering about and I'm sure someone will explain to me why it won't work. 


In my case, my diversion load is a 500hz 12v signal that goes to a ssr and dumps the 48v battery voltage through an approx 10ohm resistor (water heater element) I assume the 48v comes out of the ssr at 500hz, not exactly as dc.

If I swapped the water heater element for a grid tied micro inverter it would get fed messy 500hz and would blow something up likely. 

What if all you did was add a very large capacitor (or a few of them) with a resistor in series to limit charge /discharge amps between positive and negative between the ssr and the micro inverter? Would it smooth the dc power enough that the micro would be happy? Would it store enough that when the mppt swept up it would drop a bit of amps and mimic a solar panel?

I get the feeling the magic smoke would come out somewhere, and i don't even have the grid here, so it's all academic.  I just can't picture in my head what would happen, and i was hoping to learn something by asking.

It sounds like a thread hijack when I read through it, but it kind of applies to sparweb's setup too. 

35
General Discussion / How is everyone surviving the cold and snow?
Last post by MaryB -
Second morning of -20f, thankfully the wind died down so the house is warmer! Yesterday's high temp was -9f!

Seems like more normal weather patterns are back, Minnesota usually sees a week or two of deep cold in January/early February then spring starts to creep in...

 
38
General Discussion / Re: Welcome to FieldlinesForum! Your new Community.
Last post by Xeonpony -
Glad to see the name resurrected, but I still lament of all the lost members from old that shall never be seen again! Hopefully some how you can get the data from the old forum

When I have more time I'll help fill a few sections up, my ewe lambed so have very cute pictures for the farming section.
39
Wind Power Machines / Re: Interfacing wind turbines to the grid
Last post by MaryB -
Quote from: SparWeb – on
Quote from: Bruce S – on
This looks to be a nice setup, like BRCM I'm curious where you go with these.

Well, slowly, is where I'm going.  Diving into the circuits, I'm afraid of how choppy the signals are to monitor current.  I'm adding various things to smooth it out, so that I don't need a complicated program in the software.

Feed it thru a rectifier and monitor the DC current via your micro... a full wave bridge with electrolytic has 1.4 times the voltage output so some math involved...