diy solar

diy solar

Must Read: EMF (Electro Magnetic Field) or leaking current/ voltage, and why you need to be aware

I would guess the solar panels are the source of the EMF either through damaged internal circuitry, or potentially external static (nearby thunderstorm) especially since the charge happened "suddenly". Are the panels securely grounded?

My day job is industrial weighing and I have seen static charges throw off readings and scramble electronics. Once a nearby 3-phase AC motor zapped my tech through the loadcell shield wire.

Static charge is a huge concern with my golf cart and I hesitate to use onboard 48V inverter without being first grounded & bonded to my house breaker panel.

Setting a battery on concrete has been debunked on the internet however I have no personal experience.
I worked for Toledo Scale (now Mettler-Toledo) in service then in design engineering for 34 years. I am working for a load cell manufacturer in Scottsdale now (you know who it is). Small world.

When I was tech in Los Angeles CA, I had a customer that filled boxes with plastic pellets for injection molding. The scale had a wooden pallet sitting on the deck with a large (4' cube) corrugated (cardboard) box lined with plastic. The scale was used to cut off the pellet feed when the box was full. Every so often the static charge would get so high it would jump from the box to the scale deck (4.5") and reset the scale. The operators treated that scale with the highest respect (nobody wanted to get near it). 4.5" sparks is over 135 kV and it had to penetrate the plastic liner of the box too!

This arcing happened over and over again. I was amazed this didn't damage anything, they just had to empty the scale and recapture zero after every ZAP!

I fixed the problem by adding braided ground straps around the load cells, plus I also had to add a 100' extension cable between the floor scale and the indicator (extra coiled up under the instrument). The impedance of the longer cable slowed down the rise time of the induced surge in the cable to the point that the instrument was able to handle it without resetting. Toledo Scale made some tough instruments (8142 was the model, I recall).
 
EMF/leaking current or voltage or what ever it is...
It builds up!!

Unlike some members who claim "not possible" there are enough real life examples that it does happen.

Thank you for this additional example how lack of grounding can cause serious problems.

It's amazing what grounding fix.

I don't know what it is, just that it travels from the battery to the Inverters to the computer (mining rig)
Each have about 40 cm open space between them.
Besides battery cable, no contact to the inverter.
Besides AC wire going to switching panel and to the computer, no contact.
That same computer now works perfect on different location....

40 cm, or 160 cm (distance from battery)

Something is making the computer malfunction, where only difference in location fixed that.

If it's not EMF, I don't know what else it possible could be!!

Grounding all fixed the problem of getting randomly bitten by iron things.

If my EMF shielding works I will know in a few months when moving the computer to the electricity room
 
If it's not EMF, I don't know what else it possible could be!!
We had reports of a major geo magnetic storm in North America last week. All my wife noticed is her Internet was flakey. I just told her to reboot and had another glass of wine. Problem solved.
 
We had reports of a major geo magnetic storm in North America last week. All my wife noticed is her Internet was flakey. I just told her to reboot and had another glass of wine. Problem solved.
Wine solve all problems :)

Unless you have more knowledge about electricity and magnetism being almost one and the same (they go hand in hand) then Wikipedia can inform us, it's just the wine that solved the problems :)

I am totally open to any realistic expectation of this phenomenon.
Thunder storms ain't one of them, being not a constant factor.

I also doubt your wife's computer have 7x +$350,- videocards...

You are free to visit and witness the phenomenon with your own eyes.
Until then, stick to the wine as being the problem solver :)
 
I worked for Toledo Scale (now Mettler-Toledo) in service then in design engineering for 34 years. I am working for a load cell manufacturer in Scottsdale now (you know who it is). Small world.
To expand on my previous statement…my day job is industrial weighing of pellets and powders. Handling them can create static charges, especially for materials delivered in one-ton bags or boxes. Normally the oppressive humidity here in Texas and Louisiana dissipates static buildup and the operators get complacent on connecting the drain (ground) cable to the bag/box. But now in the winter we have cold & dry fronts move through, and static charges ignite the contained dust and chemical plants go big-boom. I treat static charge with high respect otherwise it will bite back.
 
To expand on my previous statement…my day job is industrial weighing of pellets and powders. Handling them can create static charges, especially for materials delivered in one-ton bags or boxes. Normally the oppressive humidity here in Texas and Louisiana dissipates static buildup and the operators get complacent on connecting the drain (ground) cable to the bag/box. But now in the winter we have cold & dry fronts move through, and static charges ignite the contained dust and chemical plants go big-boom. I treat static charge with high respect otherwise it will bite back.
I did a batch controller upgrade for LOF Glass in Stockton CA back in the 80's. The carbon black hoppers kept jamming (bridging). We tried everything to correct this. Higher intensity vibrators, thumpers no help. The humidity would get so high I saw fog and even rain inside the building one day.

The way we finally solved the feeding problems was to install a silicone sleeve (shaped like an ice cream cone) inside the hopper. When the feed rate stalled we would inflate the space between the hopper and the liner to break up the bridging.

Material handling, no thanks. That is a specialty I want nothing more to do with.
-Edit-

Did I say carbon black? That is from rubber batching system, my material handling nightmares are getting mixed up.

It was some other hydrascopic powder used in glass, that I have mercifully forgotten the name of.
 
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What? Only 7 video cards? And old ones at that??

You need to upgrade to compete.


"Sierra is a heterogeneous supercomputer that uses IBM Power9 central processing units (CPUs) and NVIDIA Tesla V100 Tensor Core graphics processing units (GPUs)."
"Graphics Processing Units (GPUs): 17,280"
Yeah...
I should.
Sadly I spent the money on solar panels and battery :)
 
Is it possible that whatever material is next/glued to the plywood (is black and has DD written on it) is conductive? If it is that could be a path to the threaded rod.
 
What? Only 7 video cards? And old ones at that??

You need to upgrade to compete.


"Sierra is a heterogeneous supercomputer that uses IBM Power9 central processing units (CPUs) and NVIDIA Tesla V100 Tensor Core graphics processing units (GPUs)."
"Graphics Processing Units (GPUs): 17,280"
Imagine if you could use that monster for bit-mining. Might be able to earn enough to pay for the electricity it consumes.
 
@fhorst any other updates on this? Also, while there may be more than one out there, do you know of any good link to making a good faraday cage with chicken wire?
 
Good day to you @Kapow_Network

Yes, there have been quite a few developments.

It seems that the inverters gave the most interference. Can be the solar cables (350v, +4500 watt)
Or the inverters themselves.

Either way, a simple barrier of small mazed chicken wire will do the trick.

It doesn't have to be a cage, just barrier is enough.

(Don't forget to ground it, iron can charge due leaking current)

It seemed that the threaded rods I used to compress the cells together where prone to get charged by leaking current.

For unknown reasons (most likely one cell (slightly bloated) went bad) I had a fire and lost most of my Eve cells.

Now BYD batteries, 3 X 260Ah
(6 X 24v 260Ah in S16 setup)

Due to the fire I needed to change the location of my computer.
It's now on top of the BYD (who has fantastic build quality and apparently default shielding) without issues :)

If you have the same issues I had, electronic devices get unstable, probably EMF will be your problem and simple solution like chicken wire will do wonders.

Leaking current like with my rods, grounding them is usually sufficient.
Charging with +150 (to 250)Ampere does bring it's challenges
 
Good day to you @Kapow_Network

Yes, there have been quite a few developments.

It seems that the inverters gave the most interference. Can be the solar cables (350v, +4500 watt)
Or the inverters themselves.

Either way, a simple barrier of small mazed chicken wire will do the trick.

It doesn't have to be a cage, just barrier is enough.

(Don't forget to ground it, iron can charge due leaking current)

It seemed that the threaded rods I used to compress the cells together where prone to get charged by leaking current.

For unknown reasons (most likely one cell (slightly bloated) went bad) I had a fire and lost most of my Eve cells.

Now BYD batteries, 3 X 260Ah
(6 X 24v 260Ah in S16 setup)

Due to the fire I needed to change the location of my computer.
It's now on top of the BYD (who has fantastic build quality and apparently default shielding) without issues :)

If you have the same issues I had, electronic devices get unstable, probably EMF will be your problem and simple solution like chicken wire will do wonders.

Leaking current like with my rods, grounding them is usually sufficient.
Charging with +150 (to 250)Ampere does bring it's challenges
Did ferrite cores on the DC cables feeding the inverter make any difference? I would be willing to bet that is how the RFI is radiating out of the inverters.
 
Did ferrite cores on the DC cables feeding the inverter make any difference? I would be willing to bet that is how the RFI is radiating out of the inverters.
There are huge ferrite cores inside the Inverter, but I never placed any outside the inverters.

Will be difficult as they have massive copper backbone bar, capable of handling 500 Ampere without getting warm.
(Rated 1000A)

Those might radiate...
I don't have the tools to measure.

Problem is fixed now :)
 
There are huge ferrite cores inside the Inverter, but I never placed any outside the inverters.

Will be difficult as they have massive copper backbone bar, capable of handling 500 Ampere without getting warm.
(Rated 1000A)

Those might radiate...
I don't have the tools to measure.

Problem is fixed now :)
Are you using cables between the battery and the inverter? You can get clamp on cores that will work with round cables or flat bars. You will want to locate these as close to the inverter as possible.
 
yes, there are now cables between the busbar backbone that connects the inverters and the batteries.

2021-12-7 9-39-40.jpg

Not a lot of space to work with
Probably can put come cores on there, as there isn't a problem anymore, it won't really fix anything.
I have a bunch of them laying around. When maintenance requires to disconnect the cables, placing a few cores isn't a bad thing.
same goes for the solar cables.

it won't hurt :)
also now not fix anything, as there isn't a problem anymore
 
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So I'm likely using way less voc (under 145) and watts (under 1200, though possibly inverter will take 2x1200 PV input ...need to check). But it's in a trailer so I have a few concerns:

1) in the small amount of interior space, I'd like to create a barrier between me and the all in one / inverter...

a) Do you think lining a wooden box with mazed chicken wire would do anything?

b) Do you think putting this around the wires or cables would make a difference on EMF / interference?

2) Is there really anyway to effectively ground this when not digging in a rod (ie - when on the road possibly in wet, rocky, or cold climates)? I remember back in the day, I used to see cars with a rubber strip on the back. My grandfather told me that was to "ground the car if it gets hit by lightning"... Which I think seems strange because the car is already grounded by tires (I thought). But then again, maybe some type of rubber or strip from the all-in-one inverter down to the road or ground might help ground the device, whereas the rubber tires are for the whole trailer unit and not necessarily going to "efficiently take the heat" if the device has an overload.

3) Geez... Making me a bit paranoid. But I think I recall that in one area I might visit it's prairie plains. And I think the owner of a mobile home there told me I wasn't looking at a tall antenna: she had a lightning rod next to her home. I guess if a trailer is parked in a field with no trees, and it's the highest nearby structure, it could get zapped by lightning. Dang, I guess, I may need to by some type of portable lightning rod. Otherwise the tallest part of my trailer roof for lightning to strike is - - the solar panels.

Anyway, glad you're okay!
 
So I'm likely using way less voc (under 145) and watts (under 1200, though possibly inverter will take 2x1200 PV input ...need to check). But it's in a trailer so I have a few concerns: 1) in the small amount of interior space, I'd like to create a barrier between me and the all in one / inverter... a) Do you think lining a wooden box with mazed chicken wire would do anything? b) Do you think putting this around the wires or cables would make a difference on EMF / interference? 2) Is there really anyway to effectively ground this when not digging in a rod (ie - when on the road possibly in wet, rocky, or cold climates)? I remember back in the day, I used to see cars with a rubber strip on the back. My grandfather told me that was to "ground the car if it gets hit by lightning"... Which I think seems strange because the car is already grounded by tires (I thought). But then again, maybe some type of rubber or strip from the all-in-one inverter down to the road or ground might help ground the device, whereas the rubber tires are for the whole trailer unit and not necessarily going to "efficiently take the heat" if the device has an overload. 3) Geez... Making me a bit paranoid. But I think I recall that in one area I might visit it's prairie plains. And I think the owner of a mobile home there told me I wasn't looking at a tall antenna: she had a lightning rod next to her home. I guess if a trailer is parked in a field with no trees, and it's the highest nearby structure, it could get zapped by lightning. Dang, I guess, I may need to by some type of portable lightning rod. Otherwise the tallest part of my trailer roof for lightning to strike is - - the solar panels. Anyway, glad you're okay!

To start with the last:
The rubber strip had an Flexible íron or copper core, that makes contact with the ground/street/soil when the car is standing still.
At (higher) speed the shape (a bit flat) made the air movement lift it, so it didn't wear fast.

Your tires are rubber, and all electricity (static or otherwise) stays on the iron car frame.

In the old days (more iron) touching a car could often give a small spark.

An grounding slab (correct word?) Fixed this then, and now the same.

Next is the fine maze chicken wire, yes, covering the inside will do the trick.
Perhaps the inverter is in a cupboard or something that can look like it :)

I never was afraid for EMF on my body, more the charging of iron things around the inverter and battery.
Like the car in the old days, I got zapped.
Shorter time a small spark, a few days it even hurts.

EMF shielding is easy.
Tin foil, chicken wire, metal sheets with or without holes...
When cooling also is needed, it requires a bit more tinkering.

Most RV's have walls covered with thin iron, that's already fixed :)

I never cared much about EMF, still don't.
Once I helped installing WiFi in a house where the owner did many protective measures...
Worked amazing!
No WiFi viable from the neighbors, and outside his WiFi not available.

And that was the problem...
He wanted to have...
Lol...
He purchased the most powerful routers, still Nada...
We ended up using 2, connect via shielded UTP one inside, one outside...

Shielding can be more a problem then blessing :)
 
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