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I forgot to mention that I do have an 8 way fuse box that I can wire in and use blade fuses The way I have the batteries hooked up to the charge controllers and the inverter, might explain some of the odd slight voltage drop/differences I am seeing between various measurement points. I...

The batteries are being replaced so that will be a good opportunity to ponder your input because that was something I was pondering when I was making measurements. I have battery output on one end and battery input on the other.....when it is time I will draw up a podunk diagram to make sure we...

This is expandable by replacing the switches/breakers with higher values (already on hand) This is a base system that the student would modify depending on what the professor assigns them. One thing for sure, is by the time I retire in 4 years, I will have advanced my basic knowledge of...

I got pulled into this because when I was providing measurement support to the students, I was concerned with how the student was loading the system (he just put a bunch of space heaters, and light bulb banks and fans on the extension cords) , and he was using bolts instead of bus bars, he...

My batteries are toast. Part of the testing that was being done by the last student was stress testing the batteries, he really beat them up as part of his thesis and it shows. One battery had been left sitting by itself for years, without being tended to so not a shocker that these 4...

50 percent is my rule of thumb that I use for my little home system. I suspect that the batteries I am using, made in 2018 and abused by students and me, are probably toast. I suspect that when I get to work in the morning, I will find that 60 watts has taken 4 batteries down to what I would...

I just let the professor know that the rooftop lab won't be accessible for 3 months starting in about 1 month. Just in case, as you suggested an alternative. If she has a research or thesis project coming up soon, we may have to move the entire lab over to the golf course. Never a dull...

Well, my mounting systems was disapproved because it is on a safety rail, and.....just to make life interesting, NAVFAC just approved a vendor to replace the roof and that will kill the solar lab on the roof for 4 months. Good times. Well at least that will allow me the opportunity to...

Top rail was my first choice for the reasons you spoke of, but then I realized that mounting them on the bottom rail gave me an instant angle and put the final theoretical best angle (a load of hooey if you ask me) within easy reach. I believe the best angle is best using the bottom bar...

Not yet, the top mounts are fairly tight, so a couple of ballast weights will hopefully keep them down overnight, only one or two of them were slightly moving up and down, when the hailstorm hit, so I just layed a couple of bricks down in front of them and that made short work of that. I...

A better solution but not finished yet.

Where I went wrong is not getting with you, the WindWizard and have you work some of your Mojo Magic on our rooftop. Joking aside, I should have went with my original plan. A simple 2 X 4 frame with 12 inch bolts securing all the joints and using L bracket screws to secure the panels to...

I just had to do an emergency tear down, the wind was shredding the tie wraps the panels were starting to overlap, the cement blocks were being tossed around like a chew toy. 350 pounds of cement blocks were not enough to weigh down 8 panels during a mild storm. Which also takes the cheap...

Looks like your wind concerns are valid, I mean these cement blocks large and heavy and I am using 9 blocks to weigh 8 panels down, the very next morning I went up to the roof and most of the blocks were tilted towards the panels back surface. Now that may have simply been the square block...

It was/is a concern, I am hoping the weight of the cement blocks will keep them down, I did put two more blocks on the headwind side to help keep a wind sail from forming under the panels. Oh crud, my son just noted that the headwind blocks are casting a shadow onto the panels. Whoopsie

Why do I get the feeling your mount project is going to be just a tad more functional than mine? I needed to get the panels up and going for the lab so about 50 dollars worth of cement blocks and heavy duty tie wraps. Have a good laugh. It was pushing 4PM in Monterey so the sun was pretty...

My boss already figured out the best angle for our location and I am also building a PVC Pipe stand for our 8 solar panels. I am not particularly fond of single panel mounts, but the boss thinks we can link them together easy and just use the existing cement blocks to anchor them down once the...

Just about done, but more to come. We have been helping students with their projects since 1951, hence some of the older equipment you see in the picture. Supporting the War Fighters.

APC-7's were always a bitch for me to use in my younger days and when I became a bit better at it, they sort of went away. I think N, SMA, 3.5 and 2.4 and I guess Anritsu has those oddball 2.92 mm connectors are probably the most common I use here. You just can't work my field without...

I think the other answers are right but in my world SMA means Subminiature type A. Basically an RF connector.

There are times when saying that could mean it was a day old. What is scary is that old beer actually looks old to me but has the new style pop top. Remember the hippy door curtains made from beer and soda pop top chains.

And then there is that. LOL

Oh, common...everyone knows that E is voltage, I is current and R is...well, resistance. E over I times R. Apparently E is electromotive force and I guess I is current Intensity (I) and R is because I said so.

Well folks, the wire has been ordered, the mounting plate constructed, the combiner boxes and bus bars ordered and received. I will post a picture of the finished academic set up. Basically I am running 2 gauge between the controllers and the batteries to include the battery jumpers and 0...

Long winded counter edited. I will leave this with the concession that "I don't always have time" and I never have time are two different meanings. I suspect that what I am guilty of is over gauging. But 3 feet of 0 AWG and 3 feet of 2 AWG is not breaking the bank. But you did...

I admit I do order from Ebay because the prices are cheaper, I have ordered 0 AWG and 2 AWG and both times they just say the wires can handle 210 amps for the 2 AWG and 285 amps for the 0 AWG. I think I wouldn't cry like a baby if they would just add a * and tell you where they pulled the...

Why do people who sell wire always high ball the amount of current that their cables can take? I just don't understand it. It's like they went to an AWG chart, and took their fingers and went along the AWG line of interest and they take the highest value, usually at some ridiculously high...

I ordered two sets of those from Ebay, not exactly that MFR but same color coded design only 200 Amps instead of 300 but they will work. I don't normally spend my own money but if these work, they will definitely work at home for my own distribution, especially when I retire and really get...

I think you guys are right. I found one at Home Depot that has a snap on plastic guard, not complicated and provides a safety factor not present with standard bus bars although I did present them for consideration. I like the one with the plastic guard because it also has two flush mounts...

Yea, the Ecoworthy box just won't handle the potential 40 amps per charge controller. My boss is warming up to the simple high current combiner that are small and have a safety lid you just snap into place. I think I may wind up buying a good heat resistant plastic box with knock out holes...

Hi Guys/Gals, I have a solar set up on the rooftop lab and I need to combine the outputs of my three charge controllers into one output that goes to the test batteries. I can get cheap and easy combiners/splitters at Home Depot, But I notice that there are pretty nice ECO-WORTHY PV...

Cool, the MFR's I grew up with are all there, Keysight (HP, Agilent), Tektronix and Fluke. But no U.S. That sucks.

That is also something I look at when figuring out if a load will handle what I need. The current and voltage capability may often seem sufficient but that is the limits for each parameter, the total wattage capacity often comes up short. My 60 watt can handle up to 10 amps and up to 200...

Wow, those get expensive when you want more power, We are about to get some funding for the academic labs and loading is often a problem. I I have a 60 watt and two 1000 watts Electronic loads but I could really use something like that to bridge the power gap. Not sure if I can talk the...

I have been stealing the suns energy for a little more than a year now. I keep my panels below the fence line and the ATS allows me to seamlessly transfer between battery and grid power. My Moes has been in continuous operation for 15 months.