diy solar

diy solar

The "Meg" Build

Shipping containers have these standardized oval cut outs at each corner of the cube. They are used to hold them to the stack on the he ship, for picking up with a crane, and holding it down to the trailer chassis. It would be much easier (and plenty strong enough) to tie into those on each corner and then magnets down the long side for extra stability.
I have thought about that, something I could easily attach to also.
 
For sure, especially with your metal fab equipment. I'm sure you could wip something up very quickly and easily.
 
Other than knowing that's how my crap gets moved around, I know very little about shipping containers. Dan, I'm curious, what do you intend to do with the shipping container? Why would you want to move it down the highway on a semi? Do they have seals around the doors to keep rain, dust, etc. out?
 
Other than knowing that's how my crap gets moved around, I know very little about shipping containers. Dan, I'm curious, what do you intend to do with the shipping container? Why would you want to move it down the highway on a semi? Do they have seals around the doors to keep rain, dust, etc. out?
I got it for storage for all of our stuff, and my RZR. I only plan on the container moving once or twice, incase I move to a different property, (which im looking at empty lots right now) and I don't want to pull down 24 panels and reattach them
 
Brainstorming stuff I shouldn't be thinking about yet... trying to maximize space in this compartment and I came up with this funny way to get 32 cells in a 2P16S config. Going to be interesting with bus bars, but I think it will work.

Reconfigured Battery.png
 
I bought the $100 HF DC clamp 1000A meter (for the 60A 0.01A resolution range) and it also has inrush.
Any comments on quality? Harbor Freight is hit-or-miss. Some of their stuff is really great for the price and some of it is lousy at any price.
 
Any comments on quality? Harbor Freight is hit-or-miss. Some of their stuff is really great for the price and some of it is lousy at any price.

So far so good. But I've only used it a handful of times.

It switches to DC Amps 600/60 with about 0.15A offset, I let it fluctuate a few seconds and settle before pushing "Rel" to subtract the zero offset. Reasonably stable after that.

It has a non-contact voltage detect setting, so if I put against romex with power in it, there is an indication of being live. But sometimes walking across the room it also alarms. Does that mean CIA is beaming microwaves at my head from a satellite again?
 
So far so good. But I've only used it a handful of times.
I ran down to HF and purchased one.... and it would not measure voltage properly. It was saying something like 6.5V on a 240V circuit. Then I noticed that if I pushed sideways on one of the probes where it plugged into the meter, I could get a good reading.
I was kinda desperate for it to work so I took it apart and sweated the solder joint where the probe receptacle connected to the PC board and now it is working....I have not decided if I should take it back.
 
At first I skimmed what you wrote, thought you said you sweated the banana plug into the socket.
But just U.S. labor assembling a Chinese clamp DMM PCB, that's OK.
I hope it works well. I looked up a bunch of brands, only a few had 10 mA resolution on DC clamp meter.

I need to get more fuses for my Fluke. I keep blowing them, both the 11A and the 44 mA.
I'll buy several of each. That'll cost me as much as the HF clamp meter


I should make shielded banana plug fuse holders for my Tek high voltage differential probe. It's not rated for use with line voltages.
No, I didn't pay nearly this much for it, and it was new in the box :)

 
Well today I got to play with the cap and see if it makes a difference, and it does help about 80% of the time. I can hear when the pump kicks on, there is a split second of hesitation from max amp draw, and 9 times out of 10 it works just fine, but the 10th time it sticks and hangs. The volts drop down to about 8v. Which is better than the 6v it used to drop down to. Now my other 12v equipment doesnt shut of due to low voltage which is good.

I shouldve gone with the 18 Farad model instead of the 8 farad. I'm going to see if Amazon will allow a return, even though I threw away the original box. We'll see.

Bottom line, I think I shouldve gone with the 13.8v model and this 8 farad probably would have been just fine.
 
Well today I got to play with the cap and see if it makes a difference, and it does help about 80% of the time. I can hear when the pump kicks on, there is a split second of hesitation from max amp draw, and 9 times out of 10 it works just fine, but the 10th time it sticks and hangs. The volts drop down to about 8v. Which is better than the 6v it used to drop down to. Now my other 12v equipment doesnt shut of due to low voltage which is good.

I shouldve gone with the 18 Farad model instead of the 8 farad. I'm going to see if Amazon will allow a return, even though I threw away the original box. We'll see.

Bottom line, I think I shouldve gone with the 13.8v model and this 8 farad probably would have been just fine.

Have you tried wiring it close to the pump?

It could still be voltage drop in the wiring from cap to pump when it has that big startup surge you were measuring.

Closer the better and watch wire size - 150A at 12V is 4awg min for very short distances.

The cap will charge and then have that surge capacity close to the pump to absorb those surges you were measuring.

Also does the 12V converter you are using have remote sense leads?
 
Have you tried wiring it close to the pump?

It could still be voltage drop in the wiring from cap to pump when it has that big startup surge you were measuring.

Closer the better and watch wire size - 150A at 12V is 4awg min for very short distances.

The cap will charge and then have that surge capacity close to the pump to absorb those surges you were measuring.

Also does the 12V converter you are using have remote sense leads?
I have it wired about 2ft away with 2AWG.

The converter does have a "Remote" terminal, but the converter didn't come with any instructions, nor could I find anything online. And after some testing, the converter wouldn't produce 12v until the remote wire had power, so i figured it was similar to an "ignition wire", So I created a jumper wire to go from the 48v input to the remote terminal to give it constant power.
 
Well, I pretty much maxed out the system today! Lol, it was kind of accidental at first, then I thought "let's push it and see how far it will go".

I was running the following;

3x ACs with 104* ambient outside - 4700 watts
Washer/dryer combo in drying cycle - 1300 watts
Air fryer - 1400 watts
Hot water heater - 1300 watts
Microwave - 1300 watts
Inverter Compartment AC - 500 watts
Smart TV - 180 watts
Fans - 125 watts

Screenshot_20210810-165535_Samsung Internet.jpg
After doing this for a couple minutes, my inverter #2 tripped for overloading. Apparently Grand Design decided to put 2x ACs, the microwave, water heater and washer/dryer all on the same leg lol. This sent the inverter into fault, which turned off #1 Inverter since #2 was no longer producing power. After some time I figured out how to reset it all and we were back in action.

Very cool to stress test and know whats going on. Now I just need to see if I can balance the loads better on the breaker panel, or maybe just take it easier with power usage lol.
 
Got the 18 Farad Cap and fully installed it with some nice 2AWG from the chassis ground and converter, then more 2 AWG straight to the relay for the pump. This is the absolutely shortest I could make it, and this also replaced the 6AWG that went from the battery to the relay, with 2AWG as well.

20210823_154938.jpg

I was extremely hopeful that this 18 Farad cap was going to do the trick, with it being more than 2x the size of the old one, this one should be capable of supplying 5-6000 watts pretty easily. Its "rated" for much more though. Unfortunately it's not enough. I believe it REALLY needs the 13.8v output, and it would work well.

I'm going to leave this cap installed though. It still gets the job done and the leveling system works. Maybe in the future I will get the pump rewound to accept 48v if its feasible.
 
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