diy solar

diy solar

Why This Subforum Exists.

But yes Jennifer, I think/hope we all understand we have implicitly all signed a release. If not mistaken I think this is a community driven forum.
I believe it's imperrative that each member takes their own responsibility otherwise It might end up not working as well as it could be.
 
This thread/forum title got me to wondering what ever happened to the farmers and "the right to repair"

So I just searched it and "Earlier this month, an Australian hacker did a live jailbreak of a John Deere tractor display to play Doom on it. The hacker, who goes by Sick.Codes, wasn’t out to prove that a six-ton, $35,000 machine makes for a good video game console. Rather, he wanted to show how farmers could hack into their tractors to fix them instead of relying on licensed dealers."

This news was published today https://qz.com/farmers-want-the-right-to-jailbreak-their-john-deere-tr-1849445773

Be nice if I could have 'jailbreaked' a solar charge controller so I could use a voltage outside multiples of 12 for my 32 volt battery bank instead of having to play games like messing with vbatt calibration and turning down all the 36v limited settings.

IMO existence of the slang 'jail break' in the first place is an indicator something is wrong.
 
This thread/forum title got me to wondering what ever happened to the farmers and "the right to repair"

So I just searched it and "Earlier this month, an Australian hacker did a live jailbreak of a John Deere tractor display to play Doom on it. The hacker, who goes by Sick.Codes, wasn’t out to prove that a six-ton, $35,000 machine makes for a good video game console. Rather, he wanted to show how farmers could hack into their tractors to fix them instead of relying on licensed dealers."

This news was published today https://qz.com/farmers-want-the-right-to-jailbreak-their-john-deere-tr-1849445773

Be nice if I could have 'jailbreaked' a solar charge controller so I could use a voltage outside multiples of 12 for my 32 volt battery bank instead of having to play games like messing with vbatt calibration and turning down all the 36v limited settings.

IMO existence of the slang 'jail break' in the first place is an indicator something is wrong.
yes brother. I hear your cries.

open source is the only way to go ;(

There is already mention online of an open source MPPT wind charger which I have, sadly, nothing to do with yet.
 
Perhaps if you know someone at NASA or aboard the space station. :unsure:
ok sure, let me see if I can ping my bro up there..

Me: yo bro you still up there?
Bro: Sure dude, what up?
Me: can you shoot me some pics please? the better the rez the better?
Bro: Dude, this is your second demerit. Please use these channels for important things only ;)
 
Hi all, I use several systems (PV, SCC, Battery) in a way the SCC manufacture says you shouldn't do (hence posting in this section).

In order to keep [portable genset, mower, tractor, etc.] batteries from going flat when not used, I've got them on their own chargers.
This works really well, but it involves disconnecting the battery from the system when ever 'that bit of gear' has to earn its keep.
So far, the SCC has coped fine, but clearly this is not ideal.

So - does anyone else (admit) use regs like this and have you done anything to make it less-worse?

As an experiment, I've added some capacitors to the battery output of two SCC to see how it would behave. So far it looks good.

On the first, I ordered a PCB with 40F caps (w/ balance/limit dev.). What arrived is a 100F bank which seems to be doing its job.
The second, I added a single 24000uF cap. It was an old cap and oscillated a bit to start with, but is now stable.
 
yes, agreed. but does one know of another source? commercial perhaps?
Many counties in the USA have gms site to get seasonal images… counties use it to check for unpermitted buildings, and trash unapproved outside storage.
 
Hi all, I use several systems (PV, SCC, Battery) in a way the SCC manufacture says you shouldn't do (hence posting in this section).

In order to keep [portable genset, mower, tractor, etc.] batteries from going flat when not used, I've got them on their own chargers.
This works really well, but it involves disconnecting the battery from the system when ever 'that bit of gear' has to earn its keep.
So far, the SCC has coped fine, but clearly this is not ideal.

So - does anyone else (admit) use regs like this and have you done anything to make it less-worse?

As an experiment, I've added some capacitors to the battery output of two SCC to see how it would behave. So far it looks good.

On the first, I ordered a PCB with 40F caps (w/ balance/limit dev.). What arrived is a 100F bank which seems to be doing its job.
The second, I added a single 24000uF cap. It was an old cap and oscillated a bit to start with, but is now stable.
Anyone?

Can anyone think of a reason how this could go bad?
(so far, both seem to be working perfectly)
 
As an experiment, I've added some capacitors to the battery output of two SCC to see how it would behave. So far it looks good.

On the first, I ordered a PCB with 40F caps (w/ balance/limit dev.). What arrived is a 100F bank which seems to be doing its job.
The second, I added a single 24000uF cap. It was an old cap and oscillated a bit to start with, but is now stable.
The above two systems are still behaving well, so I added a cap to the third system where the battery is routinely disconnected.
This time I used a 10000uF 25V and works just almost as well as the other two.
Watching the Batt. Voltage graphs, there is a little oscillation when the battery is disconnected, but not significant.
 
I can't advice yet on your setup. I do intend doing something similar though when I finally have the time to focus on it.

Please do not hesitate to inform us when things work well or go up in smoke ;)
 
Please do not hesitate to inform us when things work well or go up in smoke ;)
If it goes bad, I'll post pics!

It's been six months with many connects/disconnects and the SCC's all seem happy.
The wild glitches are gone and you can barely see a transient on the graphs.

From what I'm seeing, I wouldn't go lower than 10000uF and my preference would be for double that.
 
While I agree, it doesn't really apply here.
The higher the capacitance, the greater the ability to smooth transients.
Too low and it doesn't really do anything
Too high just costs more, but doesn't really work any better.
Neither too large or too small should result in catastrophic failure - it just might not work very well.

In this case, if in doubt, go bigger!
 
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