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Forum Index : Electronics : Inverter building using Wiseguys Power board and the Nano drive board
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KeepIS Guru  Joined: 13/10/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2218 |
After battery Box upgrades, and making new copper plate BUS bars for the new layout, I finally rewired and refitted some existing 0 gauge and new 00 gauge wiring, it was easy to redo everything while still staying 100% off grid. The black-box mid screen and to the right, is a Touch screen BMS setting Controller and Monitor, it selects any of the battery BMS units, and also selects any of the Battery balance modules in the battery units, and allows setup and adjustment to them as well. As the shed is lined and insulated, it does not get below 14°C overnight in winter and is air conditioned in summer, remaining below 29°C, air-Con sometimes runs all night, as does one or two of the units in the house. FULL electric home and big machinery in the workshop, SOC is never below 50% except with extended periods of black overcast weather. Mains has been off for over two years now, the only thing connected to mains is 16 year old solar in-feed unit, that is until the rebates finish or it claps out, I think rebates will finish first, then a new solar array of panels will replace the old in-feed array and connect into the existing off-grid setup via another solar regulator or two. You can guess what will happen when that is finished shh! For now, no E-bills, always in credit, even after transferring most of the ever increasing credit out every 3 quarters or so. I know I sound like a broken record, and here is a another broken track, the WG Inverter is a Beast.  NANO:Inverter V 8.4ks - Linux AvrDude GUI script V4.1 |
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Revlac Guru Joined: 31/12/2016 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1289 |
Its looking very good and tidy  , you will have to find something else to do after this.  I have often been told I would need a 100 years to complete all the other projects I have  ...I'm sure you have plenty of interesting stuff to do.Cheers Aaron Off The Grid |
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| KeepIS Guru Joined: 13/10/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2218 |
Thanks, it never ends does it, not enough summers left to finish all the things I want to build, at least it keeps the remaining brain cells active and occupied.   NANO:Inverter V 8.4ks - Linux AvrDude GUI script V4.1 |
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| KeepIS Guru Joined: 13/10/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2218 |
Hi Phil, I somehow missed your post a few pages back, thanks for that information, I've heard that hum sound in our old fridge (now replaced) after a momentary Mains brown out, but I was unaware of the mechanism, initially I though that it had damaged the fridge motor, but it later started up fine, now I know why. NANO:Inverter V 8.4ks - Linux AvrDude GUI script V4.1 |
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| KeepIS Guru Joined: 13/10/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2218 |
Also posted in the WG build thread: I just finished building one of the new WG power boards, this is the one with two very small vertical mounted gate drive PCBs. The power board is slightly shorter than the old board, and it allows the FET ferrite beads to be fitted without any gymnastics on the High side Drains, really nice! This new power board is the simplest and quickest board to build of all, however the SMD gate drives PCB's are time consuming, but they are easy to build with plenty of room between components. As usual, the trickiest parts are the resistors and caps, but that's coming from someone who dislikes soldering tiny SMD components anyway, and it took me longer as I was checking every component before and after it was soldered in. This is my first build of the new board with its revised construction and layout, so I also noted the things that might trip up new builders, there will soon be some people building this inverter, likely some with little or no experience, I now feel confident that this is indeed the best version for them to build. It's definitely the best version of all from a construction point of view, especially the revised FET layout and Isolated supply mounting, it's pretty close to fool proof now. Anyway, before calling it a day, I fitted four FETs, the test Toroid and chokes, NO caps, powered it up, it worked first go  I'll make another tomorrow, should be a lot faster this time. Edited 2026-08-05 08:42 by KeepIS NANO:Inverter V 8.4ks - Linux AvrDude GUI script V4.1 |
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| GleamBright Regular Member  Joined: 21/04/2025 Location: AustraliaPosts: 42 |
Wow, the usual scintillating pace! Keen to see photos for reference, for those of us who will follow. |
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| KeepIS Guru Joined: 13/10/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2218 |
Absolutely, photos along with build suggestions and things to take care with when assembling the boards, and aimed at first time builders in mind. NANO:Inverter V 8.4ks - Linux AvrDude GUI script V4.1 |
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| KeepIS Guru Joined: 13/10/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2218 |
The purpose of the following posts is to give new, and non tec builders, a feel for the construction process, making it as simple as possible with no fancy jigs and equipment, something to contemplate while you await you PCB's and parts. Far more detail will be available in the future if you are unsure of anything pleas ask, If I can't answer it, I'll say so, and I'm sure someone on the forum can and will. For now, IMHO, the place to start the build is with the Power Board, and that starts with the terminals. The Power T1, T2 and Choke TX1 TX2 terminals are lower in height compared to the cap boards terminals, and must be fitted first. The pix below shows the power terminals (outside) and choke terminals in the centre.  These terminals need to mount flat against the PCB, this is especially critical with the Capacitor board terminals, if these are not level the holes in the cap boards will be out of aliment, more importantly, the cap boards will not sit flat against the terminal faces, the boards will flex as the screws are tightened and the CAP PCB to Terminal mating surface can be compromised. Before I get told a hundred better ways to do this, remember, this is aimed at someone that does not have a workshop full of gear, this is SIMPLE and it works. Get a piece of timber 6mm or 7mm ply is good, and slightly larger than the power board, place the power board on a smooth surface and insert the four large terminal, or 6 terminals if you are not sure which choke terminals inner(T3, T4) or outer (T13, T14) that you intend to use.  Place the ply board over the top of the terminals, hold the board and ply together and turn the board over. When soldering the terminals, once the PCB and terminal has heated to where you are flowing solder into one of the the terminal pins, use a small square of timber (the board is hot) to press down on the PCB next to the terminal you are soldering, and before you lift the iron from the PCB/Terminal.  The PCB can also flex and pull slightly away from the terminal, this stops that happening, you repeat this for the next pin on the terminal. This way, the terminals always mount perfectly flat and parallel to the PCB. Normally I would solder one terminal and then lift the board, the other terminals fall out, and you finish solder the other side of the terminal pins while the PCB and terminal is hot in that location, then repeat the sequence for each terminal. The reason we fit 4 or 6 terminals each time is obviously to ensure the PCB sits flat against all the terminals as each one is fitted. Especially the CAP board terminals!!!  Don't be fooled by the optical illusion, the rear terminal is FLAT.   I'm using a 70 Watt soldering iron set around 470°c with the appropriate tip, soldering, solder flux, tip tinner and other soldering aids will be discussed in later post. Please don't post your pictures of an old copper block iron heated with a blow torch or furnace. New builders don't have that and this is not a car body repair intro. Edited 2026-08-07 13:33 by KeepIS NANO:Inverter V 8.4ks - Linux AvrDude GUI script V4.1 |
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| KeepIS Guru Joined: 13/10/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2218 |
Forgot to add the solder splatter mask, a bit of thin cardboard with a hole slightly bigger than the terminal solder base, as high heat is used, it's hard to stop resin splatter etc from sticking to the surrounding PCB surface, this shield makes cleaning so much easier, and in some cases, with a bit of care, results in no cleanup at all. Don't really need a pix but what the hell.  NANO:Inverter V 8.4ks - Linux AvrDude GUI script V4.1 |
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phil99 Guru Joined: 11/02/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 3338 |
Another option for holding the terminals flat during soldering could be a small screw and nut through the terminal and PCB hole. Take care not to solder the head or nut! Use plain steel ones if you have them as solder doesn't stick to that so easily. Or use fiber washers to keep the head and nut off the surface. Haven't got fiber washers? Make some washers from thin cardboard. |
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| KeepIS Guru Joined: 13/10/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2218 |
Hi phil, I used to do that, but it was time consuming and always managed to get in the way when attempting to heat the PCB and terminal pins with maximum S-Iron tip width contact. Right tip, right temp and it's effortless, even with this boards large 2oz double sided FET and PWR copper bus bars. This is just so so easy, I've just finished another two power board terminal installation, that is now the only hard part about building this new board, it's seriously simple, around another 15 minutes to have all Fets mounted and couple of power board components, then it's ready for the two small Driver PCB's. Love it! Edited 2026-08-07 15:38 by KeepIS NANO:Inverter V 8.4ks - Linux AvrDude GUI script V4.1 |
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| KeepIS Guru Joined: 13/10/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2218 |
This is the first Power board I built the other day, wanted to test everything before building the next two in Ernest, the test unit is a bit rough, but it gives an idea of what a finished power board looks like, and best of all, it works. The FETS are installed 4 at a time, using a bolt head and nut with a normal locating insulating washer under the bolt and nut, then snug the FET to the board, this ensures perfect alignment of the mounting hole in the FET and Power board.    To follow, close up pix of the Gate Drive board, obviously two are used in each power board, going to call it a day for now though. I also have thoughts for a simple jig with a socket to plug each Gate drive PCB into, that way you can test each Gate Drive board BEFORE soldering them into the Power board. . Edited 2026-08-07 16:23 by KeepIS NANO:Inverter V 8.4ks - Linux AvrDude GUI script V4.1 |
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| Revlac Guru Joined: 31/12/2016 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1289 |
I was thinking about that the other day, what would be preferred method? I have Veroboard board and Breadboard. Looking good anyway. Cheers Aaron Off The Grid |
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| KeepIS Guru Joined: 13/10/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2218 |
There are a number of options, but the simplest way to really test the board is to partly duplicate the isolated supply rail. So one 12v and one 15v DC/DC, they cost very little, 2 bypass caps, 2 x 10k resistors, one socket to plug the Gate drive board into, and an 8 pin connector to plug the Controller into it, and a couple of pins for measurement probes. We are only using part of the Nano Ctrl drive, but it will test the Optos and show the switching waveform and 3v neg Bias. It would be a very small board, would be simple to make on Vero or Breadboard and everything powers from the Controller, I will make a test one tomorrow, just to make sure it gives the desired results. Would be nice to get a small board made for those who are not into making one from scratch. Thoughts. NANO:Inverter V 8.4ks - Linux AvrDude GUI script V4.1 |
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| analog8484 Senior Member  Joined: 11/11/2021 Location: United StatesPosts: 205 |
I am curious to see how long it took you to heat up a 2oz board enough to solder in the FET's with a 70W iron. Lol ... I couldn't bring myself to get one of those monsters but I did get a 200W iron because it was so frustrating with lower power irons ... if that didn't I was almost ready to get a resistance soldering station. |
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