 Notice. New forum software under development. It's going to miss a few functions and look a bit ugly for a while, but I'm working on it full time now as the old forum was too unstable. Couple days, all good. If you notice any issues, please contact me. |
Forum Index : Electronics : Time for a new Warpinverter build - #3
  Page 6 of 6 |
|||||
| Author | Message | ||||
KeepIS Guru  Joined: 13/10/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1731 |
If you still have the link to the bits I'd be interested and grabbing a few. Don't worry if it's hard to find. Well that is impressive from your setup, I only have around 12kW ATM, not all in the same direction though as I try to favor some low afternoon winter sun. I'm saving for an upgrade of some 13 year old panels to 440W or higher. Great to see Poida's MPPT controllers powering along like that. It must feel very satisfying for you as well, knowing we can both repair any of it if needed, and get help from forum members if were really stuck.   NANO Controller: Full download or Hex files Mike |
||||
| rogerdw Guru Joined: 22/10/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 881 |
I can't find the link yet I'm afraid though I wondered if I bought them via aliexpress perhaps. Here's some similar ones. I have been amazed that the cheapies I bought haven't seemed any more fragile than the expensive ones ... so I'll definitely keep buying them. Regarding panels ... I was always very happy with my 250 and 275w cheapie panels ... but now having a heap of 440's I find it hard to justify considering anything low again. And the 6.6kW of 440's came with a 5kW Growatt GTI and all the railing for the panels ... the only drawback was that I had to remove them from the roof. But well worth it for just $1,000. Bargain, and would love to see another lot like that. Apart from some minor hiccups when I first installed them, the Poida MPPTs have been brilliant and no trouble at all. I do have a spare bare board and a heatsink prepared and was also going to make a complete spare ... but that's really overkill I think. And you're right about the self satisfaction seeing all this free power come in ... and especially knowing I can repair any of it if it fails ... and the grid is available at the flick of a switch too ... so no great pressure. Having said that, I haven't used any grid power, even for top up over the last couple months ... so the longer I can drag that out, the better. There's no question having all you guys to help and bounce ideas off makes for a lot more peace too ... and as far as the Warpverter goes, it is awesome to have Tony's full support ... even though he is no longer on this forum sadly. Come back Tony, we miss you.  Cheers, Roger |
||||
Murphy's friend Guru Joined: 04/10/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 665 |
Roger, I was cringing when I saw how you tapped small holes into a heat sink. I would *never* do it that way. I once suffered a broken tap and the process of boiling it out took all day. My preferred method is the old fashioned way with either a taper tap or a set of 3 taps, frequently removing the swarf. I also use a tap guide to ensure they go in vertically. My rule of heatsink tapping is to locate the mosfets so the screw goes into a thru hole between the fins. This, of course, must be considered when laying out the PCB. There are a few blind holes in my heatsink sides for mounting screws, these are M4 or M5 so a bit harder to break but still require care with tapping. Glad to hear that your warpinverter is a goer, I suppose mine suffered too much experimenting before I gave up on that idea. |
||||
| rogerdw Guru Joined: 22/10/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 881 |
Haha, I imagined you might Klaus. I remember your tap guide and figured if I had all my starter holes drilled square on the drill press that I might get away with it. I can't imagine doing blind holes ... but this certainly worked okay going right through ... and as I mentioned I think I would use the old fashioned slow and steady method on a heatsink with lots of holes to do. I'm a risk taker but not that big a gambler. If I had stuffed up one of these, if I couldn't get it out I would have had to use another plate or move my holes over. This was the first time doing 3mm threads, so I was really cautious to start with. The other thing is watching you tube videos of the process .. it's amazing what they can do and get away with ... it's given me a lot more confidence to keep practicing. I do like your idea of putting as many of the holes between fins and I do the same thing where possible ... and when I tap by hand I take forever because I don't want to push it and constantly remove the tap to clean out the swarf. But this is the other extreme. I'm sorry yours didn't behave itself properly, especially after all the work and effort you put into it ... very disheartening. And I'm certainly relieved mine kept itself together and performs well ... I can't imagine having to give up on it after the years and dollars I put into it. It's clocked up 6,587kWh already ... we get through a lot of juice ... so it's earning its keep at last. Edited 2024-09-25 19:01 by rogerdw Cheers, Roger |
||||
phil99 Guru Joined: 11/02/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2374 |
From high school metalwork - 2 turns forward 1/2 turn backward till done. Clean threads, no broken taps. |
||||
Revlac Guru Joined: 31/12/2016 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1088 |
I like the short video you posted, using the drill tap, I plan on having ago at it as I have done plenty the ordinary way so I say, why not try out a little different method, thanks for posting. Cheers Aaron Off The Grid |
||||
| rogerdw Guru Joined: 22/10/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 881 |
Our school wasn't big enough to run metalwork classes ... though we did get woodwork. I probably haven't done lots of tapping in my life but I generally settled on 1/3 turn forward and 1/6 turn backwards. Never broke any taps though it was very slow going. I have broken a few of these new ones though, just getting the hang of them ... but so far I have been able to get them out without too much bother ... so far ... Thanks. I was stunned when I first saw them being hammered on you tube ... but once you gain some confidence, they work a treat. Cheers, Roger |
||||
| rogerdw Guru Joined: 22/10/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 881 |
I haven't posted for a while so thought I'd do an update. I'm not hammering the Warpverter so much over summer ... biggest loads are probably the pool pump and the pool heater pump for lots of hours. It just ticked over the 10,000kWh mark yesterday ... just over 10 months since installation. At ~50c/kWh, that's $5,000 of free power so far. It's a wonderful feeling.  Cheers, Roger |
||||
| rogerdw Guru Joined: 22/10/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 881 |
It's celebration time … the Warpverter installation is officially one year old today and has clocked up 11,461 kWh of generation so far. It's all going really well and I have also made some improvements over the last week. Anyone who's been following Tony's design from way back may remember that the Warpverter doesn't have a voltage feedback control ... but that it uses voltage feed forward. It monitors the DC and if it sees a sudden change in voltage due to more or less load ... it knows to compensate immediately. And this all works far quicker than a feedback system which is relying on watching the AC output. Anyway, in the early days it was found that heavy loads could still cause the AC output to sag ... and with mine, at over 10kW, it might drop nearly 10 volts. I never really worried about it as the only time I ever noticed it was when the fan was on in the ensuite and if turning on the hot tap ... which brings on the pressure pump plus the under sink water heater (4,500 watts or so) ... then the fan speed would drop noticeably. It was so noticeable that I checked it early on ... but found it was only about a 4-5v drop. Some early builders had tried Tony's suggestion of an additional Current Feed Forward control and found it successful. I was always going to mod mine to try it as well … but Tony recently redesigned the control board to accommodate the additional three components … so I built one up too. See more detail on the Warpverter website . After a bit of tweaking, I’ve found that even up to around 10kW of load … the output stays within around a two volt range. I have a bit more experimenting to do, but it has been amazing. Every time I go in the ensuite now, I turn on the fan to see if the hot water will change the speed … but there’s no change noticeable! I found a post from wayback where Tony describes both voltage and current feed forward operation … here Edit to add picture  Edited 2025-03-06 13:54 by rogerdw Cheers, Roger |
||||
| Page 6 of 6 |
|||||
 Print this page |
