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Forum Index : Electronics : 6Kw Ozinverter build
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Madness Guru  Joined: 08/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2498 |
Good idea to order the extra MOSFETs, I have found if you have lots in your parts bin you won't need them. There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't. |
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renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678 |
Murphys law. A bit like un jinxing yourself, now I won't have a problem and will have all these nice fets on the shelf. One thing I found with the case it's slightly too short to fit my torroid. By the time a rubber isolator is placed on the base of the case, the torroid, a rubber washer, a metal disc and a big nut to bolt it all down, I'm 10mm higher than the case. I thought an option would be to do a cutout and fit a project box to the front cover, but I can't seem to find one big enough. Might have to just make it myself with some angle brackets and extra al, riveted together and painted it should still look nice. Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb |
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| Madness Guru Joined: 08/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2498 |
I used the original insulated bases, ground off the more bumpy bits, one on the bottom one on top and I have close to 10mm to spare. This is part of the reason why I was persisting on here about getting the wire in against the inside of the core. There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't. |
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| renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678 |
Yeah I have all the primary cables flat against the top and base of the torroid, so it's not that. I did 4 windings of 128 as well so that would have added height. The primary cables aren't the problem, it's just overall height.  Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb |
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Tinker Guru Joined: 07/11/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1904 |
Mark, if it makes you feel better, my two stack toroid would also not have fitted into a standard aerosharp box. And I used rectangular copper wire primary as well to minimise the height. I really do not like the idea having that big heavy core so tightly jammed into a box, another reason why I made my own enclosure. A suggestion for yours, why not make a new, taller lid? That sure would look neater than bush bashing a stick on extension on the existing lid. You could make that a single lid too.. Find an aluminium metal workshop that has a big guillotine and V groove bender. They can make a lid of any size from 1.6mm alu sheet, just give them the correct dimensions. Those 4 part covers on my inverter (two have a right angle bend) I had made for me, cost me $80.- all up, most likely beer money as I did not ask for a receipt. The cutouts I made myself at home, the labor cost for those would have been big for a one off job. Klaus |
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| brucedownunder2 Guru Joined: 14/09/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1548 |
Hi Mark and crew, this takes me back to finger-breaker days ! Bending that 25mm sheathed cable ,ouch! This is my W7 that now is a boat anchor ,if I can't get it repaired--hit by a lightning surge,not a mark on it ,so that makes it all that more difficult to find ,or even start. Bruce  Bushboy |
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| renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678 |
I made up some plates and extedned the front by 50mm. Took the mounting plates off the aerosharp and fitted them to the extension. Now I'm thinking, BUGGER, I could have not cut the heatsinks down so much. Oh well, second one will be a ripper, this will be my reserve unit.  Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb |
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| renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678 |
Bruce Ha! 25mm, that's for babies! Try bloody 70mm2, it actually wasn't that hard to be honest, but there was lots of swearing, more because of the awkwardness. Did you end up buying the boards for that link I found? Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb |
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| Madness Guru Joined: 08/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2498 |
Using old wire is much harder due to hardening. Make the extension a bit longer and you could add another core as well. I was thinking the same solution if you did not find a way around it. It still surprises me that the toroid would not fit. Don't worry about the heatsinks, they will stay cool, it is the transformer that gets hottest and is harder to cool, once again though it is not an issue with decent fans. You will find the rotation of the case with fan holes top and bottom will cool itself most of the time without fans, especially in chilly Melbourne weather. There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't. |
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| renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678 |
Thanks Mad, it came up pretty good, with some paint it shouldn't look out of place. Yeah, I sat the torroid without any rubbers etc in the case and layed a bit of wood across the top of the case, there was only 5mm gap, so by the time isolators and a big washer and nut go on it would have been way over. Thinking about what Tinker said, I might just get a single sheet of Al for the cover. It will just need some holes drilled for the bolt locations, I have to paint the case anyway so no big deal. Leaving as many parts captive to the case is a great idea though. Might be an idea to hinge the cover and have all the connected displays close to the hinge side. Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb |
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| renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678 |
 Made a bit of progress. I got a forklift battery too, it's only 620AH @48V, not as big as I would have liked, but it can be replaced or added to. Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb |
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| renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678 |
BTW I got 10M of welding cable for the next build from here $20 delivery from Qld, bloody bargain, so jump on that if you plan to build one. Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb |
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| Madness Guru Joined: 08/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2498 |
The case looks good, I can buy welding wire for a little less than that from a local welding supply shop. Although my next build I won't be buying it. 620AH is still a fairly big battery, if you can work out ways to use power during daylight as much as possible helps. Some suggestions are run the wash cycle on your dishwasher during the day, if you can try using the oven during the day where possible, clothes washing, on sunny days we put the clothes in the dryer as we have excess power. Looking at ways to reduce the ongoing background loads helps a lot too. LED lights help too, induction cooktops are more efficient also. Turning off things at the wall helps in some cases, when you are replacing any electrical stuff look closely power efficiency. Some changes that I have made were getting rid of the plasma tv that consumed 550W and my hex core computer that draws over 200W at idle now sits unused as my new I7 ultrabook computer only draws 35W and runs just as fast for most things. There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't. |
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| renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678 |
Thanks Mad, lucky you don't live in Melb, I must have made 50 calls, they all want $22+ per metre, I know the union problem here means all buildings are 20% more than Sydney. Re case, it got primed and sprayed white inside, just a nice and fresh look. That black box on the left is a project box for the neg dc shunt, haven't worked out how I'll mount that yet. I clamped the ferrite core with capton tape the way Klaus does his, but I just butchered a clamp by smashing some 4mm al in the bench vice redneck style. I'll have to look into the other choke he uses, I'll just try and get something working first and make refinements from there. Once this is tested I'll add more mosfets and with some luck it doesn't go pop. It's a bloody worry how smart buggers like John have issues with their builds, on the other hand Oz's builds just tick along nicely. It will be a relief to get my hands on a set of your boards with the totem drivers. Anyway, this will be my reserve unit once it's been tested properly. Perhaps as Oz mentioned limiting it to 4 fets per 1/4 may be all that's needed. If I have a problem with boards they can be swapped fairly quickly, but I would like to have another complete operating unit that can be just switched on just in case an issue arose, I like redundancy fallbacks. Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb |
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| Tinker Guru Joined: 07/11/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1904 |
A little tip Mark, place that shunt on the negative battery terminal. You do not want to clutter up your very limited box internal space with things than need not to be in there unless you also are planning to fit the corresponding Amp meter into the lid. However, having this shunt on the battery terminal (and a separate Amp meter for it) lets you monitor current IN and OUT of the battery with the same shunt. Much more useful IMO. Klaus |
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| Madness Guru Joined: 08/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2498 |
I agree, there are better places for the Shunt. When you have 2 Inverters several charge controllers they all need to connect to the battery via the shunt. I have not done it yet but I have a small GTI case that I plan to put the negative and positive bus bars in, the shunt and battery isolator switch. Oztules must be Irish, things just work for him, mere mortals like myself have to try and try again to get the result we want. As for being in Melbourne and paying through the nose, easy fix move to QLD like the rest of the Victorians that have. There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't. |
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| renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678 |
Thanks Tinker and Mad for that advice, it's a bit of a narrow spot that, so not much can go in there anyway. I did want to fit a meter on the inverter so I could know exactly what that unit was doing, not just the overall V in and out of battery, but that is a great idea too, shunt and meter combo's are pretty cheap so I'll get another for that too. The issue I am having now is fitting the filters. Unfortunately, the torroid is mounted a bit high, so it's too cramped to fit the filters vertically on the case next to each other. What I thought of was to mount all three vertically, they'll need an al seperator, then bolt the lot down with a clamp similar to the way the choke got done. Anyone see an issue with that?   Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb |
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| Tinker Guru Joined: 07/11/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1904 |
Mark, these look like the filters you got out of an Aerosharp box. I was told they are DC (solar panel) filters and not a good idea on AC in the transformer output, but I might be wrong - it was a while ago. Why not get some proper 50Hz AC filters, like the ones you see in my or clockman's pictures? I think there were 7A versions in the Aerosharp but you need to parallel quite a few for 6KW. I bought the 20A version from RS electronics, fitted two in parallel. You might also find them on e-bay. Klaus |
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| renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678 |
Pretty sure they'll be OK as it's the last thing connected before it goes to the AC output on the aerosharp. This is a pic of my last one that's still complete. The outputs go to the black plug which is grid connect.  Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb |
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Revlac Guru Joined: 31/12/2016 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1117 |
I was wondering what they were out of, looked around ebay and nothing like it, now I know.  I have just pulled a few 15 amp filters from photo copiers, should work ok.  Cheers Aaron Off The Grid |
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