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Revlac

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Joined: 31/12/2016
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Posted: 10:19am 22 Aug 2018

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Well done, Nice to hear it going Mark.

Cheers Aaron
Off The Grid

Madness

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Joined: 08/10/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 2498

Posted: 10:56am 22 Aug 2018

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Good stuff Mark, the Electronics will handle 7000W all day and night long if your battery is up to it. The Toroid is the part that will overheat before anything else, but with the latest Arduino update I did you are safe there also. It will shut down until the temperature drops by 10 degrees, the fans will still be running. Not that you should get to that temperature anyway.

You may not get extended blackouts like we get here but my wife was fully on board when we had power and lights while the neighbours were in the dark a while ago.

There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.

renewableMark

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Joined: 09/12/2017
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Posts: 1678

Posted: 03:54am 26 Aug 2018

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Madness said I have no idea if those Latronics GTIs will work without isolation. The Regulator PCB is designed to operate isolated and would need quite a bit of modification to run unisolated. By making it isolated it will work with any GTI, the isolated power supplies only cost about $5 anyway.

The current for the PV to the GTI will depend on the voltage being used, normally it will be around 300V so 1200W is only 4 amps.

The connections for the float and absorb are pins 1 and 2 connected by a push button switch will trigger that function. Pin 3 is designed for an external input from an external charge controller, ie your Fangpussen controller has a 12V auxiliary output that can be set to go high when it enters float mode. Connecting that auxilary to the regulator float pin 3 will switch it to float, this is so you don't have one that has gone to float and the other still trying to keep the battery at absorb voltage.

OK, so if you are using this controller as your only one then connect a switch to pins 1&2 of float and absorb to enable the arduino software to take control of it (which is set by the parameters in the arduino sketch)

OR if like me you already have an mppt which has a float output signal, then connect that to pin 3 on the float plug located next to the arduino on the Madcontroller.
In this case how would you handle the absorb socket on the Mad controller?
I'm assuming you connect pins 1&2.

Edited by renewableMark 2018-08-27

Cheers Caveman Mark
Off grid eastern Melb

Madness

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Posted: 05:34am 26 Aug 2018

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The Switch you would use is just a momentary push button, if you don't want to manually switch to float or Absorb for any reason just leave switch out. You can still trigger float or absorb by shorting pins 1 & 2 with a small screwdriver if needed. I do plan to add an Equalization though which would be manually triggered by push both with switches at the same time.

All you need to connect is the 12V Aux output from your other Charge Controller to pin 3 of the float socket. Setup the Charge Controller to output 12V high on float. This will avoid having one going to float and the other struggling to get there. I set the regulator so it charges slightly high then the other CC so that the other CC reduces it's charge more when in Absorb and therefore goes to float, if it was set lower it may never think it is time to go to Float.

There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.

renewableMark

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Posted: 07:22am 26 Aug 2018

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Thanks mate. That answers my wiring.

But if you are to use this as a single controller you don't need the external switches?
The unit switches switches itself between bulk, absorption and float.

I'm a bit thick mate, what circumstances would you need to to manually trigger float/absorb?

Cheers Caveman Mark
Off grid eastern Melb

Madness

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Posted: 07:38am 26 Aug 2018

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The idea of connecting to the other controller is so you don't have one in float doing nothing while the other is struggling to reach absorb voltage. When one goes to float so does the other.

If you just have one regulator then the above issue does not exist. It will cycle through bulk, absorb and float all by itself providing you have enough sun of course.

Once you have everything set up and working properly there should be no need to trigger a float or absorb. It is handy while you are testing though if it is in absorb or float and you want it in bulk just press reset on the Nano. While getting the voltage settings right it can be useful.

There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.

renewableMark

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Joined: 09/12/2017
Location: Australia
Posts: 1678

Posted: 10:49am 26 Aug 2018

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Madness said ......

Once you have everything set up and working properly there should be no need to trigger a float or absorb. It is handy while you are testing though if it is in absorb or float and you want it in bulk just press reset on the Nano. While getting the voltage settings right it can be useful.

Thanks mate, that's the bit that confused me, that's cleared it up.

Cheers Caveman Mark
Off grid eastern Melb

renewableMark

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Posted: 10:22pm 13 Sep 2018

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Hey Mad, are you any closer to incorporating the hall sensor for the max amps charge restriction from GTI controller? I currently turn half my system off(dc breakers from panels) on totally sunny days so it doesn't feed too many amps.

Cheers Caveman Mark
Off grid eastern Melb

Madness

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Posted: 10:32pm 13 Sep 2018

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Sorry have not got that far and I am going overseas today for 1 month so will be a while yet.

There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.

renewableMark

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Posted: 10:49pm 13 Sep 2018

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No big deal, it would be a nice addition when you get time.

Have a great trip!

Cheers Caveman Mark
Off grid eastern Melb

ryanm
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Joined: 25/09/2015
Location: Australia
Posts: 191

Posted: 02:51am 24 Sep 2018

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So I'm ordering parts at the moment based on a spreadsheet I had in my downloads folder called 'Regulator V2 Parts List.' Noticing from Mad's pic on the previous page that there's some differences. Anyone know what the latest parts list is? Not to keen on re-reading 45 pages to see if I've missed something if I can avoid it.

Ryan.Edited by ryanm 2018-09-25

Madness

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Posted: 03:14am 24 Sep 2018

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This is the latest version.

2018-09-24_131427_Regulator_V2_Parts_List_24092018.zip

There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.

ryanm
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Joined: 25/09/2015
Location: Australia
Posts: 191

Posted: 07:14am 24 Sep 2018

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Thanks Mad. None of the zeners I could find had amp ratings so I went with 1W varieties. Hoping that's not going to blow up in my face?

Madness

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Posted: 07:15am 24 Sep 2018

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Yes 1W is correct.

There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.

shallowal
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Joined: 26/07/2018
Location: Australia
Posts: 58

Posted: 03:12am 26 Oct 2018

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Hi Mad,
Tried to PM you for some PCB's, but your inbox is full.

Allan

Allan

ryanm
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Joined: 25/09/2015
Location: Australia
Posts: 191

Posted: 12:34pm 21 Jan 2019

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All my suppliers that pay for freight have heatsinks that are too big or too small. I can't see any reason the board wouldn't work with the large caps on the bottom of the board?

renewableMark

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Joined: 09/12/2017
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Posts: 1678

Posted: 04:30am 22 Jan 2019

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You can cut the heatsink away to fit the caps in.

I think tinker puts the caps on the other side, that will make it fairly bulky though.
If you are in Melb you can come over and cut them on my table saw.Edited by renewableMark 2019-01-23

Cheers Caveman Mark
Off grid eastern Melb

ryanm
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Joined: 25/09/2015
Location: Australia
Posts: 191

Posted: 04:33am 22 Jan 2019

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Thanks for the tip Mark. Wondering if I should be making capacitor toasted sandwich though?

renewableMark

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Posted: 04:41am 22 Jan 2019

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Mount it so the heat sink is vertical, natural convection will pull any heat away.
The Mad control board allows you to set the fan temp set points so you can set it lower than normal if you want.

Cheers Caveman Mark
Off grid eastern Melb

renewableMark

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Posts: 1678

Posted: 04:51am 22 Jan 2019

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Oz has been doing it that way for years with no failures.Edited by renewableMark 2019-01-23

Cheers Caveman Mark
Off grid eastern Melb

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