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tinyt Guru Joined: 12/11/2017 Location: United StatesPosts: 438
Posted: 08:40pm 17 May 2018
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The power board is operating? How about across the 120r when the power board is operating. Thanks.
renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678
Posted: 08:56pm 17 May 2018
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Marvellous work Oz, that machine very nearly went in the bin, glad I sent it now. Others benefiting from your findings is a great result too.
Well done mate!
It might be over complicating it but to avoid the issue of longer wires would using a small relay help? That would keep the switching on the board reducing the possibility of interference yeah?Edited by renewableMark 2018-05-19Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb
Mulver Senior Member Joined: 27/02/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 160
Posted: 10:44pm 17 May 2018
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Awesome work Oz! From when I stumbled onto this forum a couple years it been amazing to watch peoples projects and the level of support that there is from everyone.
oztules Guru Joined: 26/07/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1686
Posted: 09:17pm 18 May 2018
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express post friday... so monday I guess.
The decoupling should be enough without complicating things.... although could be incorporated into the LV cut out.
.........oztules Village idiot...or... just another hack out of his depth
renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678
Posted: 07:16am 19 May 2018
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Fantastic Oz, I won't try and fit a low V cutout on that board, the Mad version has so many options on it with the nano.
I will make the Mad board the primary inverter but since you went to such effort I'll still fit the Clockman one in a box and have it as a reserve unit that can be just turned on if needed. Still have to do another toroid, might make the reserve one a bit smaller and easier with less wire and welding cable on the primary to save some effort. Won't be as good/powerful but should be fine as a reserve unit.
Give me a yell if you come to the mainland I'll shout you and the wife a nice lunch. Cheers.
Onto the Mad board, almost finished, bloody ran out of some resistors so down to jaycar in the morning and should be finished ready for testing some time tomorrow morning. Wooo hooo!
Mad, I had a look at your sketch... went above my head mate..... I'll get this machine working then tackle the nano section later.
Still have dozens of bits left over on most parts so if anyone in Melb needs some yell out if you are itching to get building and can't wait 2+ weeks for Chinese delivery. Can always overnight post too. ( I don't wan't to get into ongoing parts supplying but if you are itching to get going yell out.)Edited by renewableMark 2018-05-20Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb
oztules Guru Joined: 26/07/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1686
Posted: 10:32am 19 May 2018
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Interesting little units. We get very spoilt with these things. A baby one with a single aerosharp 3kw tranny, and four fet bridges is small by our standards, but bigger than most off grid houses by normal standards.
The little one you speak of will easily power a normal house comfortably, and better than say a 5kw victron. Tinker, Mad, and Clockman have run 8kw for long periods... thats huge by normal standards.
So yes, it will make a fine little unit.... but still power a normal house if needs be.
The silly thing is you will probably make a third and fourth... don't know why, it just happens. ... some kind of illness I think.
At least you have seen it doing over 4kw.... so it's not a baby one.
.........oztules
Edited by oztules 2018-05-20Village idiot...or... just another hack out of his depth
oztules Guru Joined: 26/07/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1686
Posted: 08:24pm 19 May 2018
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One other thing,as a back up inverter, it does not necessarily require a torroid.
In your line of work, you may find old traction chargers in warehouses, and these will have substantial cores in them. They will need to be remodeled too, as they are designed for lots of leakage... we dont want that, but a big welder core, or battery charger for fork lifts etc will do the trick too.
It just means we need to wire it with low leakage in mind, and the idle currents will be higher, but will still work very effectively. Chargers and welders like leakage, we don't.
Even three phase welders etc are fine, we can parallel the secondaries, and series wind the primaries..... so if torroids are getting hard to find, there are still other options available to make a working inverter of substantial power.
.......oztulesVillage idiot...or... just another hack out of his depth
renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678
Posted: 09:03pm 19 May 2018
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Thanks Oz, yeah good thinking about the traction/forklift chargers. Often forklifts die of old age or get a new set of batteries that come with a new charger and they keep the big old charger as they are still seen of some value but in fact never get used and sit there for 20 years. Yep seen that plenty of times, I've asked about a couple of them but they never seem interested to move them on..... never mind.
I do however have 3x 2Kw cores and 3x 3Kw cores.
I was thinking of unwinding the centre from the 2Kw ones and adding that material to the outside. 3 of those stacked should make a fairly handy reserve unit.
I'll keep the 3x 3Kw ones for a big thumper, best to get some working units and some runs on the board before that one gets planned though.Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb
renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678
Posted: 07:27am 20 May 2018
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Sorry guys no update today, forgot I had to get the heatsinks done before I could test. Just a minor thing to forget Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb
renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678
Posted: 09:21am 21 May 2018
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Snapped a friggin tap in the stinkin heatsink Bloody $30 impact suitable one too and I was only using it in a hand crank. I cracked it so bad the ladies over the fence at the child care centre told me to stop swearing so much as the children could hear it.... woops lol, yeah I did use the lanolin spray and backed it out every turn, got to stop smashing mirrors and kicking black cats!! Might get some time tomorrow to drill/tap out another heatsink.
That Cap mod Oz did, would the Mad boards benefit from that too or was it only something the Clockman boards were prone to?Edited by renewableMark 2018-05-22Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb
johnmc Senior Member Joined: 21/01/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 282
Posted: 10:17am 21 May 2018
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Mark the best way to tap non blind holes in aluminium, is to use thread roll taps that do not cut the thread but roll or extrude the thread. Drill the tapping hole to the pitch circle diameter, then roll tap the thread. for example drill 2.65 / 2.7 mm for a 3mm thread and use cutting oil to lubricate the tap. cheers johnjohnmc
oztules Guru Joined: 26/07/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1686
Posted: 10:24am 21 May 2018
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Mark.... I don't know for sure, but I think that it won't hurt for the 2 cents worth of caps.
john... thread roll taps...... something else to research now.....
......oztulesVillage idiot...or... just another hack out of his depth
Tinker Guru Joined: 07/11/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1904
Posted: 10:52am 21 May 2018
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And here comes my aluminium tapping lesson, especially for you Mark .
I have done my share of breaking taps and know exactly how you feel .
First advice: never never hurry this task.
Second advice: do drill the recommended pilot hole, if its a long or a blind hole, drill a little bigger size. I use 2.5mm for M3 tap, 3.3mm for M4 tap.
Use the correct lubricant, I never used lanolin spray for tapping, only for sawing. I think that stuff is too sticky for tapping unless you clean the swarf off it frequently. I used to use just kerosine for alu, removed the tap frequently to rinse the swarf off in a little jar of kero then continue another two turns or so. These days I use Trefolex spray, this is a special cutting tool lubricant.
For a blind hole the surest way is to use a set of 3 taps in the correct sequence. Yes, it is tedious, but so is the frustration of a broken tap. If you can use compressed air to clean the hole before inserting the next # tap, so much the better.
Also, if the tap has been used on stainless steel before, it is most likely too dull for alu now.
The roll tap suggested above would be nice but the pilot hole is critical for small size (M3) tapping. A bit like self tapping screws, get the hole too tight and you break the screw head off, too loose and the threads cannot take much load.
For small taps use one of these neat handles that hold the tap in a chuck like fitting. They have shorter twist bars than the regular V groove tapping handles which make it too easy to apply too much torque and 'snap' .
If you entertained your neighbours by tapping aluminium they will be in for a real threat if you ever try tapping copper
Klaus
Warpspeed Guru Joined: 09/08/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4406
Posted: 07:10pm 21 May 2018
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Kerosine is the recommended lubricant for machining aluminum according to the official Aussie (fitting and turning) trade school text books.
Kero should be o/k for drilling and tapping, but I much prefer WD40 for tapping the smaller sized holes. WD40 smokes and runs away too easily for open high speed sawing, milling, or turning. Lanolin or kero would be much better where there is going to be some heat generated.
For working stone cold by hand, especially for tapping really small holes, WD40 is more slippery and penetrates small spaces more readily than something oilier and heavier.
Yeah, drilling and tapping dozens of holes in a large heat sink is one of the less pleasant jobs.
Cheers, Tony.
renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678
Posted: 09:38pm 21 May 2018
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Thanks guys, I was getting impatient with the job as it was the last hole. I'll take a break next time my concentration peters off.
Kero and compressed air, AND take a break when losing concentration, no worries!Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb
renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678
Posted: 08:50pm 22 May 2018
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The inverter from Oz was waiting at the door for me when I got home yesterday. Thanks Oz. I don't remember how many 2110's I sent, did you need to use any? Looks like you used the ones that were already fitted to the board.
I haven't fired it up yet, still concentrating on the Mad version, but it will get it's own box in time.
I see good old Aus post bent that solid Aero sharp heatsink, the way you packed it for return it couldn't have happened on that trip, must have been on the way to you, crikey they must have given it a good wack, there was 4 layers of the big bubble wrap under them.Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb
oztules Guru Joined: 26/07/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1686
Posted: 10:39pm 22 May 2018
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No, only used 4008's. 2110's were fine, as was the 8010. You had done everything ok, except for the some joints and the dang switch nonsense.
So you were this close
Now, remember, history shows me, that fiddling with a going inverter seems to cause blowups somehow.
I only used your hy4008's up because of me fiddling with it, when it was running perfectly fine before I played with things.
Thats how we found the rapid short= blow up like mad said, and I hadn't seen... there went a whole shebang of 4008's, and a stupid dead short while running a 5kw load at the same time..... the rest of the fets.
Had I just watched it run nicely, you would have all the silicon you sent still in good condition.... so be warned play with live inverters at your own peril.
The fins were bent when they got here, yes you are right.
And... do use normal 240v o/load switches on the input power line, this will save your boards, and 2110's... notice I did not use any 2110, yet blew the fets to hell and back.no board damage either..... so don't mess up mads work.... use o/loadres. Rockby electronics are selling them for less than a dollar a piece. I bought a heap the other day.
like these
....oztules Village idiot...or... just another hack out of his depth
renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678
Posted: 10:52pm 22 May 2018
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Lol when I packed it up there was a nice tested bag of 4008's then I thought hmm better throw in a few more, lucky I did. Got to crack an egg to make an omelette.
I did use the breakers early on, it seemed ok so removed them, won't try that again. I got some 20 and 80A dc ones from Ali
CheersCheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb
renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678
Posted: 07:13am 28 May 2018
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I got the new heatsinks all drilled and tapped nicely, but thought I should test the Oz unit to prove the rest of my setup was all functioning properly.
So set it up with my torroid, all fine but torroid had a nasty hum at idle, Mad suggested another cap across the outputs of the secondaries, it certainly tamed the hum but it made the sine go spikey. So took the choke off and put on a bigger one I bought, that dropped the idle current from .8A to .6A and the hum was lessened, but there was a spikeyness of the top of the sine at 2400W load, 1200W it wasn't there. Unwound one turn from the bigger choke fixed that. So I have a perfectly functioning inverter that I was peviously going to throw in the bin. Thanks Oz!
Now to test the Mad boards, the heatsinks need a bit of a clean up but almost ready to fit. Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb
renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678
Posted: 05:15am 29 May 2018
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Hey guys, is this far enough apart? I had the Clockman one set up a bit further apart. Just wondering if any wierd interference can float from one to another if they are too close?Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb
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.
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... some kind of illness I think.
.
