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Madness Guru Joined: 08/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2498
Posted: 05:23am 29 May 2018
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I have about 5mm, also remember to insulate the bottom of the positive heatsink on the other side or at least make sure it is clear of connecting with anything else. On top of the heatsinks I put a sheet of perspex held in place with screws tapped into the top of the edge of the heatsinks, they can't move around then, it gives you a place to mount the control board too.Edited by Madness 2018-05-30There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.
renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678
Posted: 05:37am 29 May 2018
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Yeah, they are all sitting up off the board held by the mosfets. Cheers, sorry for the delay in getting a result, have dad time now, hopefully test tomorrow.Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb
renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678
Posted: 09:19am 31 May 2018
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Jeeez, really sorry for the slow progress and updates fellas, just finding it hard to get spare time. Did the neg wires with 8x 4mm2 solar cable, I'm thinking that will be OK, sing out if you thinks it's underdone. It will be doing the 240w idle that the house does with no one home and the normal loads when we are home.
Now FINALLY it's ready for testing.
I spent some time checking wattage loads of devices around the home. One funny thing was that the F&P with the microwave just being plugged in added upto 960whr, so almost 1KW. our normal useage is 10kw a day so just turning off those two devices at the point dropped our power usage by 1/10th. The micro is basically used as a clock and rarely gets used, so off it is now. Roller door draws 20w constant too, bit stuffed on that one though. Still need to find where the constant 240w comes from.
Edit... bloody goose ... did the math 8x4=32mm2, that's about half it needs. I'll just test it like that for now and fix it later.Edited by renewableMark 2018-06-01Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb
Madness Guru Joined: 08/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2498
Posted: 10:53am 31 May 2018
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Looks very professional Mark.
The Solar wire is designed to be safe at 1,000 volt so a lot of its thickness is insulation. However 200 amps through that wire assuming an average length of 300mm is only going result in 6.5 watts. You won't be drawing that much power through it for very long.There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.
yahoo2 Guru Joined: 05/04/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1166
Posted: 12:23pm 31 May 2018
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warpspeed done a rollerdoor fix, a small power supply for the 433 mhz receiver and a relay to power up the existing big power supply for the door motor. I'm confused, no wait... maybe I'm not...
Madness Guru Joined: 08/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2498
Posted: 08:27pm 31 May 2018
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My electric gate runs entirely off of a 10W solar panel. Low idle power can be done, I thought there was Legislation about this.There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.
renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678
Posted: 09:00pm 31 May 2018
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Yes I recall that now, reckon some other stuff needs to be finished first but will look into it, 20 watts constant for something used twice a day is silly.Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb
Warpspeed Guru Joined: 09/08/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4406
Posted: 09:04pm 31 May 2018
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It was not too difficult to do as I recall. The exact details might vary a bit though.Cheers, Tony.
renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678
Posted: 10:36pm 31 May 2018
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Thanks Tony, Just spent 15min looking for that write up, can't find it.Edited by renewableMark 2018-06-02Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb
Warpspeed Guru Joined: 09/08/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4406
Posted: 11:57pm 31 May 2018
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My garage door opener has two circuit boards inside. One is the radio receiver board that is some mass produced product the garage door opener company just bought in and stuffed into the same plastic box along with their own larger circuit board. Its cheaper to buy a ready made Chinese radio remote, and receiver circuit board, than manufacture something like that yourself here in oZ.
Anyhow, this radio receiver board needs to be constantly powered with +12v and produces a relay contact closure when you push the button on the remote. Doing that also turns on a 12v light fitted to the garage door opener that stays lit for a minute or two (useful at night).
So all I did was constantly power the radio board directly from a 12v plug pack. That draws 1.8 watts instead of 16 watts for the original system.
When I push the remote button, that sent +12v to a solid state relay that connects 240v to the big main power hungry transformer, and the garage door would open or close normally. I also used the light circuit to keep power up to the solid state relay for the required minute or two. After that it just reverts to just the radio receiver running.
Cannot now remember all the exact details, I did all this over three years ago. But if you get inside your unit, and figure out what is going on, some kind of demon modification may not be all that difficult to do.
One other thing I did was replace the pissy little glowing yellow 12v light globe with a real 240v LED light, wired up to the same solid state relay.
For some reason I cannot post a picture?Edited by Warpspeed 2018-06-02Cheers, Tony.
Warpspeed Guru Joined: 09/08/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4406
Posted: 12:04am 01 Jun 2018
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I disconnected the plug pack, as plugged in its almost invisible (black on black) Cheers, Tony.
renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678
Posted: 10:35am 03 Jun 2018
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OK tested the boards today, I got the control board to run fine, nice signals on the scope. But when plugged into power board it kept popping the 8010 chip, which is a real pain to solder. So I tested the Mad control board on the clockman power board and it ran, so at least I got that bit right.
Then found a solder short on one of the tip 41's on the Mad power board , it got too dark and I needed a beer, so I'll fix it later, might replace that and nearby caps just to be sure.
I was really hoping for a trouble free test, but my track record doesn't really show that's likely At least I built the control card well.
Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb
renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678
Posted: 10:41am 03 Jun 2018
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BTW thanks Tony for the write up on the roller door. Good thinking outside the box.Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb
Tinker Guru Joined: 07/11/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1904
Posted: 02:36pm 03 Jun 2018
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Are you sure about that Mark? That chip just shuts down if something downstream is not right, try it again when you fixed that totem pole short. Still in need of soldering lessons?
The only 8010 chip I managed to upset was when I got that LED connection mixed up, that function no longer worked then but the chip still produced all the correct wave forms for the 2110 drivers.Klaus
Madness Guru Joined: 08/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2498
Posted: 08:01pm 03 Jun 2018
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I have destroyed at least one back in my early days with these things. 48V came back via the SPWM, the electrolytic capacitors connected to the IR2110's exploded, IR2110's shorted out and the EG8010 died also. But Klaus is right the EG8010's don't normally fail. There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.
Madness Guru Joined: 08/10/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2498
Posted: 08:08pm 03 Jun 2018
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Getting one board right is a good start, the main thing is you are learning. You know next time it pays to check both sides of the PCB after soldering.
The capacitors should be fine, probably the TIP41C also, try connecting the 18V power on the power board to that gate and see if it turn on and off.There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.
renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678
Posted: 09:04pm 03 Jun 2018
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Looks like it, you can come over to Melb and give me some lessons, AND paint my house while you're at it.
8010, hmmm yeah I think they are rooted.
When it didn't work I put the 8010 card into the Clockman board that I knew was working. Don't know how but when I looked for voltage at the back of the board, placed the multi meter on ground and got +5v on both sides of the red led. 8010 didn't get hot, but when soldering up and replacing the board it worked as expected again, so even a electronics numb nuts like me could surmise that they were indeed rooted. Anyway I'm happy I got the control board right first go. Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb
brucedownunder2 Guru Joined: 14/09/2005 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1548
Posted: 05:55am 10 Jun 2018
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Hi Mark ,
You must have the bugger working now ???, No posts today with dramas ,so things are looking good for you ???.
Have you considered compiling a list or bullet points of start to finish of your project ??? . Sell to us lazy b,s for a few bucks and recover some of your costs??.
I'll be first to buy one . I'm thinking of doing what you did from scratch .
It's been interesting following your journey , and all the problems and fixes. Thats why I say scribble it all down ,it's valuable stuff.
Good on you for your efforts and those good guys that helped solve the bugger-ups,lol.
all the best,
BruceBushboy
renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678
Posted: 06:56am 11 Jun 2018
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I would't advise anyone to follow my lead or take pointers from me Bruce.
Haven't finished it yet, I found a bad solder connection and didn't have time to fix it yet, work has gone absolutely bonkers and then I had a trip planned which we just got back from. Should sort it out in the next few days. Also found some new problems with the caravan that need to be fixed too , and the phone never stops with new customers harassing me. Seems like I just get further and further behind. Really should handball some jobs, but it's really hard paying someone to fix something when you know it's simple and you could do it for $30 in parts compared to a $400 bill.Edited by renewableMark 2018-06-12Cheers Caveman Mark Off grid eastern Melb
renewableMark Guru Joined: 09/12/2017 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1678
Posted: 09:58am 13 Jun 2018
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Well, I tested the power board this afternoon before I got a hold of Mad's checklist for combined boards tests. The control board was fine, that tested all ok by itself, I hooked it up to the power board without caps on power feed resistance, the torroid gave one short hum for perhaps one second, the cro showed the startings of a signal, then nothing. Control board gives 4 flashes, tested all the outputs of the control board again and it was all fine. I'll check over the power board closely and go through that checklist. Unfortunately I already fitted all the fets. Reckon I'll leave them on for now, desoldering and pulling on fet legs can't be good for them.
Mad, are there any other checks I should be doing on the power board? Should I be testing the tip 41/42's I double checked all the colour coding of all the resistors, 100% they are fine, de fluxed again to make double sure, scratched a probe between all solder pads, got me stuffed what I rooted up this time. I have a good few hours set aside tomorrow to sort this out.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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, it got too dark and I needed a beer, so I'll fix it later, might replace that and nearby caps just to be sure.
