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Bryan1

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Joined: 22/02/2006
Location: Australia
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Posted: 08:09am 06 Mar 2023

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Poida everything is just sitting on the pcb and nothing soldered as yet mate also the heatsink I got off this gridtie will come in handy for the MPPT's and the inverter boards as it's pretty huge.

Now when you get some time could you please do a parts list for the rest of the components as I do think I may just have the rest of the parts already here.

Cheers Bryan

iannez
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Joined: 05/07/2019
Location: Italy
Posts: 23

Posted: 05:24pm 06 Mar 2023

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Hi everyone,
Peter are still in time to order some PCBs?
And to repay you of your gift some time ago?

Can I write you in private?

thanks, A.

Cheers, Angelo

poida

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Joined: 02/02/2017
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Posts: 1418

Posted: 10:06pm 06 Mar 2023

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Hi Angelo

I have one inverter board and a couple of mppt (and a few of the control boards)
remaining. You you still have my email address? We can catch up with things.
I PM you now with my address

wronger than a phone book full of wrong phone numbers

poida

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Joined: 02/02/2017
Location: Australia
Posts: 1418

Posted: 10:17pm 06 Mar 2023

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Bryan1 said Poida everything is just sitting on the pcb and nothing soldered as yet mate also the heatsink I got off this gridtie will come in handy for the MPPT's and the inverter boards as it's pretty huge.

Now when you get some time could you please do a parts list for the rest of the components as I do think I may just have the rest of the parts already here.

Cheers Bryan

that's good, I was a bit worried

I can upload the BOM files from EasyEDA.
Only for the picoverter and inverter board.
There are some errors and omissions though.
But they will be a good start.

The brainboard is easy, I have all parts on the silk screen.
U1 is a 5V regulator.

BOM_madboard_2023-03-07.zip

BOM_picoverter_2023-03-07.zip

I will do a list of parts for the mppt later

wronger than a phone book full of wrong phone numbers

poida

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Joined: 02/02/2017
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Posted: 01:19am 07 Mar 2023

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mppt BOM

2 current sensors. LEM LTS series or Allegro. 0 - 50 Amp, 3 wire (5V,ground, signal)

The firmware will work with bipolar sensors (i.e. -50Amps to 0 to 50 Amps)
or even -100 to 100 Amp sensors.
Best accuracy is with 0 to 50 Amp jobbies.

3 x 100 nF cap bypassing
1 x LM7805

1 x TLP-250 or FOD3182 optocoupled gate driver IC
1 x 100 nF cap

2 x 10 uF 10V or whatever

12V to 12V isolated supply
Recom RE-1212S

2 x 2K7
2 x 47K for two voltage dividers

3 x 1 nF caps
2 x 1KR for low pass filter of current sense outputs

1 x 620R to control current into opto couper input
1 x 10K Gate drive pulldown
3 x 10R Gate drive resisitors

2 x 1 nF caps
2 x 10R for damping osccilation on 1/2 bridge output

Heaps of 1,000uF caps

2 x 150V diodes, TO-247 package
maybe:
STTH6002C 200V
S-60EPU02PbF 200V 60 Amp
I used HY5110 FETs as a diode but then I am crazy.

2 or 3 FETs
maybe:
FDH055N15A 150V, 5.9mOhm, 167 Amp (these are good)
HY5110 100V, 2.1 mOhm, 316 Amp
I prefer the 150V Fairchild FETs

wronger than a phone book full of wrong phone numbers

Bryan1

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Joined: 22/02/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 1344

Posted: 07:13am 10 Mar 2023

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Poida if you could put the R number on each resistor could make things smoother as looking on the MTTP thread I didn't see any reference to them.

Anyway ordered 3 of those nano's and it's saying the end of the month for delivery so no rush mate.

I do have Arduino going here on linux and a win7 puter thats needs a ethernet driver just it can see it's connected to the wifi router, which did work a treat under the brief time I had win10.

Cheers Bryan

Bryan1

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Joined: 22/02/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 1344

Posted: 10:35am 18 Mar 2023

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Well guy's a few of us bought these boards and it does seem I'm the only one that has spoken up.

When I put an order in for those 10x5 pcb connectors I put in 6 off so 120 of them is coming. Wiseguy has taken one so there are 4 left to take for members that bought these boards.

Which does bring a thought as we do do need so many components to get all these boards done a mass buy from members where the budget can be spread where bulk buy's are better and cheaper besides we all want these boards to work.

Did a search today for a schematic for the inverter board and had to go thru a dozen or more posts just to find it.

So an update would be nice and lets get this ball rolling guy's

Cheers Bryan

pd--
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Joined: 11/12/2020
Location: Australia
Posts: 122

Posted: 11:37am 18 Mar 2023

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I am ticking along in the background Bryan.
i already have most of the parts thanks to sum donations from an Aerosharp and my bits of stuff bucket.

im on the scrounge for sum 2mm magnet wire and that's about it.
just need to build the solar array that this will connect to.

KeepIS

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Joined: 13/10/2014
Location: Australia
Posts: 1679

Posted: 08:29pm 18 Mar 2023

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Bryan1 said Well guy's a few of us bought these boards and it does seem I'm the only one that has spoken up.

When I put an order in for those 10x5 pcb connectors I put in 6 off so 120 of them is coming. Wiseguy has taken one so there are 4 left to take for members that bought these boards.

Did a search today for a schematic for the inverter board and had to go thru a dozen or more posts just to find it.

So an update would be nice and lets get this ball rolling guy's

Cheers Bryan

Hi Bryan, I'm also getting parts together for an MPPT board and other projects I'm building. I'll take one of the pcb connector packs if available, just PM me the cost and payment details at your leisure.

I have spent hours going through the MPPT thread and my head hurts, so many changes and variations.

Would be nice to have a final circuit, a final built board picture and the latest code [codes] for the Brain board. Likewise the Inverter boards etc.

I'm really keen on getting a couple of these MPPT boards built, I just love the work put into it by the "brilliant" usual suspects on the forum and the simple design.

However the way it is at the moment, it's hard to know where to start and end, or maybe I'm just getting old

Mike.

It's all too hard.
Mike.

Mrracerhacker
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Joined: 20/10/2022
Location: Norway
Posts: 13

Posted: 11:24pm 19 Mar 2023

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Just got the bords in the mail a few days ago, working on ordering parts, taken a while with shipping, but gave me time to work on the inverter case. got some odds and ends that i have scavanged over time thats needed, so shouldent end up too costly

Murphy's friend

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Joined: 04/10/2019
Location: Australia
Posts: 648

Posted: 05:00am 20 Mar 2023

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KeepIS said

I have spent hours going through the MPPT thread and my head hurts, so many changes and variations.

Would be nice to have a final circuit, a final built board picture and the latest code [codes] for the Brain board. Likewise the Inverter boards etc.

I know how that feels, been there, done that. These projects appear to be designed by a committee where several suggestions are incorporated to the final project.

I have waded through them, rejected those that do not apply to my situation, redrawing the schematic to suit and then designing my own PCB's.

If you can do that it might save you a headache in the long run.

poida

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Joined: 02/02/2017
Location: Australia
Posts: 1418

Posted: 07:45am 20 Mar 2023

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Murphy's friend said

I am away for a week on holiday and after that I will sort out a bit of a collection
of firmware, schematics and PCB images for us to work from.

wronger than a phone book full of wrong phone numbers

Bryan1

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Joined: 22/02/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 1344

Posted: 07:52am 20 Mar 2023

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Just had a message from aupost before my nano's will be by the end of the week and the not so good news is those M4 connectors 2 days to ship or full refund

KeepIS

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Joined: 13/10/2014
Location: Australia
Posts: 1679

Posted: 10:28am 20 Mar 2023

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Poida said
I am away for a week on holiday and after that I will sort out a bit of a collection
of firmware, schematics and PCB images for us to work from.

That would be great, I feel that if a few of these projects were bought together to a neat current build status, a lot more members may be inclined to build these units.

It's all too hard.
Mike.

Bryan1

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Joined: 22/02/2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 1344

Posted: 06:58am 22 Mar 2023

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YAY

the nano's turned up today so this week the fun can start

poida

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Joined: 02/02/2017
Location: Australia
Posts: 1418

Posted: 09:48pm 29 Mar 2023

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Since both the inverter and the mppt are controlled by Arduino Nanos
you will need something to program them with.

The cheap Nano clones we buy usually do not have the USB chip
the Arduino software expects to see, we need to install a driver for
the CH340 USB chip installed in the Nano clones.
download location for the driver is here

install the driver
plug in a nano and you should see the Windows system see the new device and
install it automatically
open Device Manager and check for a Port, named something like
"USB_SERIAL CH340" and not which COM port it is. In my case it's COM11

so that's the hardware sorted out.

If not installed already, download and install the Arduino IDE
I still use the legacy version, the later version does not offer
anything new that I need. I don't think it makes any difference which version
you use.

once installed, run it. plug in a nano.
From the IDE menu, select Tools, Board, Arduino AVR boards, Arduino Nano
This sets the IDE up to create correct code for the Nano.

Then select Tools, Processor, ATMega328 (old bootloader)
This chooses which bootloader the IDE will expect.
The clone Nanos usually need this.
If programming does not work, just choose the other ATMega328 as a "processor"

Last, tell the IDE which COM port the nano is connected to (from Device Manager)
If you plug in the USB cable in the PC using the same USB slot, it's likely
the COM port will not change.

You can test all of this easily.
Assuming you have done all of the above, choose File, Examples, 01.Basics, Blink
now upload this program to the nano, choose Sketch, Upload
It should complete with "Done uploading" in the lower part of the IDE screen

The clone Nanos come with this program pre-installed so it's hard to see any changes.
in the code for "blink", change the lines "delay(1000);"
to "delay(200);", and upload the code again.
You should now see it blink 5x faster.

At this point you should be confident that you can upload the firmware for
the picoverter and the mppt controller.

wronger than a phone book full of wrong phone numbers

poida

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Joined: 02/02/2017
Location: Australia
Posts: 1418

Posted: 10:13pm 29 Mar 2023

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mppt info #1

Attached is a zip file of the latest mppt firmware, the schematic, images of the PCB top and bottom

mppt.zip

There are two versions of the firmware.

mpptv5_BV_tempco is the version I use. This has one thermistor for the heatsink
and the other thermistor is attached to a battery terminal to give battery temperature.
And the code looks at the battery temp and alters the ABSORB voltage according
to my battery's temperature dependent absorb voltage requirements.
It is easy to setup if you want this.

The other version is mpptv5_highside_NTC and it will have the thermistors on the heatsink and choke. No ABSORB voltage tempco is possible.
The firmware can handle having the thermistors connected to 5V or ground (that is
highside or lowside) simply from a setting in the menu.
The mppt PCB has markings for a 2 pin header and if you install it as it is marked
the thermistors will be "highside"

you can see one pin of the two is going to 5V. highside...

There is a link you MUST connect.

Mike made this so as to permit some EMI
isolation between the high power ground and logic/control ground.
This link permits you to use a ferrite bead to reduce the high freq. noise in
the logic/control area. I have not used a bead, I just made the link.
It works fine for me.

You will need a 12V DC supply to power the mppt (and brainboard and LCD)
Only need 100mA or so

The design has space for 3 FETs, depending how hard you run it, only 2 FETs might be enough. Both of my mppt boards have two FETs. I have tested them to 3kW or 60 Amps
with no problems.

Building the mppt needs a bit of free thinking. You will want the heatsink to have it's fins running vertical for good air flow. How you bolt it all together can be
a bit interesting with home made brackets and all.

more later as issues come up.
Edited 2023-03-30 08:14 by poida

wronger than a phone book full of wrong phone numbers

poida

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Joined: 02/02/2017
Location: Australia
Posts: 1418

Posted: 10:47pm 29 Mar 2023

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picoverter info #1

attached is the latest firmare, pico board images, schematic and the power board image

pico.zip

The firmware is very basic and does not need you to use the menu to
set it up. It will show input voltage, heatsink and toroid temps and run status
on the LCD if you attach one, which is optional.

You will need to alter some values in the code to suit your needs.
And the input voltage will be not quite right so you need to tune that value
to suit your build.
these values look like this:

#define HS_FAN_ON 45 // deg.C
#define HS_FAN_OFF 35 // all 6 temperatures need to be less than 100 deg.C
#define HS_STOP 55 // due to lookup table based voltage to temperature code

#define TOR_FAN_ON 45 // have fan on temp rather more than fan off
#define TOR_FAN_OFF 35 // to ensure the fan runs for a decent time
#define TOR_STOP 55 // and gets the job done.

#define NTC_COMBINE 0 // = 0 if use two fans, = 1 to use one fan only, the HS fan

#define LV_CUT_OFF 46.0 // minimum battery volts for inverter to run
#define LV_RESTART 51.0 // restart volts
#define LV_STOP_ENABLE 0 // = 1 to allow LV cut-off, = 0 to just keep running no matter battery voltage
#define LV_ENABLE 0 // = 1 to permit LV restart if battery increases enough, = 0 to disable
#define LV_TIMEOUT 5 // how many seconds BV needs to be below LV_CUT_OFF. Noise filter

#define ADC_OUT 0 // channel for AC output sample
#define HS_NTC 1 // and others
#define TOR_NTC 2
#define BV 3

#define BV_SCALE 0.05986 // or something. Set it via trial and error.

LV_STOP_ENABLE needs to be 1 to enable low voltage stop of the inverter
LV_ENABLE needs to be 1 to enable restart after LV stop when voltage increases
beyond the value of LV_RESTART
LV_TIMEOUT is how many seconds the battery voltage must be below LV_CUT_OFF
before lv stop will happen. 5 seconds is enough for the voltage droop due to
the startup current peak when starting a fridge.

To change one of these values, you just overtype the existing with your own
and then save the code and upload to the nano.

The firmware will stop the inverter if either of the 2 thermistors sees a
temperature more than HS_STOP or TOR_STOP.
The inverter will restart automatically once the temperature drops.
I could make it latching so that it will not restart after a high temperature
situation if we want this.

My spare inverter has only one fan so this code lets you use one fan to cool
the whole thing, connected to the heatsink fan output pins.

Building the picoverter should not be much of a problem. I would socket
the Nano and the two IR2184 ICs.

If not using an LCD, you can still see if the inverter is running from the
LED on the picoverter. The small LED on the Nano is used to flash a signal
to you as well. This will flash fast if it's stopped due to over temp or
flash slow if it's stopped due to low voltage cutoff.

The powerboard runs fine without the 4 pairs of resistor and capacitor snubbers.
Edited 2023-03-30 08:50 by poida

wronger than a phone book full of wrong phone numbers

mab1
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Joined: 10/02/2015
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 209

Posted: 12:54am 30 Mar 2023

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Thanks very much poida. In case i forgot to mention (i think i did forget) the pcbs arrived very quickly in perfect condition :)

This is probably a really stupid question, but when i Googled arduino nano, there seemed to be several sorts available. Does it matter too much which nano i choose? My previous microcontroller experience is mostly picaxe.

I was also wondering how many parts i could salvage from a donor gti. An old (but unused) Santerno has some big caps of course but also a couple of lem current sensors which i think are 50A nominal(lah 50-p) and one big potted inductor 24mH iirc. I did manage to acquire a 3kw aerosharp inverter (don't see too many over here) but I'm slightly reluctant to strip it for parts as it still works and has a useful input range - although i did aquire it with the intention of using its parts for an inverter build.

Bryan1

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Joined: 22/02/2006
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Posted: 07:01am 30 Mar 2023

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Just looking now there is only 4 pages showing for this thread and when I looked yesterday there was 44

anyway I downloaded the arduino software on my win7 desktop and had a bit of fun with the usb to get it to see the nano.

so i did try that blink sketch only to find no activity from the nano with the 2 centre leds staying alight with no on/off. Next time i'm in the shed I will download that driver and give it another go.

Cheers Bryan

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