How about a solar car port on a budget?

[Crossy 27,104]

We have a couple of these chaps on our panel strings https://www.lazada.co.th/products/i808250581-s1644070245.html

 

After last night's flash-and-bang we awakened to a rather annoyed beeping from the solar inverter accompanied by the "GFI" and "Alarm" lights.

 

I unplugged one panel string and reset the inverter and it started OK, plugging the string back in got the error again.

 

OK maybe the damp got into the wiring somewhere, it shouldn't as the connectors are "weatherproof" but it did rain a lot.

 

Insulation test to ground at 250VDC measured zero at the inverter plugs. The same string was 650M at the roof connectors, phew, no mountaineering needed.

 

OK, the only thing between the roof and the inverter is my DC MCBs and the surge suppression. None of the surge arrestors are showing the red indicator. Wrestled the surge arrestors out of their holders, one reads zero at 500V (they are 1000V units), the other is about 800k. The units from the other string read 100 & 125Megs. So we have MOVs that have expired without going red.

 

So we have one MOV per string at present, new cartridges on order.

[Seeall 317]

10 hours ago, Crossy said:

We have a couple of these chaps on our panel strings https://www.lazada.co.th/products/i808250581-s1644070245.html

 

After last night's flash-and-bang we awakened to a rather annoyed beeping from the solar inverter accompanied by the "GFI" and "Alarm" lights.

 

I unplugged one panel string and reset the inverter and it started OK, plugging the string back in got the error again.

 

OK maybe the damp got into the wiring somewhere, it shouldn't as the connectors are "weatherproof" but it did rain a lot.

 

Insulation test to ground at 250VDC measured zero at the inverter plugs. The same string was 650M at the roof connectors, phew, no mountaineering needed.

 

OK, the only thing between the roof and the inverter is my DC MCBs and the surge suppression. None of the surge arrestors are showing the red indicator. Wrestled the surge arrestors out of their holders, one reads zero at 500V (they are 1000V units), the other is about 800k. The units from the other string read 100 & 125Megs. So we have MOVs that have expired without going red.

 

So we have one MOV per string at present, new cartridges on order.

Are they low quality ?

[Crossy 27,104]

7 hours ago, Seeall said:

Are they low quality ?

 

With the plethora of Chinese "unknown" brands out there it's not easy to tell, they are certainly not the most expensive devices out there, nor are they the cheapest.

 

I suspect they did actually do their job and absorb some nasties, I also suspect that the inverter leakage detection is a bit enthusiastic.

 

MOVs reduce their threshold voltage as they absorb surges. Eventually the trigger voltage goes below the normal circuit voltage and they stay triggered, get hot and melt the solder on the indicator flag which drops into the window and opens the circuit to the MOV so we don't start any fires.

 

I didn't check them when new so I can't comment on any degradation, but those two are certainly considerably lower resistance than the ones on the other string. I'll measure the replacements when they arrive.

 

This is more a note to other solar enthusiasts that the "leakage" light on your inverter is not necessarily due to damp in the wiring.

[BritManToo 44,451]

On 8/27/2020 at 5:29 PM, sidgy said:

Definately better weather this week.

Since i added the next 3 panels to give me 6 x 360w in total

week 1   51kwh     (Monday  to Sunday  )   

week 2   57kwh    (Monday  to Sunday  ) 

week 3   42kwh    (Monday to Thursday with 3 more days to go) 

September, my 5 x 330w panels produced 125Kwh in the month, despite plenty of rain.

[Muhendis 862]

Good to see the MOV's did their job and also that you have such good knowledge about the warning flag or lack thereof.

In my opinion there should be mandatory instructions to have these devices fitted rather than relying on the ones fitted inside the inverter/other ancillary equipment. I wonder if a local sparky would have the wit/knowledge to figure out this issue.

[ExpatOilWorker 5,030]

3 hours ago, BritManToo said:

September, my 5 x 330w panels produced 125Kwh in the month, despite plenty of rain.

You got 2.5 hours/day of normal production.

Really not bad for a rainy month.

[Crossy 27,104]

On 10/5/2020 at 5:13 AM, Crossy said:

I didn't check them when new so I can't comment on any degradation, but those two are certainly considerably lower resistance than the ones on the other string. I'll measure the replacements when they arrive.

 

The new MOV cartridges have arrived.

 

One measures 1,700 Megs @ 500V (2,000 Meg range) the other measures open circuit on the same range.

 

Evidently even the remaining "good" units have done their jobs and degraded somewhat, I will keep a weather eye on them too.

 

[Jan Dietz 209]

Just FYI and to whoever is interested in this stuff, I just ordered a handful of these thingies to play with:

 

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/i1510560958-s3992606381.html?urlFlag=true&mp=1?

 

The price is right and saves making patch boards.

 

 

Edited October 6, 2020 by Jan Dietz

[Crossy 27,104]

1 minute ago, Jan Dietz said:

Just FYI and to whoever is interested in this stuff, I just ordered a handful of these thingies to play with:

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/i1510560958-s3992606381.html?urlFlag=true&mp=1?

 

Nice find. Added to my wish list  

[johng 17,123]

10 minutes ago, Jan Dietz said:

Just FYI and to whoever is interested in this stuff, I just ordered a handful of these thingies to play with

Great I ordered a couple to play with too

[sidgy 199]

On 10/5/2020 at 6:31 AM, BritManToo said:

September, my 5 x 330w panels produced 125Kwh in the month, despite plenty of rain.

Nice. ive configured my monthly readings to coincide with our meter reading day (5th of the month)

I have 6 x 360w panels

August 5th to sept 4th  we got 243kwh

Sept 5th to Oct 4th  we got 224kwh

More then happy with the results in what has been a quite wet month

[Jan Dietz 209]

I received the tiny little boards I linked above and they work very nicely. Was a bit of a pain to track down the correct connections, but here it is:

 

https://github.com/Heltec-Aaron-Lee/WiFi_Kit_series/blob/master/PinoutDiagram/WIFI Kit 8.pdf

 

Works fine with the Adafruit library

#include <SPI.h>
#include <Wire.h>
#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>
#include <Adafruit_GFX.h>
#include <Adafruit_SSD1306.h>

#define SCREEN_WIDTH 128 // OLED display width, in pixels
#define SCREEN_HEIGHT 32 // OLED display height, in pixels
#define OLED_RESET    16 // Reset pin # (or -1 if sharing Arduino reset pin)

// Declaration for an SSD1306 display connected to I2C (SDA, SCL pins)
Adafruit_SSD1306 display(SCREEN_WIDTH, SCREEN_HEIGHT, &Wire, OLED_RESET);

void setup() {
  display.begin(SSD1306_SWITCHCAPVCC, 0x3C);  // 0x3C is address of the display
  display.display;
}

 

Edited October 12, 2020 by Jan Dietz

[johng 17,123]

9 hours ago, Jan Dietz said:

I received the tiny little boards I linked above and they work very nicely.

I ordered (and paid for) 2  but only 1 arrived in the parcel

Lots of "fun" trying to get My Arduino IDE software to compile anything without errors but finally.

 

hello world.ino

[johng 17,123]

And just one more

[Crossy 27,104]

On 10/13/2020 at 1:15 PM, johng said:

I ordered (and paid for) 2  but only 1 arrived in the parcel

 

Did you score getting the second unit?

 

I'm currently battling with Lazada for delivering one item (not this one) when I ordered two, the item was also the wrong one. Returned for a refund, refunded one because "you only returned one". Grrr.