Author Topic: testing the egs002 inverter board  (Read 147623 times)

0 Members and 3 Guests are viewing this topic.

Offline oztules

  • Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1177
  • Karma: +105/-8
  • Village idiot
Re: testing the egs002 inverter board
« Reply #255 on: May 19, 2016, 05:58:23 pm »
Johna
Where in Tas are you?

Been blowing fitfully here for days at a time...... no place for trackers. The big ones down at the airport have suffered from what I hear.

Typical of the RE industry really, probably 12000 dollar trackers, holding 3kw ( 1800 dollars ) of solar panels each... sheer genius in a cloudy and windy  region.


............oztules

Flinders Island...... Australia

Offline ClockmanFrance

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 171
  • Karma: +11/-0
Re: testing the egs002 inverter board
« Reply #256 on: May 20, 2016, 02:21:25 am »
Hi johna,

Maybe a kit of parts, "basic bag of bits" in the next year or so, get my boys onto it, my eldest, 16, shows interest, my 13 year old just asks, "is there an App for that". I am just a Taxi for the 9 year old. !

The book and the supplement gives lists of all the components necessary and Links to suppliers where appropriate.

Yes, to supply the boards with the book seems logical.
 The Power Board and the OzControl Board will be available as an additional option to the book, but I am not sure of the number of boards to stock, as the big A4 size boards are thick copper and therefore quite expensive.

I think its important to get the book as this gives the Toroid build, Oztules working/real calculations for different size toroid cores, ancillary circuits, cooling and the important construction tips.

Hopefully available soon, few weeks, PCB preliminary testing and modifying still on going.

 

Offline oztules

  • Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1177
  • Karma: +105/-8
  • Village idiot
Re: testing the egs002 inverter board
« Reply #257 on: May 20, 2016, 05:55:55 am »
"Does anybody know where I can get a suitable E-core for the idle current reduction?"

This is a bit late, but I just discovered the cheapest place in the world I have found for these is right here in Aust... from RS components, and element 14 not far behind them.

 http://au.rs-online.com/web/p/transformer-ferrite-cores/6479351/

$22/set free shipping

amazing stuff...


Still no boards yet... backlog of mail due to the rotten weather over the last few weeks I think.... the little planes cant fly in the 100k winds very well.

...............oztules

Flinders Island...... Australia

Offline johna

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 8
  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: testing the egs002 inverter board
« Reply #258 on: May 20, 2016, 04:56:12 pm »
 oztules
Up in the hills at st Marys. in a valley ,normally i hear the wind roaring on the hill tops, but its been so windy it shoots down the valley and rocks the panels , i need the positioners as i am limited to how much sun i get ,especially this time of year.I have seen the panels at Flinders airport and i always thought that its a bit to windy there. its exposed to the westerlies. same in king island.( which are rusting away). worked for the Hydro on both islands, for there size and the expense of them they are pretty pathetic.
john

Offline Dr_Zogg

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 109
  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: testing the egs002 inverter board
« Reply #259 on: May 21, 2016, 12:29:58 am »
"Does anybody know where I can get a suitable E-core for the idle current reduction?"

This is a bit late, but I just discovered the cheapest place in the world I have found for these is right here in Aust... from RS components, and element 14 not far behind them.

 http://au.rs-online.com/web/p/transformer-ferrite-cores/6479351/

$22/set free shipping

amazing stuff...


that's where i got mine form. I would have said something but i thought you guys were  wise to it, sorry

Cheers
Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most

Offline dochubert

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 265
  • Karma: +4/-0
  • 11 powerjacks, 9 that run, 3 actually used daily
Re: testing the egs002 inverter board
« Reply #260 on: May 21, 2016, 08:02:20 pm »
Hope this isn't a stupid question;
I don't remember seeing any discussion of frequency selection on the 8010 board. Read thru the thread twice but maybe missed it.  Are you building for 60hz or 50hz?  Or is it switchable?
Not sure which freq you guys use but I need 60hz

Thanks
We're all going to DIE!  (eventually)

USA = Communist former republic
---  dochubert --

Offline oztules

  • Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1177
  • Karma: +105/-8
  • Village idiot
Re: testing the egs002 inverter board
« Reply #261 on: May 21, 2016, 09:29:27 pm »
If you download the eg8010 data sheet, you will see that pins 18 and 19 control the frequ.

50hz with both pins grounded,
60 hz with only 18 grounded and 19 high (5v)
variable to 100hz with 18 high(5v) and 19 grounded
variable to 400hz with both  high (5v)

Thats plenty of choice for you... :)

...........oztules
Flinders Island...... Australia

Offline Antman

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 51
  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: testing the egs002 inverter board
« Reply #262 on: May 21, 2016, 11:37:34 pm »
Oztules thanks for the link to the E-cores. I need to order some more parts from RS this week so i'll grab a few of them too. Love the free delivery...

Dochubert on the EGS002 boards it's as simple as changing two jumpers on the board.

I've redesigned my whole board to include bus bars and upped the copper to 2 oz to handle the higher current. Also I've added a second thermocouple to measure transformer temperature.

The dodgy chinese buck converter was replaced with one of my own design based around the LM5008. It's rated to 95V input and 350 ma output which is more than enough to run all of the controls and a 12V fan up to 200 ma.

The AC filtering capacitor is now on the board to which will clean up the whole installation. Only power in, current sense from the shunt, fan leads, primary to the transformer and secondary from the transformer will be required to make a full working inverter.

I've included outputs from the Arduino too so an external 5v relay module can be used to control anything else such as loads or extra fans. It could be used to start a generator when voltage drops below a certain level or even turn on dump loads when your batteries reach float voltage. The possibilities are endless since we are reading all of the feedback from the inverter. The serial pins are broken out too so wireless telemetry can be used to monitor the unit from far away. I've seen people use simple cheap wireless links and also WIFI modules such as the ESP8266 to broadcast a simple web server.

Boards are in the mail now so cant wait to get them and test it out ;D

Offline oztules

  • Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1177
  • Karma: +105/-8
  • Village idiot
Re: testing the egs002 inverter board
« Reply #263 on: May 22, 2016, 01:41:54 am »
Thats a serious bit of kit there Antman.... keen to see the results... also keen to see how it does @50v

...oztules
Flinders Island...... Australia

Offline Antman

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 51
  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: testing the egs002 inverter board
« Reply #264 on: May 22, 2016, 01:47:30 am »
Thanks Oz ;)

Put a huge amount of hours into this one but it'll be worth it in the end. I put the updated buck converter in there to work with systems like yours that go past 60V. Good for up to 95V

 I might have to pay someone to fix up the Arduino code. Mine works but it's pretty basic. The sky is the limit with Arduino...

Offline frackers

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 239
  • Karma: +9/-0
  • If it moves - computerise it!
Re: testing the egs002 inverter board
« Reply #265 on: May 22, 2016, 04:36:13 pm »
I might have to pay someone to fix up the Arduino code. Mine works but it's pretty basic. The sky is the limit with Arduino...

If you can put together a requirements specification I'd be interested in having a look - most of my stuff is GPL-V2 like my wind turbine controller so rather than pay I'd prefer to share.
Only got a couple of weeks before I'm tied up for 4-5 weeks with another project but I can give you an idea on what is possible.
Robin Down Under (or are you Up Over!)

Offline Antman

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 51
  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: testing the egs002 inverter board
« Reply #266 on: May 23, 2016, 01:52:40 am »
Thanks Frackers. I'll draft something up in the next couple of days. I've got limited time too as I'm going overseas for 5 weeks in a month.

I received a nice delivery today of a PJ transformer and my newest revision of boards. The transfomer is pretty impressive for $250 express delivered. My initial thoughts are that it could handle 2 KW easily and bursts of double that @ 12V. I loaded it up with a 1000W heater and it barely warmed up after 10 mins. Efficiency came in around 91% which I was impressed with. My commercially made powertech one is lucky to hit 89% in perfect conditions.

Idle current was 3.5 amps without an inductor. After 1 turn on a large blue toroid that I had lying around it dropped to 800ma @ 13.28V. 10.6 watts idle current is amazing for an inverter that can handle 2KW continuous.

Next mission is to assemble the newest revision and test with all the bus bars in place. Eficciency should rise a little since there is a bit of power loss in the old boards weak 1oz copper. The new bus bars are 144 sq mm of aluminium so no voltage drop there ;)

Offline peter

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 19
  • Karma: +6/-0
Re: testing the egs002 inverter board
« Reply #267 on: May 25, 2016, 03:27:41 am »
The board arrived in Melbourne about 3 1/2 weeks after ordering
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-shipping-1pcs-1800W-5500W-DC12V-24V-36V-48V-to-AC-220V-pure-sine-inverter-board/32637730780.html?spm=2114.30010308.3.44.ut8jCV&ws_ab_test=searchweb201556_9,searchweb201602_5_10017_10005_10006_10034_10021_507_10022_508_10020_10018_10019,searchweb201603_6&btsid=d7e2931a-fdd2-404a-ab4a-c692c960a062
and see the photos that show the condition out of the box and 2x bubble wrap. It copped a few whacks in transit.

I hooked it up to the 1.5kW Aerosharp transformer with a nominal 20 turns primary.
When a 145uH choke is inserted in series with the torriod primary, I get a nice 0.3A idle current at 26V DC supply.
I have not tested it at any sort of high current yet. I need to get suitable primary cable first.
The extra wire coming out of the EG002 board goes to C24 on the IFB input to the EG8010.
This wire seems to be driven via a few inputs which are combined via a relay:
- too low input voltage
- too high input voltage
- too high current output
- too high current sourced from supply.
as sorted out by the LM324 opamp

When delivered, the board needed a bit of fiddling with the low voltage cutout trimpot for it to work. I can't make the high voltage cutoff work, nor the high current cutoff.
Maybe when I have a more realistic test scenario things will start to come together.

I have found it runs very nicely at the low power output of my test setup (only about 50VA into a halogen desk lamp).
The manufacturer (or reseller or whatever) supply a 5uF cap to place across the 240V secondary. I found this to be too large, drawing about 0.6A at 26 V input.
A 0.47uF makes it draw 0.3A

Interestingly (for me at least) I found I could use a salvaged choke from the 1.5kW Areosharp inverter, by unwinding about 1/2 turns from one side and using that as the
primary side 145uH choke to reduce the high frequency hash from the PWM. This, coupled with a 0.47uF 250V X2 cap on the secondary is all I need for a very clean sine wave output.

I chose 20 turns as a start point seeminly at random. I have a 0-40V 5A supply that I intended to use in initial testing.
This has been quite good when finding what voltage range the bourd can run.
The 1.5kW transformer is 0.7V RMS/turn, so the 20 turns = approx 14V RMS
This is about 20V peak and I would first think that all I need is supply 20V and it will run OK giving 240V RMS output.
In practice I found the lowest it would run is 23V and it runs quite fine all the way to 40V. This means the EG002 controller board can modulate the SPWM from 100% down to about 50% or less.

This testing now gives me a good idea of how many turns are needed for the primary when ensuring large margins of safety for low voltage dropout.

Onward and upward now. Time to get some decent 50A primary cable and hit it with a 1.5kW load when driven by a small 24V battery bank. Will it emit the magic smoke?

Offline oztules

  • Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1177
  • Karma: +105/-8
  • Village idiot
Re: testing the egs002 inverter board
« Reply #268 on: May 25, 2016, 05:15:53 am »
Well thats the first one in captivity, so I for one will be watching with interest.

The transformer is key to power handling, but so far the 002 has been very forgiving, so if it sags or clips, it should soldier on fairly well.... providing they dont stuff up the pulse trains when they over/under anything, and always soft start.

Clockmans board arrived today, and it is up and running, load testing tomorrow with results hopefully if not too busy.

....oztules
Flinders Island...... Australia

Offline Antman

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 51
  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: testing the egs002 inverter board
« Reply #269 on: May 25, 2016, 06:32:19 am »
Keep up the updates Peter. I'm interested to see how it performs.

I threw together my latest boards yesterday and gave it a quick run. Runs well without any heat sinking at all at about 500 watts but heats up quickly as expected with my 1000W load. The PJ transformer isn't the best ratio which I thought would be the case. It cant hold the voltage at 240V when the input voltage is under 12 volts. it's specified at 230V primary 8V secondary. it should really be 230V to 7V. At 220V it holds fine but I am thinking of rewinding the primary to make it run properly at 240V.

When I get the time I will mount the heatsink and hook it up to a large battery bank for testing.