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Rebuilding my Solar Power System after 3 years Storage
eidolon:
I have a couple of flush mount ceiling LED lights that work off those same boost converters. The commercial lamps are so cheap now. I just rip out their inverter and put one of these in. They normally work on 41V, but are more than bright enough at what these put out.
I just got a small stereo that has a 120V wall wart like converter built in. At 50V panel power it will run. It does take about 15 seconds before it will start up. Need to change that 2 meg startup resistor to 100K.
dochubert:
Hey Wooferhound!
How goes the battery charging?
You probably have it humming along by now.
Anyway, best wishes on your system's success!
WooferHound:
--- Quote from: dochubert on August 08, 2019, 08:12:16 pm ---Hey Wooferhound!
How goes the battery charging?
You probably have it humming along by now.
--- End quote ---
I have been feeling a bit slow lately and lost a lot of energy and motivation, to the point that I didn't want to do anything. Not sure about what my problem is, maybe Thyroid or High Blood Pressure. Well that is over now and I'm feeling more pushed to get things accomplished.
But old age is catching up to me. I'm 62 years old and and my ankles, knees and hips are starting to go. I was riding my bicycle almost exclusively for the last couple of years, but last month I bought a small cargo van that was built to be a Postal Delivery vehicle. The bike doesn't get much use now and I'm starting to gain a little weight. One thing that I noticed was that I never got sick during the time that I was riding.
So what I'm trying to say is that I haven't done anything to my Solar Power system since I finished converting everything to run on the odd 21 volt battery bank. But the outdoor temperatures are sometimes going below 90F - 32C degrees and I'm feeling better so it's time to Get Back To It !
The the 5S 9P Lithium battery bank has been only charging to a max of about 19 volts over the high Sun Summer months. The Solar panels have been set to the Spring/Fall Solstice angle which is coming up soon on September 23rd 2019, so the Sun angle will be great for a coupla months. It has been working better too. In the last week I have seen it charge up to 19.5 frequently and over 20 volts a few times. This is plenty of power for my small hobby system since I rarely use more than 1 amp load for over 10 hours.
Now I am a little bit concerned cause it is working better. It was working so poorly that I never bothered to add a charge controller, but there is battery Overcharge Protection which will disconnect the battery if any cell goes above 4.25 volts. If that happens then the system will jump up to the 42 volt Solar Panel voltage which is more than any of the Buck Converters are rated for.
WooferHound:
Well Well . . .
It has been a clear cloudless sunny day and I am getting a 20.6 volt (4.1v per cell) reading on the battery bank. The battery monitor shows 100% charge with a 70mv difference in cell charge.
Will be drinking beer tonight and checking out how much power that I can store now.
WooferHound:
I figured out that I just need a second Charge/Discharge Protection board, also does balance.
Will charge the Battery bank through one protection board which will use the Overcharge protection and cutoff the panels when charged.
And discharge through the second protection board which will use the discharge protection and cutoff the batteries when discharged.
Ordered a second identical protection board as the on I'm currently using which should control everything properly.
Plus they both do Balancing, so the single board 60ma balancing will double to a more appropriate 120ma balancing current with both protection boards.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/5S-20A-w-Balance-Li-ion-Lithium-18650-Battery-Charger-BMS-Protection-PCB-Board/264077586312?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649
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