Aloha from a Solar Newbie in Hawaii

[jflorey2]

What does the motor do ?

Makes the car go.

Perhaps start a new thread on this?

[Mike90250]

This is off topic, but . . it's an EV. It has a battery, inverter and a motor; no alternator.

What does the motor do ?

[bcroe]

This is off topic, but . . it's an EV. It has a battery, inverter and a motor; no alternator.

Sorry, hard to imagine a car without an alternator. Bruce

[bcroe]

Hi All,

I just happened to have a chat to one of our guys who has a friend who is a electrical engineer/ solar sparky here in Adelaide, and he has been doing something similar with a radio guy here is South Australia, they are having big issues with interference caused by the panels and inverters and all the other stuff you need to make it work. I plan on giving this guy a call today to have a chat about it (its still early here) and hopefully might learn something that I can contribute to the discussion here.

Of course the interference will depend on the frequency/wavelength you are using to
communicate. RFI is going to originate in the efficient but noisy switching functions.
The straightforward, effective method is to build an RF tight shield around the offender,
then pass all access leads through feed through filters of proper rating to handle the
current. The filter should be mounted with input and output leads on the inside and
outside of the shield, with the metal case well attached to the shield.

The EMC filters are available in all sizes, with varying number of stages, those for
120VAC certainly are the cheapest and may be used for lessor power levels. You
might be able to make at least some of your own.

The shield must be RF tight, which means no opening more than 1/10 the length of
the shortest wavelength. A long slit at the door closing is not acceptable, will need
close spaced conducting fasteners (screws or contacts, I have even soldered shut)
to seal. My favorite is 1/2 inch hardware cloth, which is large hole screen but every
crossing point is soldered which guarantees the shield. In shielded room testing we
used an outer box around an inner box (room size) to get enough db shielding, but
this will probably not be necessary.

Someone is going to mention beads, really unlikely the few db they reduce will be
enough to do much good. Bruce Roe

[jflorey2]

AND, an alternator. Bruce Roe

This is off topic, but . . it's an EV. It has a battery, inverter and a motor; no alternator.

[solar pete]

Hi All,

I just happened to have a chat to one of our guys who has a friend who is a electrical engineer/ solar sparky here in Adelaide, and he has been doing something similar with a radio guy here is South Australia, they are having big issues with interference caused by the panels and inverters and all the other stuff you need to make it work. I plan on giving this guy a call today to have a chat about it (its still early here) and hopefully might learn something that I can contribute to the discussion here.

[bcroe]

Well, the car does come with the battery.

AND, an alternator. Bruce Roe

[jflorey2]

That was for the car only, correct? the battery lease would have been about $90 per month.

Well, the car does come with the battery.

[WH6FQE]

You are learning the very valuable lesson that often it costs far less to reduce your load needs than to buy the extra PV system capacity for your original loads. There may also be significant value in your slimmed down emergency operation being more movable than your original setup if local conditions deteriorate.

Well, I have another system installed in my van if I ever have to leave here. The only thing I don't have access to there is the cable internet and my aircraft transponder receiver, but I can only operate for 3 days in the van without recharging. Once I get this station completely figured out I will work on the van some more. The only service that I don't offer in the van is the Winlink RMS Gateway for HF and VHF, but if I can get the laptop system to work here at the house for that I can see about duplicating it in the van as well.

I am out of room on the roof of it for additional panels with the weather station, antennas and lighter up there already, so I am designing a trailer that will have more panels on it that I will tow behind me to augment the charging using a 4x8 cargo trailer that I have just sitting here not being used. I will have panels on the roof of it and frame awnings on the sides that will have panels on them that can raise up to match up with the roof. I am planning on using the same type of gas-assist system that a hatchback would use to lift the side panels up with. All of my equipment is stored in the van, so the trailer can be used to hold another larger battery bank as well as the panels.

I have been working on the design for the trailer for about a year, but it will be a while before I can get started on it.

[inetdog]

You are learning the very valuable lesson that often it costs far less to reduce your load needs than to buy the extra PV system capacity for your original loads. There may also be significant value in your slimmed down emergency operation being more movable than your original setup if local conditions deteriorate.

[WH6FQE]

Ok, I think I may have finally figured out how to lose my HP tower computer and switch everything over to a laptop instead. I tried using a Dell Lattitude computer, but it was dismally small and way too slow to work for my needs. Its comical 2GB RAM and 80GB hard drive were definitely not going to be a replacement for my Z400 Workstation, so I switched over to a Dell Inspiron with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive which I am already running on a 12-volt cigarette lighter plugin. I will swap out the plugin for Anderson Power Pole adapters just like all of my radios and emergency lighting is as I get everything ready to add it to the system permanently.

I ordered 3 refurbished 19" Jensen 12 volt TV's so that I am not wasting power or creating heat converting to the correct power for the LED monitors that I used on the tower computer. I also picked up 3 Diamond USB Display Adapters that will allow me to run the three monitors from the laptop USB ports. I can even go up to a maximum of 6 monitors if I need to in the future, but I highly see that being necessary.

Since I will be able to have 3 monitors on the laptop now, I can get by with using just the laptop during power outages and not have to have the MacPro and its 3 monitors on the battery bank. That alone will save me a fortune in solar parts, lol.

I also ordered the Kill A Watt and the AC/DC Digital Clamp Meter to start adding everything up with. One of the 24v to 12v DC/DC converters arrived today, the other one was back ordered and supposed to be here around April 2nd.

Even though they are not due for delivery until Thursday, both of the generators arrived on the island today. Hopefully, UPS will go ahead and deliver them on Monday. FedEx is normally the only one that will make me wait until the scheduled delivery date before they deliver items here.

I feel like a plan is slowly starting to come together.

[Ampster]

Side note - I was recently offered a Smart Car Fortwo for $6000. New. Given that the tax break is currently $7500 it would have been free - and the tax break would have paid for a few years of registration and insurance. I was very tempted; even if I never used it for actual driving it's an 18kwhr battery for free.

But the wife pointed out that it would have to take up even more space in the driveway.

That was for the car only, correct? the battery lease would have been about $90 per month. Still a great deal. I have leased two of them over the years when I lived in a small beach town. Great for parking in those tight spaces at the beach.

[WH6FQE]

There are no monitors that are advertised as 12V monitors. But I have 2 LCD monitors that run at 12V, 1 that runs at 15V (that will probably run OK at 12V) and 3 that run at 19V. And boost converters (12V to 19V) are cheap.

I found a bunch that are 15" and smaller, but I was able to find a couple that are closer to what I am looking for:

https://www.amazon.com/SuperSonic-Wi...gateway&sr=8-6

https://www.amazon.com/Free-Signal-T...ateway&sr=8-69

I may end up trying three of the SuperSonic 24". That is close to the same size that I am using now and works fine. The monitors I have now are 19-volt.

Mod Note: There was some delay while this post went through manual approval for viewing because of the links.

[jflorey2]

Maybe time to look into an EV.

Side note - I was recently offered a Smart Car Fortwo for $6000. New. Given that the tax break is currently $7500 it would have been free - and the tax break would have paid for a few years of registration and insurance. I was very tempted; even if I never used it for actual driving it's an 18kwhr battery for free.

But the wife pointed out that it would have to take up even more space in the driveway.

[jflorey2]

I thought PWM controllers caused interference as well.

They do. But they switch at most a few times per second, not 100,000 times a second. So the energy available to radiate is far lower. However you also lose a fair amount of power, so it's a tradeoff. If you can filter you are generally better off with MPPT.

That is something that has always puzzled me, you connect a computer to 110 volts so that it can power its internal 12 volt power supply which powers everything else. There should be an easy way of bypassing all of that wasteful conversion.

Well, it always requires conversion to get all the odd -12V +5V voltages. But yes, the less conversion the better.

I can't post links here, but google "250w DC-ATX 12v Mini Itx Power Supply" for an example.

I never even thought about the monitors, I was just searching online for 12-volt monitors, but not having a lot of luck besides little 10" things that are smaller than the laptop screen to begin with, lol.

There are no monitors that are advertised as 12V monitors. But I have 2 LCD monitors that run at 12V, 1 that runs at 15V (that will probably run OK at 12V) and 3 that run at 19V. And boost converters (12V to 19V) are cheap.

Yes, I am a ham radio operator, but I can't build a cheese sandwich without something going wrong with it, lol. I am much safer purchasing pre-made items than to try to build them myself. My hands are no longer steady enough to solder and the doctor refuses to stretch my arms out to make them longer so I can read easier, lol.

Well, if you need something simple built, and can accurately specify the goes-ins and goes-outs, let me know and I may be able to get it built for you. (In the name of emergency preparedness for the Big One.)