Tag Archives: control panel

Friday 12th December 2014 – AT 20:30 THIS EVENING …

… I was still outside working. And that’s something of a record, especially for winter when I usually knock off at 18:00.

The reason for this is that I’d finished my work on the front panel of the control board for the barn by 17:00 and as things can only be disconnected and disconnected when there’s no solar energy being received, I decided to attack it then and there.

It wasn’t easy either, helped by my losing everything that I needed, not finding what I was looking for, dropping everything else on the floor, finding that the holes in some of the terminals are the wrong size, finding that some of the cables that I cut aren’t long enough. And that was just for a start. There was much more as well.

Eventually, everything was installed and fitted, and most things seem to work. One or two things, however, aren’t doing what they should do, and I’ll have to have a closer look at them on Monday afternoon. But it’s been worth it all, and it’s really nice to have 12.8 volts in the barn late at night – this is an unusual experience.

Mind you, i’ll probably wake up tomorrow and find that the barn has burnt down.

Talking of waking up, I actually, much to my surprise, had a decent night’s sleep for a change especially as I had gone for an early night too. I slept right through until the alarm sounded at 07:30.

And I’d been on my travels too during the night. I was in a town near Lindau in Bavaria, and I’d met up with one of the women whom I’d met in Greece last year. She had found some rooms for us in a hotel in the town nearby, at €48:00, and although the hotel wasn’t too bad, she took me to see some hotels that she had rejected – at €18:00 per night – and these looked so much better than the one that we had reserved. I felt extremely disappointed about that, that was for sure.

While I was in my hotel room, I was trying to chat on the internet to a friend of mine but each time I switched on the chat program, it defaulted to one particular person, and that wasn’t the person with whom I wanted to chat. And I couldn’t remember how to switch back to the general chat so that I could see if the person with whom I wanted to speak was on line.

From there, I was wondering around and met a young woman with a child aged about 6 or 7. This woman had black curly hair, I remember, and she was planning on wearing a black dress and shoes to a dinner to which she had been invited. I suggested white tights too, and the little girl was all so enthusiastic.

All of this was so exciting that when the alarm went off, I turned it off and went straight back to sleep, and found myself exactly where I had been when the alarm had gone off. That’s not something that happens often.

But I really do wish that my life during the day is exciting as what goes on in my head during the night when I’m on my travels.

Thursday 11th December 2014 – I FINALLY BIT THE BULLET TODAY.

When the alarm went off this morning at 07:30, not only was I up and about already but I had even had my breakfast and drunk my coffee. Having had an early-ish night last night I was wide awake by 05:00 and by 06:30 I gave up on the idea and made my breakfast.

I was outside by 10:00 and the first job was the check the tyres on Caliburn. The right-hand rear tyre looked distinctly low.

solar energy power prtable control board kubota B1220 tractor les guis virlet puy de dome franceIt wasn’t, as it happened. It must have been an optical illusion. But nevertheless it gave me the opportunity to try out the portable power board that I built the other day.

Here it is wired up to the flying lead on the Kubota tractor and the air compressor ran quite nicely off that. All the four tyres are now at the correct pressure and I’ve even charged the tank on the air compressor.

As I said before, the idea of fitting the flying lead on the Kubota was an impressive decision.

After all of that, I fitted the inline fuse for the overcharge circuit on the power board in the barn – the fuse that I had forgotten and wbout which I spoke yesterday.

I also fitted an LED striplight in the barn so that it illuminates the power board – whenever the power board might be finished.

After lunch (and after a little snooze too) I fetched up a pile of wood for the fire for the next few days and then carried on with the front panel for the power board. Almost everything is now in place and I’ve even done some of the wiring on it.

However, I did manage to shear off a screw on one of the connectors on one of the data loggers so I had to work out how to dismantle that, remove the broken screw and then find another screw to replace it. And that didn’t take only 5 minutes either.

In other news, I had a friend from the North-East of England who mysteriously disappeared out of touch about three years or so ago, and I had no news at all. Anyway, all of a sudden, he’s reappeared, and that’s cheered me up.

I’m resisting the temptation to ask him where he’s been – if he wants me to know, he will tell me. Usually with my friends and associates, it’s one of three reasons –
1) – they’ve shuffled off this mortal coil (clearly not the case here)
2) – they’ve been removed to a place of safety in accordance with the provisions of the Mental Health Acts
3) – they’ve been sent down and detained at Her Majesty’s Pleasure – the more usual fate of my friends, although what pleasure Her Majesty could possibly have from detaining any of my friends is very hard to understand.

Friday 5th December 2014 – IT WASN’T QUITE AS EARLY …

… as last night. Still, being in bed by 23:30 is still something relatively unknown around here, as regular readers of this rubbish will realise.

And as you might expect, I was wide awake by 06:00 and if this carries on, I shall be emulating Rosemary in that I shall be making myself a coffee early in the morning and then going back to bed. And I forgot to say that Percy Penguin – she who doesn’t feature on these pages half as much as she deserves – put in an appearnce during the night, as I was on my travels in Cheshire.

First job after breakfast was to empty the compost bucket that I have up here. And then second job was to empty the beichstuhl – such are the delights of my living habits around here.

Once all of those were out of the way I carried on with the power board. This involved making up a flying lead so that I can connect all kinds of things to it – including the portable power board, if ever the need arises.

Once I had done that, I had to make some cables to connect the dump load. This le to a good half an hour looking for the negative 25mm cable.

And hereby hangs a tale. This cable only comes in blue and red, and I use only red and black for the 12-volt circuits. So you can see an immediate problem. However, I have learnt, by serendipity, that the red cable, if left out in the sunlight, fades to a nice dull yellow. I therefore have a couple,of lengths hanging upoutside quietly fading, but it took me ages to find the length that had already changed colour.

Eventually I found it, and so I could make up a red cable and a yellow cable for thr dump load. As you know, my sldering is rubbish but I have a crimping tool for fastening the big aliminium terminals that I use, and then I finish off with half a dozen turns with the vice.

Cecile rang up too for a chat,and she was on the phone for a good hour. Terry rang up too for a chat. It is nice to be popular.

After lunch, I made up a couple of cables for the big Studer inverter. But I’m not at all sure about this. I bought it years ago off eBay and it’s never been installed, although when I gave it a whirl a few years ago, I found that the capacitor was faulty and I had to send it away to be repaired.

The cables were not much problem, but fitting the inverter certainly was. You have no idea how heavy it is, and it’s hel on by screws through bolt holes, rather that cutaways, so you need at least four hands. After much binding in the marsh, I fitted a shelf onto the power board in the barn and put the inverter on that so that it was in the correct place – and then I could screw it up.

I remain unconvinced about its effectiveness and I might end up taking it off again.

I spent the rest of the evening looking for the keyswich that I put on one side on Sunday. This is actually a keyswitched battery isolator and I need that in my circuit so that I can disconnect the batteries without disrupting the system. I had it in my hand on Monday and put it safe where I knew that it wouldn’t be lost.

And I have another three somewhere too – and could I ‘eck as like find one of those either. But this is the story of my life, isn’t it? I spend more time looking for stuff than I do actually using it or fitting it.

Wednesday 3rd December 2014 – I WAS RIGHT …

… yesterday when I talked about this snow.

snow 2014 indespension plant trailer les guis virlet puy de dome franceThis morning there was about half an inch on the deck of the new Indespension trailer and other similar surfaces. There was also a layer on the leaves on the plants and so on, but it hadn’t stuck to the ground.

And as the day wore on, the snow gradually disappeared, washed away by the thin drizzle that fell throughout the day.

I’ve been working on the power board in the barn. I’ve found two melamine-covered chipboard planks that were part of an old cheap chest of drawers. They are 25cm wide and so, together, were about right for the 55cms that I need to cover the power board below where the charge controllers are. I’ve mounted them on 37mm laths so that they stand off the back part of the power board and the cables can pass behind.

I’ve invented a kind-of hinge set out of a couple of L-shaped joinery brackets, so that these smaller boards will drop down so that I can work on the cables behind if necessary, and the upper board is installed.

solar power renewable energy control board les guis virlet puy de dome franceAs for the lower board, that has the laths and the hinges, and I’ve also drilled 3x8mm holes in it. I then cut some 80mm lengths of 8mm threaded rod and passed them through the holes.

I’ve fitted some plastic pattresses front and back on each of the threaded rods. And if anyone wonders why it is that I have fitted the terminal connections within pattresses, then drop a spanner down the back of the power board with no pattresses and 660 amp-hours of batteries wired in, and see what happens.

solar power renewable energy control board les guis virlet puy de dome franceI bolted the rods firmly in place so that there is 25mm of threaded rod out of the back and about 35mm out of the front. Attached to the rear of the threaded rods will be connections for all of the electrical equipment that will be permanently in place, and in the front will be the more temporary types of electrical equipment.

Two of the lengths of threaded rod have been connected together with a negative battery cable, as I’ve found in the past that I need about twice as many negative connections than positive connections.

And why is this?

That’s because there’s a fuse box off a Vauxhall Astra wired into the positive circuit. I like these because they are easy to take off scrap cars, and have one thick lead in, four of the giant fuses, and four wires out. I have four 12-volt electrical circuits – an upstairs lights and upstairs power, and a downstairs light and downstairs power. These circuits feed off the fuse box of course, but each one needs to have the negative circuit connected to the power board individually.

So that’s as far as I have reached today. Tomorrow I’m out, and so I’ll crack on with the power board on Friday.

Tuesday 2nd December 2014 – REMEMBER THE OTHER DAY …

… when i said that I reckoned that winter was just around the corner?

1st snow winter 2014 les guis virlet puy de dome franceWell, I wasn’t wrong. At about midday today it started to snow – the 1st snow of winter 2014/15.

It might not look like much, but it snowed steadily throughout the afternoon and when I knocked off at 18:00 there was a think layer that was doing its best to stick. And had it been light, I would have taken a better photo of it.

I wonder what it’s going to be like tomorrow morning.

portable power board les guis virlet puy de dome franceI finished off the portable power board this morning. Well, it’s almost finished because it needs a backing on it to keep the cables and the backs of the sockets covered up.

There’s the inverter on there of course, a 600 watt one, together with an electric meter and a timer. Then we have three types of socket – a pair of 12-volt sockets, a single European 230 volt socket, and a pair of UK 230 volt sockets.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I use British plugs and sockets on my 230 volt system because the plugs are fused, and that’s a useful thing to have.

This afternoon, I started on the new power board in the barn down at the southern end.

The bad news is that I dropped my Ryobi Plus One handlamp and broke it. That’s a tragedy because it’s the best light that I’ve ever had and I shall miss it very much.

The good news is that the power board is up and in position. The Xantrex charge controller that works the bank of solar panels is installed, and that wasn’t as easy as it might have been. I forgot how rigid the ware was and it took me ages to bend it into position and thread it through the series of holes through which it needs to pass.

Threading the wires through for the wind turbine was easier, and that’s in place together with the meter that reads the voltage and the amount of charge.

There was an hour left and so I settled down to connect up the new batteries to the system.

And here’s a thing.

Which company sells batteries that take a certain size of bolt that is supplied, so you can look at it and know which size of battery cable to order – and then sells you a meter that works off a shunt connected to the negative lead between the battery and the grounding circuit – and which takes a larger bolt?

Of course, you can’t buy battery leads with different-sized terminals on each end, so tomorrow I’m going to have to cut one lead in half and solder larger terminals onto the cut end. And my soldering is rubbish too.

I have to say that I’m not at all impressed with this company

With the snow, I lit the fire again tonight and made a mega-aubergine-and-kidney-bean whatsit. There’s enough in there for four days as usual and tonight’s helping tasted really nice. Somehow, cooking in the oven tastes so much better.

Friday 21st August 2009 – YOU CAN SEE IN THIS PHOTO …

battery box control panel les guis virlet puy de dome france… why it is that I need to move the batteries. They are blocking up the front door. And if I’m going to start some kind of serious work inside, I need the front door off so that I can bring messy stuff in that way rather than in through my little room.

Today, I put a row of breeze blocks down on the concrete base that I laid yesterday. I can’t build it right up as just right now I don’t know how high the suspended floor is going to be. But tomorrow I’ll be putting a layer of 40mm polystyrene on the base and around the sides, and dropping 10 batteries (thats 920 amp-hours in total) in there.

I’ve also started building the control panel as you can see. There are three charge controllers on there right now. From right to left, we have the charge controller for the 2nd bank of solar panels (the one for the first bank is currently nailed to the front door and will be moved onto the control panel in early course), then in the centre is the charge controller for the wind turbine, and on the left is the charge controller for the overload.

In case you don’t know, when the batteries are fully-charged the charge controllers shut down the charging circuit. And that’s a waste of energy. So what I’m doing is having an overload controller that will divert the surplus current into a “dump load” – in this case a 12 volt water heater element. So that way I’ll have plenty of hot water.

There’s also a bus bar or two on there. These are for connecting loads of heavy duty wires and cables together. Bus bars range from sophisticated professional jobs down to flattened copper pipe and self-tapping screws, but for many years now I’ve been developing the “ring terminal onto long bolt with butterfly nut” and it works just fine, so there’s no reason to change.

There will be a few other things on there too, like a mains inverter, a couple of clocks, some circuit breakers, a fuse box and all that kind of thing. Here is one I made earlier, but that has undergone considerable … er … modification since then.

And what do you think about the wallpaper in the house? The house as you know is built of stone and they plastered over it on the inside, and then put up some wallpaper of … er … stone. Why didn’t they just knock the plaster off?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Claude’s son came round this afternoon. he’d been rummaging around in one of his dad’s many sheds and came across a trailer board.

Well, a sort-of trailer board. The lenses on the lights were smashed and all the cable was missing but I cleaned it up, cleaned all the contacts and rewired it, and now there is in theory a working trailer board. I say “in theory” because there are no bulbs either but I have a 12-volt piazzo tester and when I connected it up to the contacts for the bulbs it did what it was supposed to do at the time it was supposed to do it.

So all Pascal needs to do now is to buy some lenses (they are “standard trailer – small” and some bulbs, attach it properly to the rear of the caravan, and there you are.

I checked and adjusted the brakes on the caravan too and during the course of the evening I learnt that
1) The caravan is over 40 years old
2) Pascal has never towed a trailer (or indeed anything, for that matter) before.
All I can say is “good luck” to him, taking that over the “Cote de Maille” between Puy-en-Velay and Montelimar at night.