AUX 1 AUX2 and Whizbang Jr

[Colin Jordans]

Hi Colin  Here
I live in Quorn South Australia with my own Standalone Solar system and been working great now  for 6 years .
In my system is 2 Magnum Energy inverter 4.3kw each  230v at 48v  with there own monitoring system running off a 660 amph BAE battery 
All so 3 off 60amp  Morningstar mppt controllers 2 off 150v and 1 off 600v controllers .
About 4 years  ago purchased a 2Kw wind turbine from OZ Wind here in Australia the guy bragged about  how much torque his 3.2m blades gave that if I put on bigger blades  it would bun out the turbine .  No Hope in Hell that would happen
With his blades I get in 10mph winds between 150w to 300w and at 20mph +  between 1kw and 1.5kw  on the down side we get very little wind  of that speed. 
I did try to get it to work with Outback 4kw mppt solar controller but the blades was too small aloud the controller to go to sleep all the time in the end it was too much trouble so I went back to a PWM Morningstar controller which made it usable
The manufacturer Whispering Wind of the 2kw wind turbine has 5.5m blades and at 10mph 1kw and 2kw at 20mph
I'm  planing  to get new blades.  6off  650mm of shaft with 3m GE222 aluminium  blades to help with the torque of the blades I have all ready modified the tail to close and open  automatically  by wind speed and voltages
I have just got my self a new Midnite Classic 250 for my wind turbine  Quite existed about it beaning able to program a wind power graft
But my QUESTION is off AUX 1 and AUX 2  .  On AUX 2 it has the pwm mode for Hi volt in mode to control the input voltage from the turbine to the DUMP and the Whizbang Jr wont's to connect to AUX 2 as well so is it possible to connect the Whizbang Jr  to AUX 1 in stead  any hwlp on this matter would be Grateful .
Thanks
Colin Jordans       

[ClassicCrazy]

The Whizbang only works on Aux 2 and you then can't use that for anything else.

Larry

[boB]

Yes, that is a compromise with the Aux 1 and 2 ports.

However, Aux 1 can drive a dump load to keep the turbine from over voltaging the Classic or over spinning when the battery gets full.

What you lose with Aux 1 is a higher frequency PWM signal that might work better for turbine clipping.

[Colin Jordans]

Hi Larry and  Bob
Thanks for the reply and the info . That sux about AUX2  So probblery ILL try AUX 1  with the Whizbang Jr for now ? And then  maybe down the track with the new blades upgrade I will connect 2 Midnite Classic 250 to the turbie and then run the Whizbang Jr. off the second controller .
Thanks for the info Guys
Colin

[qrper]

Wondering from the photo, are those nickel iron batteries or flood cell lead acid?

mike

[mike90045]

I particularly like the screwdriver laying across the cables

[Colin Jordans]

Hi Mike
Year   I should have used  a more later photo where everything  was finished 
The batteries are 660Ah  BAE  Lead Acid (VRLA-GEL) when the time to replace them I do plan to use Nickel Iron batteries
Do you use them . I don't Know off any one in Australia  that's using them , do the perform well
The solar panels Im using are Hanover HS250P
Thanks Colin

[mike90045]

.... when the time to replace them I do plan to use Nickel Iron batteries
Do you use them . I don't Know off any one in Australia  that's using them , do the perform well ........

Mine have been great since Oct 2011, and a refresh in 2018.

They do need at least 10% more power for recharging, they are less efficient, and consume more water than FLA



http://tinyurl.com/LMR-NiFe-Install

and refresh:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/Lucky-Monkeys-Ranch-120212794718849/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2113125788760863

[Colin Jordans]

Thanks Mike
That was cool, good info and great pitchers of your install
Hopping my batteries will last a while yet  because a bank of 1200ah Nickel Iron  here in oz is $38,000
Have a good day
Thanks Colin

[mike90045]

I've found, if you don't need a lot  of cold weather capacity, you can use a smaller bank, because deep discharge does not hurt the batteries.  I thought I'd have more issues with their high impedance, but it's not been a problem.

[boB]

Nice installation, Colin !

Why the extra fan on the Morningstar heat sink ?  What is it being used for and how much power does it process approximately ?

Saw the nice folks from MS last week at the SPI show in Salt Lake City.  They are good folks.

[Colin Jordans]

Good Day Mike and Bob
Year Mike the the Nickel Iron batteries are the way to go .  I only wished I know about them when I first installed the system , I wouldn't have to replace them in another 5 to 8 years .  Hopefully  when I finish my wind turbine it will be 8 or more years before replacing them .

Hi Bob the reason for the computer fan on the 600v Morningstar gets a error when the ambient air temp get above 45 degrees and our summers can be over  50c degrees in the ambient air temp, we have had 57.5c degrees last summer apart from that Morningstar controllers are  quite robust unites ,  up in the right corner of wall  i've got   a  18 inch 12v fan used for cooling, it's  form a  radiator and I  use it to pull the hot air out my power room, so the 2 fans are powered by 2off 120w by 12v solar panels on the roof and only works when the sun shines witch seem to works  well
Cheers 
   

[Colin Jordans]

Hi Guys
Just a bit of a up date on my Midnite Classic 250
After waiting just  over 4 weeks for my Classic from OutBack Marine .
I'm  Over all really happy with my Classic the way it wakes up  when it detects the wind and it performs well  .  Not enough  wind  yet to be sure but it seems to be generating  twice the power as using it on a PWM Morningstar TS 60amp   on these  little blades of the turbine . The wind Graph in your program on the PC  and the program itself to set up  is excellent and to set up aux 1 and 2 excellent to set up with all the different  ways to use aux 1 and 2 .   But the only let down is the Aux 1 and 2,  the relay them self  are so delicate to touch and insert wires , I find this difficult and not user friendly  . It operated the solid state relay once but then wouldn't operate any more  on auto in high winds, it was in pv high mode .
The 200 milliamps power supply and the 1 amp for the relay it self should be fine  .    The  solid state relay I used by all accounts on AUX 1 it should have handled it easily at 15mA to 20mA current drage from the solid state relay  I was quite excited about it . I only used telephone  cable to connect to AUX 1, I double checked the polarity from aux 1 to the relay before firing up, all okay but no luck ,  I put back the jumpers and tried a separate 12v power supply but still no luck  . I ended up using my old  voltage control relay LMCVR-20V 24-230VAC/DC for the solid state relay which works quite fine but not like yours .   I didn't try AUX 2 because I am still going too try the WhizBang Jr on it.
But I'm still very Happy with  my midnite Classic .

But I do have a question about the WhizBang Jr . Can it be used on a Magnum Energy ME-BMK Battery Monitor system . Using the same type of shunt. The Magnum is a 500amp 50mv  Deltec , which I believe is what a WhizBang Jr uses . Will any side effect happen to the Magnum BMK system .
Like loss of accuracy to the Magnum BKM system if the WhizBang Jr is connected too it to .  The next question is  can you add a extra 1.5m off similar cable to the WhizBang Jr  to make it longer  with no loss to it ?

I do have a wish list    You know that Raspberry pi that you Guys have been talking about.
I had a look at what could be done with them like adding relays to it and a wifi receiver frequency  like for PanTech Weather Station 433mhz and 868.0-868.6MHz frequency band for Davis Weather station
And If you could get one of the  Raspberry Pi   to connected by USB to the Midnite Classic and controlled by the Classic program  you could add up to 16 relay and the weather stations to be controlled all by the Classic .
And Say three of the relays to be controlled  by three different  wind speed to close a tail on a wind turbine and the others relay for all types of load control even a couple of them could be   PWM solid state relay for load control  all by the Classic  .
It would be a Wicked tool to the Midnite tool box
Thanks Guys
   

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System
48v Magnum Inverter 4300w MS-PE Series Pure Sine wave 230v 50hz  2 off  stacked 8.6kw
BAE  PVV Solar Batteries { VRLA-GEL } 2v 660ah   at 48v
MorningStar MPPT TriStar 150v 60a   48v  2off
6kw of Hanover Solar HS250M 250w Voc37.9v , Vnpp 30.5v , 8.19a ,     3 gropes off 4 at 113.5v each  for 3kw  2off
MorningStar MPPT TriStar 600v 60a   48v 1off
1.7kw  190w  solar panels  Voc 37.5v 9off 337.5v  6.3a
Whispering  Wind turbine 2kw  with a 4kw dump
Midnite Classic 250  for the wind turbine

[ClassicCrazy]

Colin ,
Not sure if it would work for you but I have a friend who uses an SDR receiver to decode weather station signals directly - forget which model he is using. Maybe that would work on Raspberry Pi  - something else for you to check into. But if you have a Davis Weather station the Weewx program running on a Pi will support that.

To get the modbus control of Classic you need to either use the IP or serial output of the Classic . Keep in mind only one IP program will connect at a time on Classic - so if you use Local Status App you can't have another one running on it until you turn Local Status off.

Larry

[boB]

Yes, the WB Jr. can be used along with the Magnum BMK.

You will need a standoff or something to mount them both but it's done quite a bit.

You might give our techs a call and ask ?  We might have a specification for screws and standoffs ?

It's been a long time since I've looked into this but I do know it works.