In-House Beta Testing Rosie, Barcelona, B17 & Hawke's Bay

Started by onanparts, October 26, 2021, 10:59:01 AM

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onanparts

This week Midnite begins serious Beta testing of a pair of Stacked Rosie's, a Barcelona, & a Hawke's Bay. Yesterday Robin twisted my arm and asked me if I was interested in doing some in-house Beta testing for Midnite? Hmmmm....let me think about that a sec...OK!

Real world Beta testing means all aspects: This includes installation from beginning to end. Mounting, programming etc. Just like you would at home or a job site. I'm going to be doing this with no manuals. Should be fun!

Where at? The Homeless Shelter of course! Big Batteries, 10kW solar array. Let's go! :)

Before beginning I had to "remove" of few brand X inverters and charge controllers. Schneider, Morningstar etc. and replace them with the new Midnite goodies. The Schneider XW is on the floor under a bench....a proper place for it..but Robin wants its back up elsewhere in the shelter....so in comparison it looks so lame I suppose. It does look lame! UWA, Ugly White Appliance!

OK, this is Mario and Patrick. A Rosie is visible on the bench, Barcelona out of frame. Both are wired up and running, but just laying there on a bench...not good! Let's fix that!

We go over the plan of attack, disconnect the 600V and 300V arrays, check. Disconnect all AC inputs, check. Now, pull all that junk off the wall...except the classic, not junk! But it comes down too and will be relocated. That Schneider XW? A Chiropractors dream! I briefly considered lifting it off the wall mount...NO! Spotted some twenty something kids outside the shelter and they both grunted hard while moving it from the wall to the floor!

I mention this because I required no help installing a pair of Rosie's, the Barcelona and HB. My back is fine today and no sore muscles! Rosie, 41 lb's, Barcelona 33 lb's, BB, Breaker box for Barcelona, 12 lb's and 8 lb's for the HB. :)

My chiropractor is MAD! Midnite put him out of business! Getting them all mounted to the wall went smooth. No yelling or cursing! Tomorrow everything gets wired back up and the Beta testing begins! Stay tuned!
I got the deluxe kit, it had a solar cell and a meter.

Midnite B17-10. 50kW Cont. 150kW Surge... Me/Myself/And/I

onanparts

#1
Let's hang some Midnite goodies! Two pics of it all mounted. Not sure which looks better so both posted. :) Breaker Boxes for the Rosie's will be installed tomorrow. Very Nice Looking! No confusion with mistaking these goodies for household appliances!!!

I got the deluxe kit, it had a solar cell and a meter.

Midnite B17-10. 50kW Cont. 150kW Surge... Me/Myself/And/I

Highflyer

Brian

The one thing is the one thing

onanparts

OK, long week! 3 days so far on the HSBP, Homeless Shelter Beta Project. The Rosie E panel castings did not show up yet. Ended up making a temp E-panel for them. The DC wiring is almost done. Pics shown here were taken before the 14 AWG "temp" PV HV wiring to the Barcelona was replaced with 8 AWG. The AC wiring shown was just for a quick check of the Rosie outputs. Proper conduit for the AC in/out wiring will be in place next week. :) Once Midnites electrician gives the green light/pass, on what I've done, then the actual testing begins!





I got the deluxe kit, it had a solar cell and a meter.

Midnite B17-10. 50kW Cont. 150kW Surge... Me/Myself/And/I

Robin

I think it is amuzing that both Andy and TJ learned the hard way what a 600V array feels like. Needless to say the homeless shelter isn't wired as the safest place in town. Then again I have never seen an engineer who hooked things up per code. I really like the exposed busbars that are energized with a 600V PV array! I suspect that will get changed by TJ next week. It is a good thing we don't usually have much sunlight here. It might have had a bad ending.
Robin Gudgel

onanparts

Quote from: Robin on October 31, 2021, 02:18:44 AM
I think it is amazing that both Andy and TJ learned the hard way what a 600V array feels like. Needless to say the homeless shelter isn't wired as the safest place in town. Then again I have never seen an engineer who hooked things up per code. I really like the exposed busbars that are energized with a 600V PV array! I suspect that will get changed by TJ next week. It is a good thing we don't usually have much sunlight here. It might have had a bad ending.

We actually both got "tickled" so it was the easy way...:) However, HVDC does need to be respected! Most of the DC wiring in the shelter "was" temporary before I started this project. Since the new Midnite Inverters/Charge Controllers are now installed in a more permanent fashion, all the wiring, AC & HVDC + LVDC are being replaced/updated.

Keep in mind folks the shelter is a "test bed" for engineering. It's always changing.

Robin, I did swap out the 600 VDC to insulated/covered busbars last week. But tomorrow I plan to mount a small baby box or similar with a 600V rated breaker at the test bench wall.

I got the deluxe kit, it had a solar cell and a meter.

Midnite B17-10. 50kW Cont. 150kW Surge... Me/Myself/And/I

boB


Yeah, TJ only felt a tingle with one hand and not TWO hands !

He's good to go.

K7IQ 🌛  He/She/Me

onanparts

Quote from: boB on October 31, 2021, 07:11:47 PM

Yeah, TJ only felt a tingle with one hand and not TWO hands !

He's good to go.

Yup! Just a tingle... :)

This Beta project is getting a little more involved...added a Beta B17 to the mix yesterday. Got sidetracked right after I mounted it to the wall. Tomorrow it gets wired up and maybe I can finish up the Rosie AC wiring....maybe. :) Then there is the B17-B battery box that needs to be built for the LiFeP04 battery modules..and get it mounted under the B17...then relocate the FLA battery box from Bldg 10 for the B17 over to the shelter. Testing will be done with both for now. AGM's added later to the mix. Did I mention this Beta testing was going to be a little bit "involved"? :)



I got the deluxe kit, it had a solar cell and a meter.

Midnite B17-10. 50kW Cont. 150kW Surge... Me/Myself/And/I

Highflyer

Brian

The one thing is the one thing

onanparts

Quote from: Highflyer on November 15, 2021, 11:05:46 PM
Any update?

Hi Brian,

Sorry, not much to update. Been busy up at Midnite on other projects so that's been cutting in to the Beta testing in the shelter. Yesterday I walked into the shelter to discover whats in this pic! ETL is at Midnite all this week for Barcelona testing. One test is loading 200 Lbs on a Barcelona for 1 minute to see if the wall mounting will hold....I had no idea weeks ago when I mounted it that anything or anyone would try to hang 200 Lbs from it!!!

Good that I do overkill when installing stuff! It held fine. The Barcelona in the engineering lab they are using is mounted too high up on a wall for the load test. Turns out Jeremy, Marios tech, weighs in at 220 Lbs! He had fun hanging around the Barcelona! Me nervous? Naw......:)



I got the deluxe kit, it had a solar cell and a meter.

Midnite B17-10. 50kW Cont. 150kW Surge... Me/Myself/And/I

onanparts

And here is a sneak peek at what will be a new thread called, Building My Beta at Midnite. I asked Robin if I could do a Beta Heathkit style? Sure! OK. :) Unlike a Heathkit, some of the Beta parts will be hand made by me, transformers, inductors etc. A big step up from just assembling a kit! A Rosie will be first I think. Then maybe a B17......maybe. Stay tuned!

Did Rosie transformer school last week with Patrick, Andy's tech. I'll be doing a video soon on how the wire is made up for the pre production units. Basically you take 12 spools of fine stranded transformer wire, run it through a guide and then braid it up via cordless drill! Then that is folded in half and gets braided up. Then 19 turns around the bobbin. The correct size mylar film is on order, so for now transformer tape is used between the windings and the copper foil. Short school day Friday and no time yesterday so this is as far as I got. Thursday I wrap the foil, then another winding and finish up a pair.

I got the deluxe kit, it had a solar cell and a meter.

Midnite B17-10. 50kW Cont. 150kW Surge... Me/Myself/And/I

Highflyer

So you are saying, everyone was hanging around.  Sounds rough :)
Brian

The one thing is the one thing