New Off Grid Inverter Charger

[Robin]

Rob Ruth took pictures of the first Hawke's Bay to leave the factory today before boxing it. I will ask him for some to put on the forum. He also wanted to take pictures of the Barcelona. It is really cool, but I wasn't quite ready with breakers and such. That won't take long though. The Rosie will also go up on the forum soon. I have pictures, but Rob's are so much better. We should be getting photos of the lithium battery module soon also. Waiting for the chrome plated side covers and plastic face plate. The photos I have seen of the side covers look more like nickel plating.........Gotta train the vendor and proper 1957 Buick grille plating.
We have not done any efficiency testing of the Hawke's Bay yet. Perhaps I can ask Mario and Lee to do that. Efficiency numbers are pretty meaningless though on charge controllers.
Efficiency number is at one point and no consideration given for tracking accuracy. Controllers do not operate at one point only. We did some interesting power graphs years ago on the Classic. Maybe we can revisit those and adapt them to the Hawke's Bay and Barcelona.
The B17 will have very good efficiency. Most of the time Mike does his testing with no heatsink! When he does have heatsinks installed, he does not use any forced air cooling on the bench. He is always testing just an individual module. The transistors and transformers are not too hot even with no air cooling, so that is encouraging.
Hawke's Bay will be about 80 amps for the sealed unit and 100 amps + on the vented one. Both have a 600V input.

[Highflyer]

Robin,
Thanks for the feedback,  What I was trying to ask was how much better these new devices are compared to older technologies out there.  I called it efficiencies, but obviously there is a better term to use.  So, to restate, can you give us an idea how much better these designs are over past designs?  No heatsinks and no fans is very impressive.  Also, seeing the output rating as high as it is means your team did better than expected!  Looking forward to seeing the pictures. 

It appears the wait will have be worth it, again!

Merry Christmas to all the elves!!  Here's to a great 2021!

[boB]

Merry Christmas HighFlyer !

Well, there are several cool things about the B17 in particular I think.  One biggie that I like but not too many talk about is that one person could install (lift) a whole 10s or kW system themselves because it is modular.  This is possible because the B17 (and Rosie) is a high frequency design.  No large and heavy transformers.   


Then there is the maintenance aspect where almost anybody can replace a power module if it breaks.  We're trying to make that better of course by making it not break in the first place 

 Not sure how big of a deal this is but the transfer time from grid to inverter should be instantaneous because the output has no relay.  Just the AC inputs.


The battery system is especially neat in this light-weight way too.  How many pounds does one of those  typical new Lithium battery system weigh ?  I can't lift them.  Each B17 1kW-Hour (or so) module is about 22 pounds.  Just plug it in (or unplug it)

The communications network is having a huge amount of work done to make it do a lot also.

It's so cool !  I know there is more

boB

[Robin]

I attached a few photos here. Not sure though now what all they are? I made a guess and will add more in the next post, so if I remember wrong which photos I attached, it will make sense in the next post. Hawke's Bay inductor test, lithium battery prototype, Lee in the Hawke's Bay test area with unit on the wall and I think a Rosie and E-Panel.
One big deal about the Hawke's Bay and Barcelona is that you can add a Sunspec transmitter, Arc fault detector and Ground fault detector in the field. They all plug into the controller in the wiring compartment. The Hawke's Bay vented will do at least 100 amps continuous. I am hoping it does 110? We may know this coming week depending on what all Mario has planned. I know he is testing the Barcelona and B17 MPPT this week also. Mario and Lee are very busy! The Barcelona is actually two Hawke's Bay units in one box. You can configure them as separate controllers or together as one giant unit. This allows you to have one South facing array and one West. or one Wind Turbine? We have not yet done any power testing of the Barcelona. That is scheduled for this week. I suspect it may get rated at 160 to180 amps out. The air cooling on the Barcelona is not as good as on the Hawke's Bay, but that may improve, so we just do not know the final output yet. It will be very powerful regardless.

[Robin]

The battery has changed a bit after we connected up all the voltage sense wires. It was very time consuming, so Scott and BobQ designed a flex strip. We should be getting that in this week.
The three Hawke's Bays in the previous post are three of the four beta units we shipped out to MidNite beta testers in Missouri, Florida and Maine.
The empty facility was to be Rosie and B17 module production, but we just acquired a larger facility right behind our building 6. The new facility will have a double decker conveyor assembly line 120 feet long. Then another separate line for the battery assembly. Communication between the battery system and our inverters will be seamless. All Canbus and all automatic. We plan on working with other batteries that have communications also, but ours should truly be seamless. Our battery system is capable of working with other inverters too, but it is not going to be cheap. There is a 25% tariff on lithium sells coming from China, but only 7.5% on a completed battery. Now what sense does that make?
One thing we can do with the battery module is to keep them working at cold temperatures. We have plans to have them self heat if approaching freezing temperatures. That is not a common feature among lithium batteries.
When the battery assembly is in full swing, we will be going through 1 million cells a year. That number is staggering.
Should be fun!

[Robin]

I attached a preliminary brochure for the Hawke's Bay and also a poster of all our breakers now and next year. Breakers are getting very confusing to say the least, so we made this poster to help sort things out. I hope I got the most current?

[Robin]

Nope, got the wrong version. Here is the real poster.

[Vic]

Hi Robin,

Thank you very much for all of the Updates on the progress there.

Congratulations on ALL of that progress.   It is truly very exciting.

Looks like a lotta work,  but often this is a very rewarding time to be in R&D.

Great work,   we all have been patiently waiting.  With MidNite products,  the wait is always worth it.

Thank you and the MidNite staff for so many truly visionary,  and incredibly functional products.   Hats off to you all.

Best wishes for the holidays.   Hope that you can take a bit of time to enjoy all that youze folks have gotten done,  and are finishing.

Am very interested in the Hawkes Bay and Barcelona CCs,  NOW.

Have fun!  Thanks to you all.    Best wishes for an even better 2021!   Vic

[Highflyer]

Happy New Year to all the great people of Midnite!

Robin, thanks for the pictures.  It is interesting to see the bench testing and how it is setup. 

I do like the look of the breaker boxes, and how they match Rosie and Hawk's bay.  Very classy look.

The next thing I will be waiting for is beta testing and release dates.  I am putting up a Chinook and a second set of panels just to have fun with.  If the numbers workout right, I should be able to power my over winter Tilapia setup without issue.  During the summer months, I see air conditioning in the barn in my future! 

[Robin]

We may have a few early beta Hawke's Bay units available soon. They are not the finished product by any means, but they may just work out well here for some good feedback. Well good if they work?
Robin

[Robin]

So, I am waiting for Mario to get us a couple of units with code that is worthy of sending out to High Flyer and Vic. I do not expect this to take too long. We will have to jury rig the breakers though as we do not have any breaker enclosures to spare.
Please e-mail me your contact info to: robin@midnitesolar.com
Thanks,
Robin

[Highflyer]

Both happy and humbled.

Email sent!

Can't wait to play with new Midnite stuff!

[Fort Wisers]

Wow, now that's a nice looking product!
Keep up the good work Midnite......
Brent