Beta KIDs

[chris]

  Sounds good Robin 

  With a small fan, would we potentially be able to go past the 30 amp mark?

[tecnodave]

Robin,

I am pretty sure that it was the record heat coupled with excessive loading complicated the experimenting with modes. It never happened before but I did not know that legacy P&O was not fully implemented yet. I will stay from that mode for now. Kidd is back to stable again. As a further test I jumper end it to a different battery to load the Kidd but it is behaving very well now. 8:30 pm 76 degrees F room temp.       In c. Air temp 24 c ,  CPU 29 c ,  FET's. 27 c Kidd resting

td

Edit. I forgot to install the back cover on my Kidd when I installed it so I may be messing with the thermals on the Kidd but I would think that would be able to get rid of heat better.

[dgd]

tecno,

I also had no back on my KID . I took it off so that when I 3D printed a new mounting plate which included 40mm chunky CPU fan, there would be good air flow into the circuit board.
I found this necessary as the temps were getting way too high when ambient was over 30c.
I separately powered the fan but it would have been nice to have an AUX control to do this.
BTW the KID serial number was written on a label on the inside of the back cover.

I hope Mario will not use up the existing AUX to do this in his improved design, it would be nice if more than one AUX was available and at least one of them implemented PWM output.
Just realised that the existing AUX is used up with the WBjr so it will be intersting to see how the fan is controlled.
Also the 40A outmax would be nice in a fanned KID 

dgd

[tecnodave]

Robin and Mario,

My kid is still locking up with only the blue backlight on, not responsive to key press or any input except power cycling. Yesterday was the last day of our mini heat wave and it was locked at about 7:00 PDT.  Power cycling brought kid back to life. This morning same locked blue nitelite. Power cycle restores normal operation.

td

[Mario]

Tecnodave,
I am sorry about the kid not behaving right, I am working on fixing this since you are not the only person with this problem.
Can you provide me with as much information as possible about the system?
What is your Battery Voltage?
What is your Input voltage?
Do you have the load enabled?
Does it only happens at night time?
Do you have the PV and Battery Negative Isolated?

Have you seen it as it happens? what is the kid doing right before the screen goes blank?

Anyone else with the same problem is welcomed to feed me as much info as possible, so we can fix this problem.

Thanks,
Mario

[tecnodave]

Mario,

The kid is is on a separate system which has very light duty, all my heavy loads are on main system.

Main system:  Classic 150 with 1600 watts PV input, L-16 batteries, 24 volt, 380 a.h. ,Exectech Inverter XP1100 , Cotek Inverter SK-1500 , Samlex DC-DC converter 24v-12v
System not grounded on DC side

Loads : Exeltech : small kitchen appliances, Cotek : power tools only, Samlex : Electronics
Lighting all led with own PWM controllers

Kid System.     Beta kid, 330 watts PV 6 ea. Siemens SM-55 mono wired in 3 strings of 2 ea. v@pmax 34.4 batteries group 27 deep cycle, 110 a.h.
System grounded

Loads: 12 to 30 watt steady state, burglar , smoke , carbon monoxide , Unburned hydrocarbon alarms, emergency standby led lighting, auto stereo. No heavy loads!

Separate negative wires on PV side from batt. Side. (No connection)

Total isolation between 24 volt system and 12 volt kid system

Mode is normally solar but I was experimenting with Legacy O&P


<battery>. absorb 14.6 v. 120 min., flt. 13.5 v. , eq. 15.3 v. 120min.
<Load> : battery , Function:manual , off
<Input> : solar , on
<Aux> : function : WBJR , off
<Misc> LCD , adjust up/down , Bakelite , contrast.       Cannot be changed
            temp. CPU 33c. FET 31c. Batt. N.C.
            Led  , #BCM , Rick , OFF.         cannot be changed
<comm> parallel mode , bully,  follow me.    Pressing bully , enter gives no response but pressing follow me , enter jumps you to battery set points absorb 14.6 >  and further into the battery menu ??
<tech> factory calibration reset. , have not changed values

Current status : float , 13.6 volts batt , amps out varying very rapidly from 1.2 amps to 2.5 amps changing very rapidly  watts 21-26 changing very rapidly. Input 37.0 to 37.2 changing very rapidly


I started this problem by changing modes on a very hot day with very good steady sun exposure. I repeatedly changed between solar , legacy P&O , and solar 2 O&P and logged results to find the best mode. After three or so runs through the modes the current oscillations began, this behavior had not been seen before, the output current was always steady changing only the least significant digit unless there was variation in solar isonation. This oscillation was so rapid that the digits on kid were a blur.
I observed this on two different scopes , a B&K 60 MHz dual trace, then on a Tectronics 2465A 4 channel dual time base 350 MHz analog scope using both voltage and current inputs through a Hall effect current sensor.  The oscillation is very cyclic.  That evening I checked the cc,s and found the kid with a blue screen and no characters at all, not blurred characters as I saw in another post, no response to any key press or removing PV input. Only turning off battery breaker reset the kid. It's late so no solar input, kid is left on and is in resting mode. Display is always left on. Next morning blank blue screen again and no response from key press. Turned power off then back on kid reset and went to bulk MPPT at about 220 watts . Record hot day   Suffered heat stroke so ignored kid rest of day. At 7:00 pm back to blue screen reset again, kid resting.   Next A.M. blue screen. Reset again
Current status : in use , float , 13.6 v. Amps jumping rapidly from 1.1 to 2.5  load on system 1.8 amps.

I am removing the kid from system today for a thorough inspection. I do have several other controllers that will get me through this.

td

[dapdan]

Midnite,

I am reporting that the blue screen of death is back. I am now charging 18v and it lock up on the blue screen at night.

Damani

[ZoNiE]

Ohhh... New guy here.  I just saw this thread. Any more beta units still available?

[Free Energy Freak]

Ohhh... New guy here.  I just saw this thread. Any more beta units still available?

I may be wrong. But, considering Kids are now available on the open market, I imagine they have all long since been gone. They were a heck of a deal, though.

[ZoNiE]

yeah, figured that out.