The KID Fan Club thread

[Halfcrazy]

So What I was hoping is all the proud new parents could post pictures and testimonials here on there KID. We will try to reward all of you for this with some token of our apreciation. Not sure what that may be but I have some ideas 

Ryan

[Halfcrazy]

Here is my parallel set up with 3Kw of PV on 2 Kids. You will notice the spare control boards from the Classic being used as data loggers.

[Westbranch]

OK,OK,OK.... so I see 6 shunts with Whizbangs and 3 CCs , one Clasic having a non used MNGP,( it looks  like the power comes into the Classic) and then the 2 Kids...

Ryan, now that you have taunted us can you explain a bit??

[TomW]

I have my Marine Kid fed from my formerly direct connected ancient 4X Siemans SP75 Nominal 12 volt array pushing about 63 volts into the Kid and have seen 300+ watts from a nominal 300 watt array. Deep cold, crystal clear skies with snow cover. Those need your welding helmet to see outside days. I intend to use The Kid on a electric cart I am building to run around the compound here. It will have a "roof" of solar panels to keep it going without plugging it in.

Here it is on my rather ugly equipment wall:



This is a shot of the Kid, a PSX-240 Autotransformer and the MN BabyBox I used to wire the panels to The Kid and The Kid to the battery. My system has grown in place and needs some major neatening up. At least I am properly fusing things these days..  :



Very happy with it so far. Well built, well packed for shipping and works as expected. The drag and drop firmware upgrade was dead simple. No drivers, no application to install, just connect the USB, put The Kid in upgrade mode and when the "folder" appears on the desktop, drag the firmware file onto it and The Kid just does it.

Anyway, a very nice unit and will be thinking of grabbing another to replace the BZMPPT500 I have on a 520 watt Kyocera array.

As with anything there were a couple little things I would try to "fix". I found the 2 fitting bores in the case seem too tight to attach 2X nutted connectors. I used one snap in and one nutted connector and it was very tight to twist the nutted connector tight from the outside and pretty impossible to get at it on the inside as well. No biggy and considering the way the parts are shoehorned in there probably acceptable. The rubber plug for the USB port on the Marine unit needs to be installed before you mount it to the bracket so would need to remove it from the bracket to uncork the hole and jack in the USB cable, another minor issue. The plastic fuse covers could be a bit more weather tight on the Marine unit but seem fine for indoor.  Until the firmware catches up the LEDs only seem to indicate "float".

So there you have it, my review of the Beta Marine Kid #27 I got. Overall, I give it an A- and the - is only because of minor issues.

Tom

[Halfcrazy]

OK,OK,OK.... so I see 6 shunts with Whizbangs and 3 CCs , one Clasic having a non used MNGP,( it looks  like the power comes into the Classic) and then the 2 Kids...

Ryan, now that you have taunted us can you explain a bit??

The "Box" if you will contains 6 control boards, 6 shunts and 6 WBjrs. It is designed to data log PV volts, PV amps, Battery volts and Battery amps on 3 separate controllers from 3 identical arrays. So for now I have the Kids running through channel 1 and 2.

[Westbranch]

Tks, 
Q: are the 2 shunts on the right side operational?  I only see one grey wire connected to each, and 1 loose grey wire..?

[Halfcrazy]

No channel 3 is not in use just yet. I have to redo the PV array and then I can start some head to head. Kid vs Classic and others comparison

[Vic]

Initial run of Kid Beta #53.

A very slick compact,  capable box,  that will get better and better!
Thanks MidNite for the opportunity.

   Vic

[Westbranch]

Hi Vic, I have had a similar problem, solved it (?) by reducing the original by 50% at a time till the forum software would accept it , usually at or less than 25% of original.  don't remember the original size though.

[Vic]

Fixed now.

Wb,   Yea,  some cockpit error ...   saved a 99 Kb image,  and somehow it resulted in a 5 Kb file ...   The Forum SW says that 400 Kb is the max file size,  which is plenty.  Back to work,    Thanks,   Vic

[dapdan]

Ok fans,

Here is my submission. Big brother and little brother aka the kid. Finally got the beta kid #18. He sure is a handsome fellow.

Cheers...
Damani

[Highflyer]

Hello form East Texas!!

I got my first Kid a couple weeks ago and I am working hard to get it into action!!  I have been very interested in the Kid ever since Robin let it out of the bag that the Kid was more than just an idea.  I must say that I am not disappointed at all!!!  What a nice piece of engineering and the software is getting better all the time.  I doft my chapeau, to the entire team, Rock solid work!!

I'll post pictures as soon as I can.  My utilization is going to be outside near my ponds supporting aeration, lighting and other functions.  The enclosure will have forced air cooling when needed.  I expect to fly my solar panels using a dual axis tracker by the end of spring, but for now a fixed ground setup is all I have for the panels.

I also plan on a RaspberryPI setup for support functions.

[dgd]

KID fits nicely between Classic and MNDC box, from where it gets its PV input.
Power wall after a hide all wires redesign around a gutter type galv/steel electrical conduit. Since I installed this mid last year the RF noise emanating  from this room has very significantly reduced. Just a couple of stray wires, earths, still needing rerouting. Wall needs a fresh coat of white paint too 
dgd

[Kent3]

Just completed install of my Kid and so far the results look very good even with overcast clouds. I like all the possibilities the Kid has available. Currently using a 12 v battery bank but when it gets warmer I will be changing to a 24v system. Also is there any software available to access data in the Kid?
Kent

[ClassicCrazy]

Just completed install of my Kid and so far the results look very good even with overcast clouds. I like all the possibilities the Kid has available. Currently using a 12 v battery bank but when it gets warmer I will be changing to a 24v system. Also is there any software available to access data in the Kid?
Kent

Nope - no monitoring  software for the Kid . So far the only computer communication is for doing firmware updates. It has been said that in the future there is a chance the Kid could have some sort of serial output but nothing at this time.