Classic Mini, or Mini Classic

[cpm]

Do I remember some noise from last year about a mini classic, or classic mini, something
in the same range as the MorningStar SunSaver MPPT?

I make pretty good use of these controllers, but I'd sure like to get something
better.

[cpm]

Did I make this up (again)?

Am I nutz?

[keyturbocars]

I haven't heard or read anything about that, but I know that Midnite is working on a lot of different projects, so I suppose it's possible.

Edward

[Halfcrazy]

There are 2 products we are working on one is a small mppt controller 25 amps 100 volts in and will charge up to a 48 volt battery and there is also a small classic/clipper that was under development but I am not sure where the second one is going? I will try to get a time line on the first one.

[cpm]

I did make this up.

The product I was thinking of is the MyTie;

a small inverter, 250-500 watt range.

Which would also be really useful.

Thanks for the responses.

And I would dearly welcome a smaller MPPT controller. Oh my, yes.

[Robin]

Mario is working on a small controller fondly named "The Kid". Mario is the youngest member of our engineering group. (We now have ten engineers). Mario is about done with a schematic for the Kit. There may be a few different versions of it. I do not want to let the cat out of the bag until we see if we can actually do all that is planned. Everything works on paper, right? The Kid is going to be designed to meet a price point. MPPT's are very difficult to make cheap! They just require a ton of parts, so Mario has his work cut out for him. Suffice it to say that if we can pull off what we are planning, it will be huge. One big advantage we have is being able to do all the SMT and thru hole circuit board assembly in house.
The "Army Wind controller is alive and well. This is part of a project for the Army in conjunction with Pine Ridge Products in Montana and APRS World in Wisconsin. Logan and Jenni Bryce of Pine Ridge make the Chinook turbine too, but this project uses a new light weight tactical turbine. It can actually be back packed into the war zone or mounted to a HumVee. Our controller is about the size of the Classic, but is limited to 12/24V. It will be about 500 watts and has a built in Clipper. No additional loads are required. No dans either. The circuit boards are almost ready to be ordered. The hardware (boards, castings etc) is almost done, but we will need another engineer to finish the computer code. That engineer will be hired once the Army comes through with more money.
The MyTie is also alive and well. It will be around 500 watts. It is not just your typical Enphase. That would be too easy.

[Volvo Farmer]

(We now have ten engineers).

OMG Robin, that has to be about as much fun as having ten cooks in one kitchen. My sincerest condolences!

[cpm]

(We now have ten engineers).

OMG Robin, that has to be about as much fun as having ten cooks in one kitchen. My sincerest condolences!

Lol!

+5

[Westbranch]

BUMP..

Robin, any progress on The Kid?

[ibeweagle]

would also like to see a MyTie Classic for different flavors of grid voltages 120 240 208 vac 60 hz and of course mybe someting like MyTieClassic 150,200,250 for windturbines with no battieries Cheers Mike

[Robin]

Mario is hard at work on the "Kid" I suspect we will be field testing late this summer. Mario is having a ball doing the code for the Kid. It uses a different processor than Bob used, so everything has to be done from scratch. One of the coolest features of the Kid is that it has the same keypad as the Classic. The LCD display is not graphical, it will be able to do a lot of stuff. We are not sure yet if we will be able to do all we are hoping for? We will definately have a load circuit that can be configured as a Clipper for small wind turbines too.
As for the batteryless version of the MyTie inverter...... count on it. There will be three MyTie inverters in all. They will all work together either in grid tie mode or as an AC coupled battery back up grid tie/offgrid system. This is a very big project and will take some time. We just ordered the first in house circuit board for the solar version. We had an out of house engineering firm working on the project for 2.5 years. We finally had to take it in house and are putting all the time into it that is available. I wish we had a couple more engineers. Cool projects are easy to come up with. Engineers aren't. We do have the best I have ener worked with though, so stay tuned for some great stuff.

[Westbranch]

thanks for the update Robin.   Not after specifics at this time but can you indicate what the planned differences are between the 3 inverters are?

[Robin]

All about 500 watts.
1 solar
2 Wind
3 battery based grid tie with AC coupling and stackable.

[niel]

this is almost like sitting back as a kid and watching them put in a new toy store right next to the candy store they already have.

[nigel]

Bump

Any updates, pictures ? On any of the new stuff

Nigel