Hawkes Bay in Wisconsin

[ClassicCrazy]

Hi Larry,

Thanks for your videos of your installation of the Hawke's Bay.

Too bad about that "300 VDC breaker".  To me,  it is difficult to trust many/most/all of these inexpensive DC breakers that come from central Asia.  This sounds  and is prejudicial,  as a general statement.  BUT,  there is so much riding on these breakers,  and if we can find DC breakers from MidNite Solar/Carling/CBI/Sq-D,  and other majors,  it seems well worth the extra purchase price.

Not to lecture, too much.   more later,  thanks, Vic

I have a double pole inexpensive one rated at 1000 watts 20 amps on my 240v dc  water heater and have been using it sometimes to break load. It seems to work okay - at least the spark is smaller and no flames shoot out of it !
I was looking at northern arizona wind sun and couldn't find any midnite breakers with the higher voltage ratings.
Larry

[Vic]

Hi Larry,

YES,  the newer line of MidNite CBI HV breakers are in a bit of a short supply,  as they appear to be a new line of 300,  and 600 V DC models.  Wind-Sun store does not have SKUs for many of the new HV DC breakers, that are on the MidNite Circuit breaker Poster (here):
https://midnitesolar.com/pdfs/breakers_11x17.jpg

Personally,  even if one tested each Asian DC breaker candidate,  under rated load,  would always wonder,  if that test might be the only interruption,  or the last one that, that breaker might successfully tolerate,  and catch on fire on the next trip   ...   hard to know, without a Teardown.

IMO,  73  did not mean to nit-pick!   GL,  Vic

[ClassicCrazy]

I hooked up the MNGP2 to about 20 or 30 feet of Cat 5 and remoted it to somewhere more convenient for me.
It works no problem.
Using the backlight adjustment - it won't go below 10 on the scale so no way to dim it completely even manually.
I also discovered the battery in MNGP - maybe I missed it in the manual. I removed the plastic to activate the battery .
I found place in menus to turn on whizbang .
Did I read somewhere that the battery sense does not work yet ? I need to make some wires for that sometime.
Larry

[ClassicCrazy]

Whizbang works - shows same as the whizbang on the Classic.
SOC though doesn't count down - stays at 100% but maybe because I don't have all the voltages calibrated on cables compared to Classic. ( update - the SOC is counting down some now but slower than the Classic ).
I wanted Hawkes Bay to drop out of charging first and let Classic finish charging batteries. I need to connect up remote voltage sense wires to battery and see if that works.
Are there plans or the capability to get more than one digit on the battery voltage ?
Larry

[boB]

Whizbang works - shows same as the whizbang on the Classic.
SOC though doesn't count down - stays at 100% but maybe because I don't have all the voltages calibrated on cables compared to Classic. ( update - the SOC is counting down some now but slower than the Classic ).
I wanted Hawkes Bay to drop out of charging first and let Classic finish charging batteries. I need to connect up remote voltage sense wires to battery and see if that works.
Are there plans to get more than one digit on the battery voltage ?
Larry

I seem to remember something about the WB Jr. SOC% counting down but I am not sure.

I will present this on Tuesday when we get back.

Merry New Year !

boB

[ClassicCrazy]

Whizbang works - shows same as the whizbang on the Classic.
SOC though doesn't count down - stays at 100% but maybe because I don't have all the voltages calibrated on cables compared to Classic. ( update - the SOC is counting down some now but slower than the Classic ).
I wanted Hawkes Bay to drop out of charging first and let Classic finish charging batteries. I need to connect up remote voltage sense wires to battery and see if that works.
Are there plans to get more than one digit on the battery voltage ?
Larry

I seem to remember something about the WB Jr. SOC% counting down but I am not sure.

I will present this on Tuesday when we get back.

Merry New Year !

boB

Thanks Bob.
I hear a little bit of a noise from the MNGP2 - not loud - but my hearing is still good enough. Maybe something like a switching timing sound ?
Have you ever noticed that or have an idea what it is from ?
I thought maybe from power supply for the backlight which I have turned all the way down to 10 . I just turned it up in brightness but that doesn't change it.
I mean it isn't very loud. I just hear it because I have it close to me in a quiet place.
Larry

[boB]

Larry, could that noise be coming out of the speaker ?

Either that or some little auxiliary supply inside.

Can you see if you can cover the speaker up or something and see if it changes ?   

I don't suppose you could install something like Spectdroid or a spectrum analyzer on your phone to see what the frequency is ?

The frequency might give an idea.

boB

[ClassicCrazy]

yeah you are right Bob - the noise  is from the speaker - forgot there is one on there !
I will look for a phone app to get the freq if I can.
The thing sticking out next to the speaker which at first I thought was a volume knob - it must be antenna for bluetooth.
Larry

[ClassicCrazy]

Larry, could that noise be coming out of the speaker ?

Either that or some little auxiliary supply inside.

Can you see if you can cover the speaker up or something and see if it changes ?   

I don't suppose you could install something like Spectdroid or a spectrum analyzer on your phone to see what the frequency is ?

The frequency might give an idea.

boB

Spectroid on my android phone doesn't seem to pick up the noise even with the phone next to speaker.
I was able to make the noise go away though.
I went to voice settings which is disabled but volume is set to 8.  I could select Audio Volume and set it from 8 down to minimum of 1 and then I don't hear the noise ( unless I put the speaker right next to my ear , and even then it is faint) .
Anyway it is quiet enough now so that I don't notice it.
Larry

[boB]

Larry, could that noise be coming out of the speaker ?

Either that or some little auxiliary supply inside.

Can you see if you can cover the speaker up or something and see if it changes ?   

I don't suppose you could install something like Spectdroid or a spectrum analyzer on your phone to see what the frequency is ?

The frequency might give an idea.

boB

Spectroid on my android phone doesn't seem to pick up the noise even with the phone next to speaker.
I was able to make the noise go away though.
I went to voice settings which is disabled but volume is set to 8.  I could select Audio Volume and set it from 8 down to minimum of 1 and then I don't hear the noise ( unless I put the speaker right next to my ear , and even then it is faint) .
Anyway it is quiet enough now so that I don't notice it.
Larry

It may be that your phone doesn't pick up that high of frequency ?  You should be able to tell by seeing where the high frequencies drop off on Spectroid.

How good is your hearing ?   It is possible that the audio output is not quite low pass filtered enough ?

boB

[ClassicCrazy]

I hooked up voltage sense wires - not sure if that feature is enabled in firmware yet ?
Also I gave brief look at MNGP2 screens and size comparison to Classic MNGP
Here is video of this mini adventure - sorry didn't catch my screwup and sparks !
https://youtu.be/xECitLloyw0
Larry

[FNG]

I have seen a few of the MNGP2s make a ticking noise in sequence with can traffic, the tick is from the speaker.

SOC/WBjr do you have it set to Battery in External Sensors? Mine runs spot on with the Classics

Remote battery sense is not done yet.

[ClassicCrazy]

I have seen a few of the MNGP2s make a ticking noise in sequence with can traffic, the tick is from the speaker.

SOC/WBjr do you have it set to Battery in External Sensors? Mine runs spot on with the Classics

Remote battery sense is not done yet.

Yes I have Whizbang set to Battery in external sensors.
I am thinking the SOC could be different if the battery voltages are not exactly matched between the Classic and the Hawkes Bay , maybe they start counting down at different point of time.
The SOC  are close though. It is hard to compare exactly this time of  year with some days that may not fill up batteries to 100% . I will have to watch over longer period of time - it has only been a few days so far.
Larry

[ClassicCrazy]

A couple MNGP2 observations

I notice on the MNGP2 settings for the lithium I have set up, the absorb voltage setting seems to be tied to the equalize voltage in that I couldn't raise the absorb voltage higher than the equalize and even then it will only go .1 volt less than the equalize setting.

I have two systems going through the same shunt. The MNGP2 when set to whizbang /battery setting displays the total amps of both - which is okay , but I would also like to see an amps  output for just the Hawkes Bay on the display so I know what each system is outputting.  I think the display does show the watts output for HB now.

Larry

[ClassicCrazy]

A couple MNGP2 observations

I notice on the MNGP2 settings for the lithium I have set up, the absorb voltage setting seems to be tied to the equalize voltage in that I couldn't raise the absorb voltage higher than the equalize and even then it will only go .1 volt less than the equalize setting.

I have two systems going through the same shunt. The MNGP2 when set to whizbang /battery setting displays the total amps of both - which is okay , but I would also like to see an amps  output for just the Hawkes Bay on the display so I know what each system is outputting.  I think the display does show the watts output for HB now.

Larry

The last MNGP2 update must have added the amps from Hawkes Bay as compared to the Whizbang amps because I can see them now .
Thanks