New Off Grid Inverter Charger

[dgd]

Hi Robin,

Thanks for that small peak. More?

I have been reading a little bit on the more recent posts here. MidNite has not and will not use a Chinese manufacturing firm to build our electronics. That didn't work out so well for the OutBack guys. They never should have done what they did.

hence the rise of FANGPUSUN, FM controllers and associated network bits all at about 66% price of Outback branded stuff.
So is there really any difference in QC between China and India manufacturing?  High QC must be attainable in China, dont Apple, IBM etc get all their stuff made there?

All the talk about the MidNite inverter is well heeded. We have ten engineers working on the battery based inverter and two other engineers working on two different wind turbine grid tie inverters.

Battery based inverter range, any product availability time estimates?
I would be very happy with a Midnite version of the Trace 4548E inverter 

dgd

[clockmanFrance]

dgd      Please do let me know when you start a new topic somewhere, regards doing a LCD display, SD card, etc, with an arduino for the OzInverter.

You might have to hold my hand a bit, ...... as I will probably ask simplistic questions, well simplistic for you that is!.

Thanks

Here's a pic of my old BMS for 36 batteries, i now have 46, arduino, SD card, and display, would this be any good?

[dgd]

Clockman,

I intend to post on Otherpower the Arduino mega based LCD display and web server for my Oz inverter.
Right now I'm sorting out the two Inspire GTI boxes, getting holes made for the fans and generally following the layout and fitting that Oztules has posted in Part 2. Have located a nice sheet of aluminium for front cover, seems almost a shame to punch holes in it for lcd displays and switches, leds etc, also trying to decide if the line filters recovered from Inspire can re-used (schaffner fn2030-10-06 and fn2090-10-06)

I was thinking of getting the Mega to handle the fan control but the fan control board looks the way to go at least initially.
With the Arduino boards I was looking at small DIN rail in lower box to left of toroid, maybe screened off but mounted so that the ethernet and the rs232 serial were through the side of the box. The DIN rail could also mount a small DC to DC converter 48v to 5v for power and any fuses.
The screw terminal proto board is so that wires from various sensors do not need soldered and its easier to change about input pins in use. I will also get the WBjr interface on the protoboard.

Anyway, I suppose this is all getting off topic in a Midnite forum, I should get this to Otherpower 

dgd

The Arduino parts/specs (ex sensors) I will use are:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/MEGA2560-R3-Board-ATmega2560-16AU-CH340G-Free-USB-Cable-for-Arduino-/261901186104?hash=item3cfa86f438:g:zcQAAOSwkNZUqluP
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ethernet-Shield-WizNet-W5100-R3-2012-for-Arduino-UNO-Mega-2560-Duemilanove-PoE-/291547954847?hash=item43e19cbe9f:g:MI8AAOSwq7JUEX66
http://www.ebay.com/itm/OE-MAX3232-RS232-Serial-Port-To-TTL-Converter-Module-DB9-Connector-With-Cable-/221850004544?hash=item33a74a6c40:g:bXoAAOSwT6pVyedu
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DIN-Rail-Mount-Adapter-Prototype-PCB-Kit-For-Arduino-UNO-Mega-2560-etc-/201227678125?hash=item2eda1ab1ad:g:5JUAAOxyHIlTXQOa
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Prototype-Screw-Shield-Board-Kit-For-Arduino-UNO-R3-0-1-Mini-Terminal-Block-/131686005367?hash=item1ea918fa77:g:UUMAAOxy~dNTHygV

[dgd]

Robin,

It's good to read your post that ten engineers are currently involved with inverter design.
I hope that you can get a human interface (HID) design software engineer involved in there somewhere, someone who can move upwards from the, seemingly, industry 1990s standard of a front panel LCD display with a few buttons for display data selection and limited configuration.
I'm thinking of the inverter using a simple processor to provide an Ethernet interface and make available a web based display. Doesn't need to be anything too complicated, just a page or two of running data info, exception conditions detected etc.
At least for the larger 3Kw+ inverter range.

Since MN has invested in the Modbus standard then maintaining a modus stack would also be nice for those wanting to develop a more sophisticated HID.
The only things I would ask the programmer doing this is to avoid encryption of any type in data Comms, don't get sucked into the  MyMidnite scheme of data protection and proprietary handshaking supposedly to protect MN investment when all it really does is deny owners of data the right to use it, see it and ensure there is no security issues from bad people trying to access user networks.

Please also implement a proper Ethernet stack, the solitary TCP connection to the Classic is probably, along with Ethernet connection unreliability, the single largest negative feature of the Classic charge controller.
It's taken 4 to 5 years to get the Ethernet connection issues sort of sorted out and still nothing has ever been done to sort out the single TCP connection limitation (not counting the unusable TCP connection reserved for MyMidnite).

Please, please, please do not even remotely consider a similar TCP setup limitation for the new range of inverters

Just all IMHO, no offence intended, FWIW

Dgd

[laszlo]

Yes, there needs to be a more accessible interface, and I would recommend Macintosh style minimalism instead of  bells and whistles we have now,  but on security front, I welcome anyl security that I can get.

[boB]

dgd, we have a couple of guys working on the networking part.  All of  your wishes will come true for this one.
Maybe or maybe not exactly as you would expect but, the hardware and code will be there.

As for Chinese production quality and, like you mentioned, the iPhone and Apple products that, in MHO
are very good, those guys have a LARGE production outfit doing their work which is top notch.  That is
because of the large quantities involved.  Not as easy for stuff like ours that isn't millions of quantities.

Even Xantrex had (has ?) their own facility in China that were VERY good at what they did.  Robin was at
that factory during the late 1990s when we were merged.  Wish we still had some of the video
that Robin took of that place.  Incredible.  I remember in one part of the video, there was one girl that
would peel off a sticker and hand it to another gal that would stick it on the Prosine inverter.

boB

[zoneblue]

So i guess you guys are keeping the specs under wraps until release? FWIW, i doubt that competitiors stand to gain anything from that, because, as you know, we'll buy midnite anyway

[Cniemand]

An entire line of Midnite gizmos... That would be something. If you could network the Inverter/charger in with the Classic so you could use the same display to change the voltage set-points on the inverter.... I would love having that!

[boB]

An entire line of Midnite gizmos... That would be something. If you could network the Inverter/charger in with the Classic so you could use the same display to change the voltage set-points on the inverter.... I would love having that!

[zoneblue]

Well while we are on the subject, as well as low idle tare, a special request from me is for teh aux en/disable to have lower power consumption as well. The VFX uses several watts in "off" mode. Im sure that 6W is doing something but im blowed if i know what it is.

[dgd]

Thanks for your reassuring comments boB.
Forgot to request that the range of MN inverters include one or more USB power sockets (5V at >=2A) and perhaps even a 12V DC power provision. Very useful to power miscellaneous non-AC devices near the inverter.

dgd

[Robin]

I am glad that Zoneblue mentioned idle power. You just set the project back a bit. We had not taken care of idle power during times on non use. There are 10 different auxiliary power supplies on the EGO inverter. We will be shutting all but one down at night if there are no loads on. This is essentially off mode. We are also now going to redesign the aux power supply on the control module to use less power. I do not think we will be adding a USB jack on this 10,000 watt inverter. We will be doing that on the 1000W version though.
Here is another small peek.

[Westbranch]

Obviously the count down is on...  this is Peek #2, the previous one Peek #3,

Obviously there is still small Peek #1 to come....

Come on Eh?     Pretty pretty PLEASE, just one more? 

so....WOW!..... now we know:
It's called the EGO inverter.... (ah, how do you invert an EGO?);
10,000W and 1000W versions at least, some with USB and multiple power supply outlets;

it has at least 3 gauges, one of  which has an X/Z coordinates and is scale-able;
a POWER button'
an AC bypass built in, (hmmm  what about the one in the  E-Panels, redundant?)'
a gauge showing AC Out xxxxxxx'
and a switch to choose AC Current or Volts or BB  Light (?) ;
and probably another variable gauge or LED readout...

Robin, you must have studied the fine  art of  'how to seriously taunt someone...'   

[dgd]

So from the glimpses so far it appears the inverter is a modular design, those captive front panel bolts appear to be securing a module into a frame. Sort of like that modular inverter design that Exeltech produced.
So I'm guessing a chassis with  basic supervisory module then one to several power modules to make up the total power output required. Perhaps a power saving scheme that only enables power modules as the output current required
Front panel analogue gauges, whether real or digitally simulated look novel (retro?)


dgd

[Cniemand]

And the suspense tightens....