Solar Charge Controller Selection
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2024
- Many thanks to Carl Henderson from Rhode Island for figuring out the change controllers and the layout for installing them. Next step is to wire in some solar panels.
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[ Music ]
"Trickin Pickin" preformed by Doug Waterman
Looks like we will be seeing your videos made for the next several years at the Port’s parking area..........
For all the tech on the boat requiring an app, I’d highly recommend having a dedicated tablet that controls the boat. Obviously still have the apps on your phone too if you want a backup. But have a tablet in a rugged case that’s always in the same place in the pilot house that controls the boat
Can’t wait to see the boat in the water !
Will the boat ever see any WATER, other then that from the sky, or will it rust away right on dry land???
Hey if nothing else you have a really expensive rv with a huge fan lol
You'll be glad you went with Victron, they are very popular in the boating and RV world and it's great to be able to see real time on your phone how many amps and watts your producing off the sun. Doug, it's really amazing how fast you pick up things. I've done lots of electrical wiring and many solar systems and you are spot on about how it works and why you need those components. Cheers.
Noticed a plain old diagonal cutter was used to trim cable (zip ties) ties. Using them will leave a sharp and unforgiving nub on the end of the tie that will bite you. Make your own version of flush-cut diagonal cutters just a bit work on the sander/grinder, or buy them from Harbor Freight - their micro cutters are a step over what most have come to expect from HF. Your hands and arms will be delighted!
Ha! Harden up!
@@SVSeeker I agree I am a wimp.
Solar energy system layout looks straight-forward. I like it when someone implements Keep It the Simple Stupid principle! Kudos Doug!
Wow, you got me! The boat that never was!
Victron is top-of-the-line gear. Good choice. Doug et al., just so you know, LiFePO4 batteries also take a 3 stage charging profile that involves bulk, absorption, and float. The voltage changes with each phase, first around 13.8 in bulk, then ~14.4-14.6 in absorption, and then back down to about 13.5-13.6 for float. These parameters are listed for every lithium cell manufacturer so be sure to program them in or make sure that Victron default LiFePO4 profile fits. The absorption phase is really important, this is when your cells will have a chance to balance (if your BMS uses passive balancing). Try to get the cells into the absorption phase for at least 2 hours every week. Cheers,
Carl get's credit for the choice. I think he did well too.
man, this is messing w/ my head. " ... but I thot the boat had been moved, why are we at the shop ... ...?" ..lol .
thanks for video, always good to get an update.
Yeah we obviously just time traveled lol
I wonder if the new homeowner minds that you moved the boat back? : )
I was just looking, to put one bulb in the shed. Doug, you're going to need a co-pilot. the manual will take ten years to write.
Doug..the obtuse know it all...lol fuse: input... breaker : load....hmmmm controller that massages solar cell output....
Amazing job by Carl! Just love all the knowledge you've managed to assemble from all over the world on this project! And I get to learn about it all too as a fly on the wall thanks to your fimling and editing! :) Amazing stuff
I says somewhere in the manual that you should not disconnect the battery bank when the solar is working and connect to stop damaging the solar controller
Yes only disconnect the 24V after the panels are disconnected is good practice.
$$$$$$ Flush cut pliers on wire ties are the rule so you don't have a thousand razors cutting up your hands when servicing, or repairing, or walking by in a Christmas sweater.
I've seen lots of Christmas sweaters that deserve that fate. And what happened to sailors? Real sailors? I wonder what your fate would be if you brought that complaint up on a sailing ship in the 1830's
@@proto57 Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. Weak men create hard times.
@@proto57 You take cut zip ties really seriously don't you?
@@proto57 Not me, I'm only addressing the irrational fear of zip ties that is made oblivious here. If you also have an irrational fear of wire nuts then address that in an appropriate location.
The amount of different people working on this its gotta be crazy for a standard school tradesman to come and try to interpret all this stuff
Nice to see you went dutch on the mppt controllers. good choice.
Awesome episode. I am getting ready to install my system and how your system is laid out looks great. I don't see many boaters use a combiner box. I plan on using one too.
We have victron battery chargers on the boat, brilliant! As you say, programmable over Bluetooth, can firmware update them too!
Also, I called them.before purchase and spoke to an actual person!
Great job Carl
Doug, that looks fantastic, the solar system ought to be a great addition to the power generation.
Now that is a sexy solar setup. Planning on doing something similar, albeit on a much smaller scale for my camper for the spring.
LED backlighting behind all-your control boxes will give them them the sense of importance they deserve and look cool 👍🖐😎🙏
So great drilling and grinding sounds are back who need the noise of waves, wind and water ;)
You are never too old or too young to learn something.
Gonna borrow that photo the storage box idea 👌
And maybe a tot of patience too
G
Nice work on the controller setup for the solar gentlemen. I am a little worried though. If Doug is running his hair dryer, will Bart be able to run his curling iron at the same time as they bake cookies? Have a great week gentlemen and thank you for sharing.
I like your storage system with boxes and pictures. Teknowlejee!
A lot of charge controllers cant be disconnected from the battery while remaining connected to the panels, they'll blow up so worth checking and putting into the circuit breaker interlock design
👆👆👆I came here to say this... You'll blow the controller if you disconnect the battery with the solar still producing...
Not a problem for these.
@@Everlanders Not with these, but for best practice I would always disconnect PV first. I'd probably leave the batteries connected most times unless I was in a real lightning storm.
PV in my home is 500v on 4kw instalation (13 panels). Cheers from Europe
Do you have an electric water heater on board? One interesting feature I have seen recently is that when the batteries are charged 100%, the solar electricity that would be unused is directed to heat water. Hot water is used as an energy storage.
Not yet, but that's something we'll likely do.
@@SVSeeker it could also be the hydrolic accumulator or filling scuba tanks or processing water through reverse osmosis, all type of processes that fill a tank and need some level of electricity: better do that when you have excess solar power.
@@SVSeeker have a look at the MartyT UA-cam channel. He did just that, storing excess solar (or hydro)power in an isolated water vesel.
@@SVSeeker I think they make diesel water heaters. if interested
@SV Seeker - I see you got the best Solar Charge Controler they exsist. Victron. You won't belive wehere i have used it or build in. Artic, hot sun zones, marine, domestic houses, government van's and campers. That stuff can take some work. Victron sits in the Netherlands and we the duthc guys are very good in it.
But don't forget the handling of the Chage Controler.
Switch On: first the Battery breaker then the Solar Breaker
Switch Off: first the Solar Breaker then the Battery Breaker
You've not heard of Victron, woah. It's a bit like Makita, best in the business.
So lucky to have that !! Can’t get my hands on anything to produce power around here with the shortage
Damn Doug a photo of each box! Just spent my Sat in my storage unit cataloging my boxes. Take a pic! My goodness What a kiss idea. Thank you
damn moved the boat back home. :D
IT would be better to have the MPPT closer to the battery. Keep the low voltage, high current wiring short to reduce I2R losses. The lower current and higher voltage between the solar panels and the MPPT also means you dont need to spend as much money on copper.
That’s a good point, It would save on the cost of wire as well,
True, but copper was donated, and I like the switches side by side.
I didn’t think the victron units work side by side, ie one sees the charge voltage of two and goes to float and than two sees the float voltage from one and goes to float and they both end up in float all the time. I’m pretty sure I must be wrong though considering the research you normally do…
Doug, I am jonesing to see that beautiful junk floating in some water!!!
Awesome installation
Doug Victron sell a separate display/control/monitor panel for mounting somewhere convenient so you do not need to bring up the App all the time.
I hope you are able to get into the water soon I’ve watched you build a boat for many years I am wishing you luck
Great video!! I always say you can’t have enough solar!!
This older montage warms my soul as I wait to see her at or pass muskogee
As a past service tech just saying be careful with those Rema/euro connectors they suck they fail and I never liked them. I know soldering them is standard I have to recommend crimping them. Also if those come with the smaller pins for above the main ones make sure nothing is going to pull on them because that was #1 call I had the wires were always getting pulled out of them at the pin inside the Rema connector. SB350 connectors were my fav.
Yep, Anderson connectors all the way.
I'm wondering why you didn't locate the charge controllers down by your batteries. That way the power from the solar panels comes in at high voltage low current (small cheaper wires) all the way to the batteries. Then you just have a short low voltage high current connection (big expensive wires) from the charge controllers to the batteries.
Space, the cable was a donation, and I like the switching being together.
@@SVSeeker Knew there had to be a good reason.
@Tuju's workboat Are the losses gonna be that bad?
Thought we had two more years ( lol ) what about making a shipping container boat... Made out of shipping container 😌 Come one we can do it and auction or donate it 😌
Thank you.
solar hum. your wire is always to small, because cable cost to much. lol. the bigger the better on the wiring and I thought you where Liion not LiFePO4? voltages are going to be different. Victron is a better product. I have had both.
Get the Gullet Carl! You must be from up here in British Columbia
Hi there, Victron you have to go blue before you can go green.
Interesting with that paralleling at the input. It's not something that's usually done as it reduces the maximum combined possible power output since none of the strings can reach its optimal working voltage/current. You won't loose much if the panels are on the same plane and if one string does not get shaded while the other does.
I did not see a diode (one for each string in series) before connecting them in parallel, if there is none then the one string which is shaded gets backfeed from the one which is not shaded which can cause issues: the shaded cell (not the whole panel!) suddenly sees multiple times of the power it can normally withstand and can break the solder joints/develop micro cracks in the cell itself, etc ruining the panel.
Other thing I noticed with your panel mounts is that aren't they too low? Won't those ?stiffening? tubes on top of the cabin shade the panels? Even if a few percentage of one cell is shaded the output of the whole panel drops.
Thanks We'll see.
DC switch almost always is directional to gravity due to arc quenching chambers, but maybe not too important at 10A
BUT, at 150V DC I would check for actual, correct data
Love those ADJECTIVES...HIGH VOLTAGE AMPERES LESS FANTASTIC ...LOL DUHHHHH
great stuff
Have you seen the price of those fuses? I used the same fuse holders ...one or two blown fuses makes them more expensive than midnite solar breakers. Just sayin
You may be shopping the wrong place. Try some aluminum foil.
@@SVSeeker .22 shell
How would this work if you were using a couple of Bluetti 500 ‘s together?
the busbar froM the Combiner Box is put in incorrect position, is not protect from ''SAFE TO TOUCH''
you put inside 16Amp fuse? on the fuse socket is 30Amp.
thats one sweet eletrical system. best part is it will be for the best part enviromental friendly and free. nice one Doug....
Yup, but let's not tell the environment that it's attached to 40 tons of oar that was dug from the earth and forged into steel. : )
@@SVSeeker well that’s recyclable too.
@@SVSeeker ok Doug, i won`t tell anyone....
@@SVSeeker it may be partial recycled steel in the Hull sometimes they add old to new in manufacturing process.
Good shit maynard
Long lost video? We went down to 3 forks harbor Sunday. Barely enough water to float a jon boat.😳
combiner box. A DC device for solar PV. Hmmmmm
Hose all those circuits with grease.
I live in the north is Carl from Canada ? I need help with figuring out what type of solar system would be best for my home. In case of an emergency, I'd rather have solar than use generators.
So: if you and your crew get going, if anything happens to you, is there a person on board who knows what is going on ???
Would that be your excuse for staying on the dock?
Yeah, come on guys... So should no one ever go on water excursions? There are millions and millions of people who go on boats by themselves every year. What if something should happen to that person? what if? What if? What if?
See things called EPIRB, VHF radio with DSC, satellite phones, satellite messengers, and PLB's. Hell, I'm waiting for my offshore excursions for when Elon comes out with his mobile interwebs. Any info, anywhere, at high speeds.
I said it before, and I'll say it again... Doug, you can wear underwear on the outside of your pants, and I'd still call you Superman.
😁
I must have missed something. Is the Seeker back at your house and out of the port? edit: or older video?
Older video he sold the house and moved. The first was older last Part install was new could see the port in background.
Looks like old video put together to keep everyone happy with videos as I'm sure there's not much to record at this time.
@@hankdoughty4375 Ah, thanks. I was puzzled there for a sec. I first noticed when he shot down (from the boat) and saw the masts on the trailer. I didn't even pick up on the angle from the boat, just thought "what are the masts doing back? The boat is at the port, why bring the masts all the way back?". lol.
I hadn't finished the video yet, just thought "am I going crazy?" so I went trolling for the comments to clear it up whether I watch the rest, or head to the padded room.
👍👍
Just thinking way, way, way outside the box regarding "Boat Length VS. Insurance Cost Ratio". What if you patch in a "Double Vertical Hull" just short of the required boat length for the affordable insurance policy. Then, cut it off. Qualify for insurance. Launch boat. Sail, slowly, to a location to re-attach to full length. PS. I have now Boating experience what so ever.
Never pay for insurance and then exceed the policy. They will take your cash and just deny your claim if you ever make 1. Better save your money and hope you don't fick up.
When it goin in the water
Tuesday
Is this boat in the water?? Wait, you moved it back home?? Was this channel ever really real???
Its sitting at the port
I hope you have the boat in the water for Halloween
This some lost footage
I sincerely hope that you are soon allowed to get in the water. As no one is in the public eye as you are, someone is getting a serious black eye for causing this entire fiasco. If there were pending problems....you should have been notified of them at least before you arrived at the port. Sometimes I dont know where my America has gone. Sincerely....good luck to you in the future. W. English.
Twat Card tee hee
Twat card?.....
hey for real tho... why the fuck is Bart mowing your yard?
🥃🇨🇦
Not to be the know-it-all, but the combiner box adds current, not voltage, typically. 10 amp plus 10 amps plus……. But don’t buy Chinese made.
Make sure to feed that pesky algorithm
Take your time Doug and enjoy life.....you are retired
Certainly no lack of ambition. "Fair winds and a fallowing sea" Wikipedia
Good morning all: Insurance is the issue to getting seeker launched: Why not self insure.... THere are many of us who have followed this journey. As a group we all put up $50.00. get a large pool of funds allotted to insurance. Funds held in escrow account. Problem solved ..........
I appreciate the thoughts and we have looked into that approach but there are considerable banking and transfer expenses involved so before we go that route we want to exhaust the insurance route.
Um happy cooking. Solar is a scam. Good luck. Don't try baking a turkey
Thank you.