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Post by mediadogg on Sept 24, 2019 13:08:13 GMT
Here is what is working:
It is 9AM now. The upstairs systems are charging, while keeping a few small loads charged, such as a big laptop and some power tool batteries. Whenever the main battery hits about 90%, the system starts running the computers. By about noon, everything is running off solar, while keeping all batteries full, then as the day wears on, the batteries start draining because solar can't keep up. By around 5PM, Lycan#1 is fully charged and takes over running the computers until midnight.
Downstairs, the big battery is running my HDTV, the PC I am using now and other media equipment and charging all my portable power banks that we use overnight to top off all phones, tablets and laptops. Lycan#2 is already running the garage refrigerator, while charging itself. I have 300W of PV plugged in directly to the Lycan.
The thing that is not working yet, is being able to also keep my small garage battery system charged at the same time. I might give up on that, because the Lycan is working so well that I don't need the garage system much anymore. But that will give me a Rover 20A, a 24V 22AH battery and a small inverter sitting idle! That will drive me nuts until I figure out how to use them.
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Post by mediadogg on Sept 24, 2019 13:09:41 GMT
Cheap shot. "It" works just fine, depending on what you define as "it." I don't need advice on the simple stuff. I come to you guys when I can't figure it out by myself. Cheap shot? ? ?
Didn't you say, {It did not go as well as I had hoped.}?
Yes I did. Damn I hate it when somebody else is right!
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Post by tattoo on Sept 24, 2019 14:03:48 GMT
Yes I did. Damn I hate it when somebody else is right! LOL I just have a damn good memory............. But I hate to read books..... Unless they have a lot of pics....... LOL
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Post by mediadogg on Sept 24, 2019 16:15:16 GMT
Breaking news! "It" kinda works. It seems that, as with a lot of products from "you know where", the specs don't match what the product actually delivers. So, when I plug the 24V - 12V "240 watt" transformer into the Lycan 12V charge port, the input voltage reads 12.1V until the Lycan starts pulling over 2A, then the voltage abruptly drops to 10.6 - 10.8V at 6.1A. So, I think the transformer is just over spec'd. It cannot deliver 240W. For me, it does not get over 75W, because it drops its output voltage to under 11V in order to get the amperage up. Tomorrow, I will be testing out a high power 12-14V DC power supply designed for running LED strings. I will run it from the little 24V inverter (cheap and works great) connected to my garage battery. Actually, this one looks perfect. Higher quality brand and good reviews. But expensive.
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Post by mediadogg on Sept 27, 2019 20:41:58 GMT
Indeed, the Samlex unit works better. Open circuit output from 24V input is 13.8V, and just before I lost the sun, I observed 12.5V at over 6A into the Lycan charge port. Not as much as I had hoped, but the limitation seems to be that the Lycan does not request to charge as fast from cigarette lighter as it does from solar or AC. I will confirm that by checking the specs (should have done that initially).
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Post by mediadogg on Sept 29, 2019 15:38:08 GMT
This morning, I saw over 10A at 12.5 volts.I am not sure why the amps keeps floating up and down. Probably some interaction between the all the converters: the CC feeding the Samlex converter (which is actually connected across the battery), and the Samlex feeding the Lycan DC input. I am not convinced that the MPPT of the Lycan is totally offline. He might be sneaking a peek and juggling with the amperage ... who knows.
Anyway, thanks again to Bupkis for reminding me of this approach. Now that I found a really good quality high power transformer, it is working very well.
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