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#Post#: 3726--------------------------------------------------
Arduino Controllers
By: nessprojects Date: July 6, 2014, 7:48 am
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I was wondering if this would spark any interest in building
your own solar/turbine controllers using the Arduino open source
platform. Very few external components need to be added to
create your very own custom built device that you are in control
of.
The arduino modules are becoming very cheap and are programmed
by yourself to suit your needs. Here is the main page with lots
of info about these devices and the IDE software required....
HTML http://arduino.cc/
I am in no way an expert with these things but I have dabbled a
little and wrote my own programs (in a fashion)....Any Interest
??
Here is a picture of the start of a project as a turbine
monitor....Amps were not calibrated nor connected at the time
but it was monitoring my battery and rpm on a very windy day
from my small hawt.
#Post#: 3728--------------------------------------------------
Re: Arduino Controllers
By: sut Date: July 6, 2014, 8:05 am
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I think that is a great addition to any windmill ! Just the fact
that you have it showing rpm I think would be a great addition
to be able to monitor . I have thought about using one of those
boards to just do what you did . Now as far as skill level of
mine LOL to be able to program it sounds a little out of my
skill set ,I still cant figure out how your boost circuit works
.
#Post#: 3734--------------------------------------------------
Re: Arduino Controllers
By: nessprojects Date: July 6, 2014, 9:06 am
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@cg
You forgot to use armoured cable and to switch that 1000v zapper
on then !.
Could you burry your cable underground ?.
@sut
I have only programed in visual basic until a few months ago
when I had to learn C++ to program my arduino....It took me a
long time to get it where it is but it is achievable with a bit
of determination and plenty of looking at sample code.
#Post#: 3800--------------------------------------------------
Re: Arduino Controllers
By: nessprojects Date: July 9, 2014, 4:23 pm
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Well I have been playing with a dump controller
today....Soldered components and wrote some software....uploaded
and tested. It is still in testing stage but 1 step at a time.
I connected a solar panel directly to a battery (no controller)
and my arduino dump direct to battery, two 21w car bulbs for the
dump and programmed it to keep the battery at 13.5v.....Did it
work....Yes it worked fantastically well and very accurate due
to the pwm control.
components used are very small....3 resistors,1 cap,1 diode and
1 mosfet.....Once working correctly you don't even need the lcd
display but I do like to see what's going on.
I can only expand it from here....Very pleased with the test so
far....Works for turbines too !.
Percentage is how much it is dumping. 0.01v accuracy is
acceptable I suppose. ;D
#Post#: 3803--------------------------------------------------
Re: Arduino Controllers
By: lynx wind Date: July 9, 2014, 5:31 pm
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Very nice. Keep going. I have used a type of buck MPPT before
and it worked very well (sometimes it glitched) My opinion is
that it should be simple, robust and reliable, even if there are
no bells and whistles.
I did finish your 175 alt and it turned out nice. I'll get it
shipped off late this week or early next week. The only thing I
don't have are the bracing straps.
#Post#: 3806--------------------------------------------------
Re: Arduino Controllers
By: nessprojects Date: July 9, 2014, 9:32 pm
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Many thanks for the update on the 175, curious on how long it
will take to travel across the pond.
Agree with you on keeping things simple, less things to go wrong
but I did build a dump controller that does exactly what this
arduino is doing from raw components and believe me it used many
more components and not nearly as flexible as the new controller
will be...I hope.
I must say though that the old dump controller has been going
for some time now and never let me down once.
Thanks for the update.
#Post#: 3857--------------------------------------------------
Re: Arduino Controllers
By: nessprojects Date: July 14, 2014, 6:55 pm
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I have some old anemometer cups that work but the controller
went west so my thoughts are to connect these cups to the
arduino, and together with pulling out the rpm from the turbine
we can calculate the TSR of the turbine then maybe control the
output to keep the turbine above tsr1.
My head is working overtime at the moment.
@Lynx
Does this formula look about right....
TSR= rpm x Pi x Turbine Diameter / 60 / Wind speed (m/s)
#Post#: 3859--------------------------------------------------
Re: Arduino Controllers
By: lynx wind Date: July 14, 2014, 8:43 pm
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Exactly right formula.
Some experimenters talk about TSR's of 3-7 as desirable. I
don't find this to be true with the type VAWTs I make. They get
very touchy at higher TSRs and if you draw just a bit too much
power they stall.
I think this is because HP (watts) = rpm x torque. If we rely
on rpm too much in that formula you are designing a very rpm
sensitive controller.
I find the best place to pull power is between 1.1-2.0 TSR The
VAWTs I make are very torquey and the little bit of variance in
rpm doesn't immediately cause stall. I would shoot for 1.5-1.6
as the controlling variable on power to pull.
#Post#: 3860--------------------------------------------------
Re: Arduino Controllers
By: nessprojects Date: July 14, 2014, 9:00 pm
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Okay many thanks for that info.....Obviously there is going to
be some give in the system because the cups are going to rise in
speed sharply but the turbine will not and vice versa.
The hardware is simple enough its just playing with the
programming and see what comes of it.
I am just loving this challenge and getting back into
programming again......Good fun.
#Post#: 3906--------------------------------------------------
Re: Arduino Controllers
By: nessprojects Date: July 18, 2014, 6:41 pm
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update,
Attached the speed cups to the arduino and wrote the software to
read the cups....Looking good at the moment....Next job is to
attach the rpm sensor and play with the software again.....Slow
but sure.
Just sent for a new 20 x 4 lcd for this project + 3 new arduino
nano`s from china....Wow Cheap as chips.
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