Where do you get your LUGS from?

Mountain Don wrote: »

TChe good terminals have a chamfered entrance to the wire socket which makes it easier ti fit all the strands. There are special terminals for fine strand wire. I don't recall if the links I posted offer them. I do have a local welding shop that carries those though.

hahahaha, good catch, Don. I tried to fit my stranded wires in, and lost a few at the entrance... took the fittings back to the drill press and chamfered the openings They weren't done yet when the above pics were taken, though.

Blackcherry04 wrote: »

Let us know how you like your Meanwell Charger.

Blackcherry, I've read your concerns with the Meanwell and they were my concerns too. But, after a couple of goes with the Meanwell, it's not as bad as I initially thought. It put out nearly 35A, compared with my DLS-27-40, which put out around 43A. So, I get 8 more amps with the Iota, but the real concern is that I cannot support the Iota with the genny I have. A Honda eu2000i would also have no chance of supporting the Iota. I do have 2 Ryobi gennys and they are inverters, so I can parallel them and support the Iota that way, but the hassle of dragging up the 2nd genny which is in storage, gassing it up, then hooking up the parallel kit, is a bit more than I wanted.... just wanted something quick without the drama. But now that I've actually engaged the Meanwell, I find there are other advantages... such as, I originally thought (same as you) that the Iota was far superior as it is not a smart charger so will ignore other loads (such as the inverter) and just do its job... the Meanwell does not like other loads, even the PV panel production coming from the Kid. Right now its cloudy and the production was only around 6A from the PV, so I open the breaker on the PV to kill production, turn off the inverter, then turn on the Meanwell.... seems like a lot; but actually, there is benefit. I then switch the loads that would normally run off the inverter into the Ryobi genny, and it handles the Meanwell (34A) PLUS the freezer PLUS the fridge.. so far. There appears to be just enough headroom in this genny to run the Meanwell at the same time as the freezer and fridge as its running at a fast idle, not maxing out yet. So its efficient use of the genny, far as I can see, when measured PV production is very light.

My real concern is this: would it be better to combine the production? If the Iota puts out 43A and the Meanwell only 35A, yes, that is 8A difference; but I have to forgo the 6A PV production by turning it off with the Meanwell. If I run the Iota, wouldn't it just combine the 6A PV production with its 43A production to yield 49A? Is that what I'm truly missing? (aside from not having to switch loads and turn off inverter)

BB. wrote: »

Remember, it does matter what the battery voltage and state of charge is... If the battery is at 50% SOC, you can put several charging sources together and as long as the battery voltage is under ~14.2 volts or so, each charging source should output near its rated output current (bulk charging).

When the battery is >~80% State of charge, and the charging voltage is 14.5-14.8 volts or so, then the charging current will be reduce (absorb stage charging) to keep the battery at the absorb charging setting.

And the charger with the highest voltage setting will carry most of the current--For example, if one charger is 14.5 volts and the other is 14.8 volts, the 14.8 volt charger will "win" and output the most current.

Eventually, each charger will use its own logic on when the battery is full (current reduction/absorb timer/etc.) and fall back to around ~13.6 volts -- The charging sources will usually make their own independent decisions... And, again, the charging source with the highest voltage set point will carry most of the current.

-Bill

Thanks Bill! for formulating that in a coherent fashion. I was thinking along those same lines but wasn't sure about how the different voltages interact with each other in their respective charging sources. The Meanwell also is a bit strange, I have seen it ramp up voltage in a 'bulk' stage, but so far I haven't really seen it hit a set ABSORB stage and hold a constant voltage... but I've been doing so many different things to the load and PV trying to get answers that I'm sure I'm at fault for driving the charge program on the Meanwell into schizophrenic convulsions. Tomorrow is supposed to be another cloudy day here, so it will give me a chance to run the Meanwell again and do some experiments with the PV production to see how it reacts with a SOC of near 70% (I usually end up near there after a long night... or maybe I'll toss on more load and drive it down near 50%? just to get some really interesting answers... for instance, maybe I can leave the PV hooked up at its anemic production in clouds and the Meanwell will hold its 35A)