New Talking MPPT Charge Controller ?

nigtomdaw
nigtomdaw Solar Expert Posts: 705 ✭✭
in Solar Product Reviews & Opinions #1
This could be an absolute Classic,

http://www.midnightsolar.com/

8)

Your Batteries Are Fully Charged Please Instruct Your Better half to Finish the Vacumning and Start Ironing :p

or

Batteries are serverely malnourished u Plonker Start Generator Dooh:grr
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  • halfcrazy
    halfcrazy Solar Expert Posts: 720 ✭✭✭
    #2
    Re: New Talking MPPT Charge Controller ?

    yes i already have many things i can imagine having it say or do the possibility's are endless. i have a buddy that is very noise sensitive i can see making the Classic make a sound like someone Knocking at the front door randomly in the night.
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  • Robin Gudgel
    Robin Gudgel Registered Users, Solar Expert Posts: 58 ✭✭
    #3
    Re: New Talking MPPT Charge Controller ?

    We are just designing the hardware in order to make speech possible. boB needs to get the meat of the controller further along before he can spend much time on the speach aspect of the Classic. This gives you all time to e-mail him your crazy,not so crazy and halfcrazy requests for speach. boB was just telling me that it might even be possible to redirect the speaker to act as a microphone. Don't get your hopes up though on that one. The speach thing is a novelty and we will have a lot of fun with it. We do not yet know how much memory we will be able to devote to it, but as the requests come in, we may just decide to add more memory. So please e-mail boB at bob@midnitesolar.com.
    Thanks,
    Robin Gudgel
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  • niel
    niel Solar Expert Posts: 10,300 ✭✭✭✭
    #4
    Re: New Talking MPPT Charge Controller ?

    hi robin,
    a talking controller sounds interesting, but can i ask why? what would it say about what and to whom especially if nobody is there at the time? if you do this many will not like the added costs of a talking controller so optional it could and should be at best. no offense and i know i'm being somewhat blunt about this, but i think if my refrigerator talked to me that may be more useful as it can keep me on my diet for i don't want to see my sugar levels approach 200 again.
    i would think it more important to getting a good working controller to the market with useful inovative features than to try adding stuff like this to it. maybe you should throw in an am/fm radio with cd player. sorry about the sarcasm, but maybe try to expand with computer interfacing or somelike like that, but speech? hope that isn't why it's been taking so long to get the classic done. it's been about 4 years now i think since boB made the announcement and promised to a few of us we'd get prototypes. i don't expect with my criticism that i'd get one and after this long i don't care, but it's not the first time i've fallen on a knife for others as i could've just kept my mouth shut and kissed your butts to try to get one. you and boB have great potentials and abilities and we would hate to not see more of the 2 of you being inventive that could further the ability of those wishing to have and produce their own power better and more reliably. gotta go, my car is calling me.
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  • Robin Gudgel
    Robin Gudgel Registered Users, Solar Expert Posts: 58 ✭✭
    #5
    Re: New Talking MPPT Charge Controller ?

    Niel, We needed to add more memory for the world maps that will be stored in the Classic. Upon researching memory I found that the 512K we had been planning would cost about $2.00. I also found that 16 megs was only about $5.00. That would be enough for the maps and a few megs to spare. The MX60 has only 32K of memory. I always wanted to have a talking controller when I was at OutBack, but it just wasn't feasible at that time. I found a speaker for about $.50 so that is the only real cost. Not bad huh? Now what are we going to have it say... we frankly don't know yet, but I'm sure you will change your tune once you see it. By the way, we have not spent any time on this feature yet. The Classic is taking a long time due to resource limitations not speach. We have only been gone from OutBack for three years, but it is still taking a very long time. Useful innovative features? Of course the Classic will be jam packed with industry firsts. You mention computer interface. We have RS232, USB and ethernet built in as standard. Haven't you read the product development update on our website? Shame shame. We are in early beta testing now for solar and wind and should be redesigning all the printed circuit boards very soon. Once the new boards are in, we can start the industry beta testing. By the way, you will be getting one of the very few betas that are free. Most everyone will have to pay a much reduced price for theirs. I can't wait to see your reaction when you get the real thing!
    Thanks,
    Robin Gudgel
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  • halfcrazy
    halfcrazy Solar Expert Posts: 720 ✭✭✭
    #6
    Re: New Talking MPPT Charge Controller ?

    Neil I can assure you it will be worth the wait i have played with the wind and solar version and the features are just to many to list. Robin and boB really addressed a lot of the shortcomings in the industry. I wont try to list the features here as i am not positive how many of them Robin wants out yet. But they have gone as far as to make the display optional to save money so if you had 4 controllers for a large solar array you only need 1 display. Also from my conversations with robin the Talking was small feature and really took no time or resources it is really just a feature of all the extra memory. This controller is going to be able to record and handle a lot of different data. So hang in there it wont be long boB is real close. we just need everyone to hope for sun in Arlington

    1/2
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  • niel
    niel Solar Expert Posts: 10,300 ✭✭✭✭
    #7
    Re: New Talking MPPT Charge Controller ?

    ok if i'm wrong about anything i am man enough to apologize. i did get the initial word of this longer than 3 years ago for i was getting to wonder why at the time of my major medical incidents that what boB had said was taking so long beyond his word then and both of you didn't leave at the same time. it doesn't matter as long as it comes to be, although my reactions here may just be my frustration on waiting so long when being told time and again by both of you how close it was to fruition regardless of whether i get one or not.
    i did only give computer interfacing as an example of something useful, but i admit that i wasn't aware of the number of interfaces as i gave up on following its progress a few years ago because it was like watching a clock without knowing the actual time i'd be waiting for. did you develope software too? if so is it vista compatible, ms's lastest piece of crap? i know it was supposed to go well with wind generators too, but these days there aren't many reliable machines to put it to.
    i don't get to go to any solar events for many reasons so i never had the pleasure of seeing some of this stuff, let alone meeting some of you guys.
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  • Robin Gudgel
    Robin Gudgel Registered Users, Solar Expert Posts: 58 ✭✭
    #8
    Re: New Talking MPPT Charge Controller ?

    Niel, We are pretty frustrated with the length of time it has taken for the Classic. There are forces at work that have attempted to destroy MidNite Solar. We have been working on this with extremely limited time and funds due to a situation beyond our control. Never the less, it hasn't dampened our dedication to this project. There is a reason we are called MidNite Solar. That is the time we are working on it! Pretty sad, but you do what you have to do to get the job done.
    I don't know about Vista yet, but I am sure we will be able to interface with it. There will be numerous third parties writing software for the Classic. We want to include Mac users too.
    Don't you live down in the Southwestern desert? Maybe we will just have to bring you a Classic. We get down there every so often. There isn't much sunshine up here, so some of the testing must be done elsewhere. The initial wind testing is to be done in Montana where the wind never stops blowing. Logan Bryce of Chinook Turbines is a beta test site. That is a nice little 200 watt turbine worth looking at. Do you have any wind? I might be able to arrange something interesting for you.
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  • niel
    niel Solar Expert Posts: 10,300 ✭✭✭✭
    #9
    Re: New Talking MPPT Charge Controller ?

    no current opportunity for wind at my location near pittsburgh as i have trees that tower up high close to my property that i can't do much about and i sit midway on the side slant of a steep hillside so there's not enough clearance. i do have wind here, but the eddy currents would sheer the turbine. i think it may be workable for a vertical axis turbine though sometime in the future if i can situate it on at least a 40ft tower to at least clear the houses because a vawt doesn't care about wind direction and thusly takes away the destructiveness of most of the sheers.
    unfortunately, this area isn't known for its vast sunshine either, but it isn't due to the steel mills any longer as most of them have gone under and the few remaining in a radius of 75 miles are much cleaner now than when i was growing up in this area.
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  • nigtomdaw
    nigtomdaw Solar Expert Posts: 705 ✭✭
    #10
    Re: New Talking MPPT Charge Controller ?

    Gee Niel,boB,Robin hey I,ve got loads of sunshine do u want it canning 4u. Whilst I can see where Niels frustration ebs from, (I had a savings fund for the new XW CC, bought a Yatch the day b4 it shipped) but I do like my gadgets always have always will, guess I need Scotty to tell me ( I Kirk for the serious ) that my poly moly di lith crystals will not make the next warp jump to tomorrow without firing up the hydro carbon oscillating conversion muncher. Sorry Robin that u have run into a clash with the Borg,or was it the Ferengi :grr

    Nigel:p
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  • nigtomdaw
    nigtomdaw Solar Expert Posts: 705 ✭✭
    #11
    Re: New Talking MPPT Charge Controller ?

    Quick question Robin what is top right on the classic ?
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  • halfcrazy
    halfcrazy Solar Expert Posts: 720 ✭✭✭
    #12
    Re: New Talking MPPT Charge Controller ?

    That is the external cooling fan called the Turbo. it basically channels the air over the heatsink on the exterior allowing the Classic to be pumped up a bit farther
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  • Robin Gudgel
    Robin Gudgel Registered Users, Solar Expert Posts: 58 ✭✭
    #13
    Re: New Talking MPPT Charge Controller ?

    Ryan described the Turbo pretty well. The Classic has two small fans internally. These fans have a great airflow path to help get the heat away from the components, but when the Classic is used in sealed mode, the internal fans just circulate. We have some internal fins to help transfer heat from the inside of the casting to the outside, but in sealed mode you will always take a hit on continuous power. We added the external Turbo fan (top right) to aid in the case where things are sealed. It adds about 20 to 25% more power by keeping the Fets cooler. We hadn't planned on adding the Turbo for the regular vented mode, but when used in that fashion, the Classic is REALLY powerful!!! The Turbo will be standard on all Classics so every system gets to take advantage of the added cooling (increased efficiency).
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