Ancestors

Written by Wandering Hermit on 2025-01-19 at 02:19

Doing an upgrade on the solar system for the horse barn. Bigger battery, bigger solar controller, bigger solar panel. Got everything done except the panel upgrade, I'm short on sleep and decided that it was not a good idea to climb around with a drill on a metal roof while experiencing brain fog.

Maybe tomorrow.

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Written by Wandering Hermit on 2025-01-19 at 02:25

And yes, @ai6yr, all connections are soldered. Picture me standing on a ladder, butane soldering iron in hand, roll of solder clamped in my teeth...

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Written by AI6YR Ben on 2025-01-19 at 02:30

@wanderinghermit LOL I have tried soldering on a ladder... it was... dodgy.

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Toot

Written by Wandering Hermit on 2025-01-19 at 02:33

@ai6yr

Actually it turns out soldering is easier than shrinking the heat shrink tubing. With a disposable lighter. On a ladder. On a breezy day.

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Descendants

Written by tk on 2025-01-19 at 03:17

@wanderinghermit @ai6yr I went with crimping everything and using MC4 connectors.

Soldering is not up to code here because when high currents (up to 35A regular current per string) heat up the connection it could in theory melt the solder.

Here my fuse box for the roof system.

10A Fuses with 3 Strings for each east/west side of the roof merging into one 16mm² connection with over voltage protection:

=> View attached media

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Written by AI6YR Ben on 2025-01-19 at 03:19

@tk @wanderinghermit My MC4 crimps were substandard, and I think my first batch of MC4 connectors were poorly made overseas (out of spec) ripoffs. The ones that replaced them are from an more well known RV solar brand, so they seem a bit better.

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Written by tk on 2025-01-19 at 03:29

@ai6yr @wanderinghermit TBH most of my equipment was a few dollars on Aliexpress. My first MC4 came from a PV company and were also worse than the ones from china

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