More components arrived in the mail: 2 Tyco Kilovac contactors, lugs and fuses

After the last Wattson unit from UK, some components arrived in the mail wednesday and thursday:

2 Tyco Kilovac contactore, from Israel

Very nice stuff, brand new

Another package, from France


I got some help for opening the package

Some lugs, but a lot of them : M8 or 8mm and M6 or 6mm


by packs of 100 and some small glass 2A fuses

Maybe some are starting to guess what all this is for .... Stay tuned ...

SMA Solar Technology Circuit Board Assembly at SMA's German Factory

The making of SMA inverters circuit boards at their factory in Germany

ABOUT SMA
Energy that Changes

SMA Solar Technology AG is a global leader in the development, production and sales of PV inverters and, as an energy management group, offers innovative key technologies for future power supply structures. SMA is represented in all important photovoltaics markets in 19 countries on four continents. The company has a staff of over 5,500 and reached a sales volume of EUR 1.7 billion in 2011.

Inverters are the heart of every PV plant
Technologically, the inverter is the most important component of a PV plant. It converts the direct current generated in the photovoltaic cells into alternating current compliant with the grid requirements -- for self-consumption or feed-in to the power distribution grid. As an intelligent system manager, it also monitors both the PV array and the power distribution grid. SMA inverters already perform important grid management functions, which are becoming increasingly important as electricity production from renewable sources grows. SMA has been developing leading technological solutions and pioneering trends in this area for years and is driving future-oriented topics. For instance, these include intelligent energy management at a household level, grid integration of solar power and connecting storage facilities for more effective use of renewable energy.

For all Performance Classes and Plant Sizes
SMA has an extensive range of products, which offers the right inverters for all module types and plant sizes; for small residential systems as well as large scale plants, grid-connected installations as well as stand-alone and backup systems all over the world. Plant monitoring and visualization products as well as energy management solutions complete the portfolio.In addition to this, SMA customers worldwide benefit from comprehensive services: from support in installation and commissioning of PV plants to quick and uncomplicated device replacement service in Germany and worldwide, and the free SMA Service Line for technical questions. The company also provides training for plant planners, installers, electrically qualified persons and anybody interested in solar power in seminars as part of the SMA Solar Academy.

SMA has received numerous awards for its product solutions and exceptional corporate culture. In 2011 and 2012, the company achieved first place in the German "Great Place to Work®" competition in the category for companies with over 5,000 employees.

Go Motorboard 2000X at the park / Broken throttle spring

Last sunday, after charging my Go Motorboard 2000X, I took it to the park for the kids who enjoyeda lot and taking turns withfriends who were discovering it (parents too since it was the first time I brought it there)

After an hour or so, my son came to me saying that the throttle was loose, and for the first time, I realized that the spring might have broke or detach itself, so they continued with two fingers on it, one for accelarting, the other one for pushing it back to stop acceleration

Once home, I opened the throttle assembly to try fix this spring

This is what it looks like inside: a PCB and a big potentiometer

These LEDs are showing the state of charge

Bottom line: the spring was broken in two, and after trying for a little hour extending it, I could not make this work; So a quick fix was to put a thick rubber band externally that will do the exact same thing ...

Go Motorboard 2000X next to the ESS (One day I will convert it to LiFePO4 ... with small cells)

After some testing and curling, it works fine !

Electronic Parts Store : 2 Capacitors, 2 Resistors & more

Saturday, I finally went to an electronics dealer in the southern close suburb of Paris and found some resistors and capacitors of different values to test in my search of a decent Economizer for my Tyco Kilovac EV200A1ANA Contactor

As I was there I also got some wide Heat Shrink, and a Solder sucker

82 and 68 Ohms 10W resistors

3300uF and 2200uF 35V capacitors

And back home, I tried every combination of resistor and capacitor and finally found out that the 82Ohms resistor along with the 4700uF capacitor was OK, especially at - low - 25V starting voltage - when the pack is empty -

and comsumption is quite low, around 0,3A at 25V, which should be around 8W

So these are the components I will mount on the ESS Control Board along with / next to the EV200A1ANA contactor, as soon as I find time for this  

Some more Electronic Components arrived in the mail last night

Last night, I received some more components to continue building the new DIY ESS Control Board: relays, straps, wires, etc

At the same time, I continued the bottom balancing of the rest of the cells and started over with the first ones which show, a day later, 2.77V to 2.81V

Zoe - Under the hood

2012 Paris Motor Show

Welcome to Planet Zoe !

Let's see what's under the hood

Relays and Electronics arrived

Some more Relays and Electronics arrived yesterday, I can now start playing with all that and hopefully will be posting some more soon

I was never really interested in electronics before I really started to work on this project, so I have to buy the starter's kit (bread bord, wires, resistors, capacitors, LEDs, potentiometer, switches, buttons, mini servo,) :-)

This is how I would set up my 6 5V / 220V relays to activate the Grid Tie Inverters

PS: For those of you who might wonder what this pieces of wood are: They come from Japanese Fishcakes, very usefull :-)