For some reason, watching you tap that heat sink reminded me of an old friend (who's sadly no longer with us). He needed a quite specific high amperage adjustable power supply for some DIY electronics project he was working on, but the only PSU he could find that fulfilled his criteria cost significantly more than he was willing to pay, so he designed and built the PSU himself ! He was an electronics engineer by trade, and a fabrications engineer as a hobby, so he masked and acid etched the double sided circuit board himself, soldered everything together himself, and then machined a bloody great billet aluminium heatsink/enclosure for it in his own little home workshop (His "Shed" was a pretty big 2 car garage sized brick building at the end of his garden with a really nice tool room grade lathe and milling machine in it, so he wasn't messing about with hacksaws and hand files here). The finished result looked really amazing, like a high end limited production run type product, and he was understandably chuffed with how well it worked and how good it looked........... But being British blokes, I couldn't just let him sit there looking all proud of his achievement. So I asked him how many hours it had taken to design and make the thing, and he told me. Then I asked how much the materials had cost, if he got the option of overtime at work, and what sort of overtime rate they offered? We worked out that he'd have been able to go to work and earnt the money needed to buy the one that "Cost significantly more than he was willing to pay" in less than a quarter of the time it took him to make his.......... Then we laughed about it for a bit, and I took him out for a pub lunch. Anyway, back to the reason I started writing a comment here. Larger heatsinks can get ridiculously expensive, so if anyone else is thinking of building one of these, a good source of heatsinks is from obsolete (10 to 15 year old), small form factor PC's. They can often be got for either nothing or beer money, and most have a pretty chunky low profile heatsink on the CPU. The best ones come from big brand PC manufacturers like HP, Dell, and Lenovo/IBM as they tend to have large custom made heatsinks that don't rely on a lot of forced airflow (And the extra noise that this involves) to keep the CPU cool. If you get really lucky, some have hybrid aluminium/copper heatsinks in them that hoover heat off components like nobody's business, and some will even have a convenient fan attached that could easily be wired up to a cheap thermal switch to offer a little extra protection for if the board it's bolted to does manage to get hot.
@@maxpert9 the assembly is usually for most if not all components. In this case you cant just buy the individual parts and make your own, you have to buy a "kit".
Most self-engineered solutions where started because of missing features, not because there where no alternatives. I for once don't see a possibility to modify the firmware or even easily grab the metrics for monitoring on this unit.
Hi Adam, I would suggest tapping and putting a screw through all the holes to hold the mosfets onto the heat sinks to prevent any chance of there being heat build up and doing damage.
That is ESSENTIAL to get any kind of thermal contact. The slightest air gap and you'll have worse than a free standing FET with unobstructed airflow. This guy has NO IDEA what he is doing. Typical Utube content.
For 12V configuration I cant find MPPT charger controller with more than 1000 watts solar panel input so I decided to use wide input high efficient Switch mode power supply 12v 60Amp X 2nos. Instead of AC input I have to give solar panel series-ed input of voltage range between 90-280vdc to get maximum 120Amp CC.
My kit came in today's mail. I sat down to mark the heat sink and it seems you missed a heatsink screw hole. There are 3 holes for holding the hot components to the heat sink. Look at the board in the image at 8:48. Both primary MOSFETS have mounting holes and there's a "clamp" hole between the 2 smaller devices at the right. You might be OK with using the 2 outer holes but I'd question how much clamping force is holding the 2 outer devices against the heatsink when using one outer hole and the inner hole.
I thought the soldering iron was coming out. No instructions on assembly isn't good and somebody could just screw everything to a heatsink and blow things. Can the voltage output be varied? I bought one from Maplins and found it was undercharging and a sealed potted unit which was destroyed when I tried to get into it.
Nice work Adam! Tapping Aluminium is (usually) a pretty easy job and you don't have to worry about the whole turn anti-clockwise a little with it, only for harder metals such as 304 and 316 stainless when the metal chips are considerably harder. Tip for the future; tapping anodised aluminium such as heatsinks is also usually made a little easier with some WD-40.
@@AdamWelchUK Not a problem. Unless your taps are extremely old or have been biting through some tough metal they should be ok still. Just be careful that they're not too fatigued because removing stuck and especially broken taps is almost impossible as taps are harder than drill bits.
Also, you could have drilled the very top of your hole with a 3mm bit, it just makes it easier to get going without it wobbling all over the place :) (I use the same tap kit)
Interesting, my experience is the exact opposite. I've power-tapped literally tens of thousands of holes in SS316 over the last 7 years, from M3 to M20, and never once backed out until the thread was complete, only ever snapped two taps(one M3 and one M6) in that whole time. Aluminium on the other hand, back-out frequently and even then have snapped many a tap trying to 'save time' by going just that little bit too long between backouts. Nothing ruins your work day like snapping a tap does.
HAve to be careful with claims that don't specify what is producing that efficiency - many refer to the mppt tracking efficiency, not overall throughput efficiency.
@@peterdkay I didn't pick that up Peter - thanks for pointing it out. As you say, some comprehensive tests are definitely required. I doubt the power efficiency claim, though the mppt efficiency isn't too hard to believe.
Peter, you may be interested in this vid where the guy does a test on efficiency on the MakeSkyBlue assembled controller and gets 97.75% in->out efficiency ruclips.net/video/GpPLk2sOG0U/видео.html. They actually look like a good unit.
Just trying to get up to speed with solar power controllers. I may be wrong, but it seems to me that the purpose of the controller is to match the high impedance of a solar panel to the low impedance of a battery. You don't get an efficient transfer of power with an impedance mismatch. Is it basically that simple?
Really keen to see if there is actually a way to truly BUILD a useful and viable DIY MPPT solar charge controller? Or is it simply not worth the time/effort and money?
Julian Ilett is working on one - as I’m sure other people are. However the time and effort have to be weighed up against the cost of an off the shelf unit. What price can you put on knowledge and experience though?
Wonder if one can parallel these modules to handle higher currents? They would need to communicate settings so only one configuration process is required.
@@AdamWelchUK Do you foresee any problems connecting one of these kits to each of my 325W (MPP V=18V, I = 18A) x 3 solar panels and charging a single 24V AGM battery by all three Adam? It is the cheapest way to run 975W of solar panels on my camper.
More assembly than building. I'd have loved something like this but it's 20A for lead-acid and I needed 50A for LiFePO4 which doesn't come in kit form.
I was expecting you to bolt the tabs of each of the mosfets/diodes to the heatsink. it's more work, but less likely to blow mosfets when metal warms up and the paste dries out. Seen one chinese design which blows mosfets after a month or so, it too relies on pushing the mosfets against the heatsink.
Hello! i have similar DIY plate mppt controler! I have a problem, when battery's have a fully charge. MPPT controler do not more set float charge voltage up to 13.3v . And after sunset , and night mode turn on, i have only 12,8v on batery's.. Maybe problems have with another capacitors? Becouse on your's plate stay 80v/390mF capacitor, but in my plate i have 100v/240mF capacitor.. Can you maybe understand , where the problemem.. and i have second problem. On the mppt conterller connect 135.watt mono cristaline panel , but mppt on LCD shows maximum input only 44.w .
Hey Adam, I think the plastic screw washer insulator is not insulating anything the way you put it. It must go through the hole of the mosfets of To220 packages. With your setup, there is possibility that the screw thread will be touching the mosfet hole and shorts mosfet to heatsink. Try to put the plastic screw insulator from the other side at the bottom layer of your pcb on the front side of the mosfet hole (not on the back, so there will be no air gap between mosfet and heatsink when you screw them together) then put the screw from the top layer of your pcb.
The washer should be preventing the screw working away at the solder mask and connecting to the copper tracks on the top side of the board. The screws go through the large mosfets. They have insulation around the hole going through them. I’ll double check, so thanks for pointing it out, but I think it should be ok.
I built my own years ago. Designed it all myself too. It worked-ish. Decent efficiency, but my approach to monitoring the output power was flawed from the beginning.
@@AdamWelchUK It sort of worked. Inspired by the 'MuPPeT' project. It certainly did the MPPT right, I was able to measure it doing that. Rather a nice transistor drive approach in it, too. My mistake was in monitoring output voltage, but not current, in order to determine how much power it was outputting - an approach which works nicely when you are driving a simple resistive test load or charging a flat battery, but goes quite crazy when interacting with a battery charge circuit or under very low loads, as it tries to determine how to optimally transfer power into a load that won't draw it. I am sure I could have made it work a lot better if I had been motivated to invest more time in the project.
The video is excellent. But I have a confusion, how you can measure DC current with a tong tester / clamp meter ? I guess that is for AC. Or it id Hall sensor based ?
It has a hall sensor and can measure both ac and dc current. You just have to remember to select the right mode and zero it out for dc. I’ve been very pleased with the clamp meter.
The pdf is online search makeskyblue, 3.0 is the amps i to the battery, how does the load D0 work. D0 1 keeps light on for 1.5 hours? Please do a review of this DO option. The 60 amp unit also has the same 1 watt ghost load.
3.0 is night mode no charging. D00 24 is the load is on 24 hours a day. 18 is input PV voltage is low. Manual is www.makeskyblue.com/files/V117%20MPPT%20Solar%20Charge%20Controller%202018.pdf
Seems it comes on at night like most of these Chinese controllers. But looking at this mppt I see no fuse. I really like this unit so far, but I worry about long term safety. Seems easier to use than the eco-worthy. They have a new model out too. I like going 12V or 24V for safety too. 48V and you are pushing it. If you have a 6 KW array you need 6 of these 60A mppt controllers. Also it has a fan on the 60A so just one more thing to break.
Is an MPPT controller just a DC to DC converter? But it varies the panel current or voltage until it finds max power. Can you do that with a buck converter??
I am no expert but have the same question, I think what makes the difference is that a 'meant for the purpose of using solar panels as raw input power for charging batteries device', is the higher speed at which a high end MPPT controller processes the sudden changes in power supply, such as a sunny day with many little clouds, to stay at max power point under the given circumstance. A buck converter may work well on a all sunny day, but could lack fast recovery when input voltages change rapidly on half cloudy days, leading to poor efficiency. but that's just my guess. cheers.
has anyone tested these @ 48v battery ? the sales rep said they could if large heat sink was added , unsure if this is accurate or not how ever especially with that 50v output cap
Adam could you point me in the right Solar Charge controller direction if My panel has an open voltage of 76V (Thin Film tech) and I would like to charge 18650 Lithium cells in whatever xSyP combination is best.
I really like the price of this Charger unfortunately according to the product description it is only suitable for Lead acid batteries perhaps because of the built in temperature compensation that could cause it to over charge other battery types such as LiFePO4 when it got cold. I guess one could rely on the BMS or a separate disconnect when the charging voltage got too high. I assume the firmware does not allow one to disable the built in temperature compensation. Or one could find the thermistor and replace with the appropriate resistor to fool it not to use temp compensation. Another problem to consider is that many charge controllers can get damaged if the battery is disconnected while the solar panels are still connected. Or like mentioned in the description we can buy one ready made for $37.00 more rated at 30 amps with case built in fan and can work with lithium batteries. Probably worth it.
Yes you finally got round to these! I did a video on them last year (yOCtxc4aA68) there brilliant BUT they dont disconnect from the battery so at night they pull the battery down, if they pull it too low, they shutdown and next morning dont come back up! I was told that for 200w of panel you dont need a heatsink by the seller but.....yeah i dont mind putting a heatsink on. didnt you get a manual? i did, its online though, I also tried to probe the 5 extra pins but could not get any sensible data from them, I think there for daisy chaing. also theres space on the board for an opto coupler so it maybe was planned to also connect to a remote screen and lots of wiring regs require isolation
Thanks for test but why does everyone "confirm" MPPT if output current greater than input? Better to compare with known MPPT controller (identical PC, wire, sun, etc.). Buck DC-DC would look about the same. Draining battery at night gets NO vote.
Well at least the CN3722 board you tested was getting 89.8-96% efficiency like it stated in the description lol. Obviously depends on how much power your consuming
ty 4 ur vid .... ... good luck finding info ... the manual gives very little... i have the 60amp mppt,,, i cant get it to charge correctly... *UPDATE ... i found the problem... i had corrosion build up on my conections between my batteries. i cleaned em and added dieletric grease and all great (whent through all my conections the same)... man i get lots of power now :) dont pay to assume lol
Think that maybe a fake board as there is no MakeSkyBlue logo on the board also on the oficial MakeSkyBlue website they dont make a kit. Question is though is it any good.
HI ADAM WHICH CHEAP MPPT CONTROL CHARGER DO YOU OR WOULD YOU USE YOURSELF I SAW YOU ONE ON THE CPT-LA10 & CPY-241-/CPS MODEL I HAVE 12OW PANEL USING A PWM UNIT THAT CAME WITH IT THANKS DAVE LIVERPOOL
As I said in the video I think the reasons for wanting one out of a case are limited although I can think of a few. I’d buy a more commercial product unless you have a specific reason to want this one. Cheers Howard.
That 100ma drain does not compare favorably to the 15.7 ma drain of my Tracer 3210A controller with the load OFF or about 33ma with the load ON and no load connected. The price, size and "splitability" would otherwise be attractive for a couple of projects.
I respect my brother I have been using one for about two months now it works well since week I saw as much as 15amps coming from it off a 250w panel and it is cheap
If money was not a consideration, then yes... and I do I love the tracer 32x series... but this does compare favourably _for the price_ ... unless you have a really small battery bank, at which point a 20a charge controller probably isn't desirable or sensible. ;)
The MakeSkyBlue controllers (at least back to version 113 firmware) have an option for lithium. Unless you're using one with the newest firmware (version 118) the voltage setting isn't as fine as you might prefer for the higher voltage lithium packs (0.4 volt steps for a 48 volt pack).
i NOT want build, i want buy good cheap board were can charging my 12V 18650 4cell4P battery pack. because 3 cell have too low volt and 4P have maximum what i can made no have more battery my battery power wall at solar panel elektric wall. but what charger can buy ????????
Nice video. When are you going to do some update video on lithium batteries and diyBMS? diyBMS updated software on GitHub for your problem with temperature. Keep up with great work!
thats not actually true, for the smaller metric ones its usually a 0.8 multiplyer. So for M3 a 2.4 mm drill is the perfect chioce but you can get away with 2.5 and that is more available thats for sure.
@@szaszafaja I have always tapped an M2.5 hole for M3 bolts... The important thing to note is the pitch and the thread depth, most threads are .25 deep
Hi Adam, good video. Currently I am planing how to do power supply system but, instead using solar panels using a power utility (diesel power generator). So the system would be: ( UTILITY) -- (AC to DC REGULATOR) -- (MPPT CHARGER CONTROLLER) -- (48V BATTERY BANK-INVERTERS) Do you think it's good idea, or better charging batteries directly with a PWM charger?
@@ursodermatt8809 maximum power point tracking. In a 19v or 38v system any shading will as it is drop the voltage below a usable potential. So why use a mppt...
@@whatever465456 no solar panel, no charge controller will work in shaded condition very well. there are many reasons for mppt controllers they are more efficient they can work with a much higher pv voltage without bigger losses. they are usually more programmable. many mppt controllers have lots of features you will not find in pwm controllers. and they are more expensive though
@@ursodermatt8809 agreed. In higher voltages mppt makes a lot of sense 50-200v. But if an individual is willing to give up on amp production/ monitoring and the panels are in a 19v or 38v setup then I feel that a buck converter clamped at CV of the battery and CC of the panal MPP will work better then a pwm.
I can give....I have lot of product like mppt ....sinewave inverter...etc....using dspic30f2010....I can support with source code...pcb all details.contact me on watsapp---+917012170144
Quick maths suggests 80% efficiency, it looks ok for the price but i think i shall stick with my noisy mpt-7210 a's. My solar and battery monitor manager has evolved slightly again, the front end is getting better all the time and i am currently waiting on jlc delivering me some nice pcb's although the design may be changing "again" lol.
you cannot conclude this from this youtube video. the charger might have reduced output in absorption mode. the manual claims something like 98%. on another video they compared quite neatly in efficiency to expense mppt controllers. (efficiency wise)
@@trickyriky1 i said the "manual claims" well yes, you use what ever you think will suit you. as far as i am concerned if i order it it would be for experimental purposes only. certainly not relaying to run the house. the youtube video where that bloke compared a blue sky to a midnite classic, the blue sky showed slightly more efficiency. so they almost certainly more efficient than 80%. what do you think is the efficiency of your noisy mpt-7210 ?. just curious
@@ursodermatt8809 Right at this moment i honestly cant remember the efficiency, but i have seen them put up to 300 watts into my batteries from 255 watt panels in the height of summer. I really cant fault them other than the noisy fans. As for this device, from the vid you seen maybe they are better than i'm giving credit for, i would be curious how they hold up after a year or 2 of operation but i still don't envision me investing in any. I would need at least 2 of them if i was to replace my current 4 mpt7210s. If i was to buy 1 it would certainly be the complete unit with heatsink and case just to run alongside my existing setup and compare them. But that really is an if. :)
Hey Adam, Love your channel its really good! I am going to buy one of these, i have 8 solar panels but only 1 mppt hybrid inverter. Since there is some shading here and there i was thinking to connect 4 panels to the hybrid inverter with the mppt and then connect 2 of these units to 2 solar panels each. The panels are 285 Wp. Now do you think that there is a problem if you charge the battery from three sources? Will the interfere with each other you think?
It was very efficient... The output watts was just under the input watts. Also the controller did not pull down the voltage of the two solar panels that was in series to the voltage of the battery but kept the input voltage of those panels at their most efficient point of about 18V x 2 = 36 volts. definitely MPPT. No need for FULL sun to prove it is working as an MPPT
What if i dont want to make my own mppt.what if i want to just buy myself an mppt.what if i dont want to use ebay.com.what if i want to use alibaba.com what do u say about that.
no matter what internet shop you use, but not amazon, normal amazon have all ower price and only idiot pay ower price same parts other shop buy lot cheapen, totally same parts. ept, amazon sell somethink elektric board 50$ plus 50$ shipping, wery expensive because ALL other shop sell same parts 4$ and FREE shipping. this is true 99% all amazon parts.
Any more on this beast ? What issues is the Pos Ground going to bring to play ? Guessing I won't be able to use a Common Neg Ground in conjunction with this charge controller. That would bypass the current sensing on the MakeSky Blue ? I received the one ordered. Have mounted on decent Heat Sink (Managing to keep the PCB Square and level on same. Snerkkkkk Snerk ) . In order to keep the Fets Isolated from Heat Sink I simply covered heat sink with Kapton Tape I had on hand. Just waiting for a enclosure at this time. www.ebay.com/itm/Tone-Aluminium-Heat-Diffuse-Heat-Sink-Wide-Cooling-Fin-100x100x18mm-US/153288134599?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649
Still Futzing here waiting for a decent enclosure. May just install open frame on my control board. Create a front panel of fashions and have a go at it that way.
What is the point of doing MPPT if the extra power gained is lost again in the conversion. 100W in 78W out is very poor. A proper solar charger e.g. a genasun claims 96%-98% efficiency. Even with my own uMPPT I measure 96% efficiency.
That 96% peak is probably in a fairly limited voltage range though isn’t it? In these quick tests it’s difficult for me to put these units in their best environment. I generally look at cheap units and they have their limitations.
Hi Adam, you are right that in general the efficiency depends on the voltage drop Vmpp - Vbat. But this 96% is reached for a 12V system when Vmpp ~ 17 and Vbat ~ 12-13. It is even specially designed for this range because that is the relevant range were you want the least conversion loss, maximizing the power that goes into your battery. When the battery is getting full and charge current is reduced by the controller to avoid overcharging, the panel voltage will go up and the efficiency will go down but in this stage MPP is not relevant because charge current is throttled anyway. Also conversion efficiency is less relevant in that case. The point I want to make is that in practice the extra power you gain by tracking is about 20% under good conditions. If that energy is wasted in the conversion than that product is useless and may be even dangerous because it gets hot. That also goes for cheap units ;-)
For some reason, watching you tap that heat sink reminded me of an old friend (who's sadly no longer with us). He needed a quite specific high amperage adjustable power supply for some DIY electronics project he was working on, but the only PSU he could find that fulfilled his criteria cost significantly more than he was willing to pay, so he designed and built the PSU himself !
He was an electronics engineer by trade, and a fabrications engineer as a hobby, so he masked and acid etched the double sided circuit board himself, soldered everything together himself, and then machined a bloody great billet aluminium heatsink/enclosure for it in his own little home workshop (His "Shed" was a pretty big 2 car garage sized brick building at the end of his garden with a really nice tool room grade lathe and milling machine in it, so he wasn't messing about with hacksaws and hand files here).
The finished result looked really amazing, like a high end limited production run type product, and he was understandably chuffed with how well it worked and how good it looked........... But being British blokes, I couldn't just let him sit there looking all proud of his achievement. So I asked him how many hours it had taken to design and make the thing, and he told me. Then I asked how much the materials had cost, if he got the option of overtime at work, and what sort of overtime rate they offered? We worked out that he'd have been able to go to work and earnt the money needed to buy the one that "Cost significantly more than he was willing to pay" in less than a quarter of the time it took him to make his.......... Then we laughed about it for a bit, and I took him out for a pub lunch.
Anyway, back to the reason I started writing a comment here. Larger heatsinks can get ridiculously expensive, so if anyone else is thinking of building one of these, a good source of heatsinks is from obsolete (10 to 15 year old), small form factor PC's. They can often be got for either nothing or beer money, and most have a pretty chunky low profile heatsink on the CPU. The best ones come from big brand PC manufacturers like HP, Dell, and Lenovo/IBM as they tend to have large custom made heatsinks that don't rely on a lot of forced airflow (And the extra noise that this involves) to keep the CPU cool. If you get really lucky, some have hybrid aluminium/copper heatsinks in them that hoover heat off components like nobody's business, and some will even have a convenient fan attached that could easily be wired up to a cheap thermal switch to offer a little extra protection for if the board it's bolted to does manage to get hot.
I misunderstood - Assemble build in my mind
Engine builders and rebuilders are really just assemblers too in that case. You didn’t say Design and Manufacture, I think you understood fine
@@maxpert9 the assembly is usually for most if not all components. In this case you cant just buy the individual parts and make your own, you have to buy a "kit".
I like all your videos, you have lot of things i m actually trying to use or to understand
Thanks Fabio. I appreciate it.
Not much assembly needed there! Glad to see you found a cheap one that actually works. I'm still on my PWM controller and it's still kinda working.
pwm charger have big shit, MPPT have lot better safety and safe battery longlive better.
Exactly how what people need. This field is full of bogus self-engineered “solutions” created by inexperienced or untrained people.
Great job.
Most self-engineered solutions where started because of missing features, not because there where no alternatives. I for once don't see a possibility to modify the firmware or even easily grab the metrics for monitoring on this unit.
it has no logging, but does show input and output voltage and current on two different screens.
MakeSkyBlue have a good reputation for their solar controllers so this kit might be a good buy.
I learn so much from your video on MPPT charge controller
Hi Adam, I would suggest tapping and putting a screw through all the holes to hold the mosfets onto the heat sinks to prevent any chance of there being heat build up and doing damage.
That is ESSENTIAL to get any kind of thermal contact. The slightest air gap and you'll have worse than a free standing FET with unobstructed airflow. This guy has NO IDEA what he is doing. Typical Utube content.
For 12V configuration I cant find MPPT charger controller with more than 1000 watts solar panel input so I decided to use wide input high efficient Switch mode power supply 12v 60Amp X 2nos. Instead of AC input I have to give solar panel series-ed input of voltage range between 90-280vdc to get maximum 120Amp CC.
My kit came in today's mail. I sat down to mark the heat sink and it seems you missed a heatsink screw hole. There are 3 holes for holding the hot components to the heat sink. Look at the board in the image at 8:48. Both primary MOSFETS have mounting holes and there's a "clamp" hole between the 2 smaller devices at the right. You might be OK with using the 2 outer holes but I'd question how much clamping force is holding the 2 outer devices against the heatsink when using one outer hole and the inner hole.
Thanks. I’ll take another look and get the drill out again. Cheers
In my time, build meant construction from individual components with an understanding of how thing worked.
I thought the soldering iron was coming out.
No instructions on assembly isn't good and somebody could just screw everything to a heatsink and blow things. Can the voltage output be varied? I bought one from Maplins and found it was undercharging and a sealed potted unit which was destroyed when I tried to get into it.
Nice work Adam!
Tapping Aluminium is (usually) a pretty easy job and you don't have to worry about the whole turn anti-clockwise a little with it, only for harder metals such as 304 and 316 stainless when the metal chips are considerably harder. Tip for the future; tapping anodised aluminium such as heatsinks is also usually made a little easier with some WD-40.
Thanks for this. I’m not sure my taps are of the best quality, but hopefully some wd40 next time will help. Thanks again.
@@AdamWelchUK Not a problem. Unless your taps are extremely old or have been biting through some tough metal they should be ok still. Just be careful that they're not too fatigued because removing stuck and especially broken taps is almost impossible as taps are harder than drill bits.
There's a product called TAP EZE made specifically for this application
Also, you could have drilled the very top of your hole with a 3mm bit, it just makes it easier to get going without it wobbling all over the place :) (I use the same tap kit)
Interesting, my experience is the exact opposite. I've power-tapped literally tens of thousands of holes in SS316 over the last 7 years, from M3 to M20, and never once backed out until the thread was complete, only ever snapped two taps(one M3 and one M6) in that whole time. Aluminium on the other hand, back-out frequently and even then have snapped many a tap trying to 'save time' by going just that little bit too long between backouts. Nothing ruins your work day like snapping a tap does.
Great start. They claim up to 98.1% efficiency which is a bit hard to believe!
I look forward to a comprehensive test with various solar voltages.
HAve to be careful with claims that don't specify what is producing that efficiency - many refer to the mppt tracking efficiency, not overall throughput efficiency.
@@MiniLuv-1984 You could be right but they also claim 99% "PV Utilization" which I assume is MPPT efficiency.
@@peterdkay I didn't pick that up Peter - thanks for pointing it out. As you say, some comprehensive tests are definitely required. I doubt the power efficiency claim, though the mppt efficiency isn't too hard to believe.
Peter, you may be interested in this vid where the guy does a test on efficiency on the MakeSkyBlue assembled controller and gets 97.75% in->out efficiency ruclips.net/video/GpPLk2sOG0U/видео.html. They actually look like a good unit.
@@MiniLuv-1984 I have a 30a /118 version change controller.I got 94% efficiency with 2*150w 12v solar panel(voc 21v)+150ah lead acid battery.
Just trying to get up to speed with solar power controllers. I may be wrong, but it seems to me that the purpose of the controller is to match the high impedance of a solar panel to the low impedance of a battery. You don't get an efficient transfer of power with an impedance mismatch. Is it basically that simple?
Really keen to see if there is actually a way to truly BUILD a useful and viable DIY MPPT solar charge controller? Or is it simply not worth the time/effort and money?
Julian Ilett is working on one - as I’m sure other people are. However the time and effort have to be weighed up against the cost of an off the shelf unit. What price can you put on knowledge and experience though?
Tapping trick:
Put the tap in your drill press, clamp down your workpiece, and turn the tap by hand. Easy :)
Wonder if one can parallel these modules to handle higher currents? They would need to communicate settings so only one configuration process is required.
This is the baby of the group - I think they do a single unit which goes up to 70 amps.
@@AdamWelchUK Thanks Adam. I'll have a look and see what is available to suit my needs.
@@AdamWelchUK Do you foresee any problems connecting one of these kits to each of my 325W (MPP V=18V, I = 18A) x 3 solar panels and charging a single 24V AGM battery by all three Adam? It is the cheapest way to run 975W of solar panels on my camper.
Just realised that the above configuration will require boost capability from 18V to 24V...I don't think this controller can do that?
More assembly than building. I'd have loved something like this but it's 20A for lead-acid and I needed 50A for LiFePO4 which doesn't come in kit form.
I was expecting you to bolt the tabs of each of the mosfets/diodes to the heatsink.
it's more work, but less likely to blow mosfets when metal warms up and the paste dries out.
Seen one chinese design which blows mosfets after a month or so, it too relies on pushing the mosfets against the heatsink.
Hello! i have similar DIY plate mppt controler! I have a problem, when battery's have a fully charge. MPPT controler do not more set float charge voltage up to 13.3v . And after sunset , and night mode turn on, i have only 12,8v on batery's.. Maybe problems have with another capacitors? Becouse on your's plate stay 80v/390mF capacitor, but in my plate i have 100v/240mF capacitor.. Can you maybe understand , where the problemem.. and i have second problem. On the mppt conterller connect 135.watt mono cristaline panel , but mppt on LCD shows maximum input only 44.w .
Is it really necessary to put this silicone Grease between this silicone sheets ? 🤔
would like to know what the D00 is because i think there is D02 and D03 settings. i could never find out what the D settings mean.
there is d0 d1 d2 and d3.
d0 = hours to turn output load on after solar goes out fyi
@@sNEAKYnIGHTmUPPET thanks
Hey Adam, I think the plastic screw washer insulator is not insulating anything the way you put it. It must go through the hole of the mosfets of To220 packages. With your setup, there is possibility that the screw thread will be touching the mosfet hole and shorts mosfet to heatsink. Try to put the plastic screw insulator from the other side at the bottom layer of your pcb on the front side of the mosfet hole (not on the back, so there will be no air gap between mosfet and heatsink when you screw them together) then put the screw from the top layer of your pcb.
The washer should be preventing the screw working away at the solder mask and connecting to the copper tracks on the top side of the board. The screws go through the large mosfets. They have insulation around the hole going through them. I’ll double check, so thanks for pointing it out, but I think it should be ok.
Is this option still a thing? I can’t find it available anywhere.
I built my own years ago. Designed it all myself too. It worked-ish. Decent efficiency, but my approach to monitoring the output power was flawed from the beginning.
A shame it didn’t work out quite as you hoped. Another crack at it at some point?
@@AdamWelchUK It sort of worked. Inspired by the 'MuPPeT' project. It certainly did the MPPT right, I was able to measure it doing that. Rather a nice transistor drive approach in it, too. My mistake was in monitoring output voltage, but not current, in order to determine how much power it was outputting - an approach which works nicely when you are driving a simple resistive test load or charging a flat battery, but goes quite crazy when interacting with a battery charge circuit or under very low loads, as it tries to determine how to optimally transfer power into a load that won't draw it. I am sure I could have made it work a lot better if I had been motivated to invest more time in the project.
The video is excellent. But I have a confusion, how you can measure DC current with a tong tester / clamp meter ? I guess that is for AC. Or it id Hall sensor based ?
It has a hall sensor and can measure both ac and dc current. You just have to remember to select the right mode and zero it out for dc. I’ve been very pleased with the clamp meter.
Why are you only getting 90W?
maybe not scratching at the enamel of the inductor with sharp metal tools? thank you for a useful video.
Hi, can you use this for lithium ion batteries, if no, why?
So... would this be good for a 280W panel?
no matter use you 50W or 5000W panel all can charge to battery good.
@@mattivirta..... this is nonsense
Nice little project Adam 👍
Dear friend is there a kit for 60 volt 40Amp MPPT solar charge controller ??
The pdf is online search makeskyblue, 3.0 is the amps i to the battery, how does the load D0 work. D0 1 keeps light on for 1.5 hours? Please do a review of this DO option. The 60 amp unit also has the same 1 watt ghost load.
Thanks. I’ll look it up and think about if a video would be useful. Cheers
3.0 is night mode no charging. D00 24 is the load is on 24 hours a day. 18 is input PV voltage is low. Manual is www.makeskyblue.com/files/V117%20MPPT%20Solar%20Charge%20Controller%202018.pdf
Seems it comes on at night like most of these Chinese controllers. But looking at this mppt I see no fuse. I really like this unit so far, but I worry about long term safety. Seems easier to use than the eco-worthy. They have a new model out too. I like going 12V or 24V for safety too. 48V and you are pushing it. If you have a 6 KW array you need 6 of these 60A mppt controllers. Also it has a fan on the 60A so just one more thing to break.
Is an MPPT controller just a DC to DC converter? But it varies the panel current or voltage until it finds max power. Can you do that with a buck converter??
I am no expert but have the same question, I think what makes the difference is that a 'meant for the purpose of using solar panels as raw input power for charging batteries device', is the higher speed at which a high end MPPT controller processes the sudden changes in power supply, such as a sunny day with many little clouds, to stay at max power point under the given circumstance. A buck converter may work well on a all sunny day, but could lack fast recovery when input voltages change rapidly on half cloudy days, leading to poor efficiency. but that's just my guess. cheers.
this MPPT design used buck boost or only buck? thank's
Just buck.
R31 looks like a high current jumper (0 ohm resistor).
has anyone tested these @ 48v battery ? the sales rep said they could if large heat sink was added , unsure if this is accurate or not how ever especially with that 50v output cap
the links you gave are dead, any where else to buy the controller
Nice project 👍
Love the heatsink, have one myself... Its too nice to use as a heatsink, so its a paper weight.
You can snap the end of the blade of your utility knife off for a fresh sharp edge you know.
Adam could you point me in the right Solar Charge controller direction if My panel has an open voltage of 76V (Thin Film tech) and I would like to charge 18650 Lithium cells in whatever xSyP combination is best.
I really like the price of this Charger unfortunately according to the product description it is only suitable for Lead acid batteries perhaps because of the built in temperature compensation that could cause it to over charge other battery types such as LiFePO4 when it got cold. I guess one could rely on the BMS or a separate disconnect when the charging voltage got too high. I assume the firmware does not allow one to disable the built in temperature compensation. Or one could find the thermistor and replace with the appropriate resistor to fool it not to use temp compensation. Another problem to consider is that many charge controllers can get damaged if the battery is disconnected while the solar panels are still connected. Or like mentioned in the description we can buy one ready made for $37.00 more rated at 30 amps with case built in fan and can work with lithium batteries. Probably worth it.
Yes you finally got round to these! I did a video on them last year (yOCtxc4aA68)
there brilliant BUT they dont disconnect from the battery so at night they pull the battery down, if they pull it too low, they shutdown and next morning dont come back up!
I was told that for 200w of panel you dont need a heatsink by the seller but.....yeah i dont mind putting a heatsink on.
didnt you get a manual? i did, its online though, I also tried to probe the 5 extra pins but could not get any sensible data from them, I think there for daisy chaing.
also theres space on the board for an opto coupler so it maybe was planned to also connect to a remote screen and lots of wiring regs require isolation
Thanks for test but why does everyone "confirm" MPPT if output current greater than input? Better to compare with known MPPT controller (identical PC, wire, sun, etc.). Buck DC-DC would look about the same. Draining battery at night gets NO vote.
i thought you were going to build something there ..... >.>
Hmmm what about separate heat sinks for each common group? I will get this set also and build one for myself ✌️
Well at least the CN3722 board you tested was getting 89.8-96% efficiency like it stated in the description lol. Obviously depends on how much power your consuming
ty 4 ur vid ....
...
good luck finding info ... the manual gives very little... i have the 60amp mppt,,, i cant get it to charge correctly...
*UPDATE ... i found the problem... i had corrosion build up on my conections between my batteries. i cleaned em and added dieletric grease and all great (whent through all my conections the same)... man i get lots of power now :) dont pay to assume lol
mine works perfectly
All the tabs on the 3-terminal devices can be bonded to the heat sink. All those tabs are for heat dissipation. Nothing else
Hi Could you do a video on converting a cheap PWM solar controller to MPPT? Thanks
I’m afraid not. MPPT is significantly more difficult and requires more components than PWM.
Mr Welch. Have you messed around with this unit any more ?
gud day, were we can order that parts?
Awesome, I wonder if it could be used to control more MOSFETs and a inductor for more current capacity ?
That's was my thinking. Paralleling additional Drivers and inductors could be the ticket.
Think that maybe a fake board as there is no MakeSkyBlue logo on the board also on the oficial MakeSkyBlue website they dont make a kit.
Question is though is it any good.
this is called assemble not build. same thing to a PC building. anw not a big deal. great video to watch.
please read the microcontroller type for me
HI ADAM WHICH CHEAP MPPT CONTROL CHARGER DO YOU OR WOULD YOU USE YOURSELF I SAW YOU ONE ON THE CPT-LA10 & CPY-241-/CPS MODEL I HAVE 12OW PANEL USING A PWM UNIT THAT CAME WITH IT THANKS DAVE LIVERPOOL
It’s interesting, but a proper faff.... I may have a look for something pre built... thanks for a great video!
As I said in the video I think the reasons for wanting one out of a case are limited although I can think of a few. I’d buy a more commercial product unless you have a specific reason to want this one. Cheers Howard.
You must have read my mind as I wanted to ask you to do a test on the Makeskyblue MPPT, thanks, great video as usual!
i suggested them also some time ago, glad he finally did
Next time put some thermal paste also on the orange thermocouple
how to put together* not build
Nice video Sir. What is part no. Of controller ic?
That 100ma drain does not compare favorably to the 15.7 ma drain of my Tracer 3210A controller with the load OFF or about 33ma with the load ON and no load connected. The price, size and "splitability" would otherwise be attractive for a couple of projects.
I respect my brother I have been using one for about two months now it works well since week I saw as much as 15amps coming from it off a 250w panel and it is cheap
If money was not a consideration, then yes... and I do I love the tracer 32x series... but this does compare favourably _for the price_ ... unless you have a really small battery bank, at which point a 20a charge controller probably isn't desirable or sensible. ;)
Hi, did you like the quality, ok? Thanks.
Hi Adam, could you tell me what version the 20A controller is?
And can the output voltage changed to suit Lithium batteries?
The MakeSkyBlue controllers (at least back to version 113 firmware) have an option for lithium. Unless you're using one with the newest firmware (version 118) the voltage setting isn't as fine as you might prefer for the higher voltage lithium packs (0.4 volt steps for a 48 volt pack).
Good video. I need 60 Amps, charge controller kits for 12/24 volts batteries, Plz send complete specs., protections and warranty
you have 6 panel on roof if need 60A charger.
panel100W/10A output nominal max.
shame it is only the 20a that is DIY if they had the 60a versions I would snap them up
How come your uni-t clampmeter that is rated for 60A AC is measuring DC amperage.... strange.
Great job as always, looking forward to updates.
i NOT want build, i want buy good cheap board were can charging my 12V 18650 4cell4P battery pack. because 3 cell have too low volt and 4P have maximum what i can made no have more battery my battery power wall at solar panel elektric wall. but what charger can buy ????????
Nice video. When are you going to do some update video on lithium batteries and diyBMS? diyBMS updated software on GitHub for your problem with temperature. Keep up with great work!
Well since changing the voltage divider resistors it’s worked perfectly. I’m not sure there is enough news to make a video! I’ll have a think. Thanks
Congrats. Nice job.
none of this kit is available
Supergeil! Das Video gibt es bald in Deutsch!
Self tapping screws are only good for wood, plastic, and sheet metal. You really don't want them on a heat sink.
Yes, I agree with you for this application. Tapping the heat sink was a good option to using a separate nut.
Always 0.5mm smaller than what you need to tap. So M3, drill an M2.5 and a 3mm tap.
thats not actually true, for the smaller metric ones its usually a 0.8 multiplyer. So for M3 a 2.4 mm drill is the perfect chioce but you can get away with 2.5 and that is more available thats for sure.
@@szaszafaja I have always tapped an M2.5 hole for M3 bolts... The important thing to note is the pitch and the thread depth, most threads are .25 deep
Hi Adam, good video.
Currently I am planing how to do power supply system but, instead using solar panels using a power utility (diesel power generator). So the system would be:
( UTILITY) -- (AC to DC REGULATOR) -- (MPPT CHARGER CONTROLLER) -- (48V BATTERY BANK-INVERTERS)
Do you think it's good idea, or better charging batteries directly with a PWM charger?
So why can't we just take a buck converter with CC and CV, clamp it to 14.4v at 6.25 amps?
find out what mppt means and you have your answer
@@ursodermatt8809 maximum power point tracking. In a 19v or 38v system any shading will as it is drop the voltage below a usable potential. So why use a mppt...
@@whatever465456 no solar panel, no charge controller will work in shaded condition very well.
there are many reasons for mppt controllers
they are more efficient
they can work with a much higher pv voltage without bigger losses.
they are usually more programmable.
many mppt controllers have lots of features you will not find in pwm controllers.
and they are more expensive though
@@ursodermatt8809 agreed. In higher voltages mppt makes a lot of sense 50-200v.
But if an individual is willing to give up on amp production/ monitoring and the panels are in a 19v or 38v setup then I feel that a buck converter clamped at CV of the battery and CC of the panal MPP will work better then a pwm.
Hi brother !
My brother asked me what is the microcontroller IC on the circuit with the code?
Thank Bro !
I can give....I have lot of product like mppt ....sinewave inverter...etc....using dspic30f2010....I can support with source code...pcb all details.contact me on watsapp---+917012170144
Silicon does not conduct heat very well
Thanks. Most interesting. You might need a new left thumb some time soon!
awesome videos but ESD sensitive components should be handled a little different.
Quick maths suggests 80% efficiency, it looks ok for the price but i think i shall stick with my noisy mpt-7210 a's. My solar and battery monitor manager has evolved slightly again, the front end is getting better all the time and i am currently waiting on jlc delivering me some nice pcb's although the design may be changing "again" lol.
you cannot conclude this from this youtube video. the charger might have reduced output in absorption mode. the manual claims something like 98%. on another video they compared quite neatly in efficiency to expense mppt controllers. (efficiency wise)
plus that unity meter is not that exact measuring currents.
@@ursodermatt8809 the manual claims "max 98%" which is an easy claim to meet. I did say quick maths, but its still not for me. :D
@@trickyriky1
i said the "manual claims"
well yes, you use what ever you think will suit you. as far as i am concerned if i order it it would be for experimental purposes only. certainly not relaying to run the house.
the youtube video where that bloke compared a blue sky to a midnite classic, the blue sky showed slightly more efficiency. so they almost certainly more efficient than 80%.
what do you think is the efficiency of your noisy mpt-7210 ?. just curious
@@ursodermatt8809 Right at this moment i honestly cant remember the efficiency, but i have seen them put up to 300 watts into my batteries from 255 watt panels in the height of summer. I really cant fault them other than the noisy fans.
As for this device, from the vid you seen maybe they are better than i'm giving credit for, i would be curious how they hold up after a year or 2 of operation but i still don't envision me investing in any. I would need at least 2 of them if i was to replace my current 4 mpt7210s. If i was to buy 1 it would certainly be the complete unit with heatsink and case just to run alongside my existing setup and compare them. But that really is an if. :)
The MCU seems a TMS320F28021PT from Texas
lol pretty sunny? Yeah maybe for the UK LOL
Enjoyed the video. Are the boost/float (etc) voltages user selectable? If not it's a bit too dear for me to consider it.
Yes they are look for a cheap 20amp mppt on ebay or amazon most of them are using this same pcb you can use the manual for one of them
13:11 that circuit board is mounted crooked
That's what Adam said. 😉
@@RWBHere
Who da hell is Adam ?
Pretty cool, Great Video nice tutorial Thanks William Orange county, ca.
Hey Adam, Love your channel its really good!
I am going to buy one of these, i have 8 solar panels but only 1 mppt hybrid inverter. Since there is some shading here and there i was thinking to connect 4 panels to the hybrid inverter with the mppt and then connect 2 of these units to 2 solar panels each. The panels are 285 Wp. Now do you think that there is a problem if you charge the battery from three sources? Will the interfere with each other you think?
You really want to prove its mppt, you need to show the controller brings the panel voltage close to the Vmp value in full sunlight....
It was very efficient... The output watts was just under the input watts. Also the controller did not pull down the voltage of the two solar panels that was in series to the voltage of the battery but kept the input voltage of those panels at their most efficient point of about 18V x 2 = 36 volts. definitely MPPT. No need for FULL sun to prove it is working as an MPPT
To get better heat sinking... flip it around with the heat sink on top. Heat rises.
What if i dont want to make my own mppt.what if i want to just buy myself an mppt.what if i dont want to use ebay.com.what if i want to use alibaba.com what do u say about that.
no matter what internet shop you use, but not amazon, normal amazon have all ower price and only idiot pay ower price same parts other shop buy lot cheapen, totally same parts. ept, amazon sell somethink elektric board 50$ plus 50$ shipping, wery expensive because ALL other shop sell same parts 4$ and FREE shipping. this is true 99% all amazon parts.
Any more on this beast ? What issues is the Pos Ground going to bring to play ? Guessing I won't be able to use a Common Neg Ground in conjunction with this charge controller. That would bypass the current sensing on the MakeSky Blue ? I received the one ordered. Have mounted on decent Heat Sink (Managing to keep the PCB Square and level on same. Snerkkkkk Snerk ) . In order to keep the Fets Isolated from Heat Sink I simply covered heat sink with Kapton Tape I had on hand. Just waiting for a enclosure at this time. www.ebay.com/itm/Tone-Aluminium-Heat-Diffuse-Heat-Sink-Wide-Cooling-Fin-100x100x18mm-US/153288134599?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649
Still Futzing here waiting for a decent enclosure. May just install open frame on my control board. Create a front panel of fashions and have a go at it that way.
I thought I was listening to Robin Leach for a minute. lol
Electronics of the non-rich and unfamous...
I thought the same thing...
Pedantic comments. Builder=Maker nowadays. Imagine starting from scratch, making transistor? or from raw silicon wafer to make the IC!
What is the point of doing MPPT if the extra power gained is lost again in the conversion. 100W in 78W out is very poor. A proper solar charger e.g. a genasun claims 96%-98% efficiency. Even with my own uMPPT I measure 96% efficiency.
That 96% peak is probably in a fairly limited voltage range though isn’t it? In these quick tests it’s difficult for me to put these units in their best environment. I generally look at cheap units and they have their limitations.
Hi Adam, you are right that in general the efficiency depends on the voltage drop Vmpp - Vbat. But this 96% is reached for a 12V system when Vmpp ~ 17 and Vbat ~ 12-13. It is even specially designed for this range because that is the relevant range were you want the least conversion loss, maximizing the power that goes into your battery. When the battery is getting full and charge current is reduced by the controller to avoid overcharging, the panel voltage will go up and the efficiency will go down but in this stage MPP is not relevant because charge current is throttled anyway. Also conversion efficiency is less relevant in that case. The point I want to make is that in practice the extra power you gain by tracking is about 20% under good conditions. If that energy is wasted in the conversion than that product is useless and may be even dangerous because it gets hot. That also goes for cheap units ;-)
nice
Mental Note to Self : Self, Don't be buying this thing. You can do better for a few dollars more.