I’m in Europe, so we have 230 volts here (two times less amps needed for identical power), but… I charge my i-MIEV with 5.5 amps at night (the whole night) and it’s charged by the morning. Knowing that, I optimized my grid connection down to 3 x 6 amps (three phases, each up to 6 amps).
Of course, if I charge during daytime, I can draw power from the house inverter, so then I charge at 10…13 amps.
These guys sell those chargers for 15 euros. Not sure if the chargers work, but the plugs look compatible and they have positive reviews.
To manage without an inverter and charge your bike almost directly from solar (soldering and electronics skills needed) I would consider an adjustable DC/DC converter.
Input voltage range: 6-40.00V
Output voltage range: 0V-32.00V
Output current: 0-5.1A
Output power range: 0-160W
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006294300036.html
Input voltage: DC12-80V (can not be used for 72V battery)
Output voltage: 2.5V-50V adjustable (only buck) (maximum output voltage = input voltage * 0.8)
Output current: 20A (MAX) 25A overcurrent
Maximum power: 600W
Conversion efficiency: ≥ 93%
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007391865816.html
Input: DC 25-120V
Output: DC 1.2-75V adjustable
Current: 20A (MAX)
Power: 600W (Reduce current based on heat dissipation when voltage difference is high)
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005010659062631.html
The downside of a simple converter is that it doesn’t know about the optimal loading point of your solar panel (doesn’t do MPPT or maximum power point tracking). If you want that (it gives 30% more productivity), consider an entry level solar charge controller, but it must support 48V battery mode (I notice that your charger outputs 63V, the termination voltage of a 48V battery is usually 64V) and manual fine adjustment of the termination voltage (to bring it lower).
This might work since it appears to have a “user” (user defined) battery type:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005010080097662.html
Manual here to find out if it actually would:
https://www.nikom.biz/pic_info/A656017/Homysun-MPPT-Solar-Charge-Controller-datasheet-60A.pdf
Note: dial in less than your full battery voltage and don’t push the Chinese products to their maximum advertised current. Your upmost output voltage + voltage ripple + measurement error must stay below the full battery voltage. Of course, you must have a balancer and BMS (to stop everything in an emergency) on your battery. I also recommend a timer.
If you need to step the panel voltage upwards, consider a “boost converter” or “step up converter” instead, or wire two panels in series and use a step down converter.
If you don’t mind divulging, how does that stack against timber for cost at least for the time?
It’s too expensive but practically indestructible, except in salt water. Unlike wood, it does not offer any favourable thermal properties, so you can only do unheated sheds with it. I came across a pile of it on a bankruptsy auction, which made it possible to afford its use.
I recommend to find some assistance. Even one other person can help immensely at certain points.
I have built a 2-storey shed on a metal frame alone, and it involved highly inconvenient and more than moderately dangerous stages. I would not do it again.
I managed only because I relied heavily on industrial aluminum profiles for machine building (engineer’s Lego beams).
Apparently yes, and they’re a bit late, as the Ecoflow & clones train has already left the station.
If you ask a random Ukrainian drone pilot “how can I support you”, one of the more likely answers would be “help our unit get another EcoFlow, or a good clone from the short list”.
In their bunkers and base stations, they need lots of portable power without a thermal signature. Best if silent too, but most imporantly, it has to be cool. Generators are kept far at the back in really safe places, because they shine quite brightly in thermal vision. They also need oxygen and output poisonous exhaust, so you can’t take them to the same bunker as people.
All I can say is that I read the stories, enjoyed them, and gave them away in a freeshop for others to read. :)
Heyva Sor is real and if you can, I am sure they welcome any help. :)
I have a few solar panels installed in 2008.
They are mounted in an extremely bad location: on a south facing wall, without proper airflow on the back side.
They continue to work, even if output is degraded. Newer planels installed in the same location overheated and their elements cracked, indicating inferior manufacturing quality, but the oldest batch is not showing this symptom.
If you don’t mind buying from Guangdong and being hit with import and customs fees, then on Linux, this gadget presents a standard V4L (Video4Linux) USB camera.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007938478574.html
The cable is delicate, you’d have to find a way to secure it against damage (e.g. tape). For the 256 x 192 pixel sensor, focal length 4 mm will get you an ordinary field of view (e.g. 45 degrees), while 9 mm will get you a very narrow field of view (e.g. 20 degrees). Grayscale image, very fast frame rates, automatic calibration against a shutter (occasional sub-second stops in video).
Note: never ever point at the Sun. It has poor solar protection, I almost ruined it when my code erred and scanned across the Sun, leaving a massive black track which took several hours to fade. The shutter closes when it sees the Sun, but not fast enough.
Coincidentally, it is cold here too. Walked around the house with a USB drone camera. Window edges are radiating like crazy. There was no difference between a window with shades down vs. a window with shades up (I hoped to find a difference, but was disappointed). However, edges need considerable extra foam.
What makes me worry is the size of the “reflector”. I wonder what symbol rate it is possible to get if the “reflector” is literally everywhere above you - the time delay between start of reflection and end of reflection might be considerable.
I found a resource with practical advise about using NVIS, including using meteorological data (ionograms) to determine the best frequency, antenna diagrams and such. (His drawings are in Spanish, but I think most English-speakers can decode Spanish antenna diagrams with a few clues, since meter is metro, and frequency is frecuencia.)
https://www.ipellejero.es/hf/NVIS/english.php
Some additional interesting antenna designs (vertical yagi on ropes, spiral antenna, etc) and propagation shemes, can be found in this research paper.
They have a passage which addresses data rates, and the data rates are poor…
In [110] two alternative channel access technologies are tested and compared in wireless mesh networks: Automatic Link Establishment (ALE) and fixed-frequency MAC protocols. These are also described in the book of Johnson et al. [111]. In [112] we find measurements on a MIL-STD-188-110C [113] link over distances of up to 160 km, providing the users with bit rates up to 9.6 kbps in 6–9 kHz RF bandwidth. The standard gives the option of selecting bandwidth and modulation, and includes wideband modulation with up to 24 kHz bandwidth with elaborate coding and interleaving.
So, some military radios use a narrow slice of 6…9 KHz for each channel and push 9 kilobits per second. Widening the slice used will give more speed. Enough to send SMS, I would say. A text of 1000 characters could be 8 kilobits, and would require initial air time for 1 second (+ exponential back-off resends, most likely). Let’s assume a total of 3 transmission events per message. An hour contains 3600 seconds, divide by 3 --> a channel at 100% capacity could accommodate 1200 messages per hour.
Thanks for dropping the abbreviation. :) For those who want text:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near_vertical_incidence_skywave
Summary for those in hurry: with NVIS, the ionosphere is your reflector, but you must use bloody low frequencies (e.g. 8 MHz in daytime, 4 MHz at night, because the ionosphere changes properties in sunlight). This will require loooong antennas (which may be horizontal, e.g. between trees) and the full wavelength is about tens of meters long, so you can’t really use full-wave antennas (quarter wave is practical) and all of this will limit the data rate considerably. Overcrowding of the narrow range of good frequencies may occur if it becomes popular.
Disclaimer: not an engineer, but I’ve built a house and squatted half a dozen.
Questions:
Ideas:
don’t remove woodwork until you have investigated the cracked concrete, removing bits that come loose without hammering; I would determine for sure if the concrete is fully compromised or partly so
if concrete is only partly compromised, one method would be cutting off the compromised layer (e.g. with a cutting disc) and casting a filler
if you end up removing rebar, you should re-calculate the load bearing ability of the beam as if the filler was nothing (if there is a choice, preferably clean and don’t remove rebar)
if it’s critically important and cannot be removed, I’ve seen concrete structures renovated by cutting off parts with a pressure sprayer (not a method one would use in domestic settings, sprayers that cut concrete are expensive and dangerous), cutting off bad rebar with a cutting disc, cleaning the end of good rebar, tying new rebar to the old, and casting fillers
after this you’d have a concrete beam that can be more effectively supported from below (it won’t compress at the crack)
if you use a jack and a pillar, prefer a mechanical (not hydraulic bottle) jack, people sell and rent such instruments for temporary support, it’s a steel pillar made of 2 parts that you rotate against each other to extend
in a pinch, you can create a screw-type jack from a wooden pillar, a short length of serious threaded bar (e.g. M24, M32) and some appropriate washers and nuts
your plan to offer support from the center and replace the framework from sides makes sense
if water if a frequent visitor there, use treated wood (or make sure that water doesn’t return)
This actually sounds great, if the solvents are widely available and have as low footprint as the material itself (bamboo).
Production involves two eco-friendly steps. Deep eutectic solvents break apart bamboo’s hydrogen-bond network into smaller cellulose molecules. Ethanol then triggers molecular reconstruction, reforming dense hydrogen bonds and creating a tough, uniform plastic. This ethanol-mediated restructuring produces a chemically modified cellulose network that delivers exceptional mechanical performance.
The material can be shaped through injection molding, compression molding, and machining, making it compatible with existing manufacturing systems. That versatility is crucial because new materials must fit into current industrial pipelines to be commercially viable. Tests show that the bamboo plastic outperforms commonly used engineering plastics such as ABS and polylactic acid, making it suitable for rigid applications requiring durability and heat resistance.
Sadly, they don’t mention the solvents, only the catalyst for hardening (ethanol - which would be OK).
I believe the original article is this:
In this case, the solvents would be:
By employing a hydrated ZnCl₂/formic acid deep eutectic solvent (DES), we disassemble the native H-bond matrix of bamboo cellulose into a homogeneous molecular system. Subsequent ethanol stimulation triggers the rearrangement of cellulose chains, fostering dense, ordered H-bond interactions between hydroxyl and formate ester groups (Fig. 1b).
Now, formic acid is ecologically OK. Zinc chloride, not entirely so (zinc is not a substance to waste or throw around), but if it’s recovered in the process then it would be OK. Coincidentally, their process includes recovery of zinc chloride:
DES recycling
The spent calcium chloride solution and the ethanol used for washing the gel were collected and mixed. An equimolar amount of 48 wt% sulfuric acid was then added to precipitate the calcium ions. This mixture underwent vacuum filtration to remove the precipitated ions, followed by rotary evaporation of the residual liquid to eliminate the ethanol and recover the recycled DES.
Recycling and reuse process of BM-plastic The recycled DES solvent (ZnCl 2 /FA) was obtained by adding equimolar mass of sulfuric acid to precipitating CaCl 2 , and steaming out ethanol. The recycled BM-plastic was prepared from Re-DES and BM-plastic chips, through the molecular system and molecular gel preparation process mentioned above, as well as the ethanol stimulation process.
So, overall, this all sounds sensible to me. Whether it’s economical, I cannot tell so fast.
Opinion (shooting from the hip here, may be off the mark) - mycelium was used to replace glass fiber epoxy.
In the research paper, I see among other items a copper- or gold-plated antenna constructed on a sheet of mycelium, and it falling apart over time (11 days).
As a result, this seems to me like a technology to use if you must spew disposable ciruitcs in nature and want them to maximally degrade. Definitely not the tech to use for things that must work 20 years.
Then I would suspect partial shadow. Is there anything near the lower string that could cast a partial shadow on the panels?
I notice these green curved lines on your diagram. They resemble what people usually draw to denote tree cover on a map. If they are trees, how tall, how far, and how high up are your panels?
Short answer: snow lingers longer on the lower part of your roof. The flatter the roof, the bigger the difference.
I’m not a representative sample, but…
…my hobby is my job. I learnt to code and to build stuff as a hobby, and now it’s my job.
I don’t think I could exist without designing and building something interesting. Even if I know that someone out there does it better. Because I want to understand the process and be able to alter it. I’m OK with someone else doing something that I find boring. If the subject interests me, I want to do it myself.
As for the concept of being free, if someone said “you’re free now”, I would ask “in what sense - am I free to stop paying taxes and repaying debt? can I finally squat land, start a license free mobile phone network and start practising medicine, or free in some other sense?”. I would likely conclude that I’m not free yet, and mutual dependencies are in fact quite numerous.
Not well, but it drives.
Battery capacity is small. It’s a city car all the way.
Heating is abysmal. I don’t touch it, it drains the battery. I only heat the seats (from the car 12 V system) and windscreen (with a large drone battery and two Chinese 400 W heat blowers).
Different sizes of tyres of front and back wheels are impractical. Changing headlight bulbs is a nightmare (manual says to take off the front bumper, but I deviate from the procedure and leave some screws missing, so I can take out the headlights).
The gear shifter has 2 needless pull cables (not electrical cables) which freeze in winter and cannot be bypassed easily. The motor controller borked itself (high voltage comparator error) and I had to take it apart to fix (fortunately a fix was documented).
One of the steel brake pipes rusted and leaked, and the repair shop refused to lower the battery (I have done it myself) because they didn’t feel comfortable. I had to bypass the steel pipe with a copper pipe, fortunately technical inspection did not notice.
Rear ABS sensors go faulty and start lying, producing error messages. An “original” spare part costs 200 euros, fortunately there’s a trick (installing another car’s sensor in reverse) and it costs 17 euros.
But what I can I ask, it’s a 15 year old car.