Yep, that’s why so much effort into a heavy duty mount.
You will get.a kick out of it when we are done
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It is. The Newpowa, are delivered by United Parcel Service to a residence.
The Kyrocera are delivered by Upper Peninsula Delivery Service which is a 20’ tractor trailer rig that requires a loading dock and fork lift. They charge a delivery fee of $60 per panel or $400 per pallet.
Also, I am pleased with the Newpowa panels…they seem tough. I dropped them twice onto concrete at odd angles and they suffered no damage.
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It’s a 115VDC 3hp motor.
I figure to charge the 48vdc batteries with this motor spun by the Yanmar LM60.
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I am moving on the golf cart. These pictures are of the solar panel mount. This will be positioned over the roof of the golf cart.
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I finally opened the box containing the Sigineer Inverter. So far very impressive! It came well packaged, double boxed and, bagged w/dessicant.
The labeling is good English. It has a lot of features I didn’t expect. Desulfation, and charge curves for LiFePO4 and AGM.
My only skepticism is about the terminal block. To install loose wires, one has to buy ferrels and a crimper. I suppose a guy could tin the ends of the wires and stuff the tinned end in the terminal block. I am a ring terminal fan. Another minor complaint is the venting is large enough for mud daubers to sneak in and make a mess. For the cart, I will have to put a paint mesh bag over it.
Anyhow, we are getting there.
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Bruce, I see no reason why you can’t just put a stripped end in that style of terminal block and tighten the screw, especially while you are in the “Prototype” phase. I have seen people use a thin strip of copper foil wrapped around the conductors, then tightened. I am not a big fan of solder tinning stranded wire ends, makes them brittle and melts back the insulation. Works OK for some types of wire. Just a lot of extra fuss.
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A bit of copper between the screw and wire might help. Snip a bit of copper from a copper pipe. Maybe.
I always wanted to build something like your building except with a big bag of gas on top. Of course it would use an engine and it could never be parked inside. Your design is more useful.
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Interesting thread, I think I must have skimmed it a while back, because I have had the idea of a mobile power station floating around in my head for a while now. I really need a little tiller, so I sort of like the idea of being able to bring in a little tug that can provide power to a corded unit. And having a corded chainsaw to cut up firewood also appeals. I have a battery powered Stihl which is great, but for cutting a bunch of wood it burns through the batteries.
I am curious if you have any idea what sort of motor is in the cart? I have a little lawn tractor that I might try and electrify, but it dawned on me that if it is towing around a big battery and inverter, I could maybe use an AC motor. It has a hydrostatic transmission, so the motor doesnt really need speed control. Do you know how many HP the motor you have is rated for, and an estimate of the weight of the whole rig?
My next big battery project will likely be to buy a used leaf, and salvage the cells from it. I see Gen 1’s for as little as 2500 to 3500 bucks. The battery would likely not be in great shape, but an electric car pulls tons of power, so running an inverter would be a piece of cake for it. It would be fairly technical, though, as a rock solid BMS would be a must.
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Mike, yup, I have been doing that for years. Multistrand wires loosen up. These units are subject to vibration, 60herz and all. I got straightened out fast after joining the school’s First Robotics Team. I will be getting the ferrules and crimper.
I do appreciate the suggestions, I am just really sick of cobbling.
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Carl, sorry, I forgot to take a picture. I did read the tag. It’s an ezgo made by GE. Prolly around 3hp @36v. We are running 48vdc.
The Melex motor is 2hp at 36vdc
A normal cart has six T105s @ 100lbs per so I would say a normal cart is 1000lbs. I would say ours is going to be 1500lbs. It depends on whether the batteries go on a trailer.
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The Melex speed control. By running the motor in series with a resistor, the voltage is cut down to the motor, slowing it. No free lunch tho, the same amperage is going through that resistor, and is creating lots of heat. In fact, I thought I had set the cart on fire, the first time I did a slow crawl around the yard. All the dust was burning off the resistor. There are three different resistors. All three are used for slow speed, then the switch cuts them out one by one as you speed up, til it’s direct to the battery.
The EzGo speed control. It’s mosfet driven. A big pulse width modulated switching power supply. Apparently, ours didn’t work when filled with water.
We bought a drop in 48vdc 500amp replacement for $150.
I know the Melex is less efficient but I’m willing to bet that cart will still be running 100 years from now.
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When you look at a ferrel crimp tool find one that has a 4 sided closure something like this random one from a quick Google search
The thing to avoid like the Plague is the one that looks like pliers and leaves cross lines on the ferrel. I have had more than one late night replacing those cheap crimp ends on equipment in industry. In general I am not a fan of those and like bare wires but that block really does looked to be designed for ferrels not wire. There is no upper wedge that closes to pinch the wire.
Anyway glad the unit looks good.
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Those variable resistors are know to get dead spots in the windings over time. I wouldn’t bet that they will last longer than properly sized mosfets powered off batteries or with a good inverter to keep clean power. The vast majority of sold state component failure comes from under voltage forcing too much current draw and heat. If you don’t let the batteries get below the 50% that lead acid wants anyway I would shocked to see the mosfets fail
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Lol Dan…the resistors are in the picture. There is a mechanical switch with something like five contacts. It is as primitive as it gets. It’s the hotbulb ignition of golf carts…
Yup on the crimper. Top shelf for me. I never saw quality before bots, now I am in.
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The best enclosure I can find is this steel box that I used to keep all my brass fittings in it’s been sitting outside for 10 years and no water has ever gotten into the brass fittings so I’m going to try it but then I was realized I don’t have any openings to run the wires through. So I’m going to try my greenlee chassis punches on this. Any thoughts?
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I think I would just put a conduit fitting on the side like they do on a house with underground wires.
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Four batteries fit on board without a big problem. The rest are going on a trailer.
We can move the cart now
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We were looking at different paint schemes for the cart and discovered our ticket to perpetual motion! We’ll paint the solar powered golf cart with glow-in-the-dark paint!
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