Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
Oscar Wilde
No Solar panels were harmed during this fabrication.
Go get a coffee before you start reading this, it covers a few days work.
I recieved my Lumera Bi-facial solar panels. Come on you can say it, they are two faced except like many people except these are useful.?
Today I started on the solar panel mount. After 3 hours of careful drilling, bolting and measuring, not in that order, they were ready to be disasembled, carried outside and reassembled.
Before that, comes wiring. I needed to setup my new MPPT controller, including wiring it to the battery and my future battery bank.
Wires needed to be strung, and secured outside. After that mount the panels. I designed the mount for four panels.
The bad part, for the coming panels I would be drilling holes and mounting the panels in place, probably on a step ladder. Maybe even in the snow.
I still needed to design and invent a mechanism for stetting the angle. I only needed two positions summer and winter.
The best part of the mount is that it rotated on the pole. The sun rises almost in the north in winter and in the east in summer.
The worst part? It is not secured for wind yet. Soon.
Well I earned a rest and I just watched Youtube video that convinced me to start a new game of Starfield. Great game but no hints or how things worked on day one. I am only ten levels in so I can start again.
Take care and be safe. Wear a mask for winter. It’s back.
At the beginning of covid I had a welder tried to tear the mask off my face. I told him if he agreed to weld without a mask I would take mine off.
Covidiot, read too much Trump.
Ya I know the shop is a mess. The shop cleaner is a disabled 66 year old with breathing problems. It is hard for him to work for more than 15 minutes at a time.
I hope you found peace Gary. Thank you for your music. Especially Dreamweaver.
I will fix grammer and spelling later. I have a spaceship to build.
SEP 10 UPDATE:
The outside wiring for the solar panels is run. Too hot and winded to continue today. However I will try to get the new controller up on the wall today. Who knows maybe even run the wiring inside.
Who am I kidding, as soon as the gen is funtioning I am back to Skyrim in space.
UPDATE: SEPT 11
Outside the air was the thickest smoke I had ever seen. I tried to find a mask and couldn’t.
I thought if I was quick I could feed the wires through the wall, fish them past the current solar battery bank, through the floor to the upstairs.
I had to go outside twice, but the cable was run, mostly. I didn’t run enough red through the wall. I needed to go outside again. Not today.
My lungs already hurt from the minutes I was out there. Well you know what they say.
Even when you fall on your face you are moving forward.
Who said that? The one watching and laughing beside you when you fell. I made a little progress. I will try to get more done tomorrow.
I earned a new ship in Starfield, gotta swap that cockpit out it looks like a bus with missiles and lasers.
UPDATE SEP 12:
The wires are all connected, controller is on the wall, app downloaded. I couldn’t find the HQST app, but remembered Redodo also rebrands this controller. The Redodo app works fine?
If it wasn’t extremly smoky (worse than yesterday) with gusty wind, solar panels would be mounted. The truth is getting the controller up and wiring made for a 30 scream day. One was for kneeling on a missed brass screw, that wasn’t fun.
There is still lots work to be done attaching the wire to the walls, getting panels up. Securing the wires for winter snow and more.
Maybe tommorrow. The hell with that I have two ecoworthy 195w 12 volt panels out there. So i connected those in series to make 24V we will see how those work for now.
Below is a screenshot of the Redodo app on HQST controller or Helios or 5 or 6 other rebranded names.
Even at 8 pm still making a little power. Now I am just waiting on the sun to come back
UPDATE SEP 16
I decided to wait I until i got my next two panels. After my next pay day. I tried predrilling the holes ahead of time. I realized that wouldn’t workout. I also realized that trying to mount the panels in the snow and cold by myself would be almost impossible.
Soon the snow and cold were coming. I thought mounting the panels inside a dry shop was a little easier. Fall is here and that lasts about a week before snow arrives and the geese are gone.
In the mean time I will try to survive on my two eco worthy panels, at peak sunlight they are making 8 Amps and 235 Watts. It is not enough but will do. Especially since the days were getting shorter.