Sep 25 Smoke, Smoke and more Smoke

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.

William Shakespeare

I looked outside this morning. All I could see was thick smoke. After consulting both the weather warnings and firesmoke.ca, I was reassured of what I already knew by looking.

I looked at my solar panel app, I was making 2 Amps. My batteries already depleted from a late night session with Starfield. I thought I was going to have to run my generator again.

I played for a short bit this morning watching the new power gauge I had beside my gaming station. It said the solar panels were charging the main battery and my Bluetti. That needed at least 10 amps of powrr to do that.

I could hear what what was going on. Strong wind was blowing enough smoke the sun could feed my panels. My batteries were still low at 10%. I really needed twice that power to recharge everything.

I had to quit playing since The Bluetti was also low on power. I was also worried about the wind the solar panels were not ready for wind yet. I need to order the remaining two panels and I also needed to disassemble the old solar mount and move that up and rebuild it.

I couldn’t work in the heavy smoke out side. Even with the wind.the wind could maybe just moving more smoke in. My lungs were shot. I had to be careful.

So today I am taking a sick day and will play a bit more Starfield in about forty minutes when the Blueetti had a bit more charge.

The Bluetti is just a poorly design glorified power bank. I wrote all about on my tech blog. Whenever it reaches 100 % charge it reboots my internet and kills my Xbox.

I have to constantly monitor the charging. I have auto mated some off that. I have connected directly to my new MPPT controller I can turn off charging by using the Bluetooth app.

The great thing is when I am charging just using DC from the controller it charges at just under 200 watts. My Xbox uses just over 200 so it never gets to 100 % while I am playing. When I use my gen it is a different story.

The AC power charges at a much higher rate, so when it reaches 100% charge it reboots everything. I need to buy a separate UPS connected to my Bluetti, which is supposed to act like a UPS to stop the surging. Instead of causing it.

Next payday. Wow just checked my panels they are chaging at 15 amps. Awesome no fossil fuel expended so I could play today.