Installing Solbian solar panels

[Zanshin]

I've finally decided to put solar aboard the boat and order the cool (but expensive) Solbian panels. They are 3mm thick and flexible, I've got 3 x 125W on order and each has it's own MPPT controller. Here's my proposed installation (This is a 24V installation on the MPPT output and battery charging side)



The MPPT Controllers have fuses for the supply side, so I think I am electrically correct.

[Trevor]

Hi Zanshin,

Very nice indeed. I gather you will program the Arduino to drive the current meter with the output from the hall devices. Are you going to aggregate that or are you going to be able to sense each one individually? i think it would be good to sense each individually so you can easily see if one of them loses efficiency or develops a fault.

I am not sure how you will mount the panels but I have seen Solbian panels with the self adhesive backing lift and have to be re-fitted to the deck.

Sounds good though.

Regards,

Trevor

[Zanshin]

I'm playing with the Arduino programming now, the 3 panels will be monitored and stored separately, the picture doesn't show a little button which will toggle the display to show each panel's value. That way I can see which panel might need repositioning or which panel might be losing efficiency. Those little hall-effect sensors are only $5 apiece, and the Arduino with a couple of caps and resistors and regulated DC-DC 5V supply plus display is under 40 Euros. Programming it is a labor of love and I wouldn't put a price on that otherwise it wouldn't be economical

I'm going to sew the panels onto the dodger/bimini. The next extension might be some panels glued to the foredeck, but I first want to see how much power the 375 Watts actually produce here and how much more I realistically need in order to give my poor genset a rest.

[Zanshin]

After running my generator daily for about an hour a day each day for the past 6 months I finally opted to delve into solar power and ordered 3 125W CP-125 panels from Bruce last week. My distribution panel schematic isn't like what the panel actually ended up looking like, but it is functionally similar. This covers about half my energy requirement, but I want to experiment with panel sizes and placement before making all of this permanent. The temporary panel mounts use grommets and temporary lines, that will be replaced with either Velcro or zippers.

Cables from the solar panels to the board are 10AWG and from the board to the batteries are 8AWG to minimize losses.

I decided to play around a bit and program an Arduino processor to use 3 5A Hall-Effect ammeters to measure the volts and amps plus compute the Watts.
Attached are some pictures of what I've done so far, the parts for the Arduino are still in the mail, so I've removed the IC circuit board from the installation picture.

[Stella Maris]

Wow, really nice project.

How does the ACS712 signal get into the Arduino. Also is that a USB cable out of the circuit board for a data hookup or is that a power supply for the Arduino.

I'm thinking of using my Bimini as well for solar when I get around to it. I love the Solbian panels for this and see this as getting solar without having to add all the additional mounting hardware.

Looking forward to your other posts !

[Zanshin]

The Arduino in the picture is powered via the USB cable, which is also used as a serial port. When finished, I'll put in a regulated voltage chip and power the 5VDC Arduino directly from the power supply on the distribution panel. The picture of the panel shows one ACS712 installed (the other two are somewhere in black depths of the postal system) and each little unit uses 3 or 4 wires - +, -, Output voltage and an optional reference for more accurate measurements, these will go to the breadboard.
I've actually just change from that Micro-Arduino to a bigger one, I added a SD-Card for data storage (you can remove it, put it on a PC, and play with statistics) and the little chip's program memory fills up when using the libraries for the OLED display and SD Cards; so now I've gone overboard and am using an Arduino Mega (but that lets me put more graphics into the display than just the Zanshin kanji characters on startup).

The Zanduino has two buttons, they toggle between the screen and let me enter calibration values when I press both simultaneously. For those who can program, playing around with the Arduino is a blast, since one can interact with the world in a different manner than just writing programs on a PC. I finally appreciate how much work goes into banal things like vending-machine displays!

[stack]

Did you give a thought to Velcro to fix to bimini? Just Joe

[Zanshin]

Yes, I plan on attaching the panels using Velcro on both the bimini and dodger and affixing the panels on deck directly using adhesive. The pictures just show my temporary attachments. I've got the software/monitor programming finished and am waiting on the missing ammeters before this project goes "live".

[Trevor]

Hi guys,

Velcro??? How will that be in a blow? I would be a bit nervous about that unless the plan is to take them down if a blow is predicted. I stitched the zippers on to the bimini but velcro is taking the flexible panel attachment to a whole new level.

I guess to innovate you have to live on the edge...good luck.

Trevor

[Zanshin]

The Velcro method isn't as avant-garde as you might assume; using zippers would entail exact measurements and tight fittings and little tolerance for bimini stretch, but Velcro is more tolerant and easier to install, here's a picture of what the installation actually would look like:

[Zanshin]

The first production-ready version of the solar monitor is finished, the Zanduino 1.0.3b . I uploaded a video at

[Trevor]

Hi Zanshin,

That is fantastic! I particularly like the Zanduino product! I see what you mean about the velcro as the edge is totally enclosed. It does look pretty strong.

Trevor

[hoppy]

That velcro looks VERY secure. I was playing with a 10cm strip which was extremely difficult to dislodge with a sideways force. I suspect it will take neglect or a tearing of your bimini for your panel to come loose

I've worked in IT for 29 years mostly in coding and would love to be able to do little projects like that, but whilst at home I spend a lot of time on my computer, reading about a new language and coding is the last thing on my mine

[Quiddle]

I use this stuff to attach my panels to the deck. Both the adhesive (get the acrylic version for outdoor applications) and "hook and loop" are very strong.

[pjtwigg17]

All looks excelent, how and where are you going to run the cales?