Yet Another Maximiser

by **TonyB** » Fri Nov 06, 2009 12:13 am

Going to be named 'Black Magic'

.

Basically, it is an Easymax III, with a larger microcontroller, current sensing, and dedicated regulator IC. All the components needed for an auto tracker maximiser for our competition.

Ive been testing the prototype and performance is just as good as the easymax unit. However, soon we wont have to worry about setting our maximiser before races, and we can cool/heat our panels without the worry of losing our setting.

Im hoping to do some further testing of this unit in this years national event, if all goes well it will be available to ALL teams from ALL states next year.

Size is 32mm x 50mm and all up should only weigh a couple grams more than the easymax unit.

by **miseli** » Sun Nov 08, 2009 11:51 am

Very nice Tony. I quite like the name as well.

Once these come out, cooling panels may begin to become very popular. If teams start to really cool down their panels, there could potentially be 5-10% power gains achieved and you could really advantage yourself.
I'm actually rather surprised that the Boxhill teams are not doing more in this area.

Having auto tracking units on the market will help even out the playing field.

miseli

by **TonyB** » Sun Nov 08, 2009 12:14 pm

miseli wrote:Having auto tracking units on the market will help even out the playing field.

Hopefully.

Heres a picture of the underside:

: Black Magic MPPT Underside.

The prototype PCBs are been manufactured at this very moment, im hoping to have the first samples next week.
Its going to be a few days work on the assembly and firmware/debugging once i get them.

I been very busy at work at the moment i hardly get time to my own projects like this

.
Otherwise i would've had this ready by now.

by **miseli** » Sun Nov 08, 2009 11:48 pm

I look forward to seeing the prototype in action at the nationals.

I expect you will also be handing a unit over to Ian for some testing and so look forward to those results aswell.

by **TonyB** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 12:07 am

Ian has already tested an earlier prototype of this, which was based on the fatmax.
He tested its operation down to 25% sunlight, and confirmed its tracking accurately and fast.

This new prototype, however, will have lower quiescent current draw, compared to the unit i sent him, and also a more efficient BUCK converter. The unit i sent him used a standard BUCK converter, with diode, rather than a synchronous type, with two FETs like the easymax.

My overall aim is to have an auto tracking unit, which is just as efficient as the easymax unit.

I will send you one for testing.

by **miseli** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 2:56 am

Would you? That would be excellent.

by **Redlands** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 10:24 pm

This is always something I have been a little confused about with the Easymax III unit.

Is it ok to cool the panels right up until the race and then set the optimiser? or is this no good because obviously the panel heats up during the race (and even in the seconds before). I have heard some different opinions on this.

Cheers.

by **TonyB** » Mon Nov 09, 2009 11:22 pm

The Easymax maximiser has heat compensation. It wont directly set itself at the MPP.
It actually sets itself just under the mpp, to compensate for temperature rise.

You may cool your panel before a race, and set the unit at the start gate,
but be sure to re-set it before the next race.

by **Redlands** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 7:07 pm

Ok cheers for that.

I'm not sure if Conitsiotis has already mentioned this, but we are interested in trying out your new buzzer system and also the 'Black Magic' unit in Melbourne.

Cheers.

by **Conitsiotis** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 7:39 pm

Although i'm not circuitry literate, I must say the prospect is exciting.

How come Box Hill have had the monopoly on Auto-Trackers for so long however. Also we would definatly be up for using our setup as a guinea-pig for this unit as well.

Cheers
C.C

by **jhg** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 8:27 pm

Hi all!
I also hear the John is in the midst of designing his new maximzer. It won't be out until next year. Anyway the Max4a works perfectly well! Black Magic, whats its advantage compared to the old one? More efficient? Would you have to say Black Magic will be slightly more better than the Max4a with its new improvements? Although their performances are almost identical. Aren't they?

by **miseli** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 8:49 pm

Yes, you're right there. There won't be any difference to a correctly set up manual unit.

What it however means is that you'll never have to set your electronics and you can do whatever you like to the panel without losing the max power point. So no matter what the sunlight or how hot or cold your panel is, you can never stuff anything up.

It's main benefit is the convenience.

It will basically be the equivalent to a commercial Box Hill unit.

John is also working on an auto tracking unit at the moment. He hasn't had a great deal of time to work on it lately, so I don't know how soon it will be coming out.

miseli

by **TonyB** » Mon Nov 16, 2009 9:21 am

Just got the boards

.
Will be busy tonight.

by **TonyB** » Mon Nov 16, 2009 8:02 pm

Tested and Working

.

Preliminary results show the unit just as efficient as the easymax under resistive load tests..
Also, unit seems to be tracking excellently from anything above 3% sunlight (20mA short from a solarex panel).

by **firefly** » Tue Nov 17, 2009 2:01 pm

Wow, looks great! I assume that you hand soldered all the components together?

by **TonyB** » Tue Nov 17, 2009 2:09 pm

Yep, hand soldered with hot air. Basically, we put solder paste on all the pads, place the components on the boards, then heat it up and everything melts nicely into place. 8-)

by **T1 Terry** » Tue Nov 17, 2009 10:36 pm

Well there you go, I was looking closely at the fine soldering last night and wondered how anybody could possibly have such a steady hand, I shake so bad sometimes I find it hard to stay in the area of a 5c piece :lol:

Still got me wondering how you fit so many components into such a small board.
If these units can convert peak panel output to the every changing house battery voltage and auto resetting and were build to suit 10 amp output (120w @ 12v) at a reasonable price there could be a real big market in the RV industry. Far better to tune each panel to peak output than an average of a number of panels like the present systems do.

T1 Terry

by **Conitsiotis** » Sat Nov 21, 2009 10:44 pm

Wow, Really looking good there

Gotta say i'm excited to see how well it works now

by **Redlands** » Tue Dec 01, 2009 8:16 pm

So what do you think about Black Magic / Buzzer system after Melbourne Tony?

Any progress made??

by **TonyB** » Tue Dec 01, 2009 8:35 pm

Moorebank tested the Blackmagic on saturday in low light (10%), it seemed to work great.

Marc tested it on Sunday after the finals, and it seemed to work fine too. We compared it to the Box hill unit Marc had, and they have very similar performance, The Box Hill unit was around 10ms (correct me if I'm wrong Marc) quicker, but its too close to tell. Light did vary by a few % between tests.

I didn't really get a chance to trial the Buzzer unit properly.

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