fratermus

This year was more tumultuous than usual. A couple things were literal once in a lifetime events.

[I found a] 3qt crockpot to replace the 2qt and 4qt. Back to my original setup. The Crockpot 3120 is rated at 75w/150w and I measured it at 69w/134w.

I believed the forecast, which said it would be partly cloudy. In reality it was overcast all day, no blue sky at all. It was lightly raining most of the time. Pic to the right (PF parking lot) shows how low the cloud cover was. Clouds were obscuring the top of the nearby Franklin Mountains.

I noticed the panels were unusually filthy. An excellent opportunity for an experiment! I dug out the ladder, put the pushbroom head on the multi-purpose stick, and found a suitable terrycloth hand towel...

including a prediction that I will need to use shore power for the first time in over 5 years :-\

I just realized it’s been two years since I installed the LiFePO4. No regrets.

Just before the eclipse started (0913 local) the system was making 260w.... “first contact” began and the MPPT algo started thrashing around... at full annularity (1037 local) it was making only 26w. This lines up with the prediction of “89.6% obscuration”.

I recently bought some closeout honeycrisp apples and bosch pears and ate most of them. I had one of each left over and decided to skin each and cook them down with a bit of cinnamon and lime juice. Then I decided I'd make pancakes the next morning to make use of it.

I cooked down the fruit on the 300w lab hotplate. Tried to use it for the pancakes in the naan pan but the 4" head was too hot in center. Tried to use a flame diffiuser but 300w wasn't enough grunt to get through that. So I ended up cooking the pancakes over a single-burner propane stove.

They tasted better than they looked. :-)

• cooking down the fruit
• pancake
• pancake recipe

I found a tennis ball in a park in SF, and figured it’d make a good aromatic medium for the peppermint oil I bought to repel mousemonsters. I cut it into quarters with a utility knife.

I applied peppermint oil to each fuzzy surface and mounted one under the hood and one on the floorboard near where I saw mice enter.

I've noted before that when I stealth camp in cities my charging percentage from alternator increases from ~5% to ~10% of total production. The increase isn't needed (solar could cover it) but the alt gets a chance to play.

Since I am moving at least twice a day (3x with PF showers) I've had an opportunity to record a higher frequency of engine starts and LFP bank acceptance. The setup:

• 180A alternator that typically runs at 14.2v
• Battery Doctor VSR setup left over from my previous FLA bank
• 150Ah 12v LFP bank
• SoC and voltage measurements below taken from BMS before engine start
• current measurements taken from BMS though it agrees with shunted battery monitor. (I can see the BMS via bluetooth from the driver's seat but I can't see the monitor)
• solar contribution and loads ranged widely, leading to variance.

Over the last ~20 runs, the average state of charge was 72%, bank voltage 13.20v, charge acceptance 0.183C (27.39A)

    SoC Vbatt       C       A
    60	13.07	0.245	36.75
    72	13.15	0.130	19.50
    69	13.13	0.120	18.00
    27	12.95	0.270	40.50
    80	13.29	0.150	22.50
    80	13.27	0.240	36.00
    81	13.30	0.170	25.50
    77	13.22	0.165	24.75
    39	13.03	0.260	39.00
    95	13.30	0.115	17.25
    48	13.06	0.235	35.25
    86	13.56	0.120	18.00
    90	13.25	0.220	33.00
    90	13.26	0.165	24.75
    62	13.08	0.240	36.00
    92	13.27	0.084	12.60
    92	13.27	0.090	13.50
    58	13.07	0.235	35.25
    89	13.26	0.140	21.00
    84	13.26	0.215	32.25
    49	13.07	0.225	33.75

Given average charge acceptance of 27.39A, the obvious comparison here is to a 30A DC-DC like the Orion-TR. The DC-DC would have a much more stable charge rate, typically ~30A except late in the charging process when acceptance at Vabs tapers.

Charge to ~100% SoC then allow the system to settle back to the quasi-float voltage... Final measurements taken when the sun had gone down enough that solar could no longer hold Vfloat.