smurphy
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Posts: 169
Raspberry Pi: Yes
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Post by smurphy on Mar 13, 2020 2:58:41 GMT -8
Question/help require on Suncontrol board shutting down power supply to Weather station. Station itself is described here:
Please be gentle with my graphs. I am still fine-tuning the layout
Battery is loaded:
The Weird thing is that the battery load went down - which it should not have, as nothing is supposed to drain it. And - with the Solar panel charging it - it should even go up.
System was charging the battery nice:
Battery Voltage:
Sloar Panel Voltage went up a little over 5.67 volts before it happened (well, last measurement that was pushed to the DB. We have a blid-spot Monitoring situation here - means in betwen the points, we have no data).
That the power was cut can be identified by 2 things: - When the SkyWeather python script performs a low power shutdown, I get a Mail and the shutdown is clean.
Mar 13 10:17:16 weatherpi systemd-fsck[153]: fsck.fat 4.1 (2017-01-24) Mar 13 10:17:16 weatherpi systemd-fsck[153]: 0x41: Dirty bit is set. Fs was not properly unmounted and some data may be corrupt. Mar 13 10:17:16 weatherpi systemd-fsck[153]: Automatically removing dirty bit. Mar 13 10:17:16 weatherpi systemd-fsck[153]: Performing changes. Mar 13 10:17:16 weatherpi systemd-fsck[153]: /dev/mmcblk0p1: 227 files, 106881/516190 clusters Mar 13 10:17:16 weatherpi systemd[1]: Started File System Check on /dev/disk/by-partuuid/6c586e13-01. enable_WLAN_Detection = False
It is not the first time it has done this, and I wanted it to happen when I have more data available.
To identify it has to be the Suncontrol board shutting power - I opened the Weatherstation and the only board that showed power was the Suncontrol board. All other boars who usually have a blue light showing were dark. And the PI itself was Dark too. LKogs show nothing as these go onto the the /var/tmp/log directory which is ram-based and synced to disk every 3 hours only.
At the time of the shutdown, nothing special happened. PI was on regular load:
How can I troubleshoot further? Any advice apreciated.
PS: You can see the entire Monitoring page here:
and the Weather Station SkyCam / Currently on my Terasse:
I am in the process in receiving the 5.6V 10W Zener Diodes - I'll hook up to the Solar Panel - that should prevent Voltage Spike situations (If that is it). Buit I have nothing else so far to troubleshoot this.
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smurphy
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Posts: 169
Raspberry Pi: Yes
Other Device: many ...
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Post by smurphy on Mar 13, 2020 5:01:51 GMT -8
FYI - while I was writing down all that, the Zener Diode arrive. Just put it in. Will see if it helps
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Post by SDL on Mar 16, 2020 11:35:26 GMT -8
Smurphy,
Great. Glad you have the Zener now. Re-run the graphs with the Zener in and let's look at the charts again. It's not 100% certain how SunControl will behave when you go over that 5.6V solar input.
BP
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smurphy
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Raspberry Pi: Yes
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Post by smurphy on Mar 17, 2020 1:36:31 GMT -8
The Zener Diode seems to have made the trick. No more crashing of th Suncontrol board.
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smurphy
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Post by smurphy on Mar 18, 2020 7:15:15 GMT -8
FYI - the 10W Zener Diode is getting too hot. It unsoldered itself from the cable today due to heat on a sunny day. So it definitely needs to be mounted onto some dissipation capable metal. Will see if I'll keep it outside. IMHO - over time it will kill the suncontrol board if I'm not careful.
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Post by SDL on Mar 19, 2020 13:52:00 GMT -8
Putting it in a heat sink will increase the carrying capacity. I'm surprised at your result, but I'm not sure how many solar panels you have hooked up! We have done it with 4 of our 6V panels with no problem.
BP
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smurphy
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Post by smurphy on Mar 20, 2020 3:36:29 GMT -8
Putting it in a heat sink will increase the carrying capacity. I'm surprised at your result, but I'm not sure how many solar panels you have hooked up! We have done it with 4 of our 6V panels with no problem. BP Right now I have regular 4 panels each 6V/330mA. So nothing special. Anyway - that issue will go away as soon a i have replaced the power-system.
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smurphy
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Post by smurphy on Mar 23, 2020 6:19:54 GMT -8
I mounted the Zener Diode as seen in the picture below. Note the Yellow/Ǵreen cable using a crimped attach system soldered to the cable linking the Weather-Station to the Solar Panel. Currently, the battery is loaded, Solar-Panel voltage is at 5.6V, but the Zener Diode temperature is at 45⁰C (measures with an infra-red pistol temp. reader). Didn't expect this. Note there is quite lots of metal to absorb the heat of the 10W Zener diode.
Bettery charge rate:
Solar Panel voltage. Note the "empty" space is when I replaced the Zener diode and mounted it in place. Solar panel has 4 6V panels with 330mA capability in full sun ≃ 2W power each.
Current going into battery. negative == Charging Max current the Solar panel delivers in mid-day sun: 1.335Ah
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Post by SDL on Mar 23, 2020 7:32:53 GMT -8
You graphs all look good. What are you using for generating them?
46C is a good operating temperature, so you have plenty enough heat sink. The diode is generally rated for 85C or 100C so you should be fine.
BP
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smurphy
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Post by smurphy on Mar 23, 2020 7:55:07 GMT -8
You graphs all look good. What are you using for generating them? 46C is a good operating temperature, so you have plenty enough heat sink. The diode is generally rated for 85C or 100C so you should be fine. BP The graphs - using the php-version of rrdgraph. Took me a while to handle the impossibility of mrtg to handle negative values. But that works. I am not yet happy with the graphs, so I bet they will evolve over time
And yes, with the heat-sink, it is Ok. Without heat-sink it became so hot it "unsoldered" from the cable I soldered it on. So it definitely requires a heat-sink.
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smurphy
Full Member
Posts: 169
Raspberry Pi: Yes
Other Device: many ...
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Post by smurphy on Mar 28, 2020 4:22:08 GMT -8
Just realized, linking an image will update the image over time. Nedt time, I'll upload these as attachments
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