Welcome back, tracecom. Did you try adding cap from gnd. to R19-1? R21 now 10Ω ? I'll be gone now for about 2 days.

 

Good morning and welcome back tracecom. To summarize, while you are away I am seeking advise from Bernard how to replace my LEDs circuit with some 1W LED beads. Just want to try how bright will that be using the existing PWM circuit.

 

Anyway Bernard, I had done balancing all the LEDs forward voltage for the LEDs circuit. The light looks more even now.

 

Welcome back, tracecom. Did you try adding cap from gnd. to R19-1? R21 now 10Ω ? I'll be gone now for about 2 days.

Yes, 100 uF from R19-1 to gnd, and R21 is 10 ohms. There is 3 ohms between B1-1 and B1 buss and 50 ohms between TB1-1 and C5-1. R19-2 connected to C5-1.

 

Good morning and welcome back tracecom. To summarize, while you are away I am seeking advise from Bernard how to replace my LEDs circuit with some 1W LED beads. Just want to try how bright will that be using the existing PWM circuit.

Don't forget that increasing the wattage on the LEDs will increase the power consumption, and the battery drain, and the load on the solar panels.

 

Counting on a 25% duty, the continuous drain should be around 350 mA, but drivers see 750 mA , so would need to be changed, prob. FETs.after present problems are worked out.
tracecom, I guess the next thing to do is crank down "SP" pot to below Day & start increasing to see what happens.
Period = 1/750 Hz = 1.33 ms. 25% = .33 ms.

 

Don't forget that increasing the wattage on the LEDs will increase the power consumption, and the battery drain, and the load on the solar panels.

Don't worry on this as I just want to try power up some 1W LED bead. It is not involving on the current LEDs circuit and charging circuit.

After we have done the original circuits then I will ask on how to replace with 1W LEDs and parts that need to be changed.

 

I have revised the schematic to reflect the changes I have made to my assembly; specifically, I added R100 (50Ω) to the output of the solar panel, C100 from R19-2 to ground, R101 between B1-1 and the B1 buss, and changed the value of R21 from 5Ω to 10Ω. I also added LED-DA with R102, LED-DC with R103, and LED-DD with R104.

I realize that some of these changes are only temporary and apply only to my assembly, and will revise the schematic again when testing is complete. Note that C100 is physically located close to R19-2, but is electrically in parallel with C5, which makes me wonder about its effectiveness.

I am doing some testing this morning and will post again a little later.

 

I hate to admit it, but I am very confused. I have just found that R19 is 1.5k instead of 1k as shown on the schematic. Is that a change that I have forgotten, or is it my assembly mistake from the beginning?

 

I hate to admit it, but I am very confused. I have just found that R19 is 1.5k instead of 1k as shown on the schematic. Is that a change that I have forgotten, or is it my assembly mistake from the beginning?

no i dont think it is your problem. I got super confused with this circuit as well. I had redo it so many time and I have no idea whats wrong as well.

 

R 19 =1.5k no problem, but C 100 should be from R19-1, bottom, between R19 & R20 & gnd.
R101 ?, added only to test Lo B1 and should be shorted out for normal op. Re check # 420, pg 42; should have adjusted R28, Lo B1 instead of R23, charge control. Nice to have every thing labled.

 

R 19 =1.5k no problem, but C 100 should be from R19-1, bottom, between R19 & R20 & gnd.
R101 ?, added only to test Lo B1 and should be shorted out for normal op. Re check # 420, pg 42; should have adjusted R28, Lo B1 instead of R23, charge control. Nice to have every thing labled.

Okay, I corrected schematic; latest Rev. A7 attached.

Then, I attempted to set day/night operation.

Opened junction of D1-1 and D2-1.
Reduced solar panel output to 4.00V.
U2-1 at 12.00V
Adjusted R20; part of way down U2-1 went from 12.00 to 9.50 and then dropped another volt or so as I continued to turn R20. Then U2-1 dropped suddenly to .165V.

Is the 9.50V reading at U2-1 indicating oscillation?

Next?

 

Did you try setting Day- Night with Q4 disabled?, U2.1 should not oscillate with 1.5V of hysteresis. Review post # 297,& 300 page 30.
Sometimeago we removed C6 to shorten charge pulses.

 

Did you try setting Day- Night with Q4 disabled?, U2.1 should not oscillate with 1.5V of hysteresis. Review post # 297,& 300 page 30.
Sometimeago we removed C6 to shorten charge pulses.

Opened junction of D1-1 and D2-1.
Reduced solar panel output to 4.00V.
Disconnected Q4 drain from B1 buss.
Adjusted R20; part of way down U2-1 went from 12.00 to 9.38 and then dropped another three volts or so as I continued to turn R20. Then U2-1 dropped suddenly to .164V.

So, essentially no change.

 

I might have R 100 too large for a 600 mA panel, can we try something close to 10Ω for R 100? I have a B & BB on order, also have a 5 W SP @ slightly higher V,& lower current.

 

I might have R 100 too large for a 600 mA panel, can we try something close to 10Ω for R 100? I have a B & BB on order, also have a 5 W SP @ slightly higher V,& lower current.

Changed R100 to 10Ω.
Junction of D1-1 and D2-1 is open.
Reduced solar panel output to 4.00V (measured at R100-2).
Q4 drain is disconnected from B1 buss.
Adjusted R20; part of way down U2-1 went from 12.00 to 9.00 and then dropped another three volts or so as I continued to turn R20. Then U2-1 dropped suddenly to .161V.

So, still no change.

 

Bernard,

Maybe I have the hysteresis for U2.1 built wrong. Is it correct on the schematic?

 

Remove C6. Reconnect D1, D2, & enable Q4, every thing should be normal; now drop V @ R100-2 to below 2.5V to where yellow is off, then start increasing V and note what happens. Hopefully green is on, yellow comes on, LED load is on, charging may be pulsing. Fingers crossed.

 

Remove C6. Reconnect D1, D2, & enable Q4, every thing should be normal; now drop V @ R100-2 to below 2.5V to where yellow is off, then start increasing V and note what happens. Hopefully green is on, yellow comes on, LED load is on, charging may be pulsing. Fingers crossed.

Removed C6.
Enabled Q4.
Adjusted SP output to 14.00V at R100-2.
Reconnected D1-1 to D2-1.
Voltage at R100-2 went to 12.73V.
DA on, DC on, DD off. 100ohm load LED on.
Reduced SP output to 2.36 at R100-2. DA off, DC off, DD off, 100ohm LED off.
Began increasing SP output.
At 2.83V 100ohm LED begins to come on. Further rotation of R20 causes no increase above 2.84V at R100-2, but 100ohm LED increases to full brightness. DA, DC, DD remain off.
R100 is now 10Ω, 15watt sand resistor, and is getting warm.

ETA: I just touched the plastic top of DD to be sure it was seated in the breadboard, felt a static discharge, and DD came on.

 

Further info.

I connected one DMM to R100-1 and another DMM to R100-2 and adjusted the SP output. Voltage readings follow.

Starting with R100-1 at 1.24V (absolute minimum), R100-2 is at 1.23V
R100-2 follows slightly behind R100-1 until R100-1 reaches 3.01V and R100-2 is at 2.82V. Further increases in R100-1 produce no increase in R100-2 until R100-1 reaches 9.32V and R100-2 jumps to 6.5V. From then on R100-2 increase as R100-1 increases, but lags behind. When R100-1 is at 14.00V, R100-2 is at 12.43V.

I don't know what all that means (if anything), but maybe you do.