The upgrades made to the solar array and witness server were a success

in STEMGeekslast month (edited)

Today was a busy day, started with me disabling my witness as I knew the power was going to be off for awhile. I used @ausbitbank's tool to do this. Thank you very much. I think I can do it in peakd as well under witness parameters, maybe next time I disable I will try it there. I just recall seeing it work for someone in the Hive discord and glad I was able to use it to broadcast my witness changes. I could have done it in the cli wallet as well, but just easier to do it there.

Check it out here, it has an entire block explorer inside: https://hive.ausbit.dev/

Once disabled I had a few changes to make.

  1. Turned on logging of hived
  2. Server hardening
  3. Changed price feed to update every 6 hours instead of 12
  4. Apply updates

Shortly after I wrapped up with the changes I met with some electricians and we got started working on my solar array. We mounted a second Sol-ark 15k inverter on the wall and wired it into the second mains from the utility. I have two services coming in, with two service panels. So moving each service panel to each inverter was preferrable.

Before I had just one inverter, powering two panels. Not recommeneded. The second panel is across the house, but still feeds in from here.

Some cleanup was needed as well, proper high voltage junction boxes were installed and the temporary boxes removed. Above is the old box that held the joining of the curcuits.

We split the power coming off the battery bank to both inverters. Going to replace that buss bar with a disconnect switch. The one I had previously was bad, and I replaced it with a buss bar. But for saftey reasons I really need to get a replacement disconnect switch that trips at a certain amp load such a short curcuit.

And now each service panel has its own dedicated inverter powering it.

Before closing up the box, we can see how the wires were joined after the changes were done. The two buss bars seen above will have two more wires added to them, bridging the two inverters so they can draw from a single battery bank.

Speaking of batteries, I had a plan on being able to keep the witness online during all of this. But it failed. I was going to take a 100AH 12V battery and connect it to an 750W inverter.. much than enough to deal with the small load my network equipment and server put on it. But when it was all hooked up it did not work. My UPS that normally provides power for short periods of time did not like the power coming in from the this little inverter. I guess my inverter does not produce "pure sine waves" which I need for a UPS to register the power coming in as not dirty.. or something like that.

So with this unfortunate outcome I had to shut down my server during this upgrade. As my UPS would only power it for 30 minutes or so.. normally more than enough for my generator to kick on if the power went out and solar array hiccuped or something. But not enough power to get through 10 hours of downtime during the solar array upgrade I did today.

For those curious about the size of the server, here is my hand as a reference.

Really glad I got the upgrades done to my server and my solar array. With my server secured and well logged I should be able to let it run for the foreseeable future without issue. And by upgrading from one to now two inverters it doubles my solar panel capacity. I should be able to run upwards of 30KW of solar power now. Which would be a huge step up from my entire array I currently have.

My witness server is back online and waiting its next block to produce.

There is still more work to do on the solar array, I need to add a disconnect switch by the battery side. And need to redo a little wiring as we ran out while they were there. So we had to use the wrong color (still marked it correct) and did not really run it far enough, but it was good enough to get everything back up and we can deal with that later. But all small things I can do myself without issue. Glad I was able to find some local help and get the array upgraded. And glad my witness came back up early.

Posted using STEMGeeks

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I'm astonished at the small size of the box your server is in! 😮
Great job on all the upgrades! 🌞

It sure is, these machines just get smaller and more powerful by the year.

Thanks, slowly but surely getting it all tuned.

Good thing your UPS didn't take that power in. Not having pure sine wave can damage electronic components with time, and that server doesn't come cheap. I have a setup with a 100AH GEL battery like yours and a 1000W inverter, but my appliances work fine; just that I know it's not a clean signal going in with the noise I hear at the outlets. A more sophisticated inverter should do the trick. And get the disconnect switch soon enough. Makes isolating the [inverter] systems easier when troubleshooting. Did that for mine, and it helps when faults show up. Welcome back to your witness... Voted you.

Ah that is a good thing, guess I got a smart UPS. I do need to find a better inverter that does pure sign waves.

And as for my disconnect, yes I have one on order. Luckily my BMS (battery management system) should cut power in the case of a short. But having a proper fuse will be the way to go.. ordered a t-class fuse so hopefully it should do well.

Great.. thank you for the vote

Beautiful setup!

Hi, @bitcoinflood,

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thanks, its been quite the work in progress.

Great job you're doing.

ah glad you like it.

This is incredible, you just don't stop! Glad you got your power now sorted. Can I ask would a witness vote from me with an account that has 1.5-2k HP help nudge you up a place on the witness rankings or not?

Hah yep always staying busy..

Yes every amount counts, I would greatly appreciate your vote for witness.

Don't worry about that you're getting it. I will be powering up another few hundred Hive very soon, this coming pay day, and will then publish a Witness Support Declaration post. The community will see exactly who I am voting for. Don't worry I will not be tagging witnesses!

@amirl yes absolutely. I would appreciate your vote for witness as well.

Holy Shit that's a lot of batteries

yup 48 of them I think.

2V each? Like $350/ battery?

Wow, I envy you. That is a beautiful setup.

thanks, its been years in the making now but coming along quite nicely.

We have a high efficiency furnace at home and I know that we can't run it on our generator for the same reason you mentioned above. The Honda ones produce a clean sine wave but they are a lot more expensive than I was willing to spend.

Ah yeah I am sure they are more costly. That sucks it will not run on it.. seems like something simple if its just heat strips. Maybe the computer in the furnace does not like the power if its not pure sine waves.

Yeah, I think it is the second part. Something about how the fan runs I think. We have a large infrared space heater that we can use if we ever need it. I also think I can plug my generator into the fuse panel to run everything else if I need to.

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You're patient enough to set up this things.😊

Hah yep.. lots of patience.

😁😁It's a good thing to have.😊

For all panels there is a separate inverter... This is a good idea...

I want to know how those panels work? Are those panels directly supplying electricity to your home ?

thanks, I think so too..

Those panels is where the circuit breakers are found, they go to things like electrical outlets, oven, stove and other appliances. My house has two panels, most houses have one. But since I have two I needed two inverters to run them correctly and keep a balanced load on the house.

Lovely cabling. Nothing like the satisfaction of a completed electric job. An upgrade to 30Kw is nice, should be plenty of power going forward!

thanks, those electricians really cleaned up the wiring quite well.

Hehe yeah 30KW would be quite the power production.

Congratulations on your work today, I think it's an amazing job you did, and it ended up doing it.
Keep my friend's enthusiasm to do the next job, I can't wait to see it in the future.

Thank you

Wow
It looks like you know one or two things about solar energy
I’m happy you got it sorted out
Welldone

I know a little bit, but still have lots to learn.. thanks

Greetings. As always, everything you do reflects great order and organization, I love the precision and efficiency with which you do everything... All of this looks very elegant.

Woahhh
@olujay check this out

Thank you, Abenad.

I can see it does take a lot of wiring and connections to get servers up and working.
Wonderful that you are back online.

Yep, its all quite complicated but works.

PIZZA!

$PIZZA slices delivered:
@danzocal(7/10) tipped @solominer

Congratulations once again, it always feels so good when one's hardwork pays off.

thank you very much

Thanks for sharing your experience with us!
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