August | 2017 | SimonsDialogs

Summer is already at its best, but unfortunately, my solar system (of the garden house) is not performing as it should. The battery is never at the predicted state of charge, and somehow, all performance is looking pretty much off the earlier predictions and calculations. Why is that? Well, first, checked the charge controller, but all seems fine. Next, the two solar panels (about 100 W each), and to my greatest dissatisfaction, one of the modules is only giving 8 Volts, rather than about 16-18 Volts, in full sun, and with no load connected. That’s not good.

A few days later, a big, flat box arrived –

– with a 140 Watt polycrystalline solar panel! Quite affordable, just about EUR 115.

Quite beautiful to look at, especially, at the current and power information.

Mounted it on the roof – there is still plenty of space, but one module will be good for now.

Below you can see both the new and old modules. One of old modules (the polycrystalline module) has been disconnected – I will leave it on the roof for now, at least it is shielding it from the rain.

Updated simulation – with an assumed, generous power usage. Seems we should be good even in winter. But let’s find out later this year!

Coming back to an earlier post, 8569A CRT DONOR NEEDED, I was desperately looking for a new CRT for an old 8569A.

After some hints of a kind reader of this blog, I decided to give the box another try, and removed the CRT. There was nothing wrong with the grounding, or the Aquadaq coverage, but at least, there was a sign of defect – a glass chip rattling loose inside the CRT. Turned the CRT with the face to the ground and gave it a few good hits. Reconnected everything (with carefully inserting the CRT back in the box). There result – all working great again. Seems that a piece of glass got stuck in CRT deflection unit, and caused the distortion of the screen. Appears to be a pretty rare defect, but at least, the CRT should be good for now (unless you sit the 8569A on the back feet so that the glas piece can get stuck again in the deflection unit).

Still, some more trouble with this unit:

(1) Rebuild the switch assembly and reference level encoders, about 3 hours of work, and a lot of tiny M1.2 screws, etc.

(2) Some start-up issues: the 8569A would sometimes only start when the “reset” button is pushed. Checked the EPROMs – and, one of them corrupted. Replaced the whole set, just to be sure. These are all TMS2516 EPROMs (let me know if you need the good binary images).