This way the Parallax code is simple with just the LED instructions and conditions to lead to the address.
Otherwise you have so much more code to write. All those wires from the green LED and you have to hard wire a third micro pc board relay.
Kwinn says " Sounds to me like you could have the BS2 board activate RY1 for .06 seconds to push the generator fob "START" button, wait for 9000 seconds or until battery pack reaches the "full charge" voltage, then have RY2 push the generator fob "STOP" button.
That means the two programmable relays are not required so fewer things to go wrong and possibly a fuel saving since the generator is only running as long as it takes to charge the batteries."
The problem with this is as soon as the higher voltage is reached it would shut off the generator before the batteries were charged.
They will display 15 volts right away in "boost" charge mode but if you shut off the engine or generator the voltage will go right back down.
What about the most important button ??? The "battery" button on the front of the generator. If it is not switched on you could push the fob START button all day it wont activate the generators starter.
leaving the battery switch on all the time is a big AMP draw. A waste of energy.
Look at it this way if electrons were cows an the lead acid cells were green pastures....................The cows would all be bunched up at the entrances of the pastures. In order for the batteries to be fully charged from 70% discharge the electrons need time to spread out across the cells.
Gotta let the cows graze the pasture.
This is common mistake with people charging there car batteries. They are too quick to measure the voltage and unplug there battery chargers.
They unplug fast after 20 min........."Well my headlights are not dim an the amp meter is towards the positive I gotta make that appointment"
Some ( AC loads= battery loads) may be different that others. I won't know what adjustments I need to make until I actually install the 9,000 and make some tests
Good luck with the code Kwinn please take you time. Thank you for your help. If you have anymore questions or concerns please let me know.
Would you please program it to disconnect both relays after 9,000 seconds an then loop until the condition of 12.3volts is present again???
I think in order for it to work most efficiantly it would be shutting off the "battery" switch after 9,000.
This way it is not drawing amps with the switch on while it has stopped running.
So after 9,000 second the two INPUTS will go "LOW" until 12.3 volts triggers them HIGH again.
Sorry about not being able to answer you on the forum right away Kwinn . This is the only working p c in the house right now. My other family members had to use it at 7pm.
The point of having two digital counters to look at is that you can see what they are doing from outside the box.
If you put all your eggs into one basket its more likely to fail.
I have already cut the top of the box with shiny black frames around the two counters.
It will be helpful to open a dark cabinet and see the digital counters to know where it is in the cycle.
"How much longer are you going to have to run that noisy generator Mr?" people could ask me this question
With the two timer windows I can see how long.
Are you sure you need the two relays active for the entire 9000 seconds. I got the impression that they only needed a brief pulse to trigger the two time delay relay boards (EAZY and GERI)
I am thinking of using the bicolor led as the "heartbeat" indicator. If I have the program switch color each time through the main loop it should produce a different color than the two standard colors. For instance a red/green led produces an amber color when switched rapidly.
Kwinn, there is still a tiny hardware issue. The 219 blue headers.
Should I just have the 12 volt - 15.5 volt positive wire directly to the "Vin+"???
The "Vin -" should I just loop a wire into the "Vin +"???
I will post a picture here of this.
The black wire loops into the breadboard from two phillips headed screws blue header "Vin-". The pink wire connects at the breadboard. The pink wire loops into "Vin+" connecting with the wire that leads outside the box to the batteries positive terminal.
Kwinn, there is still a tiny hardware issue. The 219 blue headers.
Should I just have the 12 volt - 15.5 volt positive wire directly to the "Vin+"???
The "Vin -" should I just loop a wire into the "Vin +"???
I will post a picture here of this.
The black wire loops into the breadboard from two phillips headed screws blue header "Vin-". The pink wire connects at the breadboard. The pink wire loops into "Vin+" connecting with the wire that leads outside the box to the batteries positive terminal.
Kwinn please let me know if this is wired right.
Since you are only measuring the voltage and not the current you do not need to connect anything to the Vin- connection, but what you have done will not do any harm.
Hello Kwinn, How is the code writing going?
Did you figure out how to splice in the adafruit 219 code with Parallax?
I have been thinking.........hopefully the BS2 doesn't "brownout" because if it does so in the first hour or so it will be like
hitting the car starter after the cars engine is already running.
Unless the generator manufacturer has already put in a failsafe with the remote.
I don't know I have never tried hitting the remote START button after the generator has already started.
I am thinking that a "brown out" --- "reset" is highly unlikely.
There is one more option here. It is a sorry one for Parallax.............evict the board,pc relays and current sensors.
Program the "VLC EAZY" to function on a voltage input of 12.3 stay on. The second EAZY relay that connects generator to
battery 12volts could power on the GERI relay.
I just don't know how to program the EAZY. I think its the 0005 setting for voltage detection. I would need both of those relays to stay latched.
How would it shut off? If I enter a higher voltage threshold "15volts?" it won't work.
It would shut off too soon because the system can reach those values in half the time but not be fully charged.
This would cause excessive generator run time. The cycles would be too short.
I will just wait for your code. I think it will be way better with the BS2 running it.
Hello Kwinn, How is the code writing going?
Did you figure out how to splice in the adafruit 219 code with Parallax?
I have been thinking.........hopefully the BS2 doesn't "brownout" because if it does so in the first hour or so it will be like
hitting the car starter after the cars engine is already running.
Unless the generator manufacturer has already put in a failsafe with the remote.
I don't know I have never tried hitting the remote START button after the generator has already started.
I am thinking that a "brown out" --- "reset" is highly unlikely.
Cannot say what the EAZY and GERI relays will do in case of a brownout, but the Basic Stamp has three levels of protection in it's favor when a brownout happens. First is it only needs +5V, so as long as the input stays at or above 7V it is not affected. Second level of protection is that it resets after detecting a brownout and shuts off both relays. Third level is that as long as the generator is running the voltage on the batteries will be above 12.3V, so the software would not be trying to start the generator.
The only problem that I can think of that might cause the BS2 to start the generator when it is already running would be if the generator voltage is not being sensed by the INA219.
There is one more option here. It is a sorry one for Parallax.............evict the board,pc relays and current sensors.
Program the "VLC EAZY" to function on a voltage input of 12.3 stay on. The second EAZY relay that connects generator to
battery 12volts could power on the GERI relay.
I just don't know how to program the EAZY. I think its the 0005 setting for voltage detection. I would need both of those relays to stay latched.
How would it shut off? If I enter a higher voltage threshold "15volts?" it won't work.
It would shut off too soon because the system can reach those values in half the time but not be fully charged.
This would cause excessive generator run time. The cycles would be too short.
I will just wait for your code. I think it will be way better with the BS2 running it.
Based on the video it does seem like the EAZY might be able to do what you want, however I have no experience with it so I would not be able to help you.
Hello Kwinn, How is the code writing going?
Did you figure out how to splice in the adafruit 219 code with Parallax?
The code writing is going fine, no splicing required. It is based on the Parallax BS2 code that can be downloaded as part of the INA219 breakout board package rather than the Arduino code. I already have it reading the voltage and turning the two relays on when the input goes below the threshold, and turning them off after the time delay is done. Just need the second INA219 and some free time to finish up. Seems to be a law of nature that when one time sensitive task comes along several others will follow. Either famine or feast, no in between.
BTW, I still think the BS2 could do this without the EASY and GERI boards by adding a third relay. Could even do a better job by monitoring the charging current in to and the load current out of the batteries.
Does one generator charge both battery packs at the same time?
How much current does the generator produce?
There is one other level of protection. The fact that it receives steady filtered voltage to the BS2 from the AD/DC wall
adapter.
I think that if the board was powered by the sensor wire from the battery banks it could spike. A voltage spike from 12 to 15 volts would be bad for the BS2.
Comments
Otherwise you have so much more code to write. All those wires from the green LED and you have to hard wire a third micro pc board relay.
That means the two programmable relays are not required so fewer things to go wrong and possibly a fuel saving since the generator is only running as long as it takes to charge the batteries."
The problem with this is as soon as the higher voltage is reached it would shut off the generator before the batteries were charged.
They will display 15 volts right away in "boost" charge mode but if you shut off the engine or generator the voltage will go right back down.
leaving the battery switch on all the time is a big AMP draw. A waste of energy.
Gotta let the cows graze the pasture.
This is common mistake with people charging there car batteries. They are too quick to measure the voltage and unplug there battery chargers.
They unplug fast after 20 min........."Well my headlights are not dim an the amp meter is towards the positive I gotta make that appointment"
Good luck with the code Kwinn please take you time. Thank you for your help. If you have anymore questions or concerns please let me know.
I think in order for it to work most efficiantly it would be shutting off the "battery" switch after 9,000.
This way it is not drawing amps with the switch on while it has stopped running.
So after 9,000 second the two INPUTS will go "LOW" until 12.3 volts triggers them HIGH again.
Sorry about not being able to answer you on the forum right away Kwinn . This is the only working p c in the house right now. My other family members had to use it at 7pm.
I couldn't do it without you.
So you want to leave the two timers in?
Yes if you want to make the bi colored Led do that it would be fine.
If not constant HIGH they won't stay powered.
The micro 12 volt 1 amp pc board relays connect the EAZY and GERI to ground circuit.
When circuit complete they count themselves.
OK, both relays will close for a minimum of 9000 seconds.
Should I just have the 12 volt - 15.5 volt positive wire directly to the "Vin+"???
The "Vin -" should I just loop a wire into the "Vin +"???
I will post a picture here of this.
The black wire loops into the breadboard from two phillips headed screws blue header "Vin-". The pink wire connects at the breadboard. The pink wire loops into "Vin+" connecting with the wire that leads outside the box to the batteries positive terminal.
Kwinn please let me know if this is wired right.
Since you are only measuring the voltage and not the current you do not need to connect anything to the Vin- connection, but what you have done will not do any harm.
Did you figure out how to splice in the adafruit 219 code with Parallax?
I have been thinking.........hopefully the BS2 doesn't "brownout" because if it does so in the first hour or so it will be like
hitting the car starter after the cars engine is already running.
Unless the generator manufacturer has already put in a failsafe with the remote.
I don't know I have never tried hitting the remote START button after the generator has already started.
I am thinking that a "brown out" --- "reset" is highly unlikely.
Program the "VLC EAZY" to function on a voltage input of 12.3 stay on. The second EAZY relay that connects generator to
battery 12volts could power on the GERI relay.
I just don't know how to program the EAZY. I think its the 0005 setting for voltage detection. I would need both of those relays to stay latched.
How would it shut off? If I enter a higher voltage threshold "15volts?" it won't work.
It would shut off too soon because the system can reach those values in half the time but not be fully charged.
This would cause excessive generator run time. The cycles would be too short.
I will just wait for your code. I think it will be way better with the BS2 running it.
Here is another example of the EAZY relay that the BS2's micro p.c. board relays activate when low 12.3 voltage.
Am I missing something here?
I don't know if this would do this stand alone.
Cannot say what the EAZY and GERI relays will do in case of a brownout, but the Basic Stamp has three levels of protection in it's favor when a brownout happens. First is it only needs +5V, so as long as the input stays at or above 7V it is not affected. Second level of protection is that it resets after detecting a brownout and shuts off both relays. Third level is that as long as the generator is running the voltage on the batteries will be above 12.3V, so the software would not be trying to start the generator.
The only problem that I can think of that might cause the BS2 to start the generator when it is already running would be if the generator voltage is not being sensed by the INA219.
Based on the video it does seem like the EAZY might be able to do what you want, however I have no experience with it so I would not be able to help you.
The code writing is going fine, no splicing required. It is based on the Parallax BS2 code that can be downloaded as part of the INA219 breakout board package rather than the Arduino code. I already have it reading the voltage and turning the two relays on when the input goes below the threshold, and turning them off after the time delay is done. Just need the second INA219 and some free time to finish up. Seems to be a law of nature that when one time sensitive task comes along several others will follow. Either famine or feast, no in between.
Does one generator charge both battery packs at the same time?
How much current does the generator produce?
adapter.
I think that if the board was powered by the sensor wire from the battery banks it could spike. A voltage spike from 12 to 15 volts would be bad for the BS2.
How much current does the generator produce?"
Yes,both battery banks, the generator is powering these two converter/chargers:
This generator has a keychain size wireless remote with electric start.
It is what the industry calls "a Honda knockoff".
It is affordable I will post a link to the electric start yellow and black wonder.
It sips gas like a queen at tea time.
The Champion Generator company has several models...........the one I have is "4000 Starting watts 3500 rated watts"