Channel Update - MGF EV, CNC and other Solar Projects

Will the MGF conversion fail in a plume of smoke, milling machine crash into itself or the solar pool heater burst and flood the garden.
Hopefully none of these, although half the battle is fixing what doesn't work so projects develop, and who knows we may discover another new way of solving old problems.
This update just covers some of my projects to date and where they are intended to go in the future.
So why not follow my channel to see what happens and see if multiple motors can actually work together as a single power unit.
Please feel free to ask project related questions in the comments section, where I would be happy to try and answer them.
Links: -
ODrive website: odriverobotics.com/
#WelcomeToMyGarage
#dev255

[@justincopeland2391]

Lovin the outtakes 😂😂 blubalabalalabala😂

[@Dev255]

Thank you Justin, think the outtakes take longer to video than the update, doh!

[@davec200i]

Hi Neil, good to meet you at Maker Central. I was one of the Daves going to buy the milling machine and lathe after the show (the mill weighed a ton! Haha) Anyway, turns out I was already subscribed to you! I'd watched some of your solar videos in the past. Just come back to catch up on your MGF videos but no new videos for a while... Hoping for updates!

[@Dev255]

Hi Dave. Thank you, hopefully I'll get back into all this content soon as we have just moved and I'm in the middle of changing jobs, so hope to get more time. Yep, this machine is pretty heavy and getting heavier the more I add, haha. I still have the MGF and still have plans to get it running, although day jobs tend to get in the way, doh. Thank you for your subscription.

[@fredfarnackle5455]

Nice update, Neil. Thanks, enjoyed it.😎👍

[@Dev255]

Hi Fred,, Thank you, hope you are well

[@martintruran8469]

Fantastic stuff mate!

[@Dev255]

Thank you.

[@craigchuck4247]

Looking good my man

[@Dev255]

Cheers mate, will have to make that tracked camera gimble

[@MrJasoon13]

Great !

[@neildevonshire2434]

Thank you 👍

[@DMonZ1988]

so much awesome stuff! i'm so keen to see the car up and running! when it comes to switching the PC onto batteries, have a look/consider the HDPLEX 800 PSU. its quite pricey but probably more efficient than running an inverter, and if you find a way to power the monitor directly too then you can skip the inverter entirely. might end up cheaper, and if you invest the difference towards switching to 24V you'll save on wiring in the longrun and i think the CNC would benefit too. the garage is looking ex excellent, it feels like a really productive space! good luck!

[@Dev255]

Thank you, I will look at the HDPLEX 800 PSU, it sounds interesting. One of the ODrives on the CNC will run at 24v and the other that I haven't fitted yet (for the spindle and Z-Axis motors) can run at 56v, so may just upgrade to 24v as you said. Thanks, the garage has taken a while to get up and running.

[@DMonZ1988]

@@Dev255 oh, nice! not sure how you plan on solving the different power conversions in that case, but they all come with inefficiencies and require an additional circuit/device which represents cost and a failure point. the HDPLEX will run on 16-63V so maybe run everything on 48V? the higher power odrive will handle it too so it seems like the most unified standard and it'll only increase power and reduce cables further. sufficient batteries are an added cost but instead of all the added conversion devices and thiccc cables you're investing in storage capacity.

[@Dev255]

Hi, I like the 800W version of the HDPLEX and it's a very reasonably priced, may even get one as a bench PSU too. My current PC PSU is 750W although the PC only really pulls around 400W when fully rendering video. You are right the more conversions, the more losses, where the 1000W inverter takes 12W to run (1A) from the batteries continuously. The HDPLEX 800 could also be used in the MGF to power the auxiliary 12V circuits and 5V for the Arduino's from a single 444Wh LiPo battery and save a bit of weight there. The car should only need around 20A to run all the auxiliary stuff if the lights were on too, so should last over an hour and half without issue, good enough for test runs.

[@DMonZ1988]

@@Dev255 exactly. that's actually quite an efficient inverter in that case in think, but it's not nothing, and running 56V for the spindle is yet another conversion. The HDPLEX is extremely efficient and high quality, higher than 80+platinum rating if I remember correctly. The 450W(?) is actually enough for pretty much any single GPU PC, but I also like the 800W one ;-D I think they even mention it being used in cars and industrial machines, it's a really really nice piece of kit. It's quite expensive to me, but unquestionably worth it and well, in the end probably cheaper when you add it all up in a use case like yours, where switching DC to AC to DC to DC to DC is the only alternative. Many people use it with the AC adapter brick for extra SFF PCs, but that makes less sense to me. I'm extremely tempted by it because I'll want to run an off grid setup like yours too, but until that's set up I've refrained so far. Trouble is, they're often out of stock for quite a long time, especially this last year or two. They have restocked several times though so it's not entirely impossible to get, but it can take 2-3 months if you're unlucky. Enjoy, don't buy them all! I still want one 😫

[@Dev255]

Don't worry I won't buy them all haha, I may try a few options first, I think that 12W addition from my current inverter is easily factored in to the solar consideration, where an extra 36W of solar (factor of 3 for what your running) only works out to be roughly £36 (£1 per Watt roughly), so may not be an issue. Still considering the 800W one though, looks like a fancy piece of kit too.

[@minibigs5259]

Any more updates on this? :)

[@Dev255]

Hi, there will be, we are moving house at the end of the month and work has been hectic, where everything is packed down. I should be able to get some videos out next month with an update.