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Solution for ribbon cable problem.


Carlos
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This post is for Sid, I may have a solution to your noise (emi) problem with the ribbon cable. What about single shielded aircraft wire. That should do the trick. Something like this should work https://www.steinair.com/product/22-ga-single-conductor-shielded/. You can either  use 22 gauge or 20 gauge. Should be enough to drive the 12k units trouble free.

just a thought

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I would hand crimp a test batch first. Once everything works and tests fine then do a small batch from China. This solution should work as long as the shielded cable is of good quality. I know for the DIY bms project that shielded CAT 7 twisted pair solved the drop packets issue. Your issue is with noise and power as the ribbon cable is too thin and unshielded to deliver the required power/signal needed for the 12kw inverter. As for the 6k version a very short ribbon cable with beads will do the trick.

I am very interested to see your design on the new powerboard  that will replace the pj design. You can use the OZinverter powerboard as a reference design.

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I actually got started on an Apple //e (after the pocket TRS-80)...but I don't really recall the cable on the double (5.25" floppy) disk drive being anything fancy.

So the separate coaxes is going to be the best solution--part of the issue with the PJ design is that the H_MOS gate and source wires are crossed and intertwined in the worst possible way--not to mention 28-30AWG being far too small to handle 4A gate drivers.  A ferrite over the whole ribbon does nothing...and wrapping foil around the entire ribbon similarly does absolutely nothing.  At least right now, I believe that the FET drive lines need to be separately shielded.

Yeah, twisted pair Cat 5-7 cable is an idea, BUT the pairs aren't separately shielded, nor are they thick enough.

3 hours ago, Carlos said:

I am very interested to see your design on the new powerboard  that will replace the pj design. You can use the OZinverter powerboard as a reference design

Not sure the Ozinverter mainboard has much to offer...they all seem to use the IR2110 for MOS drive, which isn't strong enough to encounter the issues we are 😉.  There were a few posts on TheBackShed about people using 10A+ driver chips (TC4451)...but I didn't see any conclusive results out of them.

I wouldn't be doing much significantly different from the PJ board, except for routing the gate/source wires as signal pairs, repinning the connector, as well as upgrading the design slightly.

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1 hour ago, Sid Genetry Solar said:

I actually got started on an Apple //e (after the pocket TRS-80)...but I don't really recall the cable on the double (5.25" floppy) disk drive being anything fancy.

 

It might have been more strict RFI regulations here.  The Apples I had in for repair back then all had pretty substantial ribbon to the floppy drive with copper braid embedded in it.

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On 3/21/2021 at 7:33 AM, Carlos said:

This post is for Sid, I may have a solution to your noise (emi) problem with the ribbon cable. What about single shielded aircraft wire. That should do the trick. Something like this should work https://www.steinair.com/product/22-ga-single-conductor-shielded/. You can either  use 22 gauge or 20 gauge. Should be enough to drive the 12k units trouble free.

just a thought

I would think that the https://www.steinair.com/product/22-ga-2-conductor-shielded/ 

would work as don't they really need two wires?

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On 3/22/2021 at 10:32 PM, Waterman said:

I would think that the https://www.steinair.com/product/22-ga-2-conductor-shielded/ 

would work as don't they really need two wires?

So technically, I'll probably end up mixing single-conductor shielded with 2-conductor shielded on the connectors.  I've ordered some single-conductor shielded wire for a preliminary test. 

The signals go together, and the FET source wire is connected to a high amperage point--so technically, it doesn't need to be a 2-conductor shielded cable.  I really don't care too much what gets induced on the wires...as long as the gate-source pairs move together.  Differential EMI seems to be the issue we're up against.

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