Brain dump.... when connecting power sources in parallel you should fuse each power source individually. That way if something goes horribly wrong the malfunctioning unit can pop it's own fuse.

Telsa car batteries consist of 7700 individual 18650 or 2170 cells. Each one is connected to it's peers with a 5 amp fuse. If one cell malfunctions it will pop it's own fuse and the rest of the pack continues to operate.

None of the chinese manufacturers are fusing individual LFP 280 or 314 cells. They just strap them together and hope for the best.

Moar brain dump. When you connect PV panels in parallel you can get away without fusing two strings. because even if one string of panels shorts out, they are engineered to accept twice as much current as they produce.

Check the label on any panel and you'll find numbers like Isc 13amps , fuse at 30amps. (Isc is amps short circuit, the max amps the panel can ever make).

However when you combine 3 or more strings of panels now you have a situation where one string could malfunction and the two neighbors could dump amps into it. So when you parallel 3 or more sets of panels you must fuse each individual string at the manufacturers spec (ie probably around 30amps).

There are inline fuse holders that have the MC4 connectors or you can use a combiner box with fuses or breakers.

One more tip... do NOT disconnect MC4 connectors while amps are flowing. Use a shutoff switch or power down the MPPT or inverter before taking MC4s apart. If you take them apart under load they will arc. The arc will destroy the contact surface and about 6 months from now your connector will mysteriously melt.

This repeater is up 65ft and is 6 miles south of I-20. It covers about 15 miles of I-20.

This repeater is up 400ft and covers a radius of about 14 miles (ignoring the outliers).

Yesterday we got a pallet of 70 sheets of "master rib" siding, the same stuff as on my workshop. We are replacing the vynil siding on the house as it has become brittle and has cracked in a few places.

When we originally installed the vynil we put a J channel at the bottom and caulked it down to the concrete porch surface. Although it is holding the j channel very nicely, it is not a 100% continuous bead of caulk. When we get a blowing rain it hits the siding and runs down and into the basement every once in a while.

I've decided to use a diamond saw to cut a 1/8" wide groove about 1/2" deep about 1inch from the wall into the concrete. We'll shoot a bead of caulk in there and set some Z flashing down into the groove. Once the caulk sets up, I'll finally have a continuous water repelling wall around the house.

We will then set the corrugated metal panel on top of the Z fashing and affix to the wall. Water hitting the panel will run down and around that z flashing.

I did a small section today as a test and a 4" diamond wheel on my battery grinder cuts like butter. I'll post pictures tomorrow. I've got to make a guide for the grinder. Looks like the hardest part is going to be cleaning up all the old caulk.

Amazing stuff.... a 32kwh battery drawn down at 200amps for an hour. And to think it has 628ah, so It could do this for another 2 hours. https://youtu.be/ekql33bxwkU

Meshcore news
Tonight we limited the number of hops that about a dozen local repeaters will repeat. Traffic comes in heavier and heavier each night. We’ve started seeing stations from Louisiana and Texas here in SC.

So…. If someone in Ohio sends a packet without a region scope and its already been repeated 10 times it will not be repeated by the Florence sc repeaters.

If you specify a region such as us, us-sc, or us-southeast it will go up to 64 hops.

Translation: if you want to communicate with someone far away you should specify a region in your packets.

We’ve programmed our local repeaters to not relay unscoped packets >10 hops away. We still see stations from Delaware, Maryland and Georgia.
*Unscoped packets means packets that are not designated for a region such as a state or city.

Here's a cut away drawing of what we're doing to prevent water from flowing across the concrete porch surface and into the basement. I'll use a diamond wheel to grind a groove around the perimeter of the house, shoot caulk in it, and set flashing inside.

water sealing ICF windows.