The Power Within Elroy

[Remoteness]

Here is the upper terninal blocks that mount above the relays and flasher devices.
These terminals interface to the DC distro fuse box outputs via three circuit connectors...
The other side of the terminal strips shall attach to the various DC devices around the mobile unit.

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Here you will find the bottom relay and flasher tray...

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Check out the (dry run) assembled (top & bottom) tray system connected to the back of the distro fuse panel and relay switches.

Note the battery monitor (on your right) right next to the distro box.
That device when setup correctly will monitor the battery's condition and such.

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Here's a front (slightly) overhead view of this (perfectly working) groovy apparatus...

SWEET!

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Here’s a wider shot of Elroy’s DC distro and control panels during the testing stage. It works brilliantly.

Later this afternoon, (wiring god) Dave Wilkerson shall finish wiring the meters, chassis mounted utility connectors, external chassis mounted fuse holders plus the battery and converter main breakers and cut off switches.

The next step is to complete the AC XFMR input tap switches wiring, which we hope to accomplish on Sunday. Monday we hope to connect this stuff to the various circuits and take it for an official run.

Little by little, inch by inch we are getting closer to completing this awesome multifunctional mobile unit.

Any questions?

[jazzbutcher]

Hey Steve,

Thanks for sharing all these great photos and information -- as always, your generosity is overwhelming -- I know everyone appreciates all the good info and advice and photos you put into this forum. It's certainly been very useful for me non-stop.

As to the mystery power panels you posted about earlier...wow, I studied those pictures and could not for the life of me imagine what they were for, but then again perhaps I don't understand all the different power systems one can come in contact with at a big event or industrial-style connections. Also, where does DC come into play other than the truck's lights/flashers/etc???

I think it's great that you've moved slowly and carefully in order to get the best designs possible for Elroy that meets your needs and the care you put into it certainly shows. However, maybe you can educate me some on the advantages of Elroy powering other smaller trucks and also the backline. Is it just to help guarantee that everyone has clean power w/o ground loops? Is it a convienience thing for you or do finances have something to do with it to? (ie...this is an additional "service" you can provide for a fee?)


thanks,

-dave

[Remoteness]

Hey Dave,

It’s always a pleasure to see you on this board. How are you my man?

As you folks probably figured out, I love sharing my world of photos and information…
Even if I don’t get any sleep doing so.

Ah, the mystery power panels – wow is right. Believe it or not, I still study those pictures for my own expansion on whether or not I can design it better or if something can be added to the arrangement.

I can answer direct questions about each panel and their components, but you must specify which one we’re talking about.

Besides the standard truck lights and flashers we need a variety of other devices on location…

The DC system comes into play mostly for crew and client support. The DC system is used when we are on the road or don’t have AC shore or generator power. But, the DC system can be used while AC power is available via the AC to DC converter we installed to this system. We have 18 circuits that include:

Four outside work lights at each corner of the mobile unit’s body.

Two red light flashers are mounted in the front and rear outer walls of the outrigger portion of the truck body. These are turned on for safety purposes when the expanded sides extend into traffic and/or pedestrian walkways.

There’s an overhead DC light for the studio entrance.

Four utility (cigarette lighter style) connectors are available in four areas around the mobile unit. One in each of the driver and passenger side racks. The third outlet shall be mounted in the front of the studio/control room. The forth one shall be installed at the rear of the STU/CRM by the entrance/exit door.

A fifth chassis mounted utility connector isolated from the main DC distribution system is available in the driver side rack directly wired to the auxiliary battery bank. People can use these outlets for recharging their cellular phones and such plus any other 12 volt DC device.

There are also POWER / XFMR area and STU/CRM ceiling lights.

The two (left & right) outriggers also have a ceiling light circuit.

The seventeenth circuit is for all gooseneck lights that shall be available around the permanently mounts CRM racks.
The final circuit is a CAB DC buss for any ancillary devices that may need power from the auxiliary batteries or converter system.

Correct -- you hit it the nail right on the head. Elroy can power other trucks and systems up to 400 amps via the Cam-Lok through ports. And, there are a number of L5-30 outlets that can power backline and small audio/video/sound systems. In any event it IS to help guarantee that everyone has clean power and such. I would only consider providing this available power when it’s applicable. Sometimes I’ve needed power around the vehicle or just a short distance away – this surely is an excellent way to handle it.

Well, financial possibilities can come into play. It really depends on a few variables. Usually, the fee for the equipment, cabling and Yellow Jackets attached to the power sources is what we could charge for.

[jazzbutcher]

Steve,

Thanks for the explanation -- sounds like your truck has a great deal more utility lights, safety lights and convienience cigarette lighter jacks on it than I imagined. I need to remember this is quite the large vehicle!

As for the mystery panels (the two panels with the 208/240 V switches and then the red/green switches below it)....well, I still am not sure I get what they are for...but here's some observations and guesses and more questions still...

These panels both look like marine electronics panels to me (I like to sail - anything from a windsurfer up to about a 36' sloop I can handle)... So, that makes me wonder, are you outfitting Elroy to work near docks/piers also? Or are these marine-grade components just handy for your purposes? These switches look like the kind that are used to choose between different power systems and battery banks on a boat. The wiring strips and terminals and connectors that you had pictures of recently also look to be marine-grade components.

208v vs 240v power...now this is all part of 3-phase power systems, yes, because the 3 legs are 120-degrees out of phase? So are these switches for choosing between 2-phase power and 3-phase power? The question is, are these switches for you connecting to a power source or are they for you choosing the type of power source you are providing to other trucks or backline?

When you talk about having a battery system, are you talking about having an industrial-sized UPS system for Elroy?

Does Elroy have a generator for when no mains are available?


-dave (who likes electricity but prefers to record acoustic instruments most of the time)

[Remoteness]

To Dave the man who likes electricity but prefers to record acoustic instruments…

Well, most of the time that is,

Yes, Elroy does have a great deal more apparatus and ancillary devices than most mobile units. Large or small, I like to expand the possibilities as far as I can take it with out going nuts about it…

Well, that’s the story I’m sticking to. Heh

Believe it or not, those mystery panels are not that mysterious. I explained the 208/240 V tap switch panel in a post above ^. The DC panel and its devices is basically a distro fuse panel with a cut off switch and breaker for the distro and the auxiliary battery systems. There are two meters one for the DC volts and another which acts more like a fuel gage called the battery monitor.

I like to buy from marine, emergency, fire and rescue catalogs and dealer/distributors. I’ve been doing this for more than 30 years as of yesterday (March 3rd, 2007 is Aura Sonic Ltd’s 30th anniversary.)

Those marine on/off switches are only cut off switches. They just tie the aux batteries or DC distro fuse panel to the AC to DC converter. Elroy is meant to work on AC power only. The DC system is an ancillary system to work during a gig via its AC/DC converter or temporarily when there is no shore power available. Usually, just before and just after we have AC power to the vehicle.

Elroy does not need a three phase AC power source. Single phase 208 or 240 volts with two hots (legs) and a ground is all it needs for power. Each ultra isolation transformer can handle up to 70 amps 120 volts which give us 140 amps of available power. The HVAC system and its breakers shall be wired on the primary side of the transformers completely separate from the technical power.

With the transformer tap switches you can choose which input tap off the windings you need. IE: 208 or 240 volts. In the old days we had to re-wire the input to the transformer for the correct voltage.

Elroy has three 25 amp UPSs for mission critical equipment plus the facility to add additional UPS when applicable. One day I would like to design a huge industrial-sized UPS system with hundreds of batteries lining the floor of the truck body, but that’s far in the future concept and plan. It’s all about time and money – I sure got plenty of ideas.

I do not want to get into the power business. I want to leave that to the professionals, so we don’t have a genie on board. I truly hate the vibration and do not want to deal with it. I do have a design for a detachable genie, but that’s another story for sure.

So, we finally finish the majority of the AC and DC install in the power area of Elroy.

Dave Wilkerson and I (mostly Dave) tackled this project which started last Thursday and ended this past Monday (yesterday) evening. Putting roughly 10 hours a day we got it done. When Dave comes back from his quickie two week tour with the band “Asia” in South America we plan to get right back on it as long as he doesn’t get booked on another project. I decided to finish this mobile unit with folks like Dave; people that know what they are doing. I really don’t have the time and money to keep re-doing poorly done work.

Here are a few pictures for your review.

The space to the left of the rack shall be completed very soon with additional devices, venting and such.

I hope you like what you see!

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Here's a closer view of this driver side 16 space rack.

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Here's a close up of the LED tip toggle switches energized...

Note the different colors -- Each set of colors represents different banks of task lights and devices. I wanted at least 5 different colors, but the lead time from the various manufacturer's was totally insane. I did not want to wait three to four months for them so, I went with NKK which had only three colors of LEDs, but they were in stock. It only took a few weeks to get them in my hands.

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What about the rear of this wonderful rackage?

Ah, here you go folks...

There's some cleaning up and additional wiring to address, but check out what Dave created for Elroy!

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Here's another slightly different angle to review...

You likey? I likey?

[Musiclab]

I just came back from seeing this in person, it's totally amazing and SLUTTY

[RedEar]

So umm, maby I missed it, but where is the powersource for all this beutiful stuff?
What are you working with on this?

[Remoteness]

Originally Posted by RedEar

So umm, maby I missed it, but where is the powersource for all this beutiful stuff?
What are you working with on this?

I got the first question okay...
The power source is whatever building, generator power we pull from when we're on a gig or location production.

When it's parked at my field shop it gets it's power from the building.

Please explain your second question a bit more so I can answer it correctly.

[RedEar]

Sorry, they were both the same. So I take it you either run power out of a building or use a seperate generator? Sorry for the spelling too.
Great. Thanks. Elroy looks great man.

[Remoteness]

Brainstorming with a Sharpie...

The passenger side Cam-Lok panel:
A redux of the second design - I'm going back to a modified verison of the original plan.

The original design took five pieces to fabricate a complete panel.
The modified version only takes three parts to complete.

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The Cam-Lok I/O panel with scrolling LED meters and breakers will live to the right of the UPSs, AC utility distro and power outlets.

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So, I added an analog meter that shall be mounted below the four digital meters. This analog meter shall be wired in after the Cam-Loks and just before the main and aux breakers via an A/B switch so we can check for the correct incoming voltage before we switch on the system.

IMO, it's better to fry the meter fuse (or meter for that matter) than any other component of Elroy's power system.

I will post some pictures once I finish the cardboard mock up of the Cam-Lok / Meter I/O panel.

[Larrysings]

If Steve worked for Nasa we'd be on Pluto by now. This stuff is like science fiction come to life. I can't wait to see it finished, finally!

[Remoteness]

Larry,

I appreciate the sentiment -- Thanks!

So, I changed the Cam-Lok / Meter / Breaker panel once again...

It started out as a five piece construction project; then we totally changed the design and then went back to a version of the original design, but with only three pieces. Now, I finally came up with the simplest and most economical version of this fabrication with only two pieces.

Economics and the time factor played a big role in the final decision.

Checkout the quick drawings I did late last night/early morning below.

[Shelton]

Steve,

Great resource here!

Taking a look at your Camlock Patch Panel...I don't see provisions for a neutral. You only tie in with two hots and a ground?


Also, do you plan on having the Aux tranny connected to a different power source? or will you jump from the main Camlocks to the Aux?

Or, here's another question...are the Camlock outputs parallels, or switched?

-Shelton

[Remoteness]

Sheldon,

Thanks! It's my pleasure to hook you folks up.

IMO, it makes for a better location & mobile audio community in general.

I want to get everyone together rather than the status quo (pulling us apart.)

I believe in strength in numbers! The more we unite the stronger our community gets!!!

We float the neutral via the center tap of each transformer.
Each XFMR handles 208V or 240V Single Phase -- Two hots and ground is all we need.

The dual (main & aux) trannies can be connected to different power sources.
It's about options. They do still share the same ground!
In most cases we will jump from the main to the aux Cam-Loks.
I can have multiple events happening in this vehicle...

Kind of like "A Tale of Two Control Rooms." Two or more clients or acts can share the facility.
If one of them has an auxilary power source or is working in the evening rather than the daytime, different power maybe needed.
The right (analog audio) side of the studio is on the main XFMR.
The left side (digital audio & video) is on the Aux XFMR.
Various outlets can be swap between the main and aux XFMRs when necessary via an L5-30 power panel within the power area.

Like I said, many times before -- It's about back-ups and plenty of options.

The Cam-Lok thru-puts (outputs) are parallels.

Originally Posted by Shelton

Steve,

Great resource here!

Taking a look at your Camlock Patch Panel...I don't see provisions for a neutral. You only tie in with two hots and a ground?


Also, do you plan on having the Aux tranny connected to a different power source? or will you jump from the main Camlocks to the Aux?

Or, here's another question...are the Camlock outputs parallels, or switched?

-Shelton

[Remoteness]

Getting closer everyday...

The power area -- Now, we have to build a few access panels or doors to cap this stuff up. Still working this out...

Got some cool ideas I'm going to hash it out in my brainageness and address it with my associate.

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The three access panel doors have been worked out and almost completed.

While that was happening we finished wiring the meter/Cam-Lok/breaker panel...

It has been installed, but here's a couple of rear panel shots.

Check it out below.