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Solar Cells at the CCCamp 2019

We're an international group of people working on DC microgrid technology. We've been present at multiple Chaos camps and events, under different names like AltPwr, EventGrid, etc.

Our aim is to build technology and methods to connect small autonomous energy systems via DC microgrids, to allow them to share energy production, storage and usage resource. We also want to provide the means to measure, monitor and visualize power consumption on regular AC grids and DC microgrids to create awareness on power usage and potential improvements.


Participation

If you have any ideas, want to share cool solutions or help out developing hardware or software:

  • Setup an account (top right) and create pages, fix errors, discuss on discussion tabs, all very welcome!
  • Use the telegram group.

IMPORTANT: Right now we need to improve the communication channels and connections with others like Hackers against Climate Change. If you would like to help send a mail to trailblazr(at)noxymo.com I will soon update the most recent info here. (Updated: 17th of Sep 2019)

Telegram Group

Join our group on Telegram

Social Media

Please use the twitter hash tag #eventgrid when referring to this workgroup. It is still a working title right now.

Take part in the Survey!

On CCCamp we had 5000 participants needing electrical power. To improve our future power grid we would like to ask you a few questions in regard to your personal use of power. Please take a few minutes to answer the anonymous survey and help us green the grid.

Infrastructure Survey

QR Code for Survey Participation


News

We are right now preparing a summary of the activities aiming to reboot the whole power stack as a green power network which happened on the CCCamp 2019. Here re the most recent activities and results...

  • We have a survey online we would like you to fill in. Check it out!
  • Part of the Infrastructure Review
  • Our main bulletpoints summed up on a slide

TL;DR

  • WE ARE EventGrid, JOIN US NOW to work on the next generation green power grid*!
  • 48V / 300-400V DC Power Grid to connect remote villages which have their own local microgrids.
  • 48V DC Power Outlet (2 lines + 1 token ring data bus for Outlet Load Balancing)
  • Power Meters (for villages; 300-400V) for better visualization & awareness of consumption
  • Power Meters (for participants; 48V) for logging 24x7, visualization & awareness of consumption
  • Poll/Questionnaire-driven insights on power consumption of event/village/participant
  • Gamification Concept to trigger more power input & power storage
  • Public Relations activity for transparency & promotion of more green activity

WE MET HERE DURING CCCAMP

  • Our Camp Sessions every day 1600 at THM Village / Lagerfeuer

Some existing very low voltage standards to exchange power

  • USB (5V, 2A) (10W)
  • USB PD 1.0 (5V/2A, 12V/5A, 20V/5A) (100W)
  • USB PD 3.2 (5…[ + 0.02 steps ]…20 V) 5A (100W)
  • PoE …57V …100W

What we plan to do

Following things are right now our focus and work in progress:

  1. A new technical approach to bootstrap EventGrid a new DC Power Network for running power networks on events like SHA and CCCamp in an environmentally friendly way (to be developed!)
  2. We want to raise awareness by making power consumption more transparent using a new power meter (to be developed!)
  3. We want to make it easy for single event participants to gain insight in one's own power consumption patterns by providing a DIY power meter hardware KIT to display/visualize and log power consumption (to be developed!)
  4. We want to gather research data from CCCamp participants on certain important questions setting up a poll/questionaire (to be developed!)
  5. We want add gamification to incentivize green power stacks (to be developed!) on future events like SHA, EMF, CCCamp, etc.
  6. We want to keep the community updated what we do and to which degree the community already reached their goal to shift the whole power stack towards a green power stack. We will do this with e.g. photos, statistics, proof-of-concept-installations and more...

AltPwr / EventGrid at Chaos Events

SHA2017 and prior

Take a look at History

CCCamp 2019

Reignition as EventGrid. See CCCamp 2019 for more details.

rC3 (2020)

tiefpunkt organised two virtual meetups during the Remote Chaos Experience, December 2020. Meeting minutes:

Links

The battery balancer

Some people at the camp were handed out balancers kits.

THINGS

  • ) We know bringing all this heavy equipment is not helping keeping down CO2 much, but the idea is mostly about giving people the opportunity to get hands-on experience on building green solutions. This experience will hopefully lead to more permanent green solutions in other places.

P.S.: At least we hope to add a new twist to the existing, currently in operation solution...

Image breedenord.jpg

If you have some useful DC-powered equipment, list them here.

If you have used general equipment, please review them and add a link here

Equipment Reviews/Recommendations wanted

  • Bidirectional DC-DC Charge Controllers
  • DC-powered kitchen equipment


Have you successfully converted equipment to work directly from DC without inverters etc? If so, please list them here with instructions about the conversion process!

Failures

It is also important to list what didn't work and why, so people don't waste their time or break their own equipment!