Philip McGaw has over a decade of professional electronics experience. EMC experience on top of my experience with general electrical and electronics engineering, Including Power Electronics, both via formal education and personal projects, I believe the knowledge and skills built up during this time make me the perfect candidate for the role, One of my projects is to build an electric go-kart for my two children, this is being designed to be a frame welded from 20 mm square box and MDF sheet, the motors for it are recovered from “Hoverboards”, the control electronics will be bespoke with custom ESCs and BMS with the individual 21700 cells being built into packs.
Other personal projects I have worked on are a remote weather station powered by a small 3D-printed wind turbine and feeding the data back to myself via the LoRa over the ThingsNetwork.
Philip McGaw has held some DC Live working and Lid-off battery permits allowing him to write test plans, and work on EV and BEV electric vehicles and DC buses under a permit-to-work system. He can also make a vehicle safe for others to work on and sign off on work they have undertaken. Philip McGaw also has a working knowledge of BS 7671 and has undergone formal training to be certified for the 17th edition.
While working for CASS he tested a large variety of appliances that were to be attached to both domestic and industrial supplies, both 230 V and 415 V (wiring up and testing mains equipment with both inputs and outputs) as well as some sub-station and DNO equipment (circuit breakers and interrupters) with ratings well more than 400 A at 230 V (single-phase) or 11 kV AC (single-phase and three-phase).
I have an understanding of the EV charging system and have experience testing EVs with Level 2 and 3 chargers (normally via CCS type 2 connectors), I can interpret the command pilot signal to understand what the negotiated maximum current should be and can use this along with instrumentation to read the real-time status of the requested power level.
I have assembled and installed a small number of OpenEVSE for family and friends (final attachment to home distribution board undertaken by a Part P certified electrician).
A work-based solution I delivered was involved with the testing of Traction Inverters for EMC and functional testing, the motors they are designed to drive are 100 kW 400 V brushless motors, meaning at full load they can draw up to 400 A peak, this makes it hard to source the required power. The solution I implemented was to use two traction inverters and two traction motors and couple the motors mechanically together. One motor would be used as an electronic load, and the other would be running in regeneration mode, applying torque, and providing about 80% of the required electrical energy to the first, this meant that the current provided by the external PSUs could be vastly reduced.
I also implemented a standardisation on the Amphenol Industrial PL282 series of connectors for use in testing, this allows test setups to be quicker to set up and modify while ensuring safe isolation and containment for operators from HaV.
I have experience with solar PV from living on a narrowboat for seven years, my partner and I lived on a 57’ long Jonathan Wilson, and our electrical requirements were supplied by a bank of lead-acid batteries, at 12 V, with charging supplied via photovoltaics and an alternator on the propulsion diesel engine.
I am actively working towards professional registration through the IET, intending to become an incorporated engineer.
Philip McGaw’s Recent Posts
- Minimalist EVSE Charger CircuitsFollowing on from my quick overview of Proximity Pilot and Control Pilot, we will need to dig a little deeper into the functionality of CP/PP to talk about how to make some circuits for a minimalist EVSE (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment). I would not recommend using this in production as it does not implement any safety features. We will need a power supply to implement both PP and CP and switch the mains supply to get the MVP (Minimum viable product) EVSE Charger. Recently I wrote a post showing how to build an EV Emulator test box to allow you… Read more: Minimalist EVSE Charger Circuits
- DIY Manual EV EmulatorAn EV emulator or EVSE test box is a device that you can use to test EVSE equipment. it allows you to change between different charge states and cable configurations. It will also allow you to draw current from EVSE equipment, as well as offering through normal valid states, An EV emulation box may allow you to introduce error states. Commercially Available EVSE Test Boxes There are several commercially available EVSE test boxes, I have included details of two below, but others are available, they emulate a subset of the functionality laid out in EC/EN 61851-1 and IEC/HD 60364-7-722. Myenergi… Read more: DIY Manual EV Emulator
- ESD Testing (IEC 61000-4-2)One of the standard tests for EMC testing is ESD Testing, It is one of the tests worth doing first, so if you fail this test, you haven’t spent all that much time or money on testing. In most cases, you will be looking at “IEC 61000-4-2: Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) – Part 4-2: Testing and measurement techniques – Electrostatic discharge immunity test” as the base standard. This is one of the first tests I would suggest that you become familiar with if you are looking at becoming an EMC Technician or Engineer. The TESEQ ESD Discharge simulator shown on the… Read more: ESD Testing (IEC 61000-4-2)
- If I was to become an EMC Engineer todayIf I were to advise someone just starting in the field of EMC today, the advice I would give them would depend on what field they wanted to go into and their background. I didn’t plan to go into EMC testing or Engineering. I started at CASS Industries in 2014 without any experience or knowledge of EMC, other than knowing it stood for Electromagnetic Compatability. Since CASS which is what is known as “Commercial EMC” I have moved into Automotive EMC. Whilst I don’t have direct experience in the aerospace or military sectors. The skills are transferable enough to learn… Read more: If I was to become an EMC Engineer today
- ISO 10605 ESD Annex F islandWhen I was working for ARRIVAL, setting up the Automotive EMC lab there, I needed an ISO 10605 Annex F island as part of the ESD test setup. This test setup is as far as I am aware unique to Automotive, and as such commercial EMC Technicians and Engineers are unlikely to have experienced this ESD setup. I will follow this article shortly with my ESD blog post, which will refer to it, and expand on the use of this peculiar arrangement. ISO 10605:2008, “Road Vehicle — Test methods for electrical disruptions from electrostatic discharge” and the Amendment from 2014… Read more: ISO 10605 ESD Annex F island