Hi lighthunter,
The lights I was talking about are the 4 leds on the main board. Each led indicates that section of fets is outputting properly. On my pj, one led is completely out and another is dim. They are the two sections that the big transformers connect to, the output half of the main power board. No lights on the control board
Sorry, guess I wasn't clear about that.
I plan to just change all 4 drivers and both optos on the control, and all the fets on the main (and anything else that looks stressed) Luckily, I do have a spare control board, so once the mainboard is repaired I can be back up and running. The spare board is the one that has the added 470k ohm resistor in the resistor chain, and puts out 240v (mostly) The 4110 fets haven't arrived yet. Heck, I haven't even taken the boards out of the case yet
About those 8010 boards. I will be happy and grateful to get a bare board and do the assembly. I already have some of the parts. I just read today that Oztules just made some changes; added a small transformer and changed some resistors. Maybe we shouldn't be too quick to build....
Also, he recommends changing gate resistor values and adding diodes on the main pj board if changing to the 8010 control. Don't know if you saw that one
That 'smart' meter thing was something. Luckily, I'm home most of the time and was able to intercept 3 separate tries at them sneaking in and changing my meter. I told each tech that I was refusing the changeover because the new meters were harmful to health and almost always resulted in higher electric bills. They all acted shocked at such an idea, but were polite and left. 3 attempts says that sdg&e really didn't care about customer concerns (how shocking!). Eventually, they decided to allow customers to keep their analog meters if they wished. Of course this was long after 99% of them were already changed. They would now agree to replace the 'smart' meter with what they were calling an analog meter, but which was actually a digital meter disguised as an analog meter. Of course the customer had to pay a service fee for changing it. I have no direct knowledge, but would bet the 'new' analog meters are just as hazardous to health and transmit your electric usage same as the 'smart' meters. Glad I was ornery and held onto my original. And because of the analog meter, I can bank some KWs early in the month running my powerjack as long as I make sure I owe for 20-30 kwh by meter reading day. I never let it be negative when read so nobody pays any further attention (hopefully). I pay a small bill each month to avoid notice. The price of renegade solar is constant vigilance! (and a few bucks)