guess who bought a power jack inverter

[oztules]

Knowing what I know now, and if there were no grid ties to plunder the cores from, i would buy the 15000w unit, and then pick up a few elcheapo 8kw or less units, and build a new enclosure, combine the transformers and just laugh.

You can find buy it now 15000units for as cheap as $1000 and less, and I have seen the 8kw units auction for $300 and less... so for $1300 in well placed bids, a really decent inverter could be cobbled together no problem... probably in the 5-6kw continuous range would be very realistic.

If you got a decent 15000w unit for the $1000 with three  5kw transformers in it ( their bigger ones.... not the smaller ones with black texta crossing out the 3kw print) you may even get by with that for almost all houses... certainly all the current off grid ones using the normal parameters.

Oddly enough, I would just use a W7 power star as a shed inverter, rather than a PJ... even though it cant be easily lowered in the idle current department, it has huge transformers that will deliver excellent performance int the sheer grunt continuous department for big machinery...ie 250amp  big migs and arc welders, huge compressors, laths mills etc etc.

They were getting around for $7-800 even a few years ago. They are the same thing, but the programming is better for the huge transformers to be taken advantage of.. PJ lowers the programming to reflect their smaller transformers and less noisy fan system.. so same start power, but half the continuous power at least because of the smaller transformers.... also because of the lossy trannies, the ups function works as advertised ( inrush current on freq exhange is not high enough to bother the fets)

It is a new world for sure.... and all good fun too.


....................oztules

[RBT]

Hi
Thanks for tour answers
I'm going to add the filter and ser ir I could use the PJ as the Main inerter, keeping the Victron as a spare
This e cortehttp://www.ebay.com.au/itm/E6527-Kaschke-E65-E-EE-Ferrite-Cores-High-Frequen-Power-transformer-AL-7900-1set-/370597734866?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item564958a9d2
Is IT good for a 6000w 12v to 230v? Or shoul I go for something bigger?
3 to 4 turns of the largest cable I can fit?

[oztules]

You will probably get the little 6000 down to around 20 watts with the E core. They already have ...NOW apparently some filtering already that brings it down to the 25w area already... probably not a lot left to get there now. That was the core I used, but them they had no filter at all, and worked at 8 times the idle current.

The 6000 is a little small for a real house off grid, it will do it, but if you run big loads for any time, you will probably find it turns off with over heat. They are really only a 2kw to 3kw  unit full time at best.... they will start near anything , but long running on a small transformer is not good at higher loads. I ran our place on a PJ 6000w unit without problems, but the hot water was not hooked up to it at that time, and that one came with two transformers, so it never had to run loads over 2kw for very long... most inverters never have too. The hot water running on them now days, changes that , and now you need to have 5-6kw continuous... real continuous to make certain it will not shut down from long term overload... that normally means a current bypass and good cooling and bigger transformers.... the electronics seem perfectly fine anyway.

If you had a 15kw unit... then no problems at all for a real house..... including the hot water.... but that has two more transformers too.... and nice big heat sinks.

So, yes thats the ferrite, it may help a bit more.... I don't have a recent unit... all mine are 2013 or so..... quite different, they have improved them since then on the idle current... and a few other things from the looks of it. As it is, it's only 600watt hours to run it all day.... not much panel required for that.


....................oztules

[andymack]

Hi Oztules

I'd like to order the choke cores and former and I'd like to run it past you.

The question i one of N27 vs N67 ?   is one more suitable ? 

On ebay;
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/E6527-Ferroxcube-E65-E-EE-Ferrite-Cores-bobbin-Power-transformer-AL-8600-1set-/370597734866

on RS;
http://au.rs-online.com/web/p/products/6479351/


the ebay one is N67,AL=8600nH,  ~$32.50
RS                    N27,AL=7200nH,     $22  + former if I can find it in the catalogue


for ref:
Farnell   $32.81 + delivery  if < $45
http://au.element14.com/epcos/b66387g0000x127/ferrite-core-e-65-n27/dp/2355098
http://au.element14.com/epcos/b66388a2000t001/coil-former-e-65-1-section/dp/2355076

[oztules]

That is the sort of thing I used.
The 27 would be best, but not a lot of difference really.

You don't need a former.

Considering we don't even know how it actually makes such a mean difference, it is hard to tell you what you should really do.

A range of 12-20uh seems to work very well, more makes a small difference, less becomes less useful.

So you need only get the three turns into it for it to work..


The last one I did I had to strip the coating off the wire, and slide it into  heat-shrink, and then wind it... it was too stiff and bulky otherwise..

..................oztules

[andymack]

thanks

Geez, of-course I don't need the former     save me some dollars

cheers

Andrew
 

[off the wall]

Knowing what I know now, and if there were no grid ties to plunder the cores from, i would buy the 15000w unit, and then pick up a few elcheapo 8kw or less units, and build a new enclosure, combine the transformers and just laugh.

What you have done is genius and most certainly my 8000W unit with the extra 5000 transformer in it, adding to the winding to equalise the voltage, has been successful absolutely.

This really is a route that can be recommended.

Best wishes

OTW

[ab7fm]

Newbie, sorry.  Not sure if this question is close enough to this topic, but thought I'd start here.  Feel free to redirect me if I'm misguided...
Powerjack 3000 24V in, split phase 110/220 out.  Source is two 12V flooded 130Ah batteries in series, all charged by a Tracer 4210 MPPT controller and four 198W PV's in series for max voltage of ~ 80V on a good day.  I spend getaway weekends in the little bunkhouse where this system is installed.
All works well, except often after being away for 4-5 days, I'll find the PJ shut down with the alarm sounding.  Is there any way to find out what the fault was?  I have a recording volt meter, so I thought about monitoring the 24V supply.  The Tracer docs say that it goes into equalization (equalisation?) occasionally, and during that cycle could theoretically push the voltage to 29.6V.  Is that too close to the PJ's shutdown threshold?  If so, is there a way to adjust the PJ to give it a little more headroom?
Great info from all, thanks for all the good stuff here!
Cris

[oztules]

Yes, the normal thing when charged from pulsating voltage. The computer is too sensitive, and is easily fooled by placing a resistor or zenner across the 10m resistor marked "cut if high" near the main chip.

Newer boards seem not to have this glitch... most of mine do.

pic and talk is here: reply 31 onwards http://www.anotherpower.com/board/index.php/topic,1044.msg10326.html#msg10326

..oztules

[ab7fm]

Thanks, Oz.  Your influence apparently reaches into the Northern Hemisphere.  After your reply and just the threat of modification, the thing has been perfectly stable for more than two weeks.  I think I won't touch it unless it begins to have troubles again.  The full summer sun days are just in full swing, so maybe it's seasonal.  I'll watch it and see if there's a change in the Fall when the clouds return.
Cheers-

[PVperson]

Hi Oztules!

I hope it's not too stormy on your island, we're having a cool summer here in London .
I also have a 8kW LF PJ, and would like to mod it as you have done. is there a guide to your mods, as mistakes with these can lead to big bangs! I am an electronics engineer, and practical to boot.

Thanks.

[oztules]

Hi and welcome.

If its a recent purchase, you may well have to do nothing... as they seemed to have been reading this thread, and actioned it.
I believe that they now have ferrites on the transformer leads, and this brings the idle  power down to respectable levels.

The most recent boards I bought, did not shut down early from pwm charging on them.. so in theory they are good to go now out of the box.. Before that they suffered from false triggering of over voltage from the current spikes, not the rms.

If not, then around 18uh of inductance on the transformer lead, and a zener across the cut if high resistor ( previous pics) will just about do it...... but like I said, they may have done this all anyway from the sounds of it.

More power is obtained by a bypass of wire around the CT.... but cooling is a possible problem then.

I suppose we should ask... what parameters do you wish to change.... and we will see if we have done it or not.

It is true, that these things are 80% turned in in only about 50nano seconds from the cro traces I have put here somewhere, and are switching a wave form every 4useconds.... so when things go bad, they go bad very very fast..... but they seem pretty stable if you keep foreign metal bits out of the area , and turn them off when changing battery charging sources.

I'll try to answer any questions you may have.



...............oztules

[hurvayz]

Hey.
I greet all those present at the local forum.
I want to ask you for help to repair the drive.
Namely: I do not know how to fix driver in the drive LF 48V10000W
All MOSFETs are already exchanged do not know how to replace the driver.
The control board seems to be OK.
Thank you for answer.

[oztules]

Circuits are here http://www.anotherpower.com/board/index.php/topic,780.0.html

Usually the transistors and the opto's need replacing.

You will see the signals( with a scope ) for the lower side from the 339 chip at the extreme left end of your yellow circle.... check the circuits.


..............oztules

[hurvayz]

Thnks.
the driver schema is the same for all models?