Author Topic: Just bought a powerjack 15000, modding.  (Read 20759 times)

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Offline dochubert

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Re: Just bought a powerjack 15000, modding.
« Reply #90 on: December 08, 2019, 12:41:01 pm »
The overvoltage setpoint was controlled by resistor R14 on the top of the older (v3.x) control boards.  In some of these powerjack moved the resistor to the underside of the control board(no idea why). 
Oztules discovered that piggy-backing a zener diode to this resistor caused the overvoltage shutdown and alarm to not happen.  Sometimes my pwm controllers spiked above 60v, so I changed the resistor value on mine because I didn't want to completely eliminate the shutdown/alarm, but didn't want it so tight at 60v.  I piggy-backed a second 10m resistor, changing it to 5m, which seems to work satisfactorily for me.  Spikes no longer tripped my inverter offline.
The newer modular control boards (v7 and up) have a built in overvoltage adjustment pot which I have not messed with as I haven't yet had an issue with my newer inverter.  My new water heater dump load is likely preventing it reaching 60v.

Then there's the temperature issue.  It's not supposed to be a factor, but my testing showed that it is.  Higher temperatures sensed by the heatsink and transformer temp sensors lower the trip point of the overvoltage shutdown.
In your case my guess is that yours runs cool enough because of your reconfiguring the mounting layout that you don't get a trip at 62v.  Have you run it in hot weather/high ambient background temp?  Do you run your fans all the time?

Anyway, since you're not getting alarms/shutdowns, no sense changing anything.  If you start to get alarms in hot weather though....

I'll keep watching for batteries like yours as they seem to have several advantages over other types.  Not really ready to change mine yet but if opportunity knocks....
We're all going to DIE!  (eventually)

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Offline welshman

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Re: Just bought a powerjack 15000, modding.
« Reply #91 on: September 10, 2020, 02:03:21 pm »
in progress

Offline dochubert

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Re: Just bought a powerjack 15000, modding.
« Reply #92 on: September 10, 2020, 10:10:27 pm »
Hi Welshman,
Good to see your post.
Looks like you had a smoke test.

Are you going to rebuild the lf driver board or replace it?
We're all going to DIE!  (eventually)

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Offline welshman

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Re: Just bought a powerjack 15000, modding.
« Reply #93 on: September 11, 2020, 06:50:31 am »
Hi Welshman,
Good to see your post.
Looks like you had a smoke test.

Are you going to rebuild the lf driver board or replace it?

Hi, dochubert, I'm now on my second smoke test. :D

I've got one driver board on order and two dead boards. I've got a load of NY and MY's, will replace those on the driver boards first as I'm sure they will have blown and test other components then rebuilding them. Will be having a go at repairing everything.

The mostfet boards sm-resistors have all been damaged, except one or two. incorrect resistance now being read with multimeter. So everything except the led and it's resistor are being replaced.

Handy RJ-45 connector was used as a spacer to fit the mosfets.

I have a few control boards now and have also acquired a nice giant chloride motive power 48v+ battery charger.  Will push 60v@70+amps into the batteries, but it gets very hot on the transistor side. It has a giant EH transformer in it, very heavy. Going to turn this into a backup, just need to get hold of a few power boards. Either from powerjack or have them made by pcbway.com using oztules gerber files. i would have already ordered them off pcbway, but the oztules gerber files i have scavenged from old threads don't seem to display correctly, the drill holes are in the wrong place.

The idea is to have a backup inverter using this, don't care about efficiency. It gets expensive to run a 18kw genset all the time while the powerjack is down for repair.

Ill be doing an overhaul on the unit this time. Suspending those toroid's using straps to expose the center and back to air cooling. Will help keep things cooler on those roasting hot days summer days, if we have any. Moving a few things around to make repair easier and tidying up the wiring and mounting external fuse box to avoid opening to see fuse states.

ive included a few screen shots from the software i wrote for the raspberry pi that monitors the voltage of the batteries and controls the inverter faults/generator start stops. i thought you would be interested to see how the LTO batteries handle to loads.


Offline welshman

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Re: Just bought a powerjack 15000, modding.
« Reply #94 on: September 11, 2020, 12:34:51 pm »
so far so good, two done. 6 more to go..


Offline welshman

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Re: Just bought a powerjack 15000, modding.
« Reply #95 on: September 11, 2020, 01:20:46 pm »
on further inspection, i think i've got R14 wrong.. on my original boards that came with my powerjack they are 220ohm (2200 SMD CODE) but some of the replacement boards that i received have 47ohm as R14. 

Which is a bit confusing.

I need to swap what i've done with a 220ohm instead of 22kohm that i've mistakenly put there now.

Offline welshman

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Re: Just bought a powerjack 15000, modding.
« Reply #96 on: September 11, 2020, 01:57:10 pm »
is it 47ohm for the DC side mosfet board and 220ohm for the AC side mosfet boards for R14?

or does it matter, because i've been told from a reliable source that the AC boards work for both sides, but the AC boards have to be on the AC side due to there being ferrite beads on the centre leg of the fets?

the replacement fets ive received (cheap from china) are showing 4.3Mohm from drain to source.. the originals are 2.9Mohm, obviously they are going to get a bit hotter, but does 4.3Mohm make them unusable?

going for some hy4008 next time i order. wondering if i should stick to the P package or go for the W package with bigger legs. does the W in TO-247 format make good electrical contact with the heatsinks considering the centre hole has plastic inside it?

Offline welshman

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Re: Just bought a powerjack 15000, modding.
« Reply #97 on: September 12, 2020, 12:15:20 pm »
both NY's on the lf driver board were shorted. replaced those, dont have any MY's, they're in the post. but they don't seem to be shorted. checking everything else as i go.

got a couple more mosfet boards made up. looking like new, i think.

a lot of 57ohm's were fried. 20k's not so much.

im a bit concerned about them being fake hy3810's due to the higher resistance and the package/logo is a little different, lets see what happens.

once the MY's here, should be next week and im confident the driver board is repaired. ill put it back together and see if it works.

if all good ill get started on making another inverter.

Offline welshman

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Re: Just bought a powerjack 15000, modding.
« Reply #98 on: September 15, 2020, 03:13:43 pm »
inverter is back together and working with the new mosfets and repaired lf drivers. all 4 of the NY and MY chips on the lf driver needed replacing. The cheap HY3810  @ 4.3MOhm , seem to work just fine so far today. Even going back and forth into charging mode is working without blowing them up today.

only difference so far with these cheap fets is a slightly higher idle load.. not sure if it's related.

Next up, backup inverter build.. this is going to be something interesting, I'm sure it will be a mold breaker. new thread coming soon.

Offline Pete

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Re: Just bought a powerjack 15000, modding.
« Reply #99 on: September 15, 2020, 05:35:14 pm »
Good to hear that you got the beast working again.
I just recently bought an 8000 watt 24 volt powerjack. It had issues that I managed to sort out without blowing it up.
The output board was shorting to the transformer mount, the active and neutral were transposed which meant it shorted out when connected to my MEN connected switchboards, and a screw was rattling about inside from one of the mosfet boards.
Not much really except deadly to an unsuspecting user who would have been fooled by the switches not turning the active off on their power outlets.
The inverters work well once they are checked and tested.
Pity that some like yours decide to emit smoke and need more intense surgery.
Hope it goes well , look forward to seeing the new inverter you are planning on building
Pete

Offline welshman

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Re: Just bought a powerjack 15000, modding.
« Reply #100 on: September 30, 2020, 07:19:59 am »
it didn't last long Pete. They were in fact fake hy3810's which was evident after they blew. they ran very hot even at idle.

they lasted 24hrs total and blew up.

here is a comparison of the genuine vs fake hy3810's. the fakes are quite easy to spot now i know what im looking for.

i have now switched over to hy4008 anyway.


Offline Wolvenar

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Re: Just bought a powerjack 15000, modding.
« Reply #101 on: October 02, 2020, 02:39:55 am »
I went through nearly the same about a year ago with a motor control.
Fakes are EVERYWHERE anymore. I wound up biting the bullet and paying premium cost from Digikey.
I live nearby so I just nabbed them on a trip past Thief River Falls (Minnesota) so I saved the shipping at least.
Trying to make power from alternative energy any which way I can.
Just to abuse what I make. (and run this site)

Offline welshman

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Re: Just bought a powerjack 15000, modding.
« Reply #102 on: October 17, 2020, 10:25:51 am »
I went through nearly the same about a year ago with a motor control.
Fakes are EVERYWHERE anymore. I wound up biting the bullet and paying premium cost from Digikey.
I live nearby so I just nabbed them on a trip past Thief River Falls (Minnesota) so I saved the shipping at least.

both these was the genuine seller https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10pcs-OEM-HY4008P-HY4008-80V200A-TO-220-MOS-Replace-IRFB3207ZPBF-RU190N08Q/123506575104
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/50PCS-X-HY-HY4008B-TO-263-2-N-CH-MOSFET/333533302689

just to update the status. got some genuine hy4008's from an ebay chinese seller. bought 60 hy4008p and 50 hy4008b's for the backup. they should last me through a few years. have experienced 3 blowouts on resuming from grid/charge to inverter mode, twice with genuine mosfets hy3108's and once with fakes that lasted only a day. 3 lf driver boards have blown and nothing on the control boards or the mosfet boards has been damaged apart from the smd resistors on the mosfet daughter boards. all 3 driver boards have been repaired and confirmed working with only replacing two pairs of MY and NY chips.

everything is up and runnign again, but now using hy4008p's instead, left everything else electronically the same, currently powering it down before finishing charge from generator until backup unit has been built. which im just waiting on one crucial part so i can finally assemble all the bits ive made and amassed for it.

once the backup is up and running ill be resuming with taking my chances. it lasted several years with multiple daily charge/inverter changes without powering down. i blame the relay on the board due to the condition it is in and taking so long for the first set of mosfets to die. the relay is rated at 30 amps, so it's already under spec. i initially changed it for a solid state relay as i discussed in the other thread , but it failed to work as expected and i've not investigated it yet. i switched it for a good quality 50 amp relay that has a clear casing so i can keep an eye on the contacts. i might be barking up the wrong tree here with the relay being the possible problem. time will tell.

just ordered a set of these

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/E8020-E80-Ferroxcube-3C90-E-EE-Ferrite-Cores-transformer-AL-5000-1set/370683164776

Offline solarnewbee

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Re: Just bought a powerjack 15000, modding.
« Reply #103 on: October 20, 2020, 09:46:55 am »
Hi welsh!

I bought some of those cores some time ago from an electric supply company along with the plastic winding cores so I could use thicker copper with thinner insulation without fear of cutting insulation. What a dramatic change In idle and running efficiency. Shortly after I replaced that 24v 15kw with a 48v 15kw made the same mod and shipped it out to Philippines. That will be a FaceTime install. Just did a switch to Lifepo4 in our 5 person e-bike tricycle over FaceTime. My daughter learned a lot about battery terminal and arranging them so it should go well. I also removed the steel plate and rubber from the top of the coil and attached the fan with standoffs to blow cooling inside coil. This version comes with a fan installed above the coil.  I couldn’t  put rubber blocks under coil like suggested by Doc and ship it safely so later when I travel next year I will make the change.  Also in stalled a 4 fan pwm fan control with one temp sensor on the coil and the other on the heatsink that warms up the most.

Keep up the good work guys. Best of luck and Best Regards!
SN

Any day above ground is a day for potential mishaps