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Power Jack LF 5000W Inverter Board Swap

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OTG:
Hello All,

As noted in Oztules EPIC "guess who bought a power jack inverter" thread, my Mainboard popped a bunch of mosfets and I'm now installing replacement Main/Control boards. I've hit a few bumps however, which I've asked the supplier about per the below 4 points and corresponding images.

If anyone out there in anotherpower land can share their own advice/experiences on these points or board swaps in general that would be greatly appreciated!

Also, a few notes that might help others...
- If you had old boards (i.e. LW-CONTROL-REV 1 and LFPSW-MAIN-BOARD REV:1.4) and are replacing them with new ones (i.e. V2.2/V2.2a boards) you will need to drill new mount points into the aluminum chassis as they don't align with the old boards mounts.

- You'll also want; a good scalpel/hobby knife set to cut all that horrible red glue off the various sockets/plugs; and a hot glue gun for reattaching the Bty Volt/ LED board to the chassis front panel (a pain I know... screw mounts would have been much simpler!  ::) ).

- Interesting to note the old Mainboard had 3 Caps (18000uF-50v) whereas the new board had 4...  ???

- Finally, when I removed the end panel containing the battery teriminals/cooling fan, I found burn marks on the bottom screws/aluminum chassis!!!  :o  It appears to have had a short across the terminals/through the chassis at some stage. Could that have been the root cause of my fet-pops? Any ideas on how best to prevent this in future (strips of electrical tape on the chassis, cover the bottom terminals in some non-conductive coating)?



1. I can see the Thermistor/Thermostat transformer connections on the new control board, however there a third connection thats soldered to the middle of the board with an eye terminal on the end of it (per the ? ? ?) . This wasn't on the old control board and it's not obvious what it's for. Can you advise what this is for and where it's to be connected to?

2. Per the photo's the old Thermistor/Thermostat wires were soldiered directly to the control board and then held with a hot glue gun. Then they were stuck to the transformer with a black glue/resin. Also the wires on the new Thermistor/Thermostat are too short to actually reach the transformer. How would your engineer recommend I make this connection?

My thought is the easiest way would be to use the existing Thermistor/Thermostat glued to the Tranny, cut the wires connecting them to the old Control Board, then crimp these wires to a new set of the small white 2 pin plugs used on the new boards. Then I can simply plug them in.

Does your engineer see any issue with using the existing Thermistor/Thermostat in this approach and/or would he recommend another approach? Also can you tell me what those small white 2 pin plugs are called so I can order some off e-bay, or could you ship me a new pair?

3. My final hurdle is with the cables connecting the terminals. The new Mainboard has 4 x strands of 8AWG power cable
soldered to the board and then paired off and crimped into 2 x eye terminals for screwing down to the 2 x negative (-) battery terminals. The same existing positive (+) power cables however are 10AWG. This mismatch could obviously pose issues. Can you ship me a new pair of 8AWG positive power cables?

4. I also note that the two cable bundles coming out of the transformer each consist of 3 x strands of 10AWG power cable. One yellow the other black. Can you engineer advise if there will be any issues here considering the new Mainboard's use of 8AWG cable for the battery terminals? Any advise appreciated.



Thanks all!!!  ;D

oztules:
Can't help with board swaps specifically, as i don't use the carcass.... nor the trnasformers, nor the cooling system..... hmmm... so we will try to answer some of your questions

My latest card is only the 1.4, the older ones are 1.2.
The fan systems have changed, but with the 5000w I assume only 1 fan,,, so extend the leads that don't get to your transformer... cut and join old onto new... very surprised the new ones can't make it to the front of the board to the tranny.... but...

1. Eye terminal to neg batt post... No .. no-one really knows what it does, we think it stops the over voltage shut down when using pwm solar chargers... but don't know for sure...... EDIT: just saw Seans post, PJ use a 1m across R14 to stop this o/voltage problem... so what does it do????now I have no idea.

2. Cut and extend if they don't get to the front of the transformer at least.

3. The wire size won't negatively effect you. They are only 6 inches long, so voltage drop will be insignficant. In free air those four wires can carry 200 amps combined, and with the fan... more. You only need 100 amps-120 for shorter periods. The unit won't do 3kw for too long without transformer being better cooled or upgraded. My 8kw boards use the same wire.

4. Can't see a problem here, as the fets control the current ...not wire size. There could be more wires or bigger, but i don't think it would alter the performance any.

The splatter marks look to be made from the caps discharging, as a battery short across there would destroy the bolt heads, and dig a very decent hole in the Al.
Do you have corrosponding marks on the terminal bolts?
From memory they are much higher than the floor, which means floating material inside or more likely, back plate removed before discharging capacitors at some time in the past ( factory ???testing... ????)

Doubtful they contributed to the demise, but check everything around there... were they loose, anything to suggest it happened in your posession? etc.

I would expect that kind of short would just result in a restart ( under voltage lock out )... but you can never really know.... but check your terminals anyway to see.

Perhaps others using the powerjack body can help out more.


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

OTG:
Thanks as always Oz - you're a bloody electrickery legend!

Per point 1. I guess some things are just meant to remain a mystery...  :P Thanks on points 3 and 4 too!

Yes only 1 fan for 5000w, it reaches the Control Board fine. But the new Thermosat/Thermistor wires are too short to reach up-round where they are currently glued on the tranny. So yes I'll need to cut and extend both.

New Questions
a. Would you use the existing Thermosat/Thermistors that are glued to the tranny, or do you remove/replace them with the new ones (and if so how?)?
b. Also does polarity matter for either of these wires? I can figure out the thermistor, but you'll see the old/new thermostats are wired differently (Old - Red to left pin, White to right pin; New - Red to right pin, Black to left pin).
c. One final conundrum... per below, the old (with glue all over it) and new Battery Voltage dial's are set differently - The Old one has the notch aligning up to 1 and 6. The new board has it pointing to 3 and 8. So... does it matter? Should I change the new one or leave it? Any guidance most welcome!



Otherwise yes Oz, those splatter marks were directly beneath the bottom + - terminal screws and both screws had corresponding burn marks. Everything inside the inverter was secured super tight, and this is my first time inside of it (long after it died/caps discharged), so I expect this will remain another great mystery of the universe!  :P

When my 8000w units arrive I'll definitely be double checking the innards before use. 

oztules:

a. Use the new ones in case they are different temp/resistance thermistors.... originals were 10k@25c.....
 temp switch is solid state, so it will pay to keep the wiring consistent with the manufacturer.

b. keep to the new scheme from plug to device as original..... so that they can't say that you didn't.

c. read yourbooklet, it will tell you which settings are for what batteries... set it to zero for no charge or the other numbers for differing battery technologies. It is only the set point switch for the battery charger routines. As I don't use the charger, I don't recall which number is for what.


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

OTG:
Ok, ta.

I assume it's just that black resin'y kinda' stuff that's holding them both to the tranny? Should I just use a hobby knife to cut the existing ones free, then just slot the new ones into the same place? Should I then also glue (would a standard hot glue gun be ok, or does it have to be that black stuff for thermal reasons or something?) or maybe just tape them down?

I dont use the bty charger either so I'll prob just leave that bit alone.

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