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Red light "overload" alarm is only one one output phase--not both. You can overload the other phase until the transformer overheats/inverter fails, without an overload shutdown
Oh come on now...if it's a split-phase output, it'll do 240v output. No magic going on here.
The one 120vac outlet in front can do 2200 watt before red light alarm . Strange design when 3000 watt will red light .
He did not show split-phase output L1 N L2 for some reason that at first he said he was going to start a heat pump but did not do in the video .
Please see the video of the review and the very expensive test instruments and what is he thinking .
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he said he only paid 300 dollars to get 4500 watts out of the 12000 AMG PowerJack version,,,,, not 220volt the way he was doing it but would be a very inexpensive 13500 watts for only 900 bucks on ebay
Good price if only need 2200 watts in the front 120vac outlet or 2200 watts per 120vac terminal leg . 3000 watts per leg will cause red light alarm . I would buy for the parts as a complete mainboard with cap and mosfetboard is 190 dollars and rev 11.3 control board with LF driver is 90 dollars The transformer and 2 high speed fans is more than 200 dollars .
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7 hours ago, pilgrimvalley said:~ what is the life span of these Chinese electrolytic capacitors???
How long is a piece of string? There are many factors that all go in to determining how long an electrolytic capacitor lasts.
A lot revolves around the capacitor temperature. Basically, higher temperature = shorter life. Both ambient temperature and internal heating matter. Using a capacitor with a higher temperature rating, 105c, gives more hours of operation at a given temperature vs a 85c rated capacitor.
Ambient is both the air temperature and radiated heat from other things. With sufficient air flow in from the outside of the inverter and care in positioning of the heat producing parts inside the inverter so that the capacitors are not being heated by them via radiation and conduction ambient temperature can be handled. If the temperature of the air going into the inverter is something a human being feels comfortable with, that's going to make the capacitors happy.
Internal heating in the capacitor comes down to the rate of current flow in and out of the capacitor vs the capacitor's internal resistance. Cheap & nasty capacitors have higher internal resistance so in the face of a certain ripple current they get hotter, which drys them out faster, which leads to higher resistance so it's quick death feed back loop. More capacitors in parallel, and proper PCB design, spreads the ripple current across those capacitors, so the rate of internal heating is lower. Having 6 or more big capacitors is about more than just the sheer capacitance figure but that sheer figure also gives head room to account for degradation over the expected life time of the capacitor.
All up so long as the Chinese capacitor is of reasonable quality, ie you don't go and find the cheapest crappiest ones possible so you can actually believe the datasheet for the capacitor, take precautions with temperatures, use several in parallel to spread the ripple current load, design the PCB with proper consideration of current distribution to the capacitors and build enough headroom into the overall capacitance to account for degradation across the expected life span of the capacitors, many many thousands of hours can be achieved.
I've not seen anyone doing it to date but taking one of the bulk capacitors out of a PJ inverter with a few years use on it and hooking it up to an ESR meter would be quite interesting.
After thought... think of it this way. A cheap (cheap, but not the cheapest nastiest possible) portable HF inverter will usually last 3 to 5 years before one or more of the transistors lets rip (for one reason or another). They usually have 1 3300uf-ish capacitor per boost converter which is the closest functional equiv of the bulk capacitors in LF inverters. Those 3300uf-ish capacitors typically, at least in my experience, make it to the death date of the inverter in spec.
After thought... think of it this way. A cheap (cheap, but not the cheapest nastiest possible) portable HF inverter will usually last 3 to 5 years before one or more of the transistors lets rip (for one reason or another). They usually have 1 3300uf-ish capacitor per boost converter which is the closest functional equiv of the bulk capacitors in LF inverters. Those 3300uf-ish capacitors typically, at least in my experience, make it to the death date of the inverter in spec.
Agreed there! Those little caps used have pitifully low ESR ratings to start with...
I've not seen anyone doing it to date but taking one of the bulk capacitors out of a PJ inverter with a few years use on it and hooking it up to an ESR meter would be quite interesting.
I probably should buy an ESR meter. Might be worth enlightening PJ to the actual important spec on those caps...
...funny that even the 22,000uF, 80v caps I bought from Mouser have significantly different weights between the batch...
the 220 volt welder i have is an arc welder and it takes a 50 amp plug and cord at 220 volts i a fairly sure...
i will try some wood working tools when the weather if better outside... the garage is not heated at present...still insulating and rebuilding it....slow it goes in the winter miserable cold....
i have some square d equipment to set up the ac side and do disconnects etc...
electric stuff is getting more costly to buy....inflation is killing the little guy....🤔😢
the reason to bring up the capacitor lifespan question as i have seen no specs on those and was thinking 10 years or less lifespan.. i was watching an electrical engineer talking about the electrolytic capacitors being the weak link in the mppt charge controllers as they had less than a 10 year rating on the better quality capacitors.. i heard Sean talking about lifespan of batteries and solar panels for the prepper but in reality it will probably be the capacitor will fail before the batteries or the solar panels by a big margin... but no one was answering about the capacitor lifespan...
thanks, its a start.
it was 7 below 0 Fahrenheit and the off-grid solar power shed was still 60 degrees this morning, so i turned on the 250 watt heat lamp to warm it up to 70 degrees Fahrenheit as the lifepo4 batteries like that temp..
thanks for the replies...had to venture out in the snow today...broomed the snow from solar panels off a couple times...
new baby sheep this morning.... they have a knack of picking the best weather!!!
if i pop the top off maybe i can take a closer look at the transformer...
remove 18 10 mm bolts and time. in between trying to avoid frost bite...outside; have to do when the little ones are sleeping;
4 minutes ago, pilgrimvalley said:the reason to bring up the capacitor lifespan question as i have seen no specs on those and was thinking 10 years or less lifespan.. i was watching an electrical engineer talking about the electrolytic capacitors being the weak link in the mppt charge controllers as they had less than a 10 year rating on the better quality capacitors.. i heard Sean talking about lifespan of batteries and solar panels for the prepper but in reality it will probably be the capacitor will fail before the batteries or the solar panels by a big margin... but no one was answering about the capacitor lifespan...
I've only been aware of capacitor failure in the PJ inverters when they were using the black-wrap caps--dodgy junk that would leak/fail very quickly.
If the caps run cold (important to distinguish between self-heating from ESR vs ambient heating by being sandwiched between hot heatsinks), they should last a very, very long time.
As has been discussed elsewhere, most electrolytic capacitors--from name brands--are only rated to 2,000 hours. Less than 3 months life. But this is at maximum temperature, maximum voltage, and maximum ripple current. The further away from any of these limits the capacitor is, the longer its lifespan will be.
I've only been aware of capacitor failure in the PJ inverters when they were using the black-wrap caps--dodgy junk that would leak/fail very quickly.
yes, the electrical engineer used a modest 1 hour per day to get the projected 10 year capacitor life span ... i think he was using quality panasonic capacitors in his example predicticting the MPPT solar charge controller would have an approximate 10 year life before failure.
the inverters would likely run hot depending on their ambient temperature location... not much problem in the winter but in the summertime the issue is to keep the inverter in a 70 degree room would be helpful...or somewhat cooler as LIFePO4 batteries don't like high heat either...
the battery bank is the most expensive part....
summer heat was the issue after battling the winter freeze the last few years. i was most worried of not freezing the LIFePO4 cells in winter so insulated well. the problem came trying to keep it cooler in summer's heat.
1 hour per day? I don't know how other people use their MPPT chargers, but mine are passing current when ever their is sunlight to be had and spend several hours passing 30+ amps to the battery each day. I wouldn't mind seeing the talk, do you have a link to it or a search term or two that will show it? Something is amiss here, either your recollections of the talk or what the engineer is saying.
I may be off on the numbers a bit but will seek the electrical engineer's video... but he was talking about mppt solar charge controllers and the electrolytic capacitor was their weak link; and from what i see on the reviews is lot of cheap mppt controller don't go the 10 years. this could be due to a possible electrolytic capacitor failure....or other cheap component parts. i know he is not big on relays either as they a another point of failure...
i have some expensive mppt solar charge controllers and some copycat ones, but no cheap ones like the bluesky ones or their copycat mppts. (4 of those for the price of one outback flexmax)...
my expensive ones are outback flexmax 80.s and i bought 2 copycat flexmax 80's also....no idea how long they will last.
so an 80 volt rated capacitor made by whom? specifications? just trying to learn more....as the off-grid system gets more complex --- hoping for the components to last....also....
with the super short warranty .... one has to try to research things a bit...
No argument there. The cheapy stuff won't last. Not much in this life is guaranteed, but that is. The quality stuff will still be chugging along come 10 years.
my solar charge controllers work a few hours everyday and then shut off when battery is full until i use more power then they charge again... yes many hours per day, but still maybe only a 10 year life... time will tell their fate....
my inverters run 24/7 so far so good...but again time will tell...have 3 inverters set up running and the 4th is only running part time. waiting for more ac wiring to get installed....by me... slow as multiple other things to do everyday....
so an 80 volt rated capacitor made by whom? specifications? just trying to learn more ~
You could easily spend more on quality name capacitors than the entire PJ (or rebadge of) sells for brand new. Go to places like element14 etc and have a look at their parts lists for pricing. They are largely the only safe places to buy from if you don't have trusted industry contacts to buy elsewhere. Sure you can buy components off ebay, aliexpress etc but you never know what you'll really be getting. Could be genuine good part, could be something someone in China or India litterally ripped off a PCB with a pair of pliers filled the dents with wax and put fake name branded shrink wrap over it all.