PowerJack 48-volt 16000Watt AMG version LF SP PSW inverter

2 hours ago, pilgrimvalley said:

it has a 2 wire connection between the control board and the negative battery bus bar inside the case??? what does that do??? measure the current flow for control or heat??? hmmm?this is right next to the LF driver board??? had not noticed this connection in the other inverters I peaked inside of but it may have been there also???

It would make sense that this could be used for something useful--but no, it is not.  This input goes to a "trip" circuit that cuts the FET drives (via the CD4011).  As though the CPU doesn't have a "FAULT" input that will do the exact same thing and ALSO notify the processor of the supposed issue...

It is not possible to measure the battery current flow on a PJ inverter.  The design is far too fluid and unspecified.

2 hours ago, pilgrimvalley said:

the YouTube guy superobkar got about 6000 watts out of a 12000W PowerJack .... wonder what the PowerJack 16000W inverter can do.... but the next video was not so good of his testing the surge ability. depends on the type of load.... 

Yeah, but remember: "getting 6kw" for a few seconds, is NOT "continuous output of 6kw."  I will be surprised if that inverter can sustain more than 3kw continuously TOTAL (not per phase).

Watched the surge testing video, and the ONLY thing that's fast enough to trigger like that would be the signal from the 2-wire connection that you noticed above.  The output amperage sensor has a multi-second delay on it (AND has no auto-restart), so it would not be triggering this.

Another possibility would be that the battery bank/internal resistance is too high--and the inrush surge is resetting the CPU.  Standard power-up sequence flashes the "alarm" light--and it is behaving a lot like a system reset.

3 hours ago, Sid Genetry Solar said:

Yeah, but remember: "getting 6kw" for a few seconds, is NOT "continuous output of 6kw."  I will be surprised if that inverter can sustain more than 3kw continuously TOTAL (not per phase).

My U-Power gets 5-6KW for at least 15 minutes. (In 40f ambient)

It's weird how inconsistent the performance of these things are. If they'd just be more consistent about their product, they'd be so much better off! Even if that's 25% performance - at least it's consistent.

By the way, those internals of that 16K look EXACTLY the same as my 12K... except that mine has AC Input. Same form-factor and everything. Even the output breakers are the same CHiNT breakers. (which i love over the button breakers...)

Only problem with said breakers?  They're really hard to mount!

Button breakers are more fragile, however...but they're easy to mount.  I wish I could find an integrated breaker-and-outlet combo, that'd be really nice.  Haven't found one though.

Yeah, the main thing that i like about them is that i can explicitly turn them off. I love that for grid-switchover situations to lessen the odds of mistakes.

What can i say, i'm a picky customer. 😄

yes I believe this version if I recall correctly was rated as 8000watts continuous even if they advertise a surge of 16000. this 16000watt PSW sP LF AMG version inverter it does6000or more without issues it will be a useful for some loads. i won't do a torture test to it....no reason to kill it off too fast....but they are definitely changing things...hopefully for the better...

like one commenter said the 16000 is more like a model number than a surge number...but that was in reference to an older version PowerJack he was referring too, so not exactly the same one....

wonder if they have electrical engineers working to improve their inverter designs?

Question???? of the 2 small blue potentiometers located on the outside of the case .....what do the lazer cut outs stand for???

B  >>>> OV AD ????; and C  >>>> IV AD ???

the A one is a Hz button and they ship small button covers  in a separate small ziplock for it; but no need to change the HZ.

this morning started charging the last 4 LIfePO4 cells with the Riden 6018 charger via the other Powerjack inverter off-grid so soon may assemble the next 32 cell 28KWh battery. I parallel 4 LiFePO4 cells at a time to top balance before assembly....into the larger battery 373 pounds or so...😎🤔

cheers all and have a great day!

thanks for your replies! ch

the CHNT breakers are a very simple sturdy mount in  the front of the case...I think they sell for about 3-4 dollars on alibaba/aliexpress....a metal bar and two bolts holds them into the lazer cut out.

I like the breakers vs glass fuses...of the other PowerJack inverters I have...although I have never had to replace a fuse yet>>> knock on wood!😎

The pots on the front of the case adjust...

1) Target Output AC Voltage
2) Middle of Range for Battery Overvoltage/Undervoltage Alarms.

On mine, the B and C are backwards from their descriptions.

52 minutes ago, pilgrimvalley said:

wonder if they have electrical engineers working to improve their inverter designs?

No.  It's frankly astonishing how little most Chinese factories actually know about the electronics they manufacture and sell.  More often than not, a Chinese factory copies a design from another company (that presumably did their research)--but just because a Chinese factory sells something should not be taken to mean that they understand how it actually works.

53 minutes ago, pilgrimvalley said:

but they are definitely changing things...hopefully for the better...

Can't say this is the case.  Reducing manufacturing cost is THE most important aspect of basically every change with PJ inverters--and as the value of the USD continues to fall due to significantly increased inflation, they have to reduce costs further to avoid the appearance of "raising prices."  And...it is extremely difficult to "reduce cost" without also "reducing functionality."

I often wonder about PJ and their continual trial and error tinkering with component values to bodge the inverter control rather than simple change of a few values in the code to achieve the same.  Sure someone simply fiddling with resistors isn't going to require a great deal of skill, but neither would tweaking values in the firmware, so no real change in costs there.  The latter would mean the continual change to production processes would go away, and that is where they'd make actual savings, IMO.

Can't say this is the case.  Reducing manufacturing cost is THE most important aspect of basically every change with PJ inverters--and as the value of the USD continues to fall due to significantly increased inflation, they have to reduce costs further to avoid the appearance of "raising prices."  And...it is extremely difficult to "reduce cost" without also "reducing functionality."

I  hope your new GS 12kw  do not get inflated to the price of the newest PJ  10kw inverter on ebay .   

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Wow.  I'm sure some poor sod will be suckered into that.

Very logical reasoning.  The only issue is if they also don't have a clue how the code works.

MOST of the PCB tweaks/additions are a direct result of trying to work around a problem that could very easily be addressed with a fairly simple firmware adjustment.  As a matter of fact, the PCB design (with all of the "fixes") makes it very difficult to adjust the firmware...

1 hour ago, dickson said:

I  hope your new GS 12kw  do not get inflated to the price of the newest PJ  10kw inverter on ebay .   

Read closely: that's an inverter + a (supposedly!) 10kwh LiFePo4 battery bank.

3 hours ago, TheButcher said:

I often wonder about PJ and their continual trial and error tinkering with component values to bodge the inverter control rather than simple change of a few values in the code to achieve the same.  Sure someone simply fiddling with resistors isn't going to require a great deal of skill, but neither would tweaking values in the firmware, so no real change in costs there.  The latter would mean the continual change to production processes would go away, and that is where they'd make actual savings, IMO.

yes unless someone is reverse engineering their code and how they seek to change their transistors and components it would be hard to say how many engineers they have on staff to make or copy or improve their products... i am still learning so forgive my lack of details...

I do not know anyone who has been to their (PowerJack) Chinese factory in Taiwan or wherever it may be... some things they source from the same copycat suppliers...

if you watched what happened to the computer chips and memory over the last 30 years the computer chip increased in speed every 6 months and computer parts got super cheap and the computer that cost me 3500 dollars became worth less than 100 dollar within 5 years...I have tons of cds and dvds, but i now have the faster ssd drives as they are more reliable then the older multi-platter hard drives... today i use usb drives that hold GB of data vs the 1st computer i built from scratch had a enormous 850MB hard drive back in 1989 or so.... the usb drives can be bought for 5 dollars for 32GB... so to say cheaper and newer is not better who is to say...

a copper wound transformer around a iron core would produce better than the cheaper lighter aluminum wound transformer but material cost and weight dictate what they use.

it is almost impossible to talk with them unless you can find a translator who speaks Chinese....i am bilingual but know not a word of Chinese....

most of the good engineering seems to come from other countries but Japan and Germany make a lot of good things as do Canada...and other places...

the profit drive is for sure real in the cost cutting but some newer components are far superior in function to the old ones....

back in the day >>> I took computer programming in college on the hugest key punch card computer of its time but do not utilize it to speak of...it was the size of a set of 2 very large rooms...

the cloud and storage and streaming movies are a change...to make money by subscriptions..

 I buy BluRay movie disc for 1 dollar shipped to me.  and  I buy many things at a bargain. some cheap things are absolute junk and I have plenty of Pig Latin words to say about them... I tend to buy the older better quality American made tools. and avoid some tools from you know where , but still buy some of them due to the price. probably could use some choice Spanish words about the quality also...some are excellent some are imported junk! so back to paying more for quality tools as I can sometimes afford to do so....

buyer beware....

the newer PowerJack design of 2 SS boxes will get the heat of the transformer away from the mosfets with each box having its own fan cooling system. I cant imagine mounting a 160 pound inverter on the wall without a great degree of difficulty so the 2 box design with stereo style receiver feet is a good move by PowerJack also decreases the per box weight issue for shipping... i bought faster fans and fan voltage regulators so I can run them direct from the battery banks...

their LiFePO4 battery pre-built boxes are not a bargain at all nor is the big inverter they advertise to suckers for $4999....

i do note that their prices are actually coming down on some of them....the Chinese money is taking a nose dive in the markets....

a lot of parts they likely are not changing much, but it is fairly obvious that they are not sitting still in their product designs...

I usually buy 2 of every inverter so I have a backup...

Today I received the PowerJack (here within 2 weeks by fedex express at no cost to me - amazing) free parts and free driver board due to the shipping delay....for the 2nd PowerJack 26000 watt inverter 48-volt LF SP PSW AMG version and expect it will run continuous 8000 watt each or more...so for less than 1120 dollars I bought 2 of the 26000 watt inverters including tax and delivery and may be able to get 8000 out of each so yes, I still think the new version was a bargain to me....compared to the 2500 to 4000 dollar alternatives for a single 12000 watts of inverter power... for the off-grid system I am assembling...

there is no AC charging as I am not interested in hooking up to the grid monopoly, just hoping for a good unit without too many problems to run continuously when needed...

con·tin·u·ous·ly >>>without interruption or gaps.

half of the mosfet boards have the zener diodes on the center leg, which as I understand helps with the kick back problems(not likely the right word here)...it seems the mosfet heating up is the weak link in the inverter when they are pushed to their limits is my understanding and then it takes out the LF driver board also as Sean noted in his older YouTube videos...

most people will not have an adequate battery to run a big inverter 12,000 watt inverter continuously 24/7 off grid.... Sean does not...that is his weak link...to getting off the electric grid! 

tinkering may be needed in the future until a better design is achieved!

sorry for the ramble but sometimes i think....bite my tongue!!!🤔😎

😎have a great evening all