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

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...

I  spend hours and hours on key punch IBM 370 programming at Iowa State University  a long time ago .  Those mainframe  IBM are huge .    I  have many friends who are  electrical engineer and computer programmer  but they know nothing about  inverter or solar  and think it is too dangerous  to work with .    

yes, likely the same huge computer, as I took computer programming at Iowa State University about the year 1980. my college roommate in the towers dorm was an electrical engineer from my home town but they later moved to Sioux City, Iowa,,, so indeed it is a small world...

my first inverter was a 12-volt monster of about 5000 watt rating (possibly bought it  in the year 1996 or so) but soon found the battery to be the biggest problem to run it... i took it to Bolivia South America and bought 2 large 12 volt batteries but not enough battery....so learn from many years of generator use on my Bolivia Mountain off-grid remote getaway named "Pilgrim Valley". I have a couple solar panels in Bolivia to charge the tractor and jeep batteries...

I do not like the generator noise and their pollution but they were used sparingly as needed during the construction, but candles and homemade kerosene lights in the night were common fixtures. the government gave all the Bolivian remote people a small solar panel to power a simple light about 20 years ago. about 3 years ago the grid came into the rural mountains with 220 2 wire electric so now have the grid power there for the last 3 years(at my Bolivia mountain get away from the rat race homestead). 

I am doing the present off-grid build in rural South Dakota, USA... Just a displaced farm boy trying to get back to the farm ways of life....

while I have also been making my Pilgrim Valley home in Bolivia, South America more modernized.. presently they are completing the open air off-grid wood-fired kitchen with 4 different cooking areas...including of course the pizza oven....

below is my 21 year off-grid progress in Bolivia a few pictures taken February 2022.. subtropical in the mountains of southern Bolivia....

off topic a bit I know.....

glad that spring has sprung in South Dakota....!!!!

cheers all, have a great day!!😎

yes, likely the same huge computer, as I took computer programming at Iowa State University about the year 1980. my college roommate in the towers dorm was an electrical engineer from my home town but they later moved to Sioux City, Iowa,,, so indeed it is a small world...

Marshalltown Iowa  was my home for 23 years .    Keypunch a program and wait hours to get the  printout that the program works is like  powering a Powerjack inverter for the first time and  it works .   I  jump up and down for joy that it works  as offgrid is something never taught at any  university .   A Powerjack that blow up the FETs is a nightmare like a keypunch program that do not work .  

9 hours ago, pilgrimvalley said:

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...

You mean the little cylindrical dark gray ferrite bead on the center leg?

I thought it was a decent idea until I did some testing and thinking: turns out that the ferrite bead on the center lead is COMPLETELY useless.  Why?  Simple: no power flows through that lead!  Power path is through the Source lead (on the right) and out the Drain (heatsink).  Yes, the center lead is connected to the Drain, but the power does not flow through the lead!

Putting a ferrite on the Source lead (rightmost) makes FET drive go bonkers.  Those little ferrites are useless.

The FETs themselves are not the weak link.  What makes them the weak link in PJ inverters is very weak gate drive, and very poor PCB layout of the gate signals (not to mention a complete misunderstanding of how the FET gates work).  If the FETs are not switched quickly and cleanly (or for that matter, not fully turned on), they will needlessly generate a lot of heat from resistive switching losses.  If there is crosstalk or other mangling of the necessary drive signals, there will be significant heat generated from the FETs briefly shorting the battery bank out.

Compare to the GS 12kw inverter running at FULL rated load (i.e. 12kw+)...and the FETs (with a fan on them) are barely 10 degrees above ambient temperatures.

The LF driver board gets "taken out" as a result of the FETs failing.  If the LF Driver board is blown, the FETs have already failed. 

Pretty simple: the LF Driver board is designed for up to ~25v.  But if those FET gates fail and short through to the drain (due to overheating resulting from poor drive), the driver board can get blasted with 50v from the battery.

9 hours ago, pilgrimvalley said:

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...

I will be extremely surprised if any of the current PJ inverters can run 8kw continuously.  Consider yourself extremely fortunate if they can do 6kw continuous.

9 hours ago, pilgrimvalley said:

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...

It's in Guangxi, China.  Dunno why some listings say "Taiwan" when nothing in the inverters comes from Taiwan (at least right now).

yes, they are little grey beads on the center leg of the mosfets; that is correct. ferrite beads that do slide up and down on the center leg...

i have been studying mosfets some but still not totally clear on them yet... thanks

so far nothing has blown up so these are just extra parts they sent as a free gift...due to the delayed delivery of the 2nd 26000 watt LF SP PSW AMG version inverter...

I will try to keep each of the PowerJack 26000 watt PSW SP LF AMG verison inverters to 6000 watts continuous or less so I do not have to repair them...

hopefully I get the super-insulated off-grid solar shed air conditioned a bit; as ambient inside temperature is the issue I now must combat running multiple inverters on a large set of LiFePO4 batteries..

until a good solution comes along.... I bought more Delta cooling fans and voltage regulators to run the fans directly from the LIFePO4 batteries...

yes, their ads specifically state Taiwan made/origin for some of their stuff as if they are possibly trying to do the fake>>> we are not Chinese but Taiwan possibly, but Taiwan is actually claimed by China even if Taiwan tries to claim otherwise....

you have to trust your supplier's word (for what it may or may not be worth)🤣🤣🤣

thank for the replies as i am still learning more about the various electrical pieces and parts....not my specialty at all...but love to learn more....

thanks again😎

It's in Guangxi, China.  Dunno why some listings say "Taiwan" when nothing in the inverters comes from Taiwan (at least right now).

yes, their ads specifically state Taiwan made/origin for some of their stuff as if they are possibly trying to do the fake>>> we are not Chinese but Taiwan possibly, but Taiwan is actually claimed by China even if Taiwan tries to claim otherwise....

I do not know but ebay say Taiwan  is where the seller is from .   Jack and Helen  are probably  relative .    Taiwan is friendly to the USA   and  are Chinese who  escape  from China  after WW2  but many are free to travel  between the 2 country  any time they want  .    

Technically it just says a 10kw iron battery box.  If it was any other inverter bundle it might be a 10kWh lifepo4 pack, but since it has PJ in the mix it might just be a really heavy iron box.  😉

when you go and register these PowerJack inverters,,,,, it takes you to the PowerJack with Jack and Helen on skype...

so like i tell you it is hard to say where any of this stuff is actually made? and who copies who and what parts they actually manufactured or some other company owned by the chinese govermnment controls....

who alse can sell and ship this cheap??? pay the workers 25 cents an hour....

the ups and usps shipping in the USA is about 2 dollars a pound...

the u-power inverters come with the same PowerJack parts, a relabeling likely from the same plant.  I recently received a PowerJack inverter in a relabeled u-power box. 

when i had issues with the eBay seller and sent a  skype message to Jack and Helen they covered it so they are not separate companies by any means... these are just employees selling powerjack products....

where their assembly is done or where the parts are made at is anyones' guess; unless you can tell me someone who has actually been to a real factory in China or Taiwan...

they sell to make a buck....and at a very cheap price,,, buyer beware of course😎🤔🤣🤣🤣

Lol yeah, i had one vendor telling me how it was impossible for the LiFePO4 batteries they were selling to hold 200AH as advertised. But they undoubtedly could.

Very weird.

1 hour ago, pilgrimvalley said:

where their assembly is done or where the parts are made at is anyones' guess; unless you can tell me someone who has actually been to a real factory in China or Taiwan...

All assembly is done in China.  All parts are sourced from Chinese suppliers.  You can look up Huayi (HY3810 FET), they're in the Shendong province of China.  Ruichips (of RUH1H150R FET) is in Shenzhen, China.  NCEPower (NCEP039N10 FET) is in Anhui, China.

The only part that definitely isn't manufactured in China is the main Microchip processor--as the only Microchip fabs are in the States.  (However, the only place you can buy this processor now is from China, either from old warehouse stock...or desoldered from e-waste.) It is also certain that PJ will be switching to a Taiwanese-made processor within the next few months due to the severe supply chain shortages facing pretty much all U.S.-made chips.

if you register the new PowerJack product, then you get a 15 month warranty... from PowerJack! 

the LiFePO4 sellers tried the method of you must send it back but if one used a credit card to pay the credit card company with retrieve the money...

any other method of payment gives you no recourse what so ever if you need to get your money back etc. due to a scammer...

I have 96 of the LiFePo4 cells in battery packs bought new, arrived new, etc. roughly 88KWh plus another 40 KWh potential battery capacity

 I also have eight 5Kwh prebuilt LiFePO4 battery packs each with a BMS that i purchased used...

if you buy an inverter in a 100 lot quantity you can get them to label it as your company's product...

same goes for solar panels, etc MPPT charge controllers, etc. if you wanted to sell copycat products with your name on them....

retail sales can be good or bad...

counterfeit products, fake web sites,,, what part do you think they can not infiltrate, copy, disguise...

do you trust your seller as real??? the old "my word is good" or a "deal on a hand shake" does not apply to some cultures where trickery is king/queen/ or any other claimed orientation....

the sellers based in the USA are easier to make sure they send a good product due to the legal beagles(aka lawyers) love to get lots of money...

its not funny,,, but it is the crooks way....in some overseas cultures😎🤔🤔🤔🤣

if GS can produce a good product thru PowerJack by changing up parts that will be a plus to the Off-grid solar folks...likely not get UL listing due to the great expense of doing that at the moment....

reality sets in, oh no 🤣yes the PowerJack rated output numbers may be more like a model number than an output number for selling advertisements,,, that must be working for them, as they continue to do so....

Solar electricity is the future vs noisy polluting IC (internal combustion)generators...

when i had issues with the eBay seller and sent a  skype message to Jack and Helen they covered it so they are not separate companies by any means... these are just employees selling powerjack products....

All the ebay sellers of Powerjack  are  relative  or friend from  Taiwan and China and get special treatment from both countries .   Definitely one company on ebay and China as Helen and David  know about every sales on ebay .    They do have many warehouses  as parts are  shipped from different address to me.  

yes, the David Chan sent the free PowerJack replacement parts for the delayed inverter delivery...an approximate 100 dollar value someone said....the Fedex Speed shipping came from China through Alaska ... go figure... 

I also buy on several other sites and the name they use can change at the toss of a dime and not reflect their true or actual identity....

they could all use the same name "Amy Anonymous" and you could never prove otherwise via the internet. 

I use WhatsApp for free communication around the world, but even then you do not know who is writing but they also have a secure live video chat feature which is nice... A bigger corporation bought WhatsApp now and is trying to gain money from a subscription based business.

another secure communication App is Signal....

we also have a OOMA brand VOIP (voice over internet protocol) computer based home phone numbers that allow one to talk unlimited amounts of time to USA, Canada and Mexico for free. except a monthly fed tax of about 6 dollars. I can vividly recall my stepdad ripping the rotary dial telephone off the wall some 50 years ago and throwing it out in the yard due to the excessive long distance phone charges of the times. HaHaHA 🤣🤣🤣🤣

my wife is a motor mouth and talks 3000 minutes every month for the 6 dollar fee.

not me 😎

Jack sent me to talk with Helen so perhaps jack was busy or Helen has a better English understanding via skype at the PowerJack site...

i don't know a single word in Chinese... although Google translate is improving in its ability to translate correctly from past years....

I use WhatsApp for free communication around the world, but even then you do not know who is writing but they also have a secure live video chat feature which is nice.

WhataApp is  blocked in mainland  China  when I was there and still blocked now  .  WhatsApp is NOT block in Taiwan when I visit  there .