Pre-Order Discussions

different metals react with each other and as they get hot and cold they also expand and contract at differing rates which ultimately can cause loose connections....

my brother was a certified welder as were my cousins and worked on many welding jobs...

I also worked some as a welder and on water towers as a summer job a time or two...also welded on coal carrying railroad cars for the powerplants one summer.... 

they use a heliarc for welding aluminum and there should be no insulation at the point of welding to contaminate the welds..

so hopefully the enamel is stripped clean before the welding the enamel coated aluminum windings as that part is not visible in Sean's GS YouTube video and welding aluminum to tinned copper is not likely a successful weld....

but keep up the upgrades and design improvements at any rate...

when transitioning to a different metal in electrical boxes for instance some use a dielectric grease to prevent or slow the corrosion of non-compatible metals(the galvanic reaction).... if you merely crimp(cold weld) with pressure non alike metals they will eventually loosen at that junction...and aluminum although cheaper and lighter than copper is an inferior conductor of electricity....That is why it takes a lot thicker aluminum wire to conduct the same amount of electricity that copper does and copper is the conductor of choice but more expensive...and heavier...

they put tin on copper to reduce the galvanic reaction which also reduces its conductivity,,, but corrosion prevention and loosening of the connections is the goal...of tinning

using cheap aluminum is just an economic choice....

I prefer copper over aluminum in wiring... as has been documented many times over that aluminum proved to be unreliable in house wiring....at least inside the walls....it is still commonly used for overhead feeder wires as it is cheap and light weight...but requires a larger AWG to do what copper can do...

so I still believe aluminum is not near as good as copper on essentially all characteristics... and can definitely agree to disagree or agree to agree...

I am not an engineer,,,, or a country bumpkin 

I enjoy learning more everyday.....about solar PV off grid improvements...

😎 the sun is shining again today >>>> thankfully without any wind>>>>time to go into to the city to buy expensive food.

LiFePO4 battery cells can be purchased with the M8 studs welded in place,,,, they do this with a laser welder that is robotically programmed to do so,,,,and they also can laser weld aluminum bus bars directly to the LiFePO4 cells as they do pre-built high voltage battery packs... 

but they use aluminum to aluminum in these welding operations.... very neat and strong

for the DIY battery builder the welded on terminals ( preferably the larger M8 would be great... I bought welded on M6 terminal holes ready for M6 studs,,,, M8 would definitely be better...

the other lithium ion chemistry is a lot more dangerous and can catch fire more readily.... best not to have these inside any living quarters. (( hint hint  << Sean >>))

another airplane was recently returned to ground due to fire on board with the more dangerous Lithium ion chemistry (not the safer LiFePO4) ...(( you keep hearing the fire hazards of Li Ion but not so much with the more stable safer LiFePO4 ))....

all batteries have a risk factor and need to be carefully assembled .... i guarantee they have challenged my comfort zone multiple times....even had a lead acid battery blow up one time under the closed hood of my 1990 pickup truck with a thunderous boom one time some 20 plus years ago...

as always >>> have a great and safe day,,,,,😎

even had a lead acid battery blow up one time under the closed hood of my 1990 pickup truck with a thunderous boom one time some 20 plus years ago.

Lead acid battery blow up  three  different time  at  work but face sheild is required  and save my eye .    I do not have any Li Ion battery  in my house  or wood  furnace  either  .       A  quick way  to burn a house down  .      

February 9, 2023:

• Sean has made progress on getting custom-made shipping boxes and packaging foam produced locally.  That and the local cases--so we can get at least a few things locally produced in the States.
• Transformer company says they want to try "a different way of winding the transformer" in order to meet our wire location requirements.  The sample should be produced by next week--after which we should be able to place the bulk order for transformers.
• Once transformers are ordered, I will start ordering everything else.  Transformers are the biggest part.

I heard that PayPal have 6 month money back if you pay using them...not sure about that, but in case you get another scam manufacturing company with no delivery,,,, it might get you the needed leverage to get the money back,,,,vs the picture of some pile of toroid cores with no transformer delivery problems...

Alibaba is not the safest either...

without a contract or without a contract it will be next to impossible to collect from a fraud so possibly PayPal via the credit card route for safer order security....but I am sure you guys have been learning the hard way as Guiney pigs for the Chinese hand shake ways...

avoid the Nigeria email scams also as your new Jack may be a Jill in wolves clothing...

I was scammed in Spain one time...(what a young one (then) they scammed)... 

in the USA you have a bit more control except from the deadbeats who you will never collect from anyways...I try to learn everyday by my mistakes...

have a great day, >>> the sun is shining 😎

26 minutes ago, pilgrimvalley said:

Alibaba is not the safest either...

Have you ever used Alibaba personally?

yes several times

yes several times

IS  Alibaba  the same as  Aliexpress ?       I use Aliexpress  only with  Paypal  and not pay with  credit card    or bank transfer .      .   

13 minutes ago, dickson said:

IS  Alibaba  the same as  Aliexpress ?       I use Aliexpress  only with  Paypal  and not pay with  credit card    or bank transfer . 

alibaba is different than aliexpress

each seller is paid thru alibaba and sets their payment terms but i paid with credit card to alibaba but it has to get approved and typically need extra verification on the buyer

got to go

lot more choices on alibaba 

2 hours ago, pilgrimvalley said:

alibaba 

i think they require a photo of the credit card or something so a bit more information for alibaba,,,, and alibaba will be on the side of the chinese vender.... etc 

i had to cancel one LifePo4 battery order because they did not reply then the order showed up and i repaid them 

another one was a big argument with a partial refund .... when i ordered 100 copper busbars.. and only received 94 (they falsely claimed they were selling by weight 

the old chinese kung foo to you

so alibaba is good and bad,,,,,

kind of like the box of cracker jacks >>> ya never know what your going to get.

never pay via a method that you cant get a guarantee... credit card has a certain guarantee

never use bank wire .... western union etc to pay the Jill or Jack

but lots more sales venders if you can weed thru them.via alibaba and you can get to the manufacturing level so bulk may be better from them,,, and you can save a dime ...

my lifepo4 cell vender can do tracking of the boat etc so you can tell where your order is but some things take 60 plus days via the slow boat ride

 and some will be here within a week...

aliexpress sometimes is fast and sometimes things get lost.... i received an empty package where the contents were likely lost in the mail service one time but could not tell who it was from,,, then it was too late so no refund....so no thermostats...

aliexpress uses a common forwarder so it is impossible to know one package from another depends on size of course until you get it. open it, and track it backwards 

more later, the sun is shining 😎

so be careful with your 5 figure order,,,,,i think $4000 dollars to $5000 in one order is scary enough risk from Jill....

your mileage may vary

3 hours ago, pilgrimvalley said:

another one was a big argument with a partial refund .... when i ordered 100 copper busbars.. and only received 94 (they falsely claimed they were selling by weight 

Don't tell me you were demanding a full and complete refund simply because your order was 6 shy of the total quantity you expected.

If that's what you were trying to do, then I'm glad there's Alibaba purchase protection to protect China from American buyers.

I've done several claims on AliExpress.  All have been full refunds (as a result of the evidence I provided)--except for the latest one, as they pointed out my video did show it "partially working".  (That one was a partial refund.)  And if I step back for a moment and try to look at the situation objectively, I do have to agree with them.  But we're also only talking $50.

I have had zero reason to do claims on Alibaba--so far anyway.  Yes, there's a lot of horror stories out there--but most people are dealing with "trading companies" who are just trying to make a quick buck by cheating customers.  Conversely, I'm dealing with actual manufacturers--the companies who are actually producing the goods.  If they screw us over, they only stand to lose.

As of right now, I've done 28 transactions on Alibaba.  I have not had any reason to file a claim with any of them--apart from minor misunderstandings/quibbles about interpretation (which the sellers have been happy to correct).  But again: I'm working with actual manufacturers, not trading companies that deal with generic parts.  And then again, I'm also not trying to screw China for the entire order just because I found one dimple in a single part.

no i wanted the refund for the 6 missing busbars i received a partial refund but not as much as it should have been...after having to haul it into a UPS office to weigh the darn heavy box etc... but the seller got the best end, i took the partial refund vs no refund.... i received 94 1/4 inch by 6 inch by 1.5 inch copper bus bars and insulators , ss standoffs and bolts etc but was shorted 6....

you are not going to be able to do much if they cheat you on 5 figures from your china supplier>>>> if like collecting from a Jack who turns out to be a Jill or a Brandon.... credit card seems to be the best way and let the credit card company duke it out with them....

the PowerJack seller scammer just disappeared and a new one appeared,,,, same ads new seller on eBay...

you can be careful or careless with your 5 figure purchase....

Alibaba will side with the Chinese even if the Chinese is wrong.... duh >>> your mileage may vary as has mine...

did you know about Jack Ma the founder of Alibaba being cheated by the communist China???

did Jack charge for all the pallets of PowerJack stuff he sent to Sean???? hopefully they had a written agreement....

.... of course that was not on Alibaba. hmnm hmmm???

one LifePO4 seller could track my order all the way with boat tracking also( a $4300 investment on Alibaba),,,, at that time there was a lot of back up at the ports for the big ships they say...so i ordered another batch from him also...and he conversed in fairly good English on the text messages also..

lots of stuff on Alibaba,,, they have toroid based LF inverters but I only seen them up to 6k with copper wound toroids....they could likely make the whole thing for you.....in a short time....

probably get beat up on import tax in Michigan anyways,,,,lots of chinese stuff already in USA warehouses to avoid the import tax or the go to another country to avoid import tax.... always a chinese cheaper way...

PowerJack is selling out of a warehouse in Lansing Michigan on Ebay... no import tax that way....

i was trying to buy a shipping container full of solar panels and actually found that they could be purchased in smaller quantities in the USA with out the anti-dumping tariff problems....

i have likely made a hundred of purchases on aliexpress and several on alibaba maybe 10-15 or more.

so not every Jack is a Jill or a Brandon....

but the quality is often really not there vs german or Brazilian or japanese or usa prducts

but communist china does copy them cheap and ship them by the boat loads

I was looking at shunts for dc solar and found several on Alibaba.com also.... rated for 500amp75mv and some smaller ones also.... 

I purchased 10 to 15 of the 500amp75mv shunts previously with good quality from Alibaba.com via a manufacturing company...

I utilize the shunts for measurement purposes...and like the batch i received with calibration papers....included

so there are some good ones out there....

but as many have said >>>  not every order comes with the same quality even from the same supplier....

ya never know,

but if you do the quality control in the USA basement before shipping, the service >>> ready to function out of the box will  make your customer happier....

Alibaba >>> that is where I saw the LF PSW toroid inverters up to 6k or 12k.... they can do 'em with your logos your design in about any quantity you desire in fairly short order (in 15 days if up to 10 quantity) i was just looking at some... then you could retire quick...they would box them and everything (easy peasy).....I assume they could do the laser cutout with gs logo etc on the ss case

Assume is a fine word....

assume the best for the USA....

 i received 94 1/4 inch by 6 inch by 1.5 inch copper bus bars and insulators , ss standoffs and bolts etc but was shorted 6.

That is one huge  busbar and how much amps  do you need  ?       I  use 3/4  copper pipe  and  2 inch  steel angle  bar  and  4/0 copper cable  for  400 amps .      I  think   Powerjack inverter  do not  need  that big of a bus bar  but  I  can not afford  to buy one to try ,