Pre-Order Discussions

March 27, 2023:

• Heatsink order is complete.  As far as I can see from the photos, they are made perfectly to spec.  And they'd better be!

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  so that's the 12kw heatsinks on the top and center...6kw heatsinks on the left and right.  (Obviously, the order comprises more than just these 4pcs, but this was a "1 of each design" photo.)
   

• Busbar order is still in production.  Apparently those bends were a bit tougher than their usual fare 😉.  They're still within their allotted time, and production is expected to complete by the end of this week.
• Fan order is in production, though I have not been able to communicate with the salesperson lately.  Not sure what is going on with that.
• Capacitor supplier...we've had a bit of a problem.  Apparently they made the whole batch...and only then tested the capacitors' ESR.  Which came in at approximately 3 times what I wanted (30mOhm vs ~10mOhm).  Fortunately, they have been very forthright and honest all along...which makes me want to do business with them even more.  Unfortunately, they concluded that they were not certain that they would be able to do better, and told me to apply for a refund (their words, not mine).  I appreciate their honesty; if only we were in a slightly better position right now, I'd have told them to keep the payment as thanks for being honest.
  • fortunately, I had been in contact with another supplier (actually in Taiwan, not mainland China).  Caps cost more, but that's OK. 
  • literally the same day that the China supplier told me that they could not meet the ESR requirements, this other company "popped back up" with photos of a test capacitor (that they'd made per our conversation) on their ESR meter--and it was actually UNDER 10mOhm @ 1KHz ESR.  (Makes me wonder what the ESR is at 20-24KHz of the SPWM switching!)

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  • these will be going by air freight anyway, so it will not cause any delays.  Besides, there's no point in trying to "consolidate" stuff from Taiwan in mainland China...that's just asking for trouble.
     
• Sean has submitted the chassis files to the local machine shop; those should be in production in a week or two. 
  • Remember: these don't have to go on a ocean freighter, so they'll be ready before the parts arrive.

April 3rd, 2023:

• Busbar company reports that they have completed manufacturing on the order.  I'm awaiting photos of the busbars before they package them up, and then that part is good to go.
• Fan company...I'm not sure what's going on with them.  The last response I received from them was March 17th...and as we need fans (and the fan order has been paid), I finally asked one of our other (more responsive) suppliers to contact them.  Contact was achieved in a few minutes; reportedly the fan order production was not completed yet...despite being past the specified timeframe.  Currently, I'm waiting for more details (from said more responsive supplier!) as to what's going on.
  • This is the same fan company we've used since the very first Genetry inverter was shipped--so I'm not sure what's going on now.
  • I have preemptively contacted two other fan companies just in case we need to "fail" our longtime supplier due to non-responsiveness.  Don't like doing that, but hey, we need fans!
    • so far so good from the one new supplier on all of our requirements.
    • I'm still hoping we can get the order we paid for 3 weeks ago...to be completed within a day or so.  But if something's wrong there, we have a backup plan.
  • Sean has a box or so of fans...so even if the fans end up being slightly delayed, we can still ship a number of inverters.  Not going to let this last little item hold us up.
    • fans will go on a separate shipment if they take more than a day or 2.  We need the bulk shipment on its way ASAP!
• I've given the shipping company a green light to start consolidating all of the 5 or so different shipments into a single shipment for transit to Sean's place.  I'm expecting this to take a few days for Chinese logistics to get over 4,000lbs of items from 5 locations into a single consolidated location!

April 8, 2023:

• Update on the fan company: it sounds like they have produced the order AND sent it off to the shipping logistics center for our shipping company.  I got this news from our very persistent fastener supplier company...who did convince the fan company to at least acknowledge my existence via Alibaba chat.  SO...we should be in the clear this time around; I'm waiting for confirmation from our local shipping company office, though as it's the weekend now, I don't really expect a response from them until Monday.
  • Reportedly the fan supplier hasn't made many sales on Alibaba, so they are quitting Alibaba International.  I am aware that an Alibaba seller storefront costs 5 figures annually, so if the company is not receiving a large number of sales from said storefront, it makes sense to shut it off.  They could have done so a little more informatively, though.  At any rate, we will no longer be ordering from them.
  • I've contacted four other fan companies, narrowed it down to 2 good options, and purchased a 10pcs sample order from one of them.  It seems to me that I might be able to get slightly better fans for a better price...and by better, I mean quieter!  The current fans are rated 72dba @ 250cfm, whereas it looks like I can get fans rated 68dba @ 250cfm.  The decibel scale is logarithmic, so every 3db is a doubling of volume--in other words, dropping 4db is a significant improvement!
• Fastener company and heatsink company have independently confirmed that they have shipped the orders to the logistics consolidation center.  Busbar company order is complete, and they should get it sent out shortly.
• I'm hoping that all of the goods will be in ocean transit by this next week.  That will put expected inverter shipment to our very patient customers in May.
  • I sincerely apologize for the very long preorder time.  But we didn't really "take control" of the problem until February...just 2 months ago.  Trust isn't the easiest to break, especially if it's been there for awhile.  But we do what we need to do in order to move forwards.

Curious. Once the first batch sets sail, any thoughts on the lead time on the backorders?

As soon as we receive the shipment, it's all hands on deck assembling the inverters and sending out the orders...backorders first, of course.

I did get confirmation this morning that the fan company DID ship the goods...they provided a tracking number for the fans being sent to the consolidation warehouse.  So that is good.

April 10th, 2023:

• as I have updates, I'm providing them...as I promised in the beginning.
• Transformers have been delivered to the consolidation warehouse:
  
• Fasteners(nuts/bolts)/terminal blocks/rubber pads/fan guards...all that misc stuff has been sent to and signed for at the warehouse.
• Fans have been shipped to the warehouse; I have a tracking number with ETA of April 12th to the warehouse.  Thought things moved a little faster in China...but like I've noted before, I am hoping these goods are all on a ship by the end of this week.
• I have not gotten updates on the heatsinks/busbars, but those should be en route to the shipping warehouse as well.

Got an update from our domestic shipping company:

• all of the goods are expected to be in the destination warehouse by the 12th
• Ship sets sail on the 19th.  That's a bit later than I was hoping for...but I guess ships don't leave China every single day.

Clarification: transformers were in a shipping partner warehouse on the 8th (above photo!), but they now need transferred to the final warehouse that the shipment will set out from.  That will complete on the 11th, while the fans arrive on the 12th.  From that point, the goods can be readied for the ship.

Total shipping weight is 3250lbs.  Not exactly a featherweight shipment!

April 11, 2023:

• From a bill of lading, I believe the ship used for the transit of the goods will be the KAIMANA HILA.  Which can be tracked basically in real-time here: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:5825618/mmsi:369209000/imo:9719068/vessel:KAIMANA_HILA
• obviously, the goods can't be loaded on it until it gets from Guam to Shanghai!

April 12, 2023:

• Second capacitor company made a sample capacitor for us--and it's better than I hoped!
  <img class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" data-fileid="2256" data-ratio="74.92" width="662" alt="capacitortest.jpg.3b9df97c0169d26e09dd87127dcb8670.jpg" data-src="/monthly_2023_04/capacitortest.jpg.3b9df97c0169d26e09dd87127dcb8670.jpg" src="/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" />
  yes, that's 7.8mOhm @ 120Hz.  They also tested 6.7mOhm @ 1KHz, and 8.5mOhm @ 10KHz.
  Time to place the order for these!  They will go via air shipping--heck, the bulk order is already set up for shipment now.
• I went back through the email history, and our express shipping service has an estimated transit time from the dock (April 19th) to a warehouse in Chicago, IL of 26 days.  That puts us at May 15th; I so wish that could have been no later than May 1st.  But we should still easily be able to start shipping inverters in May.
• PCB company tasked with soldering all 2,040 FETs on the MOS boards sent me a test photo to confirm a dimension...but here we can see a bank of MOS boards for the 12kw:
  <img class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" data-fileid="2257" data-ratio="162.92" width="418" alt="FETs.jpg.fe901b5e030644f1ea4f8f891a412ca5.jpg" data-src="/monthly_2023_04/FETs.jpg.fe901b5e030644f1ea4f8f891a412ca5.jpg" src="/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" />
• I've got to get the final PCB order (mainboards, comm boards, driver boards) placed, as well as some connectors/cables.  But those will need to go by air.
• Sean confirmed the case order with the local machine shop; they are "in the system", and likely will be produced and delivered before the bulk order arrives from China!

PCB company tasked with soldering all 2,040 FETs on the MOS boards sent me a test photo to confirm a dimension...but here we can see a bank of MOS boards for the 12kw:

Sean say no way he can solder all   the FETs  on youtube ,   He try to solder  some  on youtube .    Soldering  capacitors on mainboard  is very difficult .    

shipping is definitely slow via the ocean boat ride...I also have an ocean boat ride order coming shipping on April 20th to arrive May 20th and final to me projection of May 25th..... so I feel your pain of long shipping time causing delays....

aliexpress can get stuff here in 12 days....

amazon is the quickest with the items usually on the soil of USA warehouses....but often a tad more expensive....

good luck

shipping is definitely slow via the ocean boat ride...I also have an ocean boat ride order coming shipping on April 20th to arrive May 20th and final to me projection of May 25th..

26 days is very fast .     My ebay seller  get  the inverter  to his  warehouse  in 30 days .  The problem is the seller hide it in the warehouse for 5  months before delivery .    I got refunded  2 times  because the seller was one day late with tracking number .    I will file a dispute  again  if I get delivery  late which is in July .     I  pay Paypal  in February  which is waiting  5 months  every time .     Jack is very good in timing  and is  done on purpose .   

I have went with PayPal payments lately using auction through eBay ,,,, so hope a better fraud protection ???, thanks for the replies....

still faster than gs deliveries..... not sure why powerjack is doing these things, but maybe keeping the money in float is helping them some how???

still faster than gs deliveries..... not sure why powerjack is doing these things, but maybe keeping the money in float is helping them some how???

YES  and  the 5 months  delay is  like  a pre=order so Jack know how many  30kw is  sold  and only have to  make  enough  before Paypal give refund   in  6 months .     This give the buyer only one month to dispute  if no tracking number is given . IT  took me  some time to  know that  Jack use this as a  loophole  to delay  delivery   and use ocean shipping as    an excuse ........    I am surprise that STARSHIP may go to  orbit before one GS12kw  is  delivered  on the pre-order .  I  think that making  STARSHIP go to orbit    is more  complicated  than making an inverter .  

14 minutes ago, dickson said:

I am surprise that STARSHIP may go to  orbit before one GS12kw  is  delivered  on the pre-order .  I  think that making  STARSHIP go to orbit    is more  complicated  than making an inverter .  

Boy can you really canoodle totally unrelated things together.

Starship was started as a project in 2012, eleven years ago.

And we at Genetry Solar after eventually realizing that we were being strung along with a series of empty promises by the manufacturer...finally took over production of our product just two months ago.  And as promised, I have been providing regular updates along the way.

Seriously now.  Compare apples to apples.  Comparing bee eyebrows to elephants is completely pointless.