Energy Matters Forums

[Solar@wind]

Good weekend all,


I googled most of their pages with difficulty , but don,t see any prices ?

I'm sure the most recent W7 types do use a Torodial,as I've seen a pic of them .

They still don,t get too excited about their stand-by current,though,wonder why????.

The backshed guys are surely doing the most recent exciting developments , I think they will be worth watching and even maybe purchase one of their PCB kits and make your own for lot less money ..

If anybody has or knows of W7 48 volt PCB distributors ,please drop me a line , . I've contacted previous recommended suppliers ,but they don,t seem to be interested ,, things like "when did you buy this from "US" , then don,t reply when they find out it came from somewhere else.,

Bruce

[Jimbo007]

You'll find that although they have copied each others pictures with the torroidal transformer, the majority still supply the old type of transformer unless you specify the toroid.
That's why the standby current is still unimpressive.
From personal experience, the non power save standby current of the six kilowatt torroidal unit is around two amp, so 50 watts for the 24 volt unit and one amp around 50 watts for the 48 volt unit. This is probably due to them using a toroid rather than ferrite E cores on the primary. They use another toroid for the output filter.
The three kilowatt 48 volt toroidal unit comsumed about 0.6 amps no load in the same state, around 30 watts.
This is significantly less than the non toroidal counterparts.
Try to explain that you're experimenting rather than seeking replacement boards. You'll be probably more successful.

[Solar@wind]

Thanks Jim.,

You described the difference nicely . I did the conversion and probably got even less stand-by ,--if I remember correctly ,around 22`watts..

Mine has been inservice for some 5 years now , never a glitch. Just because it got a hit from lightning,I,m not going to bag it at all. One day I'll pick up a spare working unit and I'll then be able to elimate progressively ,the pcb that has the crook part .

Thank you ,Jimbo for your long time help in the mods that we see here with 140 odd pages of real good hands-on expertise ,from you ,Oz and others that have helped me.

Bruce

[Jimbo007]

Bruce,
thankyou for you kind words and feedback. knowledge is only knowledge if it's shared which is exactly what this forum is all about. I consider myself a minor contributor compared to the real masters within this group.
My original W7 3kva unit was put into unattended slave labour a few years ago on a friends farm where it powers a bore pump on a timer as well as lights, TV , a one HP inverter A/C and various other power tools on demand. It's never missed a beat.
I'm also greatfull to oz and the others who created this forum which I discovered while searching for information to repair my friends failed unit (through his own stupidity, as detailed sometime ago) that retriggered my need to construct Electronic projects and made me a W7 supporter. They are unbelievably rugged with a toroidal transformer.
I related early this year whete a collegue installed a 6/18 kva system from me to power his home in the city. He wanted the convienience of switching between the grid and inverter and refused to take my guidance on configuration. At changeover there was a brief grunt from the inverter, a small explosion at the elcb in the powerhouse, an explosion within the change over contactor and a bigger bang from the grid supply link.
There's no helping some people.

[Solar@wind]

This may be interesting to powerstar inverter owners..

Hope the author is happy to have it posted.

http://quan-diy.com/misc/inverters/powerstar.htm

Bruce

[lowy]

Hi there,
I am new to this and Im in a dilemma. I have a powerstar w7 inverter that wont charge my batteries and I cant seem to find a service center to get my gadget fixed, can anyone point me in the right direction please.
I am only online for short periods due to inadequate coverage so I cant reply instantly.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I live in the northern rivers area nsw Aust.
cheers Lowy

[Solar@wind]

Hello ,
I have a PSW7 /48 volt 6Kw type. Mine is not working ,but I'm in the stage of finding the fault ,like yourself.

Mine has gone faulty because of induced high voltage from a lightning strike ,which came down the feeder from my windmill tower. (This is strange ,as I had the dc feeder cable terminated on a block resting on some unistrut mounting frame . The strike jumped across from the block ,one of those connector blocks with several brass connectors in it.) and must have travelled into my inverter ,via the steel casing--the inverter was completely disconnected ,switched off.

Repair people,,, now thats where we are stuck ,,great lot of people on these forum ,but , I'm afraid, they are most like ourselves, and not in the business of repairing stuff. You might get a technician in the northern rivers to help you around Lismore,tweed heads ,dunno??

Wish you luck ,personal message me if you could /would like to visit me,I'm Gold Coast area.

Bruce

[davidg]

I am new to this and Im in a dilemma. I have a powerstar w7 inverter that wont charge my batteries and I cant seem to find a service center to get my gadget fixed, can anyone point me in the right direction please.

If it's out warranty from the I assume Ebay shop, then you are flat out of luck. There is no service centre for them at all, you should be able to buy boards for them from ebay, no g'tee though. If it indeed was hit by lightning then you may well wasting any money you spend on it.

I destroyed a whole bunch of them in testing a while back, they are functional but they are not great by any stretch. I gave them the heave ho in the end, particularly when comparing them the likes of an SP-Pro yes they are more expensive, they are smarter more robust and really really hard to break and I've tried. They have the protection built into them making almost totally immune to the issues that kill the W7 powerstar units and you can get service backup for them.

I suggest the same should go for Latronics and possibly service backup and the same should go for several other of good brands, although the backup service is very hard to beat with Selectronic, when they are really broken, I know someone that made a really bad mistake and did serious frying of one, they sent it to Selectronic and they had it back in 3 days fully repaired, if it had been a warranty it would, it would been a changeover forward replacement.

[Solar@wind]

Hi David,

The MOV 's on the pub's of the psw7 , could you advise me as to a replacement common type that would be suitable. , I've searched fro the part No. (on the mov) but there are so many different types.

Maybe , because of my lack of knowledge, these days, there are suitable ones from local distributors available for this inverter-48volt 6000watt package.

Also ,in your previous post you seem to have experience in these contraptions?lol. Question, do you have any of the pub,s that I could buy ,that I may like to swap to find my existing fault -from that lightning surge that somehow must have got into the inverter(which was off at the breaker) input. anyhow maybe you have some parts that I might try?

Thanks,David

Bruce

[davidg]

Hi David,

The MOV 's on the pub's of the psw7 , could you advise me as to a replacement common type that would be suitable. , I've searched fro the part No. (on the mov) but there are so many different types.

Read my previous post again please.

If you want a part, use EBAY, as for exactly which again part/s wouldn't have a clue, it takes a lot time and testing and while I did do FET replacement once, killed the board properly a few days later again. I just know when one of the main boards doe melt down it's almost always a lot more than just the FETS on the board.