dickson Posted December 25, 2022 Share Posted December 25, 2022 input 110VAC and battery power, to be sure the unit worked out of the box. It did, as far as I was able to ascertain, but failed instantly when hooking it up in a permanent installation. A permanent installation require a transfer switch if connect to the grid . The main service should be OFF to not backfeed the inverter output . I do not know what your permanent installation is . The inverter works good using extension cord . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lener Posted December 30, 2022 Share Posted December 30, 2022 On 12/9/2022 at 6:22 PM, Mike T said: So, with that understood, I suspect the cause of the spectacular failure, was that the neutral connected to the LFPSW's input N terminal has already been bonded to ground somewhere up stream (generator? ATS???). When the outputs of the LFPSW unit route through the second transfer switch to the breaker box, ground is bonded back to neutral and you end up with a situation where input neutral, output neutral and ground, as connected to the LFPSW unit, are all at the same electrical potential. I don't know this for a fact, but I suspect this unit isn't designed to have the input and output neutrals at the same potential... Am I correct -- is this my problem? I am convinced that you and me had the same issue, tripping breaker and blowing off FETTs . My 12000w LF AGM a complete disappointment, no instructions manual . After testing and testing I finally realized PJ unit will Tripp and burn fetts once connected to any type of ground ;independent or household .My biggest mistake I was connecting ground the to the chassis E .independent earth ground or the house ground connection is bad for the unit , AC receptacle output as well ( Has To be connected to L and N only otherwise bonded and feed back (114v between E and N.) is this normal operation with PJ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sid Genetry Solar Posted December 30, 2022 Share Posted December 30, 2022 9 hours ago, Lener said: is this normal operation with PJ? Should not be. Like I've stressed earlier in your thread (@Lener), there should be no continuity from any of the input AC, output AC, or battery terminals, to the chassis. If there's a short between any of those terminals and chassis, that would be the problem (likely deadshorting the output of the inverter due to ground-neutral bonding at the external breaker panel). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike T Posted January 5 Author Share Posted January 5 On 12/30/2022 at 8:35 AM, Sid Genetry Solar said: Should not be. Like I've stressed earlier in your thread (@Lener), there should be no continuity from any of the input AC, output AC, or battery terminals, to the chassis. If there's a short between any of those terminals and chassis, that would be the problem (likely deadshorting the output of the inverter due to ground-neutral bonding at the external breaker panel). Sid -- I just checked and the "E" input terminal is at the same potential as the chassis ground stud -- so that's something at least. Should not cause a problem -- just thought I'd mention it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike T Posted January 6 Author Share Posted January 6 I mounted the unit in my RV for a proper test run. I removed main power from the main breaker and connected the output of the inverter to the the main breaker. The following loads were active: -11A for water heater (purely resistive -- tough load) -Maybe 4A surge to start the refrigerator after which .5A to keep it going -11A resistive or so for the battery charger -Negligible load for one single 60w equivalent LED bulb When I turned on the inverter, it made a pretty notable sound but seemed stable. I ran indoors to observe the LED light (the inverter was mounted in the "belly box" storage area behind the 5th wheel). The LED light was quite dim. I ran back outside to get a meter and was about to measure output voltage when I heard an FET fail. I turned off the unit as fast as I could. I mentally went through the list of items that would load the inverter before I turned it on, and totally forgot the battery charger. I would have preferred to have run the test without the battery charger -- BUT -- I would have expected the inverter to simply go into protect mode if the load was too much. This may be a deal breaker if the inverter isn't intelligent enough to shut itself down under an excessive load. Thoughts? Experiences? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sid Genetry Solar Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 2 hours ago, Mike T said: - BUT -- I would have expected the inverter to simply go into protect mode if the load was too much. This may be a deal breaker if the inverter isn't intelligent enough to shut itself down under an excessive load. Thoughts? Experiences? One thing a PJ definitely isn't.....is smart. It's only got "power monitoring" on one leg (L1-N typically)...and nobody knows when it'll actually trip, as there's no indication of monitoring. Purely resistive loads actually are the easiest loads to run...it's those inductive and surge loads that are real troublemakers! 2 hours ago, Mike T said: When I turned on the inverter, it made a pretty notable sound but seemed stable. I ran indoors to observe the LED light (the inverter was mounted in the "belly box" storage area behind the 5th wheel). The LED light was quite dim. I mean, I can't say a "notable sound" is unusual for a PJ inverter, given that the FET drive is so lopsided and mismatched. A loud transformer buzz is quite normal...but a low output voltage isn't. 2 hours ago, Mike T said: Sid -- I just checked and the "E" input terminal is at the same potential as the chassis ground stud -- so that's something at least. Should not cause a problem -- just thought I'd mention it. was going to respond to this earlier, but a bit of time passed 😉. This is expected behavior--"E" terminals are the chassis ground terminals. They should not be shorted to any of the other AC output/input terminals, as well as the DC inputs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pilgrimvalley Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 On 1/5/2023 at 6:38 PM, Mike T said: This may be a deal breaker if the inverter isn't intelligent enough to shut itself down under an excessive load. I had an 8k non amg PowerJack inverter shut down yesterday due to low battery SOC of 19 percent in a 544ah 24-volt Lischen build battery.....the snow is about 2 foot deep and the last 12 inches on Thursday buried all things deeper... the PowerJack did shut down but will not be adequate to protect the battery... I think the PowerJack manufacturer keep changing things so who knows.... normally I keep the batteries 80 to 99 percent SOC but the snow and animal caretaking kept me a bit too busy.... so found the inverter squealing and shut down on SATURDAY... i hooked the 544ah battery to a Riden 6018 via a redundant 544ah battery and separate PowerJack non amg 6k lf psw sp inverter and brought it back up to 32 percent SOC yesterday...will do more later today... i highly recommend the Riden 6018 bench power supply for battery charging....mine works great...i had 400 watts pushing into it no problem in my off-grid whole house solar pv build... cheers, 😎 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pilgrimvalley Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 I do not use the charge function on any PowerJack inverter and do not connect any to the electrical grid monopoly. all is done off-grid with solar PV panels....although i can rob some stored electric from a reduntant pv charged battery when needed via a different PowerJack inverter... separate battery charging is better in my opinion.... let the PowerJack be an inverter and nothing more.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dickson Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 i highly recommend the Riden 6018 bench power supply for battery charging....mine works great...i had 400 watts pushing into it no problem in my off-grid whole house solar pv build.. I use the Riden 6018 for bench testing the Powerjack mainboard and FETs before pushing thr Powerjack power switch for the first time . I then connect the rev 11.3 control board and use the Riden 6018 to test to see how many green LED light up after pushing the Powerjack power switch . The low amp output from the Riden 6018 will not damage the control board but will test the LF driver . 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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