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Because of the nature that a fuse works by heating up a wire - and if overloaded - until it melts, Fuses and subsequently its holders will get warm if they operate near their rated current. So the heat does come from the fuse! This is a bit different with MCBs as there you have the thermal as well a magnetic actuator. Till now I didn't notice any abnormal heating on the new holders even with chargers running all day at max. output. And bigger holders with bigger fuses, especially the ceramic type, will have far less issues with overheating. Gold plated contacts are of course the ultimate way of getting electricity or signals from one component to the next but as you said that's expensive and typically only used for delicate circuits, miniature connectors, HF applications, etc. It is practice to use ferrules for any type of screw-in terminals where the single strands of the wires would be just pushed out while the screw is tightened. Ferrules are said not to be necessary or even forbidden to be used with boxed-terminals like you have in breakers or other such holders as it is more likely that the wires could be pulled out of the ferrule more easily then out of a boxed terminal. Still, I do see benefits to use ferrules on very fine stranded wires even in such scenarios. And I honestly do use them if I see it to be the right choice. If you can exclude pulling forces on wires then there will not be an issue with ferrules anyways.

Yes of course. But with fuses there are zero mechanical components. There are only metal pieces squeezed towards each other. So yeah, in my opinion it should work far better and I will of course report if there are issues ;)

@@RolandW_DIYEnergyandMore its true its more simple, also cheaper, and if you dont service it often, same comfort as mcbs. I installed a few TAIXI mcbs, looking like good brand, on aliexpress more than 10years, also way more expensive. You can give it a try on another project, if they can sustain your harsh environmental conditions.

No. It's just that I can't have any luck with any of those DC-MCBs in my climate here. Both of the types failed on my periodically. It's just that this situation needed a solution, which will now hopefully be the case :)

Thanks for following!

Merry Christmas to you too!

Hi, yes. Thanks for the input. Overload protection is usually part of the device internally in case of power electronics like chargers and inverters. This is really just to protect from low resistance faults without needing to worry about current direction withing charging/discharging DC battery circuits.

Hello Mate, Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones too!

Hi, you can find an e-mail adress in my channel information. Please send a message there. thanks

@@RolandW_DIYEnergyandMore got it ,thanks Roland I already sent message for you please kindly check it

@@RolandW_DIYEnergyandMore ok Roland thanks

SPDs protect from external influences like lightning induced voltage surges on the PV power lines. External surges can only flow back to Earth, which is the opposite pole of the power source from which it was generated (lightning). The surge will be most likely equal on either of you DC+ or DC-. The SPD rating must be higher then your systems Idle Voltage otherwise current would flow from DC powerline to PE and as most solar equipment is transformer-less, then further via the AC-earthing back into the inverters DC side. That means you would have DC leakage on your AC-PE which in general is a fault condition for the inverter. SPDs are not used to take care overvoltage conditions between DC+ and DC-, as voltage control is a direct function inside the inverter itself. Example: 10 PV panels in series with a Idle voltage of 40V result in a Idle system voltage of 400V thus you need a 500V SPD. 5 PV panels in series would give you 200V so you can go with a 250V SPD. The maximum DC system voltage will depend on your used equipment. If you are using grid-tied inverters with a max input voltage of 550V then you can connect 13 panels as in this example and you will need a SPD which is rated for more than that voltage...

Thanks for excellent reply. To avoid overvoltage beween DC+ and DC- can I apply 1 pole SPD connecting DC+ (Solar) to DC+ (SPD) and DC- (Solar) to PE (SPD)?

@@JoseSantos-qx2sm why would you want to do that? If a lightning is inducing a surge into you PV and it cannot release its charge to Earth, the voltage potential would rise regardless if that is DC+ or DC- as the DC is isolated from earth. So measured to Earth, both DC+ and DC- could reach thousands of Volts, but towards each other they will still have same voltage potentials as before the surge. The Mppt controller would even adjust loads to keep it that way :) The energy of the surge doesn't belong to the PV circuit, it belongs to the external circuit which is formed by the earth, clouds and lightning bolt. So any wiring must discharge the energy into earth if you don't want to create voltage potentials between power lines. If each of the poles get clamped to 600V by the SPDs, the differential voltage on the poles is Zero. Did you see someone to recommend this to do use SPDs between poles? If your system requires to earth bond for example the DC-, then you only need to put an SPD at the DC+ as DC- is connected to earth anyways...

Thanks! The idea would be a normal SPD (2 pole) and other (1pole) detailed on last message. However, I think the best idea is to use a 3 pole SPD DC, it will assure protection between DC+ and DC-, DC+ and PE, DC- and PE. Instead of a 2 pole, which do not protect between DC+ and DC-. Do you agree?

@@JoseSantos-qx2sm Well, if you see a benefit in connecting DC+ and DC- then do it.

Is there a sort of schedule when you do the grid charge or is it just random? You could use timer relays to set for example a 3 hours charge and then the relay automatically disconnects. And next time you just unplug and plug in again for a new cycle...

@@RolandW_DIYEnergyandMore Hello Roland, it is random, the inverter will use the grid to charge batteries when insufficient solar (sol or sbu in settings). We thought about connecting the inverter ac input to the grid input side of the transfer switch which would work fine unless we needed to bond earth and neutral this would not be ok.. It seems there would be no option other than disconnect grid input to the inverter when switching to off grid..

@hasger1941 yes. That's the problem with the All-in-One Off-grid type inverters. But i think that only the Grid Bypass is the problem. The AC charging might actually be isolated and not creating a bond between output and input...???

@@RolandW_DIYEnergyandMore Ahh this is an interesting point, we will need to check this... Thank you Roland, Also some of these inverters support parallel function and automatically do the ground and neutral bond internally when in off grid mode.. The question is when using say 2 or more in parallel is it now a problem since the bonding is happening in more than one place ? This is since some say only to bond in one place i.e not at inverter and also the distribution board ??

ok update: the inverters have communication ports so when using in a parallel system we will assume the dynamic bonding will hopefully only bond in one inverter ?? maybe maybe not nothing seems to be documented.. Regarding the charge mode the earths will still be linked inside the inverter i.e. input side and output side.. So in order to have earth ground bonding on the system the input side will need to be disconnected from the ring main in off grid mode.. it still all seems a little hit and miss🙂

Yeah, no. I've checked the outlet which I am using.

@@offgridwanabe yes. They did a great job at your place and paid off 😄

Hallo Berndt. Ja, bei dem Punkt war ich auch schon einmal. Wir mit Schuko Stecker wissen ja, dass es sehr leicht geht L und N zu verdrehen. Ich habe alle meine Anschlüsse überprüft und auch geschaut ob nicht vielleicht intern wo was vertauscht ist. Alles Fehlanzeige! Es geht bei mir sogar so weit, dass manche Wechselrichter auf der Werkbank anders reagieren als in der Powerwall, wo nach sorgfältiger Überprüfung, auch keine Unterschiede zu finden sind. Und dann noch, dass ein Gerät tadellos funktioniert, und das andere am gleichen Platz nicht geht... Mit diesen SUNs ist das so ein Jammer. Sie gehen aus der Schachtel raus einwandfrei, bis zum ersten Fehler, dann ist die Tür offen und es wird nie mehr wie es war :( Alles Gute!

Yes. At this point I just have to many spare part donors already. lol. But yes, this is the fun in electronics repair. Those boards are like mind magnets and are always pulling you in for a new round :)

Hehe, yeah. Those covers are really useless the way they are :)

Hi, yes. The guy with the Backup would just create that unwanted extra earthing point if his inverter isn't isolating N from the grid. But I thought that the inverters internal ATS should switch over L and N.

Yeah. This sort of half way solutions like we do have in many countries where people have to think twice about every Cent spent, is unfortunately dangerous as the grounding of any metallic structures and enclosures shall protect humans to come in touch with the live potential. That is the duty of the mandatory RCD to trip when such a fault current to the grounded object is detected. Many people think that when they do not ground at the consumer side, fault current cannot flow so all is OK, right. The problem is that Neutral is still bonded to Ground at the transformer. So if anyone comes into contact with a live wire will still be shocked as leakage current will go over the persons body to ground and via ground back to the transformer. So yeah. Mandatory Class 2 equipment grounding, mandatory RCD/GFCI, no bonding at the consumer... this will save a life for an investment of maybe just a few dollars!

@@RolandW_DIYEnergyandMore Exactly, except I do work for westerners, not locals. The price of electrical equipment is a fifth of what it costs in the US. Except wire, that's only a little cheaper. But I had a 50A three phase panel built, with about 24 circuits in it for what one three pole, DIN rail RCD would cost in the US. Yet, they didn't want any RCDs and this was a commercial application. I didn't do the install, just consulted on it.

@inothome yeah. It's a shame. Some must feel before they believe. Here in Thailand you will hear from buildings and factories burning down from electric failures every few days. One breaker for a whole building, no grounding, etc. Keep on fighting :)

Thanks for bringing up "what happens during a neutral break (in a TT system)"- I'm not an electrician, so I was asking during the video "what is the problem with having a gnd/neutral bond in this system"- at least one of the issues would be during a neutral break, you've converted the system into an unintended single-wire-earth-return.

@@codertao Neutral breaks are bad in any TN-C or TN-C-S earthing arrangement which comes with a grounded transformer Neutral and equipment grounded to the separated grounding connected to the Neutral. A break here would set all grounded equipment live down streams of the break! In the TT-system breaks initially wouldn't be to serous. The whole areas electricity supply would stop, so the grid supply would be notified quite quickly and could shut down and repair the affected transformer branch. All grounded equipment in this installation without a bonded N-G would just stay without potential and safe as there shouldn't be a return path if there is no fault. RCDs should stay operational as they wouldn't see flow on its N leg while current could go from L to PE in case a further leakage in the installation would happen.

Thanks. I think I as well do have a great community. All just great people!

Sorry, yes. Comments with any links are moved by YT to be reviewed. I did of course check the FAC settings. But those wouldn't be much helpfull if the main board in general is something different then the standard control board/display is used for as the firmware options stored there would be for the standard inverters. Yes. The four resistors on the AC input are corroding because each of them is dropping half of mains voltage. So in the case of a 240V grid they are coming close to the 150V which they are rated for. The high voltage as well creates more chemical reactions with the moisture and dust.

On the replacement board the CT is only showing a random value which is somewhere 1/3 to 1/5th of the real value. So there is either a fault on the CT circuit or it is handled differently on this board, so it required a different firmware for it to show correctly too. The best old board that I have doesn't just need new IGBTs, but also the driving circuit and as well the internal 12V powersupply isn't working. I have ordered some parts to try and fix it. For this board I haven't given up yet...

@@RolandW_DIYEnergyandMore Could it be that the new board is meant for a different CT sensor? The display is showing 1/3 the real grid power. So, maybe if you put the ac wire 3 times through the CT sensor it will give the correct value? I suggest trying this on a heater with known watts and see what the display reads. I think I know why these Sun grid tie inverters are prone to failures and I do not believe the IGBTs are being directly blown by spikes on the AC line. The IGBTs are being blown by timing mishaps. The design fault is the lack of adequate filters between the noizy AC and DC circuits and the VCC supply. So, the spikes (and noise) go through to the VCC rail and this resets the mpu sometimes. This can leave the IGBTs turned on when they should be off. The current surge caused by the mismatched AC timing blows out the IGBTs no matter how big or strong they are. To fix the design fault, disconnect the 12V supply (to the MPU circuit) from the AC circuit. Then use a mini 12V power supply module from AliExpress to supply the 12V. Connect the power supply module's 240VAC input to the Inverter AC input after the low pass filter. I am not sure how VCC is connected to the inverter DC supply? But it would be better if that is supplied by a small buck converter with adequate voltage specs. This will provide good noise immunity to the shunting occuring in the DC circuit. The buck converter can be adjusted to match the 12V power supply output. This allows the MPU to remain active when the grid goes down. I am convinced that if you do this, you will never get another fault and the SUN grid tie inverter will go from being the worst inverter ever to the very best inverter ever. (They should give me a royalty payment for revealing this.)🙂

@cyber5515 thanks, you might be onto something. when I had a repair attempt on the old board last week, the new IGBTs where blown instantly when the MCU connected the AC to the grid. Later I found out that the internal PSU only provided 4V on the 13V output which later provides the 3,3V for the MCU via it's linear voltage regulator. This false voltage might have brought the MCU into an undefined state and driven both gates to HIGH. I am waiting for a new PSU regulator chip but already thought about supplying the 13V from an external power source. Let's see where this goes :)

@@RolandW_DIYEnergyandMore Did you try putting the AC mains wire 3 times through the CT sensor? The reading on the display suggests the new board is meant for a CT export power sensor that is 3 times more sensitive than the one you are using? If you don't have enough wire to do this, I suggest testing this with a heater active wire to see if this change produces the correct AC consumption power reading on the display. I notice in your previous video with the ants in the inverter, the MPU has silicon rubber smeared onto the MPU. Hmmm, I wonder why that is? Could be the Sun engineers suspect they have an AC isolation problem with the board and this is causing the mpu to misfire the IGBTs sometimes. My SoyoSource grid tie inverter, which is very reliable, has the MPU on its own module board which is plugged into the main board. There are also router cuts in the main PCB wherever they think the 240VAC could leak across to the MPU circuit. In particular, the zero-cross optocoupler has a router cut separating its AC side from the DC side. There are also router cuts between the solder pads of all the MOSFETs stopping any DC shunt spikes leaking across the PCB into the MOSFET gate. So, maybe the Sun inverter needs to be kept warm and dry always to prevent the high voltage AC corona leaking across to the MPU circuit (or IGBT gates) and misfiring the IGBTs? The risk is not so much from the lightning strikes, but more from the humidity which can condense on the PCB and ionise the air around high voltage components causing AC leakage. Perhaps a humidity sensor with an alarm would be a good idea? One of the fans looks like it is blowing cold humid air directly onto the MPU. It would be better to turn the fans around so that the cold air is warmed before it is blown onto the MPU circuit.

@@cyber5515 I didn't check out the CT theory yet as I was repairing the old SUN2000 board which I am going to try out soon. Yes, the control circuit is covered with a silicone layer to prevent corrosion. I don't know if it can as well help to prevent currents leaking into the circuit and cause misfiring IGBTs because the silicone is just around the MCU and not on the nearby components. This area of the board is very exposed to corrosion as the outside air is blown directly over that part of the Main board. This is also the reason why the resistors on the high voltage AC sense line are known to corrode rapidly. As I do live in the tropics and the system is installed outdoors while it should be inside an airconditioned room, I do think that this is one of the key issue why my inverters are dying faster then probably someone's who lives in a nice climate and has his unit installed in his house. A SOYO might truly be the better choice for someone who is looking for this type of inverters as SUN would have to make a major redesign of the inverter.

Yes, you are absolutely correct. AC shorts only rarely stay contained to the high voltage side. Damage will typically go into the low voltage electronics and fry critical components which make a repair mostly impossible. I now do have 4 boards resting at the SUN-GTIL Cemetery... ;)

The IGBTs actually shunt the DC power through the primary winding of the transformers. So they are actually on the DC side of the transformers. The AC (secondary) side of the transformers is connected in series via diodes to produce the 240VAC output power. The AC power is also connected to the inverter via a low pass filter comprised of a varistor, chokes and capacitors. This is standard practise and protects the device from transient spikes in the AC line. There is another circuit in grid tie inverters that is very sensitive to AC power disruptions and it is called the zero-cross detector. This circuit produces a pulse when the AC voltage sine wave crosses over the zero volt level. The MPU uses this signal to get the AC waveform produced by the inverter to match the AC waveform on the grid. So, if the zero-cross circuit produces a false zero-cross pulse and the firmware accepts it as a zero-cross signal then you get a big bang and the IGBTs will be the first part to blow. The way to stop this is to design the firmware so that it only looks for the ZC signal when it expects it to happen, which is exactly every 10 or 20 ms. My biggest fear is that the coders at Sun many not have done this which would make the device much more sensitive to any transient spikes and disruptions on the AC power line.

​@@cyber5515 Very informative. I appreciate you sharing the info. Learned something new.

@@markl8921 hi. yes. I have played around with factory settings but nothing helped. I have as well asked if maybe there is a new display required too, and also considered if the mainboard had a fault and tried a different Control board. Every part i got had a "QC Pass" sticker, I discussed the inverter behavior with Jesudom, nobody had a clue why it did just what it did. I have no idea...

@@RolandW_DIYEnergyandMore Then I wonder if you got a bad board or the the wrong version (i.e. input/output voltage). I did have to select the correct one when I ordered mine. Good luck, hope you figure it out.

@@mtay65 hi. Do you have a particular model in mind? It must be AC coupled with export limiter... thanks!

As far I could see those type of inverters are the "All in One" type inverters which are Off-grid inverters with Grid bypass. I can only use Grid-tied, AC coupled inverters which are just pushing their power directly onto the Grid sinewave and using zero-export adjustment...

@@RolandW_DIYEnergyandMore Sorry Roland. I am on offgrid. As I see you have so many batteries, I thought you are on offgrid too. Anyway, I am using 2 sets of 24V 3kW small offgrid systems (1.6kWp and 0.8kWp panels). Beside setting and some minor issues, the systems are running fine for the past 2 years. I am getting about 250 kWh a month. Small investment small return. Currently using 2 sets of Y&H hybrid inverters. I also have a set of Anern and PowMr as spares. These 2 were bought with big discount.

@mtay65 yeah. I can have sometimes 12-15kW going over the phase wire at a time in our resort. Could never pass so much current over a bypass from a 4kW off grid All in One without burning it to ashes :) That's why in my system almost all is AC coupled.

@@RolandW_DIYEnergyandMore I see. However my setup is different from yours. I don't feed my gain into the main but directly into 2 units of air conditioners. I don't meddle with the grid.

@@uweheckmann5111 hallo Uwe. Der Victron ist AC gekoppelt und hat Null-Export? Ist aber wahrscheinlich Einphasig, oder? Schau ich mir mal an, danke!

i guess Soyo is not an option for you? Quality might be marginally better but they only go up to 800-900 watt from batteries..

@@geekmystique hi. I was considering a Soyo in case I lost 2 inverters and would only be lest with one operational SUN. The low output is sort of a bummer 😔

My oldest SUN2000 is as well already 3-4 years old and still running. I think the older units seem to be better. Maybe they have used better components at that time. all of my younger units have failed within 1-2 years. strange...

Roland, you can leave comment on the German website Tueftler (the Copy/Paste info above), and the person seems to always respond to comments and questions. You can ask them to visually compare the boards of both Sun and Lumintree. Tueftler (creator) last response on the related webpage was October 2024. According to the webpage info (that I translated frolm German into English) they claim the Sun and Lumintree boards are identical in every way. However, best to ask Tueftler (creator) to do another visual comparison.

unfortunately those modification required a completely redesigned circuit board. The new components don't fit into the old foodprints of old components as they are mostly larger. I am hoping that I can make a sort of running Frankenstein board from an old SUN2000 where I find good components from all the other older boards :))

Forget what I said. Rest of video clears this up.

Yes, there will be the time when I have to change, but that will be a complete system replacement including the battery bank...

An active balancers advantage towards a passive built into the BMS one, is that it is usually more capable to transfer energy from one cell to the other. That means that it can handle greater differences in cell degradation and still keep operation going. But this is still just masking the real issue. If there is a badly worn out cell, it will usually require to replace it by a good one IF you want to use the pack for a much longer time. If you are just trying to extend the useful life of an anyways weak performing battery bank, then just get an active balancer. But be aware to activate the balancer only at the end of the charging curve above 3,42V to not get the voltages out of balance even more...

@@uncontrollabledogs3791 some good AC breakers do nave DC ratings too but they can only achieve this if the DV voltage is far lower then the rated AC voltage. I will soon replace every breaker on any of my bi-directional circuits with fuses...

@RolandW_DIYEnergyandMore yes. I was very concerned about breaking the dc arc. Two panels in series can arc about 1 inch when the short is separated. The opening in my breakers is about half an inch but 10 years on, no problems.

@@KurtVSJ it is for sure accurate as it is showing exactly the values as expected when you test new components like resistors. It is also showing repeating similar values if you measure the same type of inductors, etc. So, till now i couldn't say that I got strange measurements with it...

Hehe, Naja, Schlangen sind sehr scheue Tiere. Sie werden sich immer versuchen zuerst aus dem Staub zu machen sobald sie etwas hören oder zu verstecken. Eine Zeit, wo man sie häufiger antrifft beginnt jetzt kurz nach Ende der Regenzeit. Da gibt es überall Kröten welche sie gerne fressen. Grundsätzlich muss man sich vor Schlangen nicht fürchten, selbst den giftigen außer vielleicht einer Otter wie der Malaysischen Grubenotter weil diese nicht flieht sonder liegen bleibt wo sie ist. Kobras, welche in dieser Gegend recht häufig sind, sollte man wegen des Gifts welches sie über Meter weit versprühen können, auf Distanz bleiben. Respekt sollte man in Thailand aber von jeder Schlange haben solange man sie nicht zu 100% identifizieren kann! In Thailand ist es immer gut die Telefonnummer von örtlichen Schlangen-teams bei Hand zu haben welche dann ein Tier einfängt wenn es sich auf dem Grundstück einnistet. Thais kommen leider immer gleich mit der Machete und machen kurzen Prozess mit allem was daher kriecht :( Alles Gute in Ratchaburi, Schoene Grüße!

@RolandW_DIYEnergyandMore Dein Wort in gottes Ohr :) Wir haben 3 Katzen und 2 Labradore auf unserem Grundstück. Und falls mal wirklivh was Zischen sollte kommt mein Schwager:D Wundere mich einfach das ich nie eine gesehen habe obwohl wir mitten drin Wohen. Grosse Varane habe ich viele gesehen, sogar in Bangkok

Hard to say. probably all of the above and a poor design choice. The caps seem to start degrade from day one. they where down below 400nF within a year. The shown inverter is my oldest one and already 3 years old. There it was now 260nF/350nF. It might be as well possible that the adjacent inductor is creating some spikes which are pushing the cap to hard.

Me. I had insects short circuit electronics a few times. Last time it happened to me was few years ago, where a centipede got into the control box of my fridge near the compressor, and had fried most of the board.

They can, especially when they come with a force in the thousands ;)

@@RolandW_DIYEnergyandMore Borax 45g per Liter Water and a lot sugar was so far the most efficient and cheapest methode against ants and Cinnamon (Essential Oil) keeps them away. Its a bit a balance act to attract them in the right spots with borax sugar water and keep them away with cinnamon at the same time....but it works.

By the way, Borax is unofficially claimed to be not unhealthy for humans, its actually healthy, can help against arthrosis, improves teeth, bones etc, see at "the borax conspiracy" or german "Die Boraxverschwörung". I take borax at a regular basis, add sometimes a bit (2ml) off the satturated solution (45g/l) in my coffee.