if i unscrew this board and let it appart, the inverter starts.

 It looks when it touch the metallic pillar, the circuit is shortcuted.

 

if you have any idea.. thanks

That's a board for accelerating relay switch-over. I believe that when you use the AC input range (UPS? I forget), then this board is somehow involved. It seems like it has damaged parts on it. There seem to be SCRs or TRIACs on that board; it's pretty mysterious to me. It looks like the DSP squirts some I²C or SPI data at the control chip on this board.

I believe that it's possible to run without this board, though relay speed may be affected, and strange things may happen if you select the faster AC input range option. It may be possible to buy a replacement board. I don't know if those boards are different between 5 kVA models and 8+kVA models, so you need to be careful to get the right version of the board.

Sorry I can't be of more help;  these boards rarely seem to fail. I bet that makes you feel special 😧.

Thank you for your help, here is the opposite face

i've found one of your old post 

i will try without this board. And try to find a replacement part (which seems not easy).

 

Thanks !

 

 

I googled Kodak OG7.2 SCR board and found that LEROY MERLIN, Shumata, Proximate Solar, ledtechnologysa.co.za and 30n.co.za lists these boards on their website as spares so it should be available to purchase.

Inverter replugged (without the scr board), for the moment, no weird behaviour.

Keep in touch

Fred

Are you sick and tired of mosfets and/or igbts  blowing  in your PWM circuit?  Are you at your witts end? Then look no further. 

The answer lies in a rotary converter. Not those ones that generates power from a large dc motor, but a transformer based one where the full H-bridge is entertained by means of a camshaft  that operates microswitches. Think overhead camshaft here!  The camshaft is in turn operated by a small dc motor. 

Have a look what this guy practised out of what he called junk spares :

 

 

https://hackaday.com/2024/08/31/the-trashiest-of-mains-inverters/

 

 

Edited September 1, 20241 yr by BritishRacingGreen

50 minutes ago, BritishRacingGreen said:

Are you sick and tired of mosfets and/or igbts  blowing  in your PWM circuit?  Are you at your witts end? Then look no further. 

The answer lies in a rotary converter. Not those ones that generates power from a large dc motor, but a transformer based one where the full H-bridge is entertained by means of a camshaft  that operates microswitches. Think overhead camshaft here!  The camshaft is in turn operated by a small dc motor. 

Have a look what this guy practised out of what he called junk spares :

 

 

https://hackaday.com/2024/08/31/the-trashiest-of-mains-inverters/

 

 

Awesome 🤩 I like a lot.

Uk solar inverter 6k clone...giving me 08error .afterexceeding 2k ...with only batterymode ...no utility...no solar...

What is the possibilities of the failure

@Coulomb

@BritishRacingGreen

Check this repair thread, the links are sorted by fault code:

https://forums.aeva.asn.au/viewtopic.php?t=6007#repair

If it's a wild clone, you might only be able to get general clues. 

9 hours ago, Coulomb said:

Check this repair thread, the links are sorted by fault code:

https://forums.aeva.asn.au/viewtopic.php?t=6007#repair

If it's a wild clone, you might only be able to get general clues. 

My initial guess is bad output cap...as ripple increase due to largeload....cap fail to supress them...one spike registered as high voltage....very logical ...

 

 

This model is for a company...installation company i repaired 10 pces they all ok...however this one only have problem ...i also suspect the input fets...as all first 9 pces all repaired with hy3712  super solid chinrse fet...

But this last is mixture of hy3712..and 85h160 fet that i survived from bad inverter

So i guess there sort of unbalance creating the wavform in the primary due to may be diffeent threshold on voltage

 

Just a guess based on practical clue...with9 pcea working and one not

Edited September 20, 20241 yr by wael_fathe

Dry Joints and Axpert Error 06

Good day, hardware hackers. It’s only human not to share all of our failures on a public forum, but this one I need to share with you. I recently repaired a 5kW Axpert that had the dreaded Error 09. While there are worse traumas in life than Error 09, it is indeed problematic. Invariably, you need to replace 40-60% of the power silicon (MOSFETs/IGBTs), and it’s almost guaranteed that some gate drivers are faulty as a result of the big bang.

I repaired the machine following my methods to bring it up in a deterministic 'soft' manner, and the initial test/verification went very well.

However, a few days after the repair, I used the same machine to test a Pylontech US3000, which had a fried BMS power chain. About half an hour later, the Axpert displayed Error 06. I reset the machine, and either Error 06 appeared immediately again, or it would fail after a random period of time, which could be as long as one hour. Error 06 indicates that the AC output voltage is too high. Since there was no Bus Voltage Too High error, I suspected that the DC-AC full bridge might be at fault. This wasn’t due to clever deduction; rather, I knew that this bridge had been severely zapped during Error 09, resulting in the replacement of some gate drivers and gate resistors. Even though the full bridge was not faulty most of the time, I suspected the quality of the gate drive performance.

I decommissioned the machine and disassembled it. The first thing I typically do is test the 47Ω gate drive resistor path from driver output to the IGBT gate pin. Guess what? One of those four paths had high resistance. It was a dry joint or a faulty resistor. The annoying thing was that it wasn’t open circuit but had an unstable value between 300Ω and 150kΩ (!!!!). I tested the resistor, which was fine at 47.2Ω, but I noticed a terrible solder joint on one pad. I tell you, I tested this circuit for continuity during the Error 09 repair. Nonetheless, I repaired the joint and checked all four circuits again. I reassembled, tested, burned in for 24 hours, and the Error 06 was gone.

So, why the Error 06? Here’s my theory: We know that the IGBT gate has parasitic capacitance, which influences the switching times due to the RC time constant, where R is the gate drive resistance. The smaller we make the gate resistance, the shorter the gate switch-on or switch-off times will be. This explains the typical gate resistor values of 22Ω - 47Ω. We also notice in typical gate driver schematics that the driver DC supplies, referenced to the IGBT emitter, are asymmetrical (+15V and -5V). This means that the turn-off delay is somewhat longer than the turn-on delay in practice, because the gate voltage must discharge from +15V down to about the gate threshold voltage of 2-3V. This takes longer than switching the gate on, which requires raising the gate voltage from -5V to about 2-3V.

This difference becomes significant when the RC time constant is quite large. The net effect is that the intended PWM duty cycle, controlled by the DSP controller, becomes distorted at the gate of the IGBT. As a result, your duty cycle ON periods will be longer than intended. This, in turn, causes the integrated voltage on the collector of the IGBT to become increasingly higher, leading to the “output voltage too high” error.

I also believe that this is one reason why some IGBTs with large gate capacitances require a resistor anti-parallel arrangement. An additional resistor is connected in parallel with the gate resistor, but via a steering diode. The polarity of the steering diode is chosen to lower the net gate resistance when the IGBT is switched off (gate discharged).

So, how do we test all this in practice? The first option is to have a dual-channel oscilloscope, with one channel connected to the DSP control signal and the other connected to the IGBT gate. However, these two signals are not in the same power domain, so I don’t typically go this route. One could connect the grounds together via suitable high resistors, probably in the order of 500kΩ - 1MΩ, but I haven’t tried that yet. The second option is to use only one channel and monitor the voltage across the gate resistor. This waveform represents the current through the gate and provides a lot of information.

An example waveform is shown in the oscillogram below:

 

 

The actual gate turn-on occurs during the positive-going pulse. This current pulse results from charging the gate capacitor to the 15V voltage level. The gate turn-off occurs during the negative-going pulse, which relates to discharging the gate capacitor. In this waveform, the period between on and off is about 6µs, so in practice, you need a 40kHz square wave to produce this as a test. Neither the gate charge pulse nor the gate discharge pulse plays a significant role due to their short durations.

What I do is remove the DSP controller and inject a square wave on the relevant control pin of about 40kHz. Then I check the current profile as shown above. Under circumstances where the gate resistance is out of spec, you will see quite wide charge and discharge pulses.

Cheers, and happy hacking!

Edited September 30, 20241 yr by BritishRacingGreen

On 2024/09/30 at 1:14 PM, BritishRacingGreen said:

I repaired the machine following my methods to bring it up in a deterministic 'soft' manner, and the initial test/verification went very well.

Did you use Coulombs method of checking the gate signals ( I find with the IGBT's in place is easiest) by driving the SG3525 manually?

This sort of failure is one I have been caught out on a time or two which is why I try to run the repaired unit for a couple of hours to get warm. Then follows a test of 80% max load for 2 minutes which catches most unusual bogies.

Thanks for sharing!

On 2023/09/28 at 7:54 PM, wael_fathe said:

...

after  that  the inverter  come on with error   06   i  rescanned the  area  and found  bad  zener  that  relflects   a  short  in one  copler tl350   with the zener  and  small opened  resistor  in serious with  zener   replaced

...

second   question the  zener  in circled in red near the smps   is replaced  with 15vdc  zener  randomly  /....what is the  value of the   zener   i am afraid that  it is not  the right value  ? and igbt  will work stressed  since  it is   seems to be  across  the  vcc and ground of the copler  

...

Hi all,

 

First, a big thank you for this interesting thread! I have a lot to learn from it. 

Looking at the picture (please expand the quotation first) which was quoted from wael_fathe I have a 2.4kW inverter/charger (PS 3KVA, Courtois Energy) with a mobo very similar to this one. It has an interesting problem, input voltage is ALWAYS 37 volts, from battery/mains/PV. At first glance there was a 2.2 ohm resistor R31 burned open in the bottom right corner, just like wael_fathe had in his. As soon as I replace the R31 2.2 ohm resistor the inverter won't power on but instead heats the resistor till it burns up. Once it's burned open, the inverter powers on and shows the input having 37 volts.

Close to the zener marked with a red rectangle is a diode D2, with smd marking G10. That one has failed on the bottom side of the mobo. It's connected to the topside burning 2.2 ohm resistor R31 and D2 diode. I've looked everywhere to find a replacement diode but haven't found one. Any idea what diode it is and maybe a suggestion for an equivalent?

Thanks in advance and sorry for hijacking this thread with an irrelevant inverter model.

Edited October 4, 20241 yr by baldharry

19 minutes ago, baldharry said:

Any idea what diode it is and maybe a suggestion for an equivalent?

Maybe one of the last two here?

You might have to click on the image to see it clearly. Or use the URL:

https://smd.yooneed.one/code4731.html

As for replacements, generally a diode is a diode, as long as it has enough voltage rating, current rating, speed, and is in the right package. Oh, and voltage drop: Schottky versus silicon versus exotic types. Speed is usually ultra fast or ordinary. In very rare cases, the capacitance may be important.

 

50 minutes ago, Coulomb said:

Maybe one of the last two here?

You might have to click on the image to see it clearly. Or use the URL:

https://smd.yooneed.one/code4731.html

As for replacements, generally a diode is a diode, as long as it has enough voltage rating, current rating, speed, and is in the right package. Oh, and voltage drop: Schottky versus silicon versus exotic types. Speed is usually ultra fast or ordinary. In very rare cases, the capacitance may be important.

 

Thank you for the link, added it to my bookmarks. I seem to have that BZG03-C10, but it is physically bigger so maybe it could be the SS10100FL. Have to order it.

On 2024/09/30 at 1:14 PM, BritishRacingGreen said:

Dry Joints and Axpert Error 06

...

However, a few days after the repair, I used the same machine to test a Pylontech US3000, which had a fried BMS power chain. About half an hour later, the Axpert displayed Error 06. I reset the machine, and either Error 06 appeared immediately again, or it would fail after a random period of time, which could be as long as one hour. Error 06 indicates that the AC output voltage is too high. Since there was no Bus Voltage Too High error, I suspected that the DC-AC full bridge might be at fault. This wasn’t due to clever deduction; rather, I knew that this bridge had been severely zapped during Error 09, resulting in the replacement of some gate drivers and gate resistors. Even though the full bridge was not faulty most of the time, I suspected the quality of the gate drive performance.

I decommissioned the machine and disassembled it. The first thing I typically do is test the 47Ω gate drive resistor path from driver output to the IGBT gate pin. Guess what? One of those four paths had high resistance. It was a dry joint or a faulty resistor. The annoying thing was that it wasn’t open circuit but had an unstable value between 300Ω and 150kΩ (!!!!). I tested the resistor, which was fine at 47.2Ω, but I noticed a terrible solder joint on one pad. I tell you, I tested this circuit for continuity during the Error 09 repair. Nonetheless, I repaired the joint and checked all four circuits again. I reassembled, tested, burned in for 24 hours, and the Error 06 was gone.

So, why the Error 06? Here’s my theory: We know that the IGBT gate has parasitic capacitance, which influences the switching times due to the RC time constant, where R is the gate drive resistance. The smaller we make the gate resistance, the shorter the gate switch-on or switch-off times will be. This explains the typical gate resistor values of 22Ω - 47Ω. We also notice in typical gate driver schematics that the driver DC supplies, referenced to the IGBT emitter, are asymmetrical (+15V and -5V). This means that the turn-off delay is somewhat longer than the turn-on delay in practice, because the gate voltage must discharge from +15V down to about the gate threshold voltage of 2-3V. This takes longer than switching the gate on, which requires raising the gate voltage from -5V to about 2-3V.

This difference becomes significant when the RC time constant is quite large. The net effect is that the intended PWM duty cycle, controlled by the DSP controller, becomes distorted at the gate of the IGBT. As a result, your duty cycle ON periods will be longer than intended. This, in turn, causes the integrated voltage on the collector of the IGBT to become increasingly higher, leading to the “output voltage too high” error.

I also believe that this is one reason why some IGBTs with large gate capacitances require a resistor anti-parallel arrangement. An additional resistor is connected in parallel with the gate resistor, but via a steering diode. The polarity of the steering diode is chosen to lower the net gate resistance when the IGBT is switched off (gate discharged).

Hello dear forum members,

I'm new to this forum, but a E2E veteran/vip/expert member on other electronic forums analog/SMPS/...

I happened to stumble here looking for a solution for EASUN SPS-3KW PWM 24V error code 06.

In the post quoted above by @BritishRacingGreen, I actually found similar situatioa for Error Code 06, which also appears on the recently installed OFF-Grid SPS 3KW Hybrid inverter (1x) of a friend's instalation in/on the forest cabin (EU SLO Kozina location).

The SPS-3KW is not connected to the Grid, 99% of the time it is OFF-Grid, from time to time the 5KVA aggregate generator 230VAC is connected to the Utility input, only when the batteries are almost empty (~down to 21VDC), or when the PV does not provide sufficient energy (consumption 230VAC OUT + BAT charge).

The batteries are AGM 12VDC 65Ah each, connected 12+12VDC in series, 3 such pairs in parallel, each parallel branch/line has its own DC breaker, connection cables per BAT line 25mm^2, 1m connection length=> TOT stored energy 24VDC 4.7...5.3KWh depending on the state/voltage of the BAT (22VDC. ...27VDC)

PV Inverter PWM input has Voc_max 80VDCmax, for 2KW/3KW model is recommended Vmpp between 30VDC~32VDC, 50Amax TOT PV current, PV Panels are mounted 2x lines {2panels in parallel}, TOT panels is 4X, panels are type 360W @Voc 38VDC, Vmmp 33VDC, I_max 10.5A, and each line in parallel has its own DC circuit braker, connection cables 10mm^2, 6m connection length

OK, now that we are familiar with the existing system 🙂 ,

let's move on to the daily operation, or the subsequent occurrence of the Inverter error. The OUT 230VAC consumption can be from almost nothing, only the Inverter's own consumption of about <30W, to a maximum of 2.2KW. The system operates completely correctly, the PV charges the BAT, or if the consumption is higher than the current PV input energy, it also draws something from the batteries {PV+BAT} for OUT 230VAC. Control parameters on the display are all NORMAL.

Error code 06 appears after operation for up to 6 hours of completely regular/normal operation, once for up to 1-2-3 hours of operation, in short the error code 06 appears after a varying amount of regular/normal time operation. The output voltage suddenly starts jumping/swinging from 180VAC all the way to 310VAC and back, there is also a different humming/squealing sound from I assume DC/DC<->DC/AC (trafo, chokes), and later, about a minute-two later, Inverter turns OFF the OUT 230VAC and reports an error code 06, on the display only [06]

Then, when I turn OFF the PV DC circ.brakers, I turn OFF the BAT DC circ.breakers, the Inverter RESET, I leave it ALL-OFF for about 10 minutes, later I reconnect the BAT, then the PV, the Inverter starts and continues to work completely normally, of course again it gets into the same error code 06, once in just 10...20min, the second time for about 1 hour into into an identical error!

I am attaching the basic parameters of the Inverter, and a link to the Owners manual (13M), latest SW and WatchPower App

 

https://cdn-files.myshopline.com/file/store/2000146714/1625649056137/503c071183fc4e3db5fb03e7c87d1485.pdf

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jniYGEay2u7OsLmtFfff7ryS7Lq2ooLz/view?usp=share_link

https://cdn-files.myshopline.com/file/store/2000146714/1625649056137/899150fabe4f4345bcf659125c72614a.pdf

 

sps_3kw_datasheet_en.pdf

Does anyone have any idea where to start to locate the faulty board/PCB location, what to check in addition to the already suggested (@BritishRacingGreen) Gate drivers/ON and OFF Gate resistors in DC<->AC inverter section?

Until now I haven't even opened the Inverter let alone looked for a faulty area, you know, daily overwork, so that's just coming up! 🙂 And the location of the installation is not at all convenient for me on a daily working basis, so I have to make a "special time" for it!

Thank you in advance for any additional help, idea, brain storming... 🙂

Best regards, and LP

Dragan

5 hours ago, Dragan100 said:

what to check in addition to the already suggested

As basic as it sounds, I've had a lot of random errors caused by dry/aged capacitors on the battery SPS circuits. If the inverter in question is more than 3 years old the capacitors will likely need checking and replacing.

 

The manual looks like the unit is a VMII design. For the VM models the bus soft start circuits are on the solar controller board so when testing startup/inverting this has to be plugged in...when I first worked on one I spent 2 days looking for non-existent faults because I didn't have the board connected.

12 hours ago, Shadders said:

As basic as it sounds, I've had a lot of random errors caused by dry/aged capacitors on the battery SPS circuits. If the inverter in question is more than 3 years old the capacitors will likely need checking and replacing.

Thanks for the quick reply @Shadders,

the inverter is 1 year old, it has about 500 hours of Inverter work so far, mostly the complete system is switched OFF, the batteries are charged via PV as needed when/and only when arriving at the location. Only then do switch the system to All-ON. The cottage is located at the edge of the forest, a rather remote location, the cottage is used approximately once a week.

So I doubt that the electrolytes are already dried out, but I will still visually inspect/Checking/measure them on the PCB.

A friend (the owner of the cottage) checked the inverter's error history yesterday, the Error code 05 ([05 ]Output short circuited or over temperature is detected by internal converter components) also appeared (only once), and that was when the system was connected to the generator set, there was not much PV energy due to bad weather, but used a generator to supplement the batteries and enable the operation of the refrigerator and lights (tot 500Wmax, so it was not Output short circuited , so more likely an Overtemperature fault. As Input Utility, the generator enabled Inverter Bypass mode and additionally charged batteries, solar energy was not available => Program 01 SOL!

So here I see a similar problem around DC<->AC , Utility provides Bypass to OUT 230VAC, and we have energy transfer AC<->DC=>DC<->DC=>Charge batteries, so again I suspect AC<->DC IGBT Gate drive problem like @BritishRacingGreen mentioned, not correct/insufficient Gate drive/Gate ON/OFF times, Overlapping ON/OFF Gate times/too short DeadTime due to bad Gate drive/IGBT Id current in FullBridge on one or both half bridges partial current pass through , so I suspect a problem here as well around this Error code 05 like IGBT Overtemperature.

Utility charging was set in Program 11 to 15A (insted 25A default), and in Program 02 Maximum charging current: To configure the total charging current for solar and utility chargers, was set to 50A(default for PWM)

LP

Dragan

Edited October 9, 20241 yr by Dragan100

Today I got a faulty [06] Inverter Easun SPS 3KW 24V on my home workbanch. This is what the inside looks like and I made a couple of zooms on certain sections. That's all for now, I'm in a hurry now to get to work!

 

Edited October 10, 20241 yr by Dragan100

The interior looks like new, everything is clean, no dust,

🙂  !!!no additional smell that would cause concern!!!

FANs are clean, normaly functioning!

Tomorrow I will start disassembling everything out from the chassis, so I will have a better overview of the elements and the quality of the soldering. Most likely, I will also dismantle both heat-sinks, later when reassembling I will also give the Mosfets-IGBTs a coating of new thermal paste. A thorough inspections of the elements will follow, soldering joints, PCB vias, tracs...elements->values, mesurements...

Will attach some more close looks/zooms photos. Maybe I'll also add some HDD microscope photos if I find any PCB fracture, bad SMD joint(s)... in short, athervise hard-to-see small things without a magnifying glass/microscope.

Maybe someone will recognize from the photos which BrandName Solar Hybrid Inverter clone this is?

LP<=>BR    🙂

Dragan

Edited October 10, 20241 yr by Dragan100

I notice the processor (first photo, bottom right) is an MC9S08, which is an 8 bit processor, only used in the smallest models. If you tell me the main firmware version, there is a chance that I can identify the model from that.

Hello @Coulomb and thanks for the reply,

at this moment, the Inverter is already completely disassembled, so I will be able to give the version of the main and secondary firmware only when I reassemble it back.

The Inverter has two processors, an MC9S08AC60 (NXP?) mounted on the MainBoard, surrounded by a handful of TL074 opamps for ADC controlling inputs, and another M9S8AC16CG (Freescale? NXP) on the auxiliary small vertical mounted board.

 

I am now patiently examining the elements and soldering joints under the microscope, I will report back when I find something.

Everything looks OK so far!

However, it is definitely very difficult to detect/locate an error that appears after several hours of undisturbed/normal operation!

LP

Dragan

I found some micro cracks in the joints on PCB around the 230VAC OUT filter, on Lout and also on Cout (picture attached).

Then I re-soldered some larger joints on that section, reassembled everything back, connected LAB PSU 26VDC 10Amax (current limitation), No Grid, NO PV, for LOAD 100W Light bulb only.

Switching ON, everything OK! Firmware MCU display [U1 04.23] and for U2 no data on display?

Funs do a StartUP check up, then they are in standby.

Without load, the Inverter has its own consumption of around 28W (LAB PSU display). With OUT Load 100W light bulb => aprox. 125...130W is displayed on the LAB PSU display.

Output voltage 228VAC steady.

After about 20...30 minutes a fuzzy/sizzling noise starts to be heard, with the Inverter cassis open I try to locate the source of this fuzzy/sizzling noise!

230VAC OUT section,the output capacitor of the LC filtration OUT 230VAC starts "singing", a little later the output voltage starts to fluctuate/swinging from 180VAC... to 280VAC and back! Consumption during this swinging OUT voltage increased from the previous 130W to almost 200W.

I do not have an oscilloscope at this location, so I cannot provide some oscillograms at this time.

I have to unsolder OUT C 10uF/350V, measure it, looks good and see what quality it is!

I will try to find something suitable for replacement/test 5...12uF/400V (275VAC...440VAC), lead speacing /pitch 48mm or 33mm holes distance on PCB ,

what type of capacitor do you recommend I mount for this 230VAC LC filtering Cout?

 

Cout for AC filtering, Grid interface, High current peak capabilities, UPS, ...

WIMA MKP 4F series

EPCOS-TDK B3235 series , B3275 series

Panasonic EZPQ series

KEMET C4AF series

Vishay MKP1847C series

 

Edited October 12, 20241 yr by Dragan100