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Renewable Energy: Trace Inverter going faulty

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    • CommentAuthordave45
    • CommentTimeNov 28th 2008
     
    I have a Trace 12vDC to 240vAC "TruckPower" inverter which has worked reasonably well for about 3 or 4 years on my small PV/wind system.

    But it has now gone bonkers. It is fine on "tickover"/autosense, but when it delivers full power it is now hopelessly inefficient. I have 4 x 110Ah batteries connected via 30A fuses, and my loads will rarely have exceeded 100W, yet fuses have blown. My batteries run flat very quickly. In a recent experiment a 60-watt lightbulb (!) worked but the inverter drew more than 30A (well off-scale) according to a clip-on ammeter - say 50A. 50 amps x 12volts = 600W in, 60W out. It makes a very loud humming/buzzing noise.

    Has anyone any ideas what might have happened? is it likely to be fixable? (I am reasonably adept with a soldering iron). My simple thoughts are to run it again with the lid off and see what is getting hot, and replace it!... unfortunately it is screwed to the wall and with short wires and this aint going to be easy !

    Or is there a UK Trace / Xantrex repairer?
    • CommentAuthorCWatters
    • CommentTimeNov 28th 2008 edited
     
    Capacitors knackered? Electrolytic capacitors generally have a very short life (but I've no idea if the Trace has a specific issue with them). Can be measured in 1000s of hours if operating a bit too warm. Perhaps see if you can get make, family and capacity off them. They might need to be low ESR types that can handle high ripple currents.
    • CommentAuthorchuckey
    • CommentTimeNov 28th 2008
     
    I would run it for a few minutes at this very high input current, switch off the batteries so the unit is "dead", whip of its case then have a feel around for what is getting hot.
    You are lucky that it has not let out the magic smoke but is still limping along. The circuit will consist of a power oscillator, basically switching the input DC into pulses, then a step up transformer to get to 230V, then some sort of output conditioning stuff. There should also be some sort of feed back so the 230V is sensed and then fed back to the oscillator, so as to try and keep the AC at 230V. As there is some sort of buzzing going on, this would indicate that excess power is passing through the transformer, indeed it could be a shorted turn within the transformer, which is causing the hassle. The transformer could either be an iron cored device say 5" cube or a ferrite jobbie, a dark grey "blob" say 2" cube, though they are normally cylindrical in shape. Have a feel and report back. - Pics would be good.
    Frank
    • CommentAuthordave45
    • CommentTimeNov 29th 2008
     
    Thanks chaps - the kit is all in my garage and its too ******* cold today! I will report back.

    Whipping its case off is going to be the problem - it is screwed to a plywood panel on the wall and probably has to be completely disassembled. :-(
    • CommentAuthorchuckey
    • CommentTimeNov 29th 2008
     
    Would you prefer to pay a trace engineer to unscrew it?:bigsmile:
    Frank

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