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!!!! HORRIBLE / QUESTIONABLE BUILD QUALITY !!! (photos)

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(@bigjoncoop)
Eminent Member
Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 8
Topic starter  

 

Just purchased a 6000w LF-PSW Powerjack / U-Power inverter and decided to open it up to make sure there was no broken wires, loose connections, etc...

WELL I'M GLAD I DID!!!

I had purchased the same exact inverter maybe 5 years ago and that unit did not have these same issues... I'm curious if these things were done in the factory or maybe by the eBay seller I purchased it from. The seller on eBay has tons of power jack gear for sale and is from the USA...

(Fyi- I'm rather knowledgeable when it comes to electronics / PCB's, etc... I've been a hobbyist / enthusiast for 30+ years and offer electronic repair as a side business to make extra money. I've also been an electrician for 25+ years) 

*** HERE COMES THE GOOD STUFF (well not so good) ****

Image 1 & 2: there's nothing wrong necessarily with using a ton of silicone adhesive in order to hold components in place during shipping, but holy crap!!! 😜

Image 3 / WTF #1: now this is by far one of the WORST bodge jobs I've seen before on a consumer product!!!  They have two trim pots directly soldered to pins on a plug header with no support just flopping in the breeze! You would think they could have spared some of that silicone adhesive they got all over everything and put some around there bodge job, to at least give it a little bit of support! 🙄. The fact that they're using some trim pots as an afterthought to make minor adjustments, is fine in my opinion. What is outrageous is how they have them connected!

The logical thing to do is just take a spare JST connector with wires only on the pins that you need and either connect the trim pots to the end of those wires and wrap everything in heat shrink, or take a little piece of prototyping board and stick the trim pots on there with the wires connected to it and wrap that in heat shrink! I absolutely cannot believe that someone has done it like this! 

Image 4 / WTF #2: OMG WTF... I'm not exactly sure what prevented them from just cutting off the ring terminals and just soldering the wires directly onto the fuse terminals!!! I'm thinking that this must have been done in the factory. The only reason why you would do it the way they have is to save time.

It is crazy that they wouldn't take the time to just cut off the ring terminals, because they had to solder it anyway! Just cut the ring terminals off and pre tin the wires first... COME ON! 

IMG 20230907 221305
IMG 20230907 221317
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IMG 20230907 221425

   
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(@steve)
Estimable Member
Joined: 2 years ago
Posts: 212
 

Aluminum wire 


   
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(@sid-genetry-solar)
Member Admin
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 2886
 

Oh someone had fun with half a tube of silicone (or hot glue--I can't tell).

That's also a v9 control board, which is interesting to see...especially today.

 

I'm with 'ya on the ring terminals...but can't figure out why they soldered the transformer wire to the fuse holder!  Almost like that's a copper-wound tranny?  (How far back into the junk bin did they have to reach to find that one??!)


   
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(@dickson)
Noble Member
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 1053
 

The seller on eBay has tons of power jack gear for sale and is from the USA.

I do not know of any  Ebay seller   who is working for Jack  that sell  inverter with  Rev V9.0 control board .   Powerjack  Ebay seller are  not  from the USA .  ALL  Powerjack and U Power inverter has the new Rev 11.3 control board .   The new  Powerjack will self test for errors  and  not need repair by the seller unless shipping damaged .  


   
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dochubert
(@dochubert)
Estimable Member
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 187
 

Nothing powerjack does these days is surprising to me.  Jack probably sold a bunch of returns and spare parts to some reseller who cobbled together a few working inverters (hence the older control board and copper transformer).  One of those pots is your output voltage adjustment - you get to figure out which one.

The ring terminal soldered to the fuse holder is probably factory - they do silly stuff like that.  It does illustrate my concern over the entire inverter load (your whole house load?) going through a dinky fuse/fuse holder.  That's BEFORE considering the possible poor connections through a ring terminal soldered on.  On my inverters, I eliminate the fuse holders or in some cases, push button breakers, wiring directly to the output terminals, then connect L1, L2, and N directly to a suitable 3 pole breaker mounted externally, before wiring on to my loads.

You usually get useable stuff, just not put together how it should be, but that doesn't mean you have to leave it that way.


   
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