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Yes, a lot has gone to India. Schneider and OutBack Power, too. They do OK, mostly. I'm sure they use a lot of Chinese parts. We all have to. We are all dependent on China for a lot of parts but there are other problems with building products here in the US... Mainly, the 25% tariffs...

China is getting very good at building this stuff ! There are still some concepts that they just don't "get" yet. They may eventually pick up on all that. HandyBob... I remember him and the main issue that was happening back then. That was Classic's going into EQ seemingly on their own...

Ballpark... $5,500. This should be compared more with the Sol-Ark 15K which is quite a bit more I believe. We are still pricing things out. boB

I was going to let this go but I need to mention something about manufacturing electronics in America. The US is not very electronic manufacturer friendly these days. Tariffs that are imposed on us and the cost of manufacturing in the US make it impossible to be as inexpensive as something...

Merry New Year ! The term "high frequency" can be confusing. 99.999% of sinewave power inverters these days switch at high frequency. HF Sinewave inverters that use the big heavy 50/60 Hz transformers are usually referred to as LF inverters. Inverters like Victron, Magnum, OutBack...

Here is what I replied with on the MidNite forum.... You are correct in that everything except those couple of DIY units are all made in Arlington, WA USA However, parts come from all over. Raw PCBs come from China or Taiwan. Aluminum castings come from China and Thailand. FETs come from...

At Xantrex (Schneider), when someone was fired or was laid off, the president would say "he/she went to spend more time with their family" Always got a chuckle out of that till this day. boB

Transformer and power transistors can limit the surge power due to their ESR. (Effective Series Resistance) Heat dissipation, which is related to the resistance of components, ESR, is more of how long the power can stay up there. That is strictly from thermal time constants. A low frequency...

It can work but not guaranteed to work if too far below freezing and too much snow piled up on the array. It does take a lot of power and energy unless a light dusting. As for how much current, just do not exceed the series fuse rating of the panel, typically 15A or 20A. Here is an animated...

I would just like to re-iterate that this whole industry does not have enough technical people ! boB

Maybe we can open one of those up and take pictures ? I will see. boB

We don't give away our IP. China makes these inverters themselves now. We guide certain manufacturers is all. We still design and make our own products strictly in the US. With the help of parts that come from all over the world. Custom and off the shelf. boB

There can definitely be a difference in sound depending on if the 60 Hz line has sharp edges that might get into the audio signal. In my experience, the worst offender is a modified-square-wave inverter. These have sharp edges that you might hear through your system. In the early 1990s when I...

Thank you Oz ! Yes, we were both there. We also have a few ppl that also worked there working at MidNite Solar. Trace actually came out of the Pacific Northwest audio manufacturing business and we worked with the Originators of Trace back in the early 1970s. What great times ! boB

We are working on this kind of stuff in more than one way. The ULTIMATE MN Solar AIO will be the B17, if we'd finish it. Had to take a little detour on that unit :) boB

Well, we didn't exactly START Trace... BUT Robin's and my relationship with companies, as well as Magnum Energy, OutBack Power, Heart Interface and some other PNW companies go back to the early 1970s when Bob Carver and Steve Johnston started Phase Linear making high power stereo amplifiers...

We are WAY slower than the bigger and off shore companies. Mostly because there is so little engineering and electronic manufacturing talent in the US. When they are found, we try to get them and a lot of them are very pricey. The ones that we do have are very appreciated Merry Christmas and...

Remember that the 15K is actually 12KW except for during the day.

That particular SPD will not help at all. They are 3 wires put into some sand, basically. Here is a comparison of a MOV based SPD lightning arrestor and a Delta. boB

Are you referring to this drawing ? (below, hopefully) The green SPD wire is GND and is connected to the GND bus bar. The DC negative is connected to the battery and PV negative but is not connected to GND at all in this drawing. The PV negative and PV positive are connected to the two...

Yes, here is a very quick history... I started at Trace in 1994 after working in pro and consumer audio and a few years in medical electronics.... Electronics part of those. Brother Robin started at Trace in 1990 after designing audio gear and then military flight power supply system stuff for...

For the B17-5 (5 modules), the first two (2) modules can be either inverter/charger or a 600V input charge controller module. Each inverter/charger module is at least 3kW (maybe 3.5kW ?) 120/240 VAC inverter and also charger. It is sort of a large Rosie in that the underlying power circuitry...

Remember also that the typical all in one PV connected to inverter DC HV rail does not normally give you full power output from battery. That must be done during the day with the addition of solar/PV input, such as the Sol-Ark and I think, most of the other AIO's. They also only usually allow...

Clipping = output current limiting OR Clipping = maxed out The term I'm pretty sure comes from the audio/hi-fi industry which means the amplifier is putting out all of the voltage it can supply. That's all it is. boB

Sounds like you have done well here ! Remember that adding a LOT of turns through the toroid can increase the capacitance from one side of that filter to the other side and possibly have diminishing returns. From S8 to S1 is significant I would say ! Maybe we need to have a DIY ham net some...

You know.... If you are careful, a PV panel can be turned into a space heater and melt snow on it *IF* it is not too cold and/or if the snow is not TOO thick... Here is the first time I ever tried this somewhere around 2005. One module is powered. The other is not. This one took about 3...

As Home Power Magazine used to say, Gorilla Solar. Don't ask don't tell... Just press SELL !! That was in the 1990s

A lot of times the idle/tare will depend on the present battery voltage... Usually a higher Vbatt = higher idle but not necessarily.

Rosie does actually do grid support (gen support coming) as well as AC coupling with frequency-shift for micro-inverters

The Rosie is rated at 7kW but can put out slightly more indefinitely. Anything more or at high ambient temperatures will eventually bring Rosie's temperatures too high and it will shut down then. Rosie can handle higher output powers for quite a while as it is. Yes, the CTs are for the main...