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Need for easily and cheaply repairable inverter

Hamziey

New Member
Joined
Oct 1, 2021
Messages
3
Hello everyone, please I need an inverter product that can be easily repaired no matter what the problem is. And that has all it's components available in the market. I do use the inverter I built my myself most of the time. I'm always afraid of using imported inverters because I've seen many cases where the inverter is spoilt and it can't be repaired or the repair is too expensive. The type of inverter I'm looking for is the one that the board is divided into many sessions and all sessions are connected like modules using connector or soldering and one can easily replace the destroyed part and the repair will this be cheap. You won't have to replace the whole board to repair it

I need it for both small(100W - 500W) and big (>500W ) inverter
Thanks in advance
 
I'd rather buy inverter that doesn't need spare parts :p

Low frequency (heavy iron transformer) 50% diy version based on EG8010/EGS002 chip/board would be probably one of the easiest to repair.
IE: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/329...ae52532-23&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id":"66526296583"}

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2935395256...d81X53xdEL4ZzLIzrgKJOx328p6U1LlBoCDIQQAvD_BwE

You can figure out most of the functionality for example here:
 
I have a stack of OLD Harbor Freight 2,000W MSW inverters, the blue long ones. Fairly easy to fix with old school technology with parts that will be around for 20 years. TL494 designs. I bought them all broken. Not been very happy with the ways newer inverters are put together.
 
Step back in time and look at dynamotors
Loud and inefficient, but can be fixed with a hammer and screwdriver :ROFLMAO:
Plenty still available it seems.
 
Does anyone know how to repair Inverters? Is it possible?. Mine came with fusses but no instructions or troubleshooting scenarios. All it does is beep and flash fault. I checked all fusses and looked for any burning and it all looks good. Any ideas out there? I bought it used and its a name I have not been able find on line but its a beast and appears to be decent quality. Doesn't look like it was ever used.
 

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I can't imagine that it would be hard to find any of the parts in today's inverter offerings.
 
I can't imagine that it would be hard to find any of the parts in today's inverter offerings.
that's good to know, now I just have to find the bad part. I used to replace Jet avionics components but someone else fixed the components. :)
 
I can't imagine that it would be hard to find any of the parts in today's inverter offerings.
You are obviously not in the electronic repair game, or you would understand the problems a bit better.

Nobody supplies circuit diagrams, the software is an unknowable unknown, many of the electronic parts are now so small, they don't even have any identification on them. If a part is burned out, no way of knowing what it was originally.
Multilayer circuit boards are untraceable, so no way to figure out how its supposed to work.

The manufacturers these days, aim to do several things:
Make it as cheaply as possible.
Build in planned obsolescence.
Never supply information that might make the unit potentially repairable.
Make sure its as difficult as possible to take the product apart for repair, without doing so much damage its then physically destroyed.
Make it as difficult to copy by a competitor as possible by deliberately hiding things by using unmarked, sealed, or custom parts.
Make "special parts" like chips holding proprietary software unavailable as a spare part.
If a unit fails under warranty, give the customer a brand new replacement unit. Its a lot cheaper not to have a repair department at all, and have to employ a lot of extra useless people. NOTHING is made to be easily repaired these days.

All you need are a production facility, sales and marketing and a distribution warehouse.
Technical backup and spare parts inventory are a cost you do not need to have.

The only way to own an inverter that is easily and quickly repairable is to design and build it yourself.
That way you know EXACTLY how it works, and where to obtain every part.

But people just want to buy cheap Chinese stuff, and complain when it stops working after only a few months.
Its all driven by profit and nothing else matters these days.
 
If you have the background of knowledge, you can fix anything. But cheap products , should be bought with the knowledge that they are disposable.
And, whether it's cheap or expensive. If it's electronic, it probably comes from China.
 
Nope
Not without the background knowledge.

Not sure what you are trying to say. Are you saying just extensive knowledge of electrics? If so, I don't care how much someone thinks they know, they won't get very far without schematics or part numbers on anything beyond a simple circuit.

Of course there are some common components in these inverters that often blow out and can be tested, but if something (unmarked chip) on the main board has gone bad, you are pretty much SOL.
 
A lot of products these days contain a microcontroller of some type.
The program is stored in internal memory cells that rely on the stored charge in a really small capacitor. Many different technologies involved over the years, but that is the basic principle.
The charge (and the memory remembering) might last five to twenty years, or maybe less if the ROM chip is sub standard or not properly programmed in the first place.
So after some time, months, years, decades, the program in that microcontroller is going to crash and never work again.
And its not possible to repair or reprogram because there is no way of knowing what the original program was.
That is just one particular failure mode that is unrepairable by ANYONE.

Some unscrupulous manufacturers use a battery or ultacapacitor to power a ram memory. They KNOW that ram chip is going to lose power after a certain time, just after the warranty runs out usually. I don't care how clever you are, you might have a hundred years of experience, there is no way to fix that kind of deliberate sabotage.

Those unskilled in electronics think its just a case of finding and replacing a single faulty part. It often was like that back in the old days, but not these days.
 
You are obviously not in the electronic repair game, or you would understand the problems a bit better.

Nobody supplies circuit diagrams, the software is an unknowable unknown, many of the electronic parts are now so small, they don't even have any identification on them. If a part is burned out, no way of knowing what it was originally.
Multilayer circuit boards are untraceable, so no way to figure out how its supposed to work.

The manufacturers these days, aim to do several things:
Make it as cheaply as possible.
Build in planned obsolescence.
Never supply information that might make the unit potentially repairable.
Make sure its as difficult as possible to take the product apart for repair, without doing so much damage its then physically destroyed.
Make it as difficult to copy by a competitor as possible by deliberately hiding things by using unmarked, sealed, or custom parts.
Make "special parts" like chips holding proprietary software unavailable as a spare part.
If a unit fails under warranty, give the customer a brand new replacement unit. Its a lot cheaper not to have a repair department at all, and have to employ a lot of extra useless people. NOTHING is made to be easily repaired these days.

All you need are a production facility, sales and marketing and a distribution warehouse.
Technical backup and spare parts inventory are a cost you do not need to have.

The only way to own an inverter that is easily and quickly repairable is to design and build it yourself.
That way you know EXACTLY how it works, and where to obtain every part.

But people just want to buy cheap Chinese stuff, and complain when it stops working after only a few months.
Its all driven by profit and nothing else matters these days.
Yes, unfortunately I think its called laisse faire capitalism,
 
In a SHTF scenario, it may not be possible to just order another Chinese e-bay inverter over the internet. You may be sitting in the dark....

Seriously, the only practical solution is to build something like an Oz inverter yourself.
Having built it, you can make up an extra spare circuit board or two, all tested and ready to go.
If it suddenly fails, and you have planned ahead, it should be possible to fix it by candle light with nothing more than a multimeter and a screwdriver.
 
There's a forum called "thebackshed" which has a big community of people who do just that. People that make 1-5kw inverters using the egs002 and they are relatively simple to build, and since you have all the schematics and parts lists you know where everything is and what everything does. Makes it really easy to troubleshoot/repair.

Just an inverter nowadays is relatively simple, especially a low frequency one like they do with big transformers, it's basically just a $3 egs002 module, 8 transistors and some resistors and diodes on a pcb, plus the power MOSFETs.


The most difficult part is finding an adequate transformer to use. The pcb+components dont cost much
 
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