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diy solar

How can Current Connected improve?

ArtieKendall said:
I can understand why 100-pound batteries full of hazmat are expensive to ship. But why does a $14, 4-ounce USB cable cost $10 to ship?
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That cable costs us $12 to purchase from our supplier. Even when you factor in the shipping charge, by the time you consider the overhead expenses (warehouse, labor, the envelope), we end up out of pocket on every cable sold individually. We assume if you need that cable, you probably purchased batteries to subsidize the difference. Some things are not worth getting caught up in the fine details.

We do not make profit on shipping on any product. I doubt if you get quotes from reputable shipping companies, any of them will be lower than what we are charging. If you do find this, please let us know and we will adjust the shipping.
 
Our first TV was black and white.

A remote control was your kid brother or sister who walked to the tv
 
HighTechLab said:
That cable costs us $12 to purchase from our supplier. Even when you factor in the shipping charge, by the time you consider the overhead expenses (warehouse, labor, the envelope), we end up out of pocket on every cable sold individually.
Click to expand...

See, we just need to buy direct from China. Not only are the parts cheaper, and fulfillment is performed by people making $2/day not $17/hr., but Most Favored Adversary status allows low or no import duty and final delivery by USPS for less than the price of a first-class stamp.

1691341673867.png

www.ebay.com

USB c to micro usb cable type c to micro b cable for hdd hard disk 30cm//x | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for USB c to micro usb cable type c to micro b cable for hdd hard disk 30cm//x at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com
 
Rednecktek said:
Aaahhh, gotcha by the short & curly's then.
Click to expand...
Trust me, I wish cabling was standardized.

The USB-C protocol is absolutly ridiculous. Theres atleast 10 different "types" of USB-C, but they all look identical, so if you don't know what you are looking at, you would never know.
 
Lt.Dan said:
His supplier is the manufacture.
Click to expand...

If you believe that (manufacturer of the cable?) ...


Lt.Dan said:
Trust me, I wish cabling was standardized.

The USB-C protocol is absolutly ridiculous. Theres atleast 10 different "types" of USB-C, but they all look identical, so if you don't know what you are looking at, you would never know.
Click to expand...

Do you mean the protocol implemented through the cable by devices at either end, or cable itself?
You would hope there is a standard way for equipment to query what's at the other end, so it can say, "XYZ is not supported by ABC".
Do the cables themselves differ (except in terms of quality & tolerances)? Like maybe shielding?

Extreme data rates are going to care more about impedance control and shielding. I'd hope inverter communications works with lowest common denominator.

I don't know what degree of error correction, retry, adaptive signaling might be used for USB.
Ethernet, data rates can adjust, so long cables with poorer signal quality still works.
The full Ethernet stack of hardware and software is robust.
Some things are implemented on lower levels, like "Profinet", which was part of keep-alive/safety circuits in our system.
That got upset during EMI/EMC testing (noise injection on nearby power cables), while standard Ethernet kept operating. Higher quality shielding for the longest part of the run made the difference (as called for in the vendor's documentation.) So that was an installation-dependent situation.

Looks like Profinet also has many levels.

en.wikipedia.org

Profinet - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
HighTechLab said:
What do you like and what can we do better?
Click to expand...

Offer tiered shipping. I have only purchased from you once (a pair of cables) and the shipping fee was $17. Maybe that's what it costs you to remain competitive, but it left a sour taste in my mouth. You are also not in the market of specializing in cables. I understand shipping isn't free and companies like yours aim to say "hey we aren't Amazon", but there are small companies like yours out there who seem to do well shipping free or low fee. Two examples: InvertersRus ships for free, not sure how they do that and perhaps it's just the massive volume of inverters they sell. Batterycablesusa ships for I think a flat rate of $4 or $5, which seems reasonable. They probably lose a few bucks in actual shipping costs (unless maybe they have special high-volume discounted shipping). I like this. They get my business and they don't need a retail location (lower overhead costs), so they pony up to pay for a portion of the shipping (WAY cheaper than retail overhead) and I the customer, pays the other portion. Seems fair and not sticking it all to the customer.

So I would recommend you re-vamp your shipping costs. Maybe you can come down from $17 to ship a pair of 1/0 3-foot cables, lose a few bucks but gain a customer. As it stands, perhaps I am simply not your target customer, but you're also more expensive than others out there. If you offered cheaper or discounted shipping plus still be able to provide decent customer support, maybe that would gain you more customers. But what do I know, maybe you have more customers than you can handle right now. I get where you are coming from and perhaps I'm just too price conscious and too DIY to be a good customer for you. But as I wrote in another comment praising you as a class act business owner, you might just be offering services that don't appeal to me. A 10-year warranty on a SOK vs the factory 7? Kinda cool, I guess, but to me it doesn't add much value. I don't expect an SOK to suddenly have problems in year 8 or 9. I suppose you will get a few warranty repairs/replacements because of that, but it doesn't seem worth it to me. Now if you were to sell budget LiFePO4 batteries like Chins or Powerurus or Power Queen (I assume they all offer 5-year warranty) and extend it by 2-3 years at no extra cost, that might catch my interest.

What I'm aiming here is I'm the budget customer. I make decent money, but I have a lot of expenses and this solar thing is a bit of a luxury and fun experiment that has cost us far more than we should have spent on it compared to our disposable income. CC isn't a budget company. But if you could pull me into your folds, you might convert me. I love what you contribute to this forum here, that is really cool, but it isn't enough (not sure why, as it's very generous of you) to sway me to buy from you again. That $17 shipping really stung, but I panicked, was in a hurry (always a bad idea!) and saw you had what I needed for a reasonable price and it wasn't until I was at checkout that I realized the shipping was so high. Had I known about BCUSA at the time, I would've saved myself a nice chunk and gotten the cables maybe 1 day later. I will give you that the shipping from CC was quite fast, but then again you are less than 1000 miles from me vs BCUSA is almost twice that.

Again, this feedback is given in the spirit of honesty and gratitude and hoping to see you grow and expand into the best version of yourself and CC. Happy to answer any questions and if not, wishing you the best!
 
Hedges said:
See, we just need to buy direct from China. Not only are the parts cheaper, and fulfillment is performed by people making $2/day not $17/hr., but Most Favored Adversary status allows low or no import duty and final delivery by USPS for less than the price of a first-class stamp.
Click to expand...
This is not a USB-C cable we're talking about...it's an RS232-DB9 Serial converter with a custom made DB9-RJ11 adapter that plugs into the battery and has the proper pinout. One of the cheapest items in our store, mind you.

This thread has gone very off topic.
 
Tomthumb62 said:
Again, this feedback is given in the spirit of honesty and gratitude and hoping to see you grow and expand into the best version of yourself and CC. Happy to answer any questions and if not, wishing you the best!
Click to expand...
Hey I appreciate this feedback. We haven't changed our pre-made battery cable shipping prices in well over 2 years, so we will take a look into this. Very valid point. Thank you!

EDIT: We are also hiring battery cable crimpers, so if you know anyone looking for entry level work in Las Vegas, feel free to send them our way.
 
Hedges said:
If you believe that (manufacturer of the cable?) ...
Click to expand...
No, for example a Victron cable he will be purchasing from Victron.
Hedges said:
Do you mean the protocol implemented through the cable by devices at either end, or cable itself?
You would hope there is a standard way for equipment to query what's at the other end, so it can say, "XYZ is not supported by ABC".
Do the cables themselves differ (except in terms of quality & tolerances)? Like maybe shielding?

Extreme data rates are going to care more about impedance control and shielding. I'd hope inverter communications works with lowest common denominator.

I don't know what degree of error correction, retry, adaptive signaling might be used for USB.
Ethernet, data rates can adjust, so long cables with poorer signal quality still works.
The full Ethernet stack of hardware and software is robust.
Some things are implemented on lower levels, like "Profinet", which was part of keep-alive/safety circuits in our system.
That got upset during EMI/EMC testing (noise injection on nearby power cables), while standard Ethernet kept operating. Higher quality shielding for the longest part of the run made the difference (as called for in the vendor's documentation.) So that was an installation-dependent situation.

Looks like Profinet also has many levels.

en.wikipedia.org

Profinet - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
Click to expand...
The cables themselves can vary pretty wildly, Linus Tech Tips did a great video on it.
 
I know the PayPal thing came up earlier in the thread but did want to mention not having it has delayed my $300 purchase since with PayPal I simply have to click on pay with PayPal and have everything configured already. Because I have to pay by credit card I'm being lazy and have to go get my wallet and card ;) Not sure if it is still worth having it because of other things mentioned but just providing a data point.

(and after writing this I guilted myself into getting my CC to enter the info :p)
 
rhino said:
I know the PayPal thing came up earlier in the thread but did want to mention not having it has delayed my $300 purchase since with PayPal I simply have to click on pay with PayPal and have everything configured already. Because I have to pay by credit card I'm being lazy and have to go get my wallet and card ;) Not sure if it is still worth having it because of other things mentioned but just providing a data point.

(and after writing this I guilted myself into getting my CC to enter the info :p)
Click to expand...
Very good point. As much as sellers like to think that customers are not making convenience purchases, the PayPal thing does increase sales in my own small business. PayPal was relatively unknown and a bit of a joke when it started years ago, but now many people not only trust it, but it’s convenient.

My main gripe with PayPal as a business owner is it’s not friendly when it comes to bookkeeping. I don’t sell products so I don’t need to collect sales tax.

Not taking PayPal as a small business is like not taking Mastercard these days. Why cut out viable customers? Unless it’s costing you more money than you earn from PayPal purchases due to extra bookkeeping, then it seems silly to me.
 
I like PayPal (as a Canadian purchasing,from a USA retailer).

but I used Apple Pay with CC and it went without a hitch. I just change my shipping,address as needed (I have a US address available).
 
I would love to support CC but shipping cost / exchange rate make this non economical to ZA.
 
rhino said:
Because I have to pay by credit card I'm being lazy and have to go get my wallet and card ;)
Click to expand...
Just put your CC info in a file, password protected if your PC is subject to snoopers. Then you can just copy and paste when you buy something.
 
I'd love for you to fix your additive shipping. For example, if I add https://www.currentconnected.com/product/silicone-battery-terminal-cover/ to my cart, my shipping goes to $5. If I add 2, shipping is $10. 6 is $30. I have a hard time believing that shipping 6 of these is even close to $30. 1 for $5 makes sense. 6 for $30 does not. Shipping should get progressively cheaper for each item that I add.

My limited understanding is that generally shipping is fixed price + weight. So $4 (fixed) + $1 (weight). 2 items would be $4 (fixed) + $1 x 2 (weight) = $6 etc.

I saw this with a couple items that I was planning on buying.
 
HighTechLab said:
That perfectly part is the issue. SMA is not registering SOC% below 20%...no matter what we tell the inverter it's not listening. The rest of the bugs have been worked out.
Click to expand...

Did you check lowering the battery protection settings on the Sunny Island?
 
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