2000W Pure Sine Inverter - Blown Up! - Let's fix it! 

Nice to see a product like this repaired, not scrapped.

So cool! A free inverter! Just a quick suggestion: I'm an electronics technician, and after a repair, I plug everything in, but I don't assemble a unit before the test. That way if it smokes or sparks during the test, I can see where it came from so I know where to look to find the problem.

I must confess I have never seen a broken electrical device of any kind where only fuses were the broken bits. I am truly amazed that it is actually possible. Normally fuses are blown as an after-effect of some other problem.

PCB mount ATC blade fuse holders would seem a better option than adding so much extra length. You also seemed confident putting it all back together almost fully before testing. Haha. But glad it worked and an easy fix.

The way you analyse and diagnose is golden.

I bed all mosfets of the primary inverter had gone. This inverter got the same pcb as lot of other inverters of different brands. But in this case only the fuse blown. Congratulation!!

Better than factory! I can understand soldered fuses on a circuitboard as they have space constraints, but in this case I don't see a good reason for it beyond saving a few pennies.

I was expecting a blown revers polarity diode, but a handful of blown fuses is even better!

Wow amazing job, I blew one up by reversing cables also, but they gave me a new one, have a blessed evening, great 👍 job 😊

Awesome! Glad the fuses protected the front end!

During an extended power outage of unknown duration, I found the same issue with a primitive MSW 200W inverter. A soldered fuse was replaced with a couple of jumpers and a field-replaceable fuse. Inverter still works! It was an experience standing in a freezing room with battery operated light and soldering iron trying to get this dinky inverter working again.

I find myself incredibly excited and hopeful that one day with some tuition from a local electronics genius, I will be able to repair expensive (and those awful cheap) gadgets that are so often written off, when they break, by the companies/repairers that make or fix them. I've lived for 35 years with offgrid solar systems. Watching the horribly expensive demise of seven high quality inverters in that time, mostly due to lightning strikes and irresponsible installers, has become too much for me financially and in principle, NOT to try to do something about fixing them, so I'm learning how. While I'm waaaay off fixing the old SEA inverter that blew up mysteriously a short time ago ($6000 to replace it with a similar model and $2000 quoted for the capacitors and presumably other components plus labour), I had a win today fixing a big spot lighting torch I found in a skip, by resoldering two broken wires on the control boards, and replacing the battery and a spade connector to one terminal. Someone threw it away. I was able to get it working again. That's where I begin. Simple is a good place to start. The exercise is learning how, even if the thing cant be repaired. The inverter it seems may be able to be repaired for a few hundred dollars if I do it under the tutelage of a qualified electrician who can make sure it's a safe repair, a process that is underway. I'm already some of the way forward when I can diagnose what went wrong and that's why I pull things apart, BEFORE I throw them away. And I find so much that can be recycled in the componentry. Videos like this help by teaching me what's what and why it's there and what is possible with some out-of-the box thinking. As soon as I saw the soldered spade fuses, I thought "oh that's silly, what if... and voila! simple is best. A great way to see how it's done by the experts. Thanks.

I just bought a 1000 watt xyz and I love it . Thanks for the video. John

A very interesting solution with the fuses. Well done!

Hi, It is good to see that the MOSFETs and protection diodes are not blown. However, I never would do so kind of a repair, i.e., extending the fuses with cables, in such a high current path. The best you can do is to find some quick-fit sockets that are fitted to the AC output cables you removed during repair and then solder them into the PCB by shortening their cable side legs (to let them fit into the PCB holes). Then you can easily put the fuses on these PCB-type sockets that you create. Hence, in a repair, you would also be made removable fuse holders in that board which will be healthier than a cable extension when one considers the high current flowing along these lines. BW

Just come across this video, nice to see that inverter repaired, good job.👍

Very goog job ! I remark that only fuses are broken. I think that this converter has a good protection ... Thank for this sharing.

When testing generators I like to use a paint stripper. They have a constant amp draw and are easy to control.

Had a same issue recently, different brand, very similar construction ... just ordered a bag of PCB fuse holders :)

Haha nice! now the fuses are very much accessible for the next time if they blow up once again. Great work gentlemen ❤

That is slick!! Nice work

Nice one mate and well done making the fuses better.

Nice job! Interesting to see the fuses blow before the semiconductors. So they seem to be rated reasonably. My suggestion to the soldered-in fuses is the usecase of these inverters. In car or motorhome application with a lot of bumps and vibrations they cannot come lose.

Love the improvement!

remember kids, always check and discharge the capacitors before you go sticking your fingers in electronics. good fix :)

Nice, super lucky with just the fuses blown 👍

This looks like my EDECOA Inverter. I had one with "3000W"! I think it could do the power theoretically. I wanted to power a big amp with a big toroidal transformer... it worked one and a second time, but on the third time it went booooom. Smoking the Sh*t out of the IGBT and the IGBT Driver. I replaced everything and it worked again. So I tried it a second time. The same, after 3 cycles it went boom again. After loosing enough money because of these cheap inverters I bought a Victron MultiPlus, because I don't want to burn my camper down, and now all is fine. It uses a big toroidal transformer for step up and step down, and I think it has a few advantages for driving heavy loads.

Another great fix!

I'm about to buy an inverter, so I just wanted to have a peek inside one, thanks, good video.

Thank you so much, this has been really helpful. Different 'brand' name, different power rating. But the one I have has all the exact same major components, the same manufacturing methods, even identical packaging and info. markings. Clearly out of the same factory. It is so difficult to find reliable repair info. for this kind of stuff. So surprised at the cheap fuses, when the build quality is comparatively good and the majority of components are actually reasonably good quality. Ship, spoil and 'hapeth' of tar spring to mind. I am 90% sure there used to be a copper automotive spade jumper available - very short, all one piece, male at one end, female at the other. These would have soldered directly into the board slots and effectively made 'sockets' for the plug-in fuses.

First time I've seen an inverter with popped fuses and good mosfets, it's usually the other way around, blown mosfets and intact fuses...

Super upgrade with the fuse holders

Top video as usual 👍👍

Nice video, well done, thanks :)

as a hobbies PCB designer they should have the FET's part separate by wire so the only thing you do is disconnect the connections and replace a small board of FET's

Nice := ) should be a protective diode by the power in but ..classic fix.. this one had a lot of fuses

Soldered-in fuses? 8 no less! Oh my j:Oo So the fuse(s) blowing pretty much makes this a "throw away" for most folks. That's a shame. But a GR8T FIX. A labor of ♥You RoCk. Cheers from So.CA.USA 3rd House on the Right. p .s. I looked up that company on the Interwebs and NOVOPAL stands for "No Voltage, PAL!". See, now it all makes sense :)

Thing of beauty!

I had exactly the same one, used it once everything was hooked up correctly, when I went to use it a second time, it let out the magic smoke, luckily it was still under warranty from Amazon Canada.

Nice, easy fix!

Resettable fuses might be a good upgrade for the unit if you are keeping it. Just to add I would have thought it would be designed with reverse polarity connection protection but obviously not in this case.

Well done you!! super job. Looks like a really well put together inverter, and a super display, but what a terrible design with those fuses, wonder why they didn't use fuse holders. Can you imagine what a car would be like if they built one! haha

Nice one Mick. I thought you were gonna open a whole can of worms there,but just fuses. Jobs like that are great but dont happen often enough.

Those fuses will solder but only with using flux and a high temp. iron. The designers are helping the accountants more than the consumers.

I always sold fuse holders on so I have external fuses. Fixed a few and found this makes the problem fixable when someone does it again as its so common. Xx

First time I have ever seen an inverter built so the fuses saved it. Lol. Good design. Every one I have ever repaired the fuses were fine but had a lot fets blown and bad SPWM boards.

THX for the material, it's nice that only the fuses blew, but thumbs down for the cables and deterioration of cooling

Good work like always, they should had installed those fuses on the exterior like car amplifier, which this is almost the same thing

Surprised to see they soldered automotive fuse directly on the board, all the inverters I've opened up had the bare spade connectors soldered to the board. Nice repair job :-)

On most inverters, if you reverse the polarity, the fuses pop before anything else is damaged. I had to do this same repair several years back because I bought an inverter on eBay that was "Spares or repairs" due to the original purchaser getting their wiring confused. It sounded like aggro, but it was too cheap not to get and try to fix. All that was wrong was that one was the 3x 30A internal fuses were all blown. As you said, it's a stupid idea for them to be soldered to the board, so I found 3x surface mount blade fuse holders, Dremeled a neat bank of holes for them in the end plate, and connected the holders to the board by soldering (IIRC) 10AWG silicon wire between them. I remember the thick wires made it fun getting everything back together, but it looked pretty much like it was mean to be like that when I'd finished. ...... And after all my messing about to make the fuses easily accessible, Sods law meant that I never had to swap them again. :D . I only replaced that inverter when I wanted one with a bit more power, and I think the friend I gave that one to still uses it to run a PC in his camper van.

think they solder the fuses to reduce contact resistance and so heat generation from iffy joints. by extending the cabling, I think you have significantly increased the resistance on the input side - so the output will turn off at lighter loads or higher supply current.

Love it.... 👍

I think the fuses were soldered in because sometimes the fuse holders don’t get great connections and melt. I’m guessing the manufacturer had issues similar so they soldered righ to the board as a quick fix.

very lucky if that was my it would be all melted, thanks for the video

Great video, I just love to watch professional tradespersons exercising their craft. Nice one and thanks for sharing. 👏👏👏

I had the same problem blown fuses, I got some female spade connectors for PCB mount and put them in.

Soldering them in makes more reliable connection. Leads add resistance and inductance.

I solder wires to the places, then crimp a spade socket on to the wires, then plug in the fuses. That makes the fuses replaceable. D'OH!! Should have waited for the rest of the video!!

Very good repair, also that is where the fuses should have been. Not n the board.

I've have a egs002 based pure sine wave spwm inverter that I made 2 years ago. But I really wanted to build something like these "dc->hv dc->ac" switching inverters because they're more efficient and compact. My current build is using a salvaged UPS transformer and it's works great for most of the time but its big and consumes almost 16w at idle (because of the big iron core transformer)

i have 3kva devel hybred inverter. it blew some/all it's mosfets on the one rail. havent tried replacing them yet. when it was working the thing uses about 5A just being powered up!

I can't believe they soldered automotive fuses straight to the board!

One thing you can do with these is use it to excite an isolation transformer and use that to get grid tie type inverters to give extra juice from a whole house type solar panel system if the grid goes down. Need an isolation switch and a simple battery charger to keep the inverters battery source charged. So long as your draw is about 70% of panel capacity this works fine.❤

I know you probably went with what you had, but you can get a car blade fuse PCB holder it would have looked so much better

Just grind on the alum fuse & a higher heat solder gun & they work fine !!!. Freeze mist the plastic as needed !👍🏻

Connected mine inadvertently the wrong way round and it blew the 3x25amp fuses - I thought it was a goner - so I replaced the fuses and it was still OK..! Always check the polarity and if the unit is US check the fuses before giving up.!

Fuses doing what they are there for, good adaption though. 😀

I agree fuses should be replaced easier the same way we do in cars

Nice that the fuses did their job! But a shame they were soldered. Not that soldering is hard, but that ATO style fuse is almost always made of aluminium.

It is a shame the manufacturer did not make the fuses removable. soldering them in like that almost makes them pointless.

This Inverter factory design the fuses on board directly, it's not easy to replace fuses.

Hi I am enjoying watching your repair videos. I only wish I had found your channel before I got rid of my mother's pfaff sewing machine as it was year's old but so well built but one day it just stopped working. We narrowed it down to the pcb board. And a replacement was approximately £800 from Germany so this was obviously more than it was worth. But I'm sure you would have fixed it. Since then I've been trying to buy a replacement machine but it seems like a common fault as quite a few are selling them as spares because they like mine just stopped working

Thank you for posting these videos. I have a 600 watts with the fault light on that I have to fix, any clue ?

time stamp 9:30 overlooking the outher 2 diods ( 4 blocks of inverters = 2 mosfets + 1 diod + 2 fuses each ) . PCB mount ATC blade fuse holders pose a hot spot and have caused fires in inverters before by igniting the pcpb and peling te solier on the pcb and forming a arc flame.

Excellent job. Could you not have attached a new multi fuse holder for all the fuses on the outer. case

It'd have been a nice touch to have added some mini fuse holders for him as an upgrade

these normally have a big diode wired in reverse across the 12V in and basically make the fuses go when wired wrong as in this case saving all the transistors etc - sometimes the diode shorts too - but looks like you got lucky here

That was a good circuit design if the only fix needed was to change the fuses

My mate was recently quoted about 100 quid to fix an inverter. He gave it to me to take a look and it was just a blown fuse and a shorted mosfet. Three quid later and it was good to go again.

There are pcb fuse holders for ATO fuses but usually rated to 20A. These fuses go thru a lot of temperature cycles that will wear down the contracts. This is a cause of problems in cars. Better to solder them in. Temperature is important. Don't be surprised when a 30A fuse is only 20A at 40°C.

be interested to see a scope of one of these, to see if it really is a pure sine wave inverter

Great idea to reroute the fuses. Why can’t a breaker be used instead of the fuses?

The second you said he reversed the polarity I thought: fuses or diodes. Guess you wouldn't want the voltage drop from diodes. Question for you: why are some of the traces not covered in solder mask? I noticed it in the Milwaukee battery charger, too. Does it have to do with higher current? Great that you got it working again, seems like a beefy unit.

What is the blue mat you are working on?

Hmm. Do we need to make a dim bulb tester for 12V, using incandescent brake lamps?

Howdy, I have the same issue with my Renogy 2000 w inverter. My fault, I was standing right there as a friend hooked it up to the battery, to busy talking and not paying attention! My unit has 10 ea 25 amp mini blade fuses wired in parallel all blown. Hopefully it's just the fuses as I've had this unit for a couple of years and never used it. What is the reason for this wiring system? I know the total is 250 amps. Designed for a slow blow or fast blow or ? Thanks for any input

Any theories on why the fuses blew? Input or output side?

Soldered fuses that require a 120w soldering iron to change them after dismantling, not recommended for camping etc.

You like to live dangerously... Leaving the meter leads in the amps position ;-)

Someone else mentioned it, but ALWAYS discharge the caps before poking fingies so no nasty surprises.

Youd think something like that would have reverse polarity protection that doesnt rely solely on fuses.

Did you remember to secure the heat sensor within the heat sink fins?

It is a good ideal to charge the caps before hooking input power to a inverter. A 12 vdc test lite or a 12 volt light bulb on the positive side and it prevents a hard hit of current.

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Surprised you didn't use solder in blade fuse holders or consider thermal reset fuses which the latter would have made it bulletproof pretty much but not sure if there are 30A ones of those.

The reason the fuses are soldered in is to discourage user servicing which can be dangerous. Also you should invest in some bismuth solder, it would make removing those fuses easy.

At least they aren't glass ones soldered in. That was a mess lol

You know you can buy fuse holders for them to solder into the board?

Never understood why the fuses are not easy to get to and replace 😕

They might have used aluminium solder to solder them in, might also explain why you had to use more heat. I was surprised to see that so many fuses had blown must have been quite a load on them, but a free converter is a great converter. Hope you have a great weekend and look forward to seeing more