trying to repair a master volt XS3200W

[richie7]

Hi Everyone

I an trying to repair a XS3200W. It belonged to mates of mine and just stopped working. under warranty he got a new , but different make of, unit and the installer did not want the XS3200W back so my mate asked me to have a look at it. On opening it up no fuses had blown and there was no obvious fault ( PCB burning blown FETs and so on). However after a further delve into the unit I found a insect had crawled into it, touched something it should not have and "exploded" over a part of the circuit. what seems to have happened is that over some time ( I doing think the goo from the insect shut the unit down straight away) the corrosion from the goo caused one of the inductor leads to rot through and the unit stopped. I have rewound the choke changes few capacitors and checked other local parts that I think are associated with the LT circuits that power the controls and cleaned up the area. However on reconnecting to the mains (23V in UK) the unit remains completely dead with no display or response for the touch buttons. I wonder if anyone else has had creatures get into inverters and managed to fix them? has anyone got contacts with anyone who has repair info such as circuits or WHY? Mastervolts do not make them anymore and the people in the UK who have taken over the Mastervolts Solar have no info or spares whatsoever

I have attached a picture of the insect damage which others may fine interesting

Looking forward to any help regards

Bob Bug_Damage.png

[SunEagle]

The sad thing about electronics with circuit boards is that components that may look ok could still be bad or there could still be a low resistance path between components to keep them from working properly.

Unless you have good test equipment and a detailed circuit diagram along with a complete list of components you may be working a long time to find the issue(s) in that equipment.

Let us know how you make out with it.

[bcroe]

That kind of damage often sets up a circuit board for more failures in the area even if repaired.
Your best bet is a new board, but that may not be enough to fix it. With no drawings or model
specific parts, it may be quite difficult. One method is get another same type, set it up to
observe proper operation, and possibly swap parts. good luck, Bruce Roe

[Mike90250]

Lots of bad looking parts there.

[richie7]

Hi Everyone

and thanks for all the earlier comments. I have throughly tested the semiconductors in the area
and found nothing amiss. However I am beginning to think that, following the repair I may not have a real problem !
I have my own system using a XS2000 inverter (looks identical to the XS3200 and last night at 10PM when it was not producing I went
up into the loft and checked it over. It too was completely dead no LEDs on and no response to any push buttons.

I am now beginning to think that I need to put some DC input to the solar panel input and then it may kick it off.
I have the user manual and it is not clear that with no DC input form the panels then no "activity" would result.

I guess the software in these things can vary a bit and other manufactures may have different set up procedures and responses
I was expecting a message such as " no panels connected "but it appears that the Mastervolt XSnn00 series inverters are
completely "asleep" unless DC is being produced.

So My next plan is to try and simulate a solar array with a suitable DC supply but if anyone else has experience
in this area then help would be most appreciated --particularly if you have Mastervolt XSnn00 series inverters

Thanks and regards

Bob

[PNPmacnab]

That green 100uF cap is at a funny angle and I suspect it popped off the bottom and spread electrolyte around. I seriously doubt it was a bug. That black indicates there were some nasty currents.