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Xantrex Prosine 2.5/3.0 repair

March 27, 2013, 02:27:15 pm

  A few months ago, someone asked why the 2.5 & 3.0 had such a bad reputation and why they can not be repaired. Several years ago, I posted a request to the forum for any take out units, regardless of condition. Xanterx will not sell parts or supply any support towards the repair of these units, so my only source for parts was inoperative units. I had acquired a total of twenty through many members and other sources.
  Two weeks ago, I went through the pile and did manage to repair and bench check a few.The attached pictures will help explain what happens and why they are usually not repairable. The first picture (5105) shows a repaired unit, with the covers off, hooked up and ready for testing. Notice the pair of 8D batteries under the bench. Under a 2000+ watt load, space heaters and halogen lamps, the draw on those batteries would exceed 200 amps.The home made battery cables supplying DC to the inverter would get very warm.
  The second and third pictures (5100/5107) are  good examples of why they are not repairable. The domino effect is very easy to see. When hooked to a large source of DC amps , a small short in a circut becomes a large welder.Picture four (5106) shows a mother board that has seven bad areas. Each area needs many parts replaced.  Can you find all of them? When a working unit developed a problem,( either inverting or charging ),it would migrate to several areas before complete shut down. The last picture (5102) is one of two stacks of Prosines that were not repairable.
  Maybe this will clear up some of the mystery of what is under those aluminum covers on those big expensive yellow boxes.
  Gary O

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Re: Xantrex Prosine 2.5/3.0 repair

Reply #1 – March 27, 2013, 02:39:00 pm

Gary, good info but would the reason the cables got warm be because the ones you show seem to be very small gauge to me. If they were 3/0 or 4/0 would they then get warm too?
When I contacted the Xantrex people here in BC their basic comment was that "they are not repaiable because of the cost facter in doing that" so this finding of yours is in line with that comment.
John H

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Re: Xantrex Prosine 2.5/3.0 repair

Reply #2 – March 27, 2013, 04:55:37 pm

  John, The cables were just temporary, made up from scrap. I kept making cables until they would handle the load.Three for the positive and three for the negative. I would drain the batteries down to check the low voltage alarm then recharge them at max power to check the different charge stages. The whole test bench is now history and the batteries will go to the recyclers.
 Gary O

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Re: Xantrex Prosine 2.5/3.0 repair

Reply #3 – March 27, 2013, 08:01:06 pm

Sounds like you had fun playing Gary...

Mark

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