Author Topic: Solar Converters Inc. (Canada) closes  (Read 3846 times)

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kitestrings

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Solar Converters Inc. (Canada) closes
« on: February 04, 2018, 06:17:46 PM »
I just discovered that Solar Converters, a Canadian supplier of various controls, such as DC buck/boost, or both converters, battery balancers, pump drivers, linear current boosters, MPPT controllers, etc. has closed their doors.  Their website is no longer up.  IMO that is unfortunate, we've had a number of Solar Converters DC controllers, some for as many as 30-years.  They had a good niche market in RE, and filled a need for converters and balancers when you were say "growing" a system to a higher voltage (24V, 48V), but still needed the lower voltage for some tasks (say 12V).  These guys were around when there really were no comparable products.

There were, and are, of course DC converters and equalizers.  Solar Converters came up with units that could buck or boost - "autotransformers" they called them - and allowed you to "tap" a lower voltage with a small converter, and carry much higher instantaneous loads because of the battery buffer, that would then be balanced over a longer period.  I thought this was pretty innovative.  Many converters force you to put the entire load thru them, so they must carry the highest coincident load being served.

Anyhow, sad to hear the news.  Our experience was that they made good quality products, and provided good service and support.  Thought I'd share.

~ks

ontfarmer

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Re: Solar Converters Inc. (Canada) closes
« Reply #1 on: February 04, 2018, 06:41:52 PM »
That is where I got my voltage control switches from  that control the load for the wind turbine.   I contacted them back in December and never got a response thought it was strange.

TomT

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Re: Solar Converters Inc. (Canada) closes
« Reply #2 on: February 05, 2018, 11:36:57 PM »
I had two of their voltage switches for my wind turbines too.
But the 3 sec delay was too much and I  had to make  own.
Too bad they had some good products.

ontfarmer

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Re: Solar Converters Inc. (Canada) closes
« Reply #3 on: February 06, 2018, 06:22:25 PM »
Quote from: TomT

But the 3 sec delay was too much and I  had to make  own.
Too bad they had some good products.

Tom   What kind of a switch did you make?



« Last Edit: February 06, 2018, 07:33:57 PM by JW »

TomT

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Re: Solar Converters Inc. (Canada) closes
« Reply #4 on: February 06, 2018, 11:38:36 PM »
I have it under Flying as of 2010 at Windy Nation Forum.
12-30 VDC supply.
1-100 volt sense I can make it 1-200 volts.
Instant on 0-18 secs delay off. Set by 3 switches.
Set off or on to start. Can also check operation by flipping switch.
We use to run a relay that is 100% duty cycle from thermodyne.
Or a Bosch relay.
We built it as a separate dump load trigger to save the Chinese grid ties.
Larry Leamy gave me a few suggestions too while we were developing it.
I am still using it even with the classic . While I dial in my resistors for my clipper setup.
They have been telling everyone 3-5 ohms is OK. But I was running 1 ohm on my clipper and it didn't hold last storm. My other backup is running 1/2 ohm. It slowed it down with the clipper running too.
I get some gusts close to 60 mph sometimes. Just had one where the Classic 150 went from 0-1400 watts in about 2 seconds.
Clipper kicked in and then the backup dump load.
« Last Edit: February 06, 2018, 11:50:24 PM by TomT »