TBE Inverters

Cheap TBE Inverter teardowns

In this page, we will have a look at:
TBE 3000W Modified sine inverter
TBE 2000W Pure sine wave inverter

Up for teardown is a TBE 3000W modified sine wave inverter that was sent
in by a supplier for me to check if it is viable for repair. These are notorious
locally for easily failing even just by looking at it the wrong way. To verify these
claims and confirm the poor performance, I took this chance to see how well
(poorly?) these things are built.

This is the
broken
inverter.

It is a TBE
3000W
modified sine
wave model.

This is the
inverter torn
apart.

We can see
there is a big
problem
here. All

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switching
fets have
burst into
flames.

The bottom
side looks
pretty clean.
There are
two SOIC16s
which are
TL494s
based on the
pinout, the
SOIC8 chip
is probably
an LM358
dual op amp.
All of them
have their
markings
erased.

Up front, the
topology is
your run of the mill step up DC-DC converter and H-bridge setup with minimal
noise filtering.

PCB Version
with a link to
the
manufacturer
web page.

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I guess they
use what
they can get
their hands
on. The caps
are
different,
some are
16V, others
25V then
they are
different
series too.

Other side.

The only
thing they
have in
common are
that they are
all Rubycon
branded and
appear to be
NOS.

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The yellow
wires go to
the power
switch. This
got really
burned when
the switching
devices burst
into flames.

The white
plug is for
the fan.
There is no
fan control,
it just runs
when the
switch is
turned on.

Something is
wrong here.
The main
switchers
are marked
as IGBT.

IGBTs aren't
good in low
voltage, high
current
switching. IF
they are
indeed
IGBTs, I
guess that is
the reason
this inverter
blew up.

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Thermistors
unpopulated.
Who needs
thermal
protection!?!

H bridge
current shunt.

Which looks
like two
pieces of
offcut
component
leads.

Output
rectifiers
also have the

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numbers
erased.
There is no
thermal
grease or
silpads
between the
rectifiers
and heatsink.

TO-92
devices are
MJ13001 for
the high side
drivers.

The large
devices are the HV H-bridge switches.

Looking at the build quality, I can tell they use surplus/NOS parts or
whichever is available for cheap and build it using those parts.

Now, I can't do much testing as this is a burned up unit. It will most

probably cost more to fix than get a new one so I will wait for the supplier's
action on it.

Back to top of page

Wait, I have another unit that is working which I have installed in our home
RE system. Let's take a look at that instead! My unit is the same brand but is a
2000W Pure sine wave model. This will definitely be more complex circuitry wise
but the build quality should be similar.

This is my
2000W pure
sine wave
unit

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Removing
four screws,
we can pop
the top cover
off. The
heatsink
extrusion is a
nice
clamshell
design.

The bottom
looks a bit
messy but
they get a
plus from me
for putting
copper wires
to beef up
the high
current
traces.

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This wire is
not soldered
properly.

It, along with

another,
carries the
high current
B+ supply.

I resoldered
it for
reliability.

These fuses
are simply
stuck in
faston crimp
connectors
and soldered
into the PCB.

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The OCD in
me kicked in
so I
resoldered
the fuses so
they are
neatly
arranged.

An out of
place SMD
resistor.

Must have
been nudged
out of place.
I resoldered
it properly
into the part
lands.

The step up
converter
oscillator.
This is

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branded TBE
but I have
seen the
same board
on a SUOER
pure sine
wave inverter
(with
different silk
markings).

This uses an
SG3525
oscillator and
an LM324
quad op amp
for over/
under voltage
and thermal
protection
(not used in
this model)

The sine
wave PWM
control
board. The
main chip is
an EG8010
driving two
IR2110

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mosfet
drivers.

The other
two SOIC8
parts are an
LM555 and
an LM393
for short
circuit/
overload
detection.

This board is also the same as in the Suoer pure sine wave inverter. I'm guessing
they are just copying one design and rebadging it or is from one designer after
all.

Front panel
sub board.
This board
holds the
indicator
LEDs, the
USB jack and
its 5V DC-DC
converter.

The 5V
converter is
a basic
MC34063
based
switchmode
buck
converter.

The sub
board also
uses Rubycon
caps.

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Thermal
switch. This
turns the fan
on when the
heatsink gets
hot.

If the other
heatsink gets
hot, then
you're on
your own.

The main
switching
devices.
These have
the numbers
erased but I
can see one
of them
marked IR.
The problem
is that these
are all from

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different
batches! No
two have the
same batch
code! A
manufacturer
usually has all
the same batch codes in one product as they buy in bulk. These appear to be
NOS as the terminals are badly oxidised.

An important reason for having matching date codes is that these are operated
in parallel. Matching date/batch codes means that MOSFETs in parallel will
share current better. A mismatch in Vgs or RdsON will make one take more
current than the rest and causing it to blow up, which then blows the others up
and so on.

Another thing I found is that the devices are not even tightly bolted to the
heatsink! Using silpad insulators make this worse as they need a fair bit of
pressure to reduce the thermal resistance. They did not use silicone grease
though which is correct for silpad insulators.

They erased
the part
numbers but
wait, I spy...
"1503"

The mosfets
are indeed
IRF1503's as
confirmed by
measuring
gate
capacitance
and Vds
breakdown
voltage.
These are
rated at 30V
75A
3.3mOhm.

It has decent current capacity but are only 30V breakdown voltage.

With it driving a center tapped transformer primary, If the B+ voltage exceeds

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15V (during battery equalization or bulk charging) then the 30V breakdown
voltage of the MOSFETs are easily exceeded. We haven't even gotten into
voltage spikes and ringing due to leakage inductance!

New devices
vs the old.

I used
IRF3205s
which have a
higher
RdsON of
8mOhm but
are rated
55V 110A.
The higher
voltage is
needed for
allowance
from voltage
spikes and
high battery
voltage. It
also has a
lower gate charge than the originals so it is easier to drive.

New
MOSFETs
screwed in
place before
soldering.

These are all

properly
tightened
with the
right torque
on my HIOS
high speed
screwdriver.

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Housekeeping
regulators
for the
sinewave
controller.
The step up
converter
runs open
loop, these
optocouplers
transfer
protection
signals from
the Sine
modulator to
the main
SMPS
oscillator.

Output
rectifiers (in
grey
rectangular
silicone
bags), output
HV bulk caps
and output
switching
transistors.

The output
switching
IGBTs.

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These also
have
mismatched
date codes
and are
heavily
oxidised.

Cleaned up,
these are
Fairchild
SGH40N60
IGBTs.

Devices are
rated at 20A
600V.

Matching is
not too
important in
the output
stage as they
are not in
parallel.

Main HV
output
capacitors.
These also
appear to be
NOS due to
the

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scratches
and the
markings on
the sleeve
starting to
rub off in
places.

I promise, it
came that
way!

It is already
dented but
rubber seal
still intact
and appear to
work fine.

Yep, they
also erased
the numbers
on the output
rectifiers.

And yes,
they all have
different
batch/date
codes too!

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I thought
that the
rectifiers
are fully
insulated
types so I
just used
new silpads
and kept the
fully
enclosed
ones for
future
projects.

Output X and
Y class
capacitors
for noise
suppression.

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Output
common
mode choke
is omitted to
save a few
cents.

Found a
bunch of
common
mode filters
to improve
EMC
performance.
The left one
is too big(but
the pins line
up to the PCB
holes), the
middle one
fits
perfectly but
is damaged
and the last
one just
might work
with a little

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persuation.

This fits like

a glove but it
is a burned
up unit.
Besides, even
if it still
worked, the
windings are
too thin to
carry
2000W.

I decided to
use the
toroidal
common
mode choke
instead but it
needed a bit
of lead
bending to
fit.

I also added
a wire to

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connect the
chassis and
outlet earth
pin to the
filter
capacitors
for better
shielding.

Now, at first I was skeptical for this to be a pure sine inverter as those
cost a fortune a few years ago so I take out the scope and took measurements.

Since the
output is
galvanically
isolated from
the battery
input, the
probe ground
is connected
to the HV
caps negative
terminal.
This is what
we get at the
NEUTRAL
pin on the
outlet.

Wait, this is
supposed to
be a pure
sine wave inverter, right? Don't worry, it will make sense later.

This is the
one measured

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at the LIVE
pin on the
outlet.

The inverter
modulates
only one line
so that the
output filter
is greatly
simplified.
Instead of
using a lot of
LC filtering
and common
mode chokes,
doing it this
way reduces
the output filter to just one inductor and one capacitor and still get a sine wave
across the load.

During the fast transitions, the voltage across the load is zero. There is only
voltage during the curved portions which results to a differential sinewave
voltage between LIVE and NEUTRAL.

Check out the EG8010 datasheet for the schematic of the output switches and
LC filter to see how it was done.

The two
phases
overlapped
on the scope
screen.

Output
waveform at
10.5V
battery
voltage.

Don't mind
the trigger
frequency
counter. It
could not

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trigger
cleanly on
the signal so it was showing an incorrect frequency.

Output
waveform at
12.8V
battery
voltage.

Output
waveform at
15V battery
voltage.

You can
clearly see
that the main
DC-DC step
up converter
is running
open loop and
unregulated
which greatly
simplifies its
design and
improves
efficiency.
The output
voltage is
regulated by the PWM modulation of the LIVE output terminal.

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Incase you
can't figure
out how it
becomes a
sine wave, I
edited the
image so that
one side is
referenced
to the
NEUTRAL
pin and this
is how it
would look
like.

To derive a
common point
at the
output, I
used a center
tapped
primary of a
transformer
as grounding
point for the
oscilloscope
probes.

And this is
the
waveform

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that we get.
See, it is
indeed a pure
sine wave
inverter!

I have run a 1500W microwave oven on this before the mod for 3minutes
and it survived just fine drawing about 116A from the battery and it did get
pretty warm. I have not done some power testing after the modifications as it is
cloudy and raining so there isn't enough juice in the battery bank. I will update
when I get a chance and hopefully add some thermal images at high power
operation as time and weather permits.

20 Dec 2014:

Today is a sunny day. Now we proceed with some high power testing! Battery
voltage is at 14.5V before the test, ambient temp at around 29degC. The load is
a 1500W rated microwave oven. Measured to be around 1200W / 1400VA.

Test setup.

The
oscilloscope
measures
output
waveform via
a small 220
to 12V
transformer.
The PV is
also charging
the battery
during the

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test.

The clamshell
case makes it
convenient to
remove the
cover for
access on the
internals
during
testing.

Waveform at
no load
condition.

I would trust
the trigger
counter for
running
frequency as
it is sampled
for longer
periods. The
measure
function just
estimates it
from the
displayed
waveform.

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Waveform at
full load.
There is
slight
noisiness in
the output
but is still an
unclipped
sine wave.

There is also
very little
noticeable
voltage drop
showing that
output
voltage is
well
regulated.

MOSFET
temperature
at over 1min
into the test.

This is not a
fair
comparison
as the fans
installed suck
air out of the
case. With
the case
open, the
fans are
actually not
helping in
cooling parts
of the
inverter. I
would assume then, that with the inverter fully assembled, the internal temps
should be a little lower.

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The hot spot

in the middle
is the
housekeeping
regulator for
the SPWM
modulator
board.

The output
filters are
warm but
didn't get
really hot.

The common
mode filter
that I added
handled the
load well and
did not get warm.

Output IGBT
temperature.

The heatsink

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for the
output IGBTs
are a tad
cooler to the
touch than
the main
switching
MOSFETs.

The hot part

here appears
to be the one
set of the
fuses in the
middle.

Seems the
other set of
fuses are
getting hot
too.

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The test appears to be a success. There are a bunch of hot spots but my
MOSFET upgrade seems to be holding up. I don't intend to power anything
heavier than this microwave oven so the inverter will have an easy time on my
usual loads. I have also found another Chinese company selling the same inverter
under a different brand. Same size, same topology, same heatsink extrusion!
same endpanel layouts and connectors but different case color. The specs are
the same as what I measured - Idle current, over voltage and under voltage
protection points, etc but is instead rated at 1000W cont/2000W peak.

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Page created and copyright R.Quan © 16 Dec 2014.

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