Teardown of a 2.1 kW peak solar inverter, the Sunmaster / Mastervolt XS2000. It is based on TO-247 MOSFETs for voltage regulator and isolation. From the datasheet, it is actually only able to deliver 1500 Watt to the mains connection. Do you know about this secret place for MOSFET and IGBT lovers?
Maybe you are looking for other kinds of solar inverter, check out the long list of teardown videos. Firstly it could be 3 kVA Delta Solar Inverter Teardown, the Solivia 3.0 TR or Fronius IG Plus 2LT-2: 6 kW Solar Inverter Teardown and Analysis. Secondly it might be the large 10 kW Sirio 10000P Solar Inverter Teardown. Or thirdly it could be the even larger ABB TRIO 20 kW Solar Inverter – Unboxing and Teardown that you are looking for.
Inside the Mastervolt XS2000
The size and weight of 10 kg, is in the massive end for a 2 kVA unit. The enclosures features a LCD display at the front. At the bottom there is a mains cable, DC disconnect switch, two PV string connector sets and RS485 MODBUS ports.
The unit consists of several printed circuit boards, interconnected with cables. Each PCB has its own function. First there is a PCB for mains filtering. Secondly a PCB for mains output inverter. Thirdly a PCB for voltage regulation and possible isolation. Fourthly and Fifthly, PCBs for the two inverter controllers, separate from each other, but with a flat cable bus between them.
The photovoltaic panel inputs are filtered and run together through red and black wire, to the voltage regulation PCB. Two 560 uF 450 V electrolytic capacitors are used for first voltage fluctuation stabilization. The first inverter, for voltage regulation or isolation, uses a full-bridge of Infineon 35N60C3 MOSFETs, a APT30D60 diode and a single Infineon 47N60C3 MOSFET. Four On-semi ultrafast diodes U1560, sits between this inverter and the output inverter. The output inverter uses a full-bridge of Infineon 47N60C3 MOSFETs, and the PCB has room for an additional 4 MOSFETs, to put in parallel to the existing full-bridge. So it is safe to assume that these PCBs are the same to be found in higher wattage models.
Controllers in the Mastervolt XS2000
The controller boards uses microcontrollers or FPGAs, it is hard to make out due to conformal coating. The controller for the voltage regulation inverter has a 7.3 MHz crystal. There is four gate drive ICs, driving two gate drive transformers. The right side of the PCB is a housekeeping power supply. The mains output inverter controller board has two microcontrollers. One running at 4 MHz and another smaller at 16 MHz. As the MODBUS connections are tied to this board, the 16 MHz is most likely running a webserver application. The output inverter uses a different driving scheme with high side drivers. The high side drivers are HCNW3120, four of these sit next to a isolated power supply. There is also a ST “Timekeeper” “Snaphat” sitting next to a microcontroller. A RTC clock with built in lithium cell.
