Does anybody here fix Soliton or Zilla controllers or chargers?

[Clipper81]

Hi, all,

I posted this in the DIYElectricCar forum, seems like people were nudging me over here. Didn't know that Open Inverter existed.

Wolftronix got back to me, he says he doesn't fix stuff anymore.

I just tried to go to Manzanita Micro's website, couple of days ago it was there, now it isn't. And Rich Rudman has not returned any of my emails.

I finally got my Soliton Jr installed, it ran well and then quit after a few minutes. Desaturation error, when I press the accelerator pedal. I found an old post on that very subject; according to Tesseract, who designed and built the controller, one or more of the IGBT's may have failed. I know these can be replaced, but I don't have the skills or knowledge to do that.

Speaking of Tesseract, he has not been seen in years, and he did not respond to my email.

Does anyone know anyone who can fix this stuff anymore? there are some really cool conversions that are going to die if we can't get them fixed.

Thanks for listening...

[P.S.Mangelsdorf]

I don't know of anyone that fixes for hire, but I do know there are many members of this community that would be willing to help walk you through it. There is a thread about replacing IBGTs on blown Tesla inverters, and it basically boils down to find the part numbers of the failed parts, order new ones, unsolder and resolder. Sounds simple, but there is definitely work to figure out what failed and what parts to replace them with.

Given the age of the Soliton and that the company (to my understanding) is long gone, it's likely the components used are obsolete. There may be similar options available or NOS components out there, but it will require leg work. (For example, I'm in the process of repairing a Tesla inverter, and it looks like the IGBTs are obsolete and there are none left in the USA, but plenty new in packaging available from China)

If you do want to attempt the repair yourself, I'd recommend a) proceeding slowly and carefully b) posting a ton of photos and c) being unafraid to ask questions.