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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Could these modules be old Motorola Solavolts
possibly? That's what Photocomm switched to marketing at one point in
between its ARCO days and their later Kyocera times. That was when
Motorola sold the entire Solavolt operation to us. I was the
person who managed the Motorola account for Photocomm then and that was during
the late 1980s and early 1990s. That was also a very strange time as
well. My Motorola client had discovered that Pcomm was bootlegging
Kyocera modules to them with the Solavolt labels attached after Pcomm
ran out of their purchased Solavolt inventory and suddenly had no "official"
module supplier anymore. Did the Solavolts have round J-boxes? I
don't recall now. Maybe so. What's the module application
involved? Is it telecom or something else?</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=bob-o@electronconnection.com
href="mailto:bob-o@electronconnection.com">Bob-O Schultze</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org
href="mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org">RE-wrenches</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, October 22, 2009 10:43
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [RE-wrenches] "Name that
solar module" guessing game!</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Mick,
<DIV>The predecessor to the K-51 was the J-51 which had round Jboxes as you
describe. They were located about 1/3rd of the way down from the edge of the
module. Before those were the J48 and before those were the J45. That would be
circa 1988-1994. Haven't seen any recently, but I recall the EVA would brown
right in front of the Jbox. Looked like a coffee cup stain. Dunno about the
yellowing.</DIV>
<DIV>Quite a few of us old grey beards sold them for some time back in the
days when Al Panton ran Kyocera US. Then they had a bright idea, got into bed
with Photocomm exclusively and quite selling directly to us. Japanese
marketing 101. Pissed everybody off and worked out so well for Kyo that they
had to eventually take over PComm to keep it from going under.</DIV>
<DIV>Bonus points AND a history lesson!</DIV>
<DIV>Cheers, Bob-O</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR>
<DIV>
<DIV>On Oct 22, 2009, at 2:59 PM, Mick Abraham wrote:</DIV><BR
class=Apple-interchange-newline>Set the dials on the Wayback Machine,
Wrenches!<BR><BR>The modules which I wish to identify had bright blue
polycrystal square cells, before the yellowing and discoloration occurred.
<BR><BR>They are 50' high on a 12:12 metal roof, and 45 minutes from the
nearest emergency room. I am not anxious to make that climb but a friendly
helper was going up anyway, so he took some photos. Unfortunately, the labels
could not be read or photographed. Dimensions of the frames are, sadly,
unavailable.<BR><BR>There is one telltale clue, however, which will no doubt
yield the Correct Answer from one of the Mechanics: The junction boxes are
round with a bayonet mount cover that rotates to liberate the cover. The boxes
are big and deep. (I hate to mention that because some of us liked things
better when we had big and deep junction boxes, and I don't want this thread
to go off topic.)<BR><BR>My own guess is Kyocera brand, possibly earlier than
the venerable K-51. Alas, my little gray cells are not what they used to be,
so I'm polling the group. The yellowing does point away from my own guess
because I had not seen that on Kyocera brand, nor on other polycrystal
brands.<BR><BR>All Correct Respondents have my permission to take the rest of
the day off! Bonus Points if a Correct Respondent can also state approximate
time of manufacture.<BR><BR>Thanks for helping,<BR><BR clear=all>Mick Abraham,
Proprietor<BR><A
href="http://www.abrahamsolar.com/">www.abrahamsolar.com</A><BR><BR></DIV><BR></DIV>
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