what are these components?

Those sacrifical MOVs - people like Pianotuner or Mexico snowbirds would have to carry a handful of spares. USPS to Canada works so-so, I forgot how they call that cross-border subsidiary. In Mexico parcel services of any kind don't work reliably, pony express - with truck drivers or somebody going your way - is usually preferred.

40 plus years in electrical and electronics
First time I ever saw Low voltage called a surge

Movs protect against transients
And they Are sacrificial Because they degrade , and eventfully fail completely
The more often they are forced to do their job
The sometime they degrade beyond being useful
At some point the "suppressor device" has to be replaced
Or in this case the device repaired by replacing the movs

Edit.. Fix typos

Hi westom,

Would you care to elaborate on the difference between a protector used in homes versus the PI?

The second paragraph would make more sense (to me) if you said "Failures addressed in campgrounds" rather than using the word "surges".

westom wrote:
A protector used in homes protects from surges different from what PI would protect from in campgrounds.

Surges most often addressed in campgrounds are floating ground, high or low voltage, and reversed polarity. To say more requires numeric specs for that model.

Hi westom,

I have never ever seen high voltage in a campground. (I'm not saying it doesn't exist)

Plenty of low voltage though. In fact endemic.

westom wrote:
high or low voltage,

SoundGuy wrote:
Yes, the MOVs used for surge protection are considered sacrificial and can eventually fail if they sustain sufficient surges but in such a case all one needs to do is call Progressive and they will mail out by USPS a new MOV circuit board.

Sacrificial MOVs violate MOV manufacturer datasheets. A sacrificial protector did not do protection. That catastrophic failure is completely unacceptable - considered a human safety threat. Normal failure mode for MOVs is degradation. That means MOVs still operate; but at voltages at least 10% from its original design.

A word 'surge' has numerous meanings. For example, polarity reversal is a surge. Too little voltage is a surge. Too much current is a surge. No surge protector protects from all. A protector used in homes protects from surges different from what PI would protect from in campgrounds. Honest answers numerically detail various anomalies.

Surges most often addressed in campgrounds are floating ground, high or low voltage, and reversed polarity. To say more requires numeric specs for that model.

Hi Almot,

I thought the PI unit had better surge protection than the Hughes. I posted the picture because I could not believe the PI unit would only use MOV type surge protection. I guess I was wrong (again).

I don't need anything more than very basic surge protection. However I did spend 4 hours plus parts to assemble the Sola. The good part is that I can check it is actually working because of how I added outlets.

Most folks do not wish to "roll their own" but the Sola may be a more effective autoformer than the Hughes, having three "levels" of boost, and one level of buck. However I've only measured below 100 volts once, so that probably isn't a good reason for the Sola.

If you plan on Mexico where both boost and buck would be needed then the Sola is a heck of a lot better buy at $178 US verus $387 US for the Hughes. The Hughes is more fully featured and has some surge in place.

Almot wrote:
Hey Don, is this why said that Hughes with surge ($400?) would've been better than $200 SOLA + $400 PD surge? ;)

dougrainer wrote:
I KNOW what they are:p Doug

You'd be surprised ... many don't. :R

Hey Don, is this why said that Hughes with surge ($400?) would've been better than $200 SOLA + $400 PD surge? ;)

The big black box is of course the case, Inside the case the blue things are MOV's spike supressors that handle short high voltage SPIKES lasting usually less than 1/50th of a second. The big thing with the screws is a relay or at that level a "Contactor" (another name for a high power relay) Top right is the electronics

Bubble wrap,, the bottom left one looks like a ferrite ring, this is used as a current sensor. Top right one I can not see through but it might be a w2nd one.. or one of them could be the remote panel

"Telephone" cord connects the remote to the HW X0c
Bottom package is crimp on lugs for the wires
This looks liek a 30 amp unit.

Does this help.. You should have a manual that explains all of this.. I'm going on training, but I've never actually seen one of these. so it's all training.