In 2003 for in house product, first hand held real time prepaid airtime sales terminal

This was the beginning of today’s ubiquitous POS that seamlessly has transformed our daily lives in the retail business.

A hand held terminal, aptly named as “Justloadit” using a GPRS communications platform, made a real time prepaid voucher sales receipt, 24/7, using a single stock based server and based on a float allocated to each individual sales terminal. Topping up was automatically detected when the user deposited money at any ATM, 24/7, allowing the user to efficiently use a small amount of working capital and rotating it a number of times a day. Profits for each sale were calculated at the time of sale and immediately allocated to the float. The user had his profit immediately available when ever required. A back end server monitored every single sale in real time, and allowed reports to be generated at any time by the user. Many features enjoyed by users today were based on the early adoption of these techniques. The system was so advanced at the time that a full balance sheet could be produced by the user and use it as part of their accounting systems in real time.

In 2010 Solar based Inverter

A demand for solar based inverters, arose, and Mr Das Neves stepped up to the plate, and created from scratch an innovative inverter design which was both efficient and cost effective design. To date over 3,000 of this model of inverter has been sold and can be found in many remote areas pumping water for customers. Using solar as its primary energy provider, and with little maintenance required, it has to date pumped millions of litre of water and providing lifesaving water to many communities, animal water holes and crop irrigation systems.

In 2010 PV DC to DC booster

With PV based inverters becoming a sought after product, it required ways to make use of at the time expensive PV panels. To make the products attractive to customers, the least amount of PV panels to achieve the maximum water for the lowest cost was required. This required a DC to DC converter, and extensive development was required to achieve a very efficient energy transfer converter. To date over 5,000 of these DC to DC inverters have been successfully manufactured, and are still being manufactured, and range from 260W to 3kW models.

In September 2016 PV based Geyser heating controller

At the beginning of Electrical energy issues in Zimbabwe, in which consumers had less than one month to change the energy supply from electric to solar in which was an impossible task for the then current solutions which was the evacuated tubes, which required physical modification of water pipes, a solution was created, in which the use of PV panels, with a DC to DC booster and a controller would effectively heat the water in electrical geysers, and in which the installation could be performed quickly, as the only requirement was to reroute the geyser element from the electrical grid to the Solar Geyser controller and market under the name of Usedasun. Systems using a minimum of 1.2kW, on a winter’s day will heat up 150 litre geysers by as much as a differential of 45°, and in most cases will bring the geyser water temperature above 60°C if the thermostat is set at 60°C.

A number of models have been developed for this market such as PWM Geyserwatcher, MPPT Geyserwatcher Ultra, and controllers for 2 geysers simultaneously for high hot water usage.

In January 2020 Universal Solar Inverter

With the experience gained from the earlier sales of the PV solar inverters, a new design for solar was implemented, and branded as the Apricusaqua (Apricus-aqua) Solar Drive Range. By virtue of the manner it has been designed, and by manipulating the software and the hardware, has opened the range from applications where motors from 100V to 400V AC, single phase and three phase squirrel cage induction motors can be accommodated.

Some key points :-

• Uses your existing pump and motor that has been working for years
• Uses standard mains motor and pump designs with nationwide backup and support
• Your local cooperative or dealer/installer can provide you with standard mains product information and expertise
• Uses Generator or ESKOM grid voltage when solar unavailable
• Is serviced by the usual pump and farming industry and
• Can be powered from as little as a single solar photovoltaic panel

In August 2022 Motorwatcher & Pressurewatcher motor protection controllers

The need for a low cost motor protection device to compete with imported controllers, create an opportunity to make available a new range of motr controllers under the brand name of Motorwatcher and Pressurewatcher. These models incorporate the following features

Severe faults detected

Severe faults are recognized and classified as conditions that make safe operation impossible, locking out operation.

Temporary holding or delay conditions extend operation

Temporary holding or delay conditions due to transients to prevent nuisance tripping caused by transients are activated and causes soft delay, not visible to the user or operation.

Overload delay conditions

Overload delay condition severity determines the reaction of the MOTORWATCHER® in order not to compromise motor life.

Underload delay condition

Underload delay condition invokes an intelligent waiting time determined for best operation to achieve maximum water delivery from a weak water source.

PRESSUREWATCHER® is suitable for all single and three phase borehole, surface and general water pressure applications, compatible with all borehole and other water pump controls where pressure control is required, with the above mentioned features and benefits.