Inverters

[DealorNoDeal]

I hope your car is insured for fire, 150W through that, expect smoke and some flames.

It is rated at 150W but I'll only be drawing 60W which at 12V is only 5A.

[DealorNoDeal]

However, maybe just to be of the safe side, I'll get one which connects directly to the battery rather than through the lighter socket.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Unboxed the 4 stroke petrol generator yesterday, the 2 stroke generator having been unboxed a couple of years ago by the rats.

Once I've figured out how to get the engine oil in the 4 stroke version I'll try starting the fecker, followed by finding the 2 stroke oil & trying to start that one.

Both have 12V battery charging ports so that would be a way of charging a leisure battery and running an inverter for the sensitive electronicky stuff.

[DealorNoDeal]

If we do get rolling power cuts this winter, I've got this mental image of suburban streets, up and down the country, ringing to the sound of petrol generators.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Some of us remember the days when you could have a soldering iron on for a max 3 hours a shift.

Ah, dear dead days beyond recall. .

Odd how they've come back again.

<hiatus>

Well that was fun.

The PPG1KVA generator finally agreed to start, what it didn't agree to do was generate.

After some minor googling turns out that it might be "the condensor", this being a 12uF 450V Chinese special.

Ok, says I, lets go measure the fecker: not 12uF but 1.8uF according to one capacitance meter (I haven't got a condensor meter), and 2.3uF according to the other.

Ok, says I, there's some 650V 4uF capacitors down in the shed taken out of a 1952 Hartley 13A oscilloscope.

In the best Strangelove bodge it and run approach, the 3 capacitors were connected together and connected across the "12uF" Chinese special, then installed (lethally as is only right & correct) in the generator.

And Voila! started the engine (2nd pull, what a thing), out comes 220V.

Plugged in a 300W lamp and lo! it lit up.

16V coming out of the DC port.

So the el cheapo Carlos Fandango piece of Chinese crap now does more or less what it says on the tin.

So, to sum up: buy the Lidl(tm) one, it'll probably last longer, be better built, and do the job.

Didn't have chance to look at the wave form coming out of the fecker, that's for Another Day.

Here's the capacitor sorry, condensor:

https://generatorguru.com/capacitor-block-19747322/

And according to that, run anything sensitive off it at your own risk.

Which I won't be doing anytime soon.

DC output to battery & inverter instead.

Bet the other Chinese POS is just as fecked.

Rather than spending £25 for the approved part, a similar part that'll hang outside the alternator is £9.99 from Amazon.

Which sounds good to me since it's polypropylene not fecking paper.

This is the chap who posted the solution:

https://www.bentasker.co.uk/posts/do...no-output.html

Whereas CPC have a 12uF 450V motor capacitor for £5. Bargain.

In other other news, the inverter that's sat in the cupboard upstairs for about 10 years has just been tested & it works.

Modified sine. Not that I've bothered looking at it with a scope, it measures about 170V on an average indicating meter.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Well there's a thing:

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/what-lette...173121438.html


If it gets to level 18 we're all fecked: back to the middle ages.

[DoctorStrangelove]

<sing> There's good times just around the corner </sing> Must be the sunlit uplands or sommat.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/govt-testi...225700871.html

"Programme Yarrow":

The government is testing plans to cope with energy blackouts that could last up to seven days, according to a report.

Or, rather more likely:

[_V_]

If there is no power for 7 days, it means everyone's fridge and freezer food is ruined, every shop, warehouse and supermarket chilled and frozen food is ruined.

Basically back to the middle ages.

[Lance]

If there is no power for 7 days, it means everyone's fridge and freezer food is ruined, every shop, warehouse and supermarket chilled and frozen food is ruined.

Basically back to the middle ages.

they're not going to cut off supermarkets, hospitals, data centres, telephone exchanges, or any other critical national infrastructure. Just domestic properties.

Suggesting there might be no power at all for 7 days is hyperbolic.

[_V_]

they're not going to cut off supermarkets, hospitals, data centres, telephone exchanges, or any other critical national infrastructure. Just domestic properties.

Suggesting there might be no power at all for 7 days is hyperbolic.

I hope you don't have a fridge or freezer full of food at that point. And your gas boiler won't run without power so no heating or hot water for a week too.