Power Inverters

Thank you sir.

 

I ordered refurbished /MOTOMASTER ELIMINATOR 1750 WATTS POWER INVERTER from ebay last week and it arrived today. Description said no remote, but it was included. $65 free shipping. Very happy, ordered another one just incase. Looks solid build.

 

I have a flat top and was wondering where people put the inverter.

 

I have a 1500w power inverter in my truck. I run my Igloo 40oz Iceless cooler on it 24/7, no problems, my laptop when I use it, charge my cell phone on it. The only time I have trouble with it is when I use my Kuerig Mini Coffee Maker. I guess it uses alot of power to heat up the water. I don't know the wattage, but I would think a 1500W inverter would handle it. It handles it sometimes, but sometimes I have to turn my truck on to let it make my coffee without my coffee maker shutting off.

 

Delete please

 

I purchased a Cobra 1500W inverter for the truck and got it installed. The only thing I was running on it was a 22 inch television and playstation 3 system. No problems that is until the other night. Got stopped and set up tv. Nothing on so I figured play some games until I turned in for the night or watch a movie. Well plugged up the console and nothing no power light no indication of power whatsoever. Figured that maybe it was the plug so I tried all three plugs on the inverter and nothing. Television worked fine on all three. Thought maybe there might be something wrong with the inverter and the devices pulling too much so I tried the console by itself still didn't get power. I figured ok my console is shot so took it out and when I got home plugged it up and boom it came on. The inverter shows to be drawing 14 volts from the trucks electrical system and runs the television fine still. Someone said check the fuse but if a fuse went out it wouldn't power on at all would it? I figured just a television and console shouldn't overload the unit and I am not getting any low voltage warning beeps. Any ideas?

 

It's possible that the modified sine wave output of the inverter is incompatible with the game console's power supply, and is activating it's protective circuitry. I've had trouble with some HP printers that way in the past.

One other thing you might try is checking to make sure that the TV and game console aren't pulling more current than the inverter is capable of supplying. At 110 VAC out, the inverter can supply 13.6 Amps.

 

My 22" Samsung draws 35W, and the original PS3 "fat" system uses around 200W, so you aren't pulling too much power.

Was the PS3 working on the inverter at any time? If so, something has changed. It could be something as simple as you had your laptop charger plugged in, and now you don't.

After you checked the PS3 in the house, did you try it again in the truck? Could be the power cord wasn't plugged into the back of the PS3 quite right.

It could be something simple, like the TV was turned on before the PS3. Or maybe the truck was running.

The power coming out of a modified sine wave (MSW) inverter like the Cobra is absolutely horrible. To use a CB analogy, the power from your house (or a "true sine wave" inverter) is like a CBer with a well set up rig, and sounds like the local talk radio station. The MSW equivalent is the CBer whose radio has been "tweaked and peaked" by Bubba the CB Monkey, and has everything turned up to 11. You can hear him, all right, even 4 channels away. The problem is all you hear is noise, and have a heck of a time understanding what he said.

Like IP said, it's very possible that the power supply in the PS3 simply doesn't like the power that the Cobra produces. To carry the above analogy to its ludicrous conclusion, the noise is so bad that the PS3 has its fingers in its ears, its eyes closed, and singing "la la la la" as loud as it can until the noise goes away...

 

Solar panel contractors tend to use high quality inverters, some brands are Xantrex and Aims that make small (1,000 watt and up) 12 volt inverters in pure sinewave and modified sinewave.

It is easy to confuse amps when converting from 12v dc to 110v ac for example the 1,000 watt microwave on 110 volt ac circuit uses about 9amps ( 9.09 amps x 110 volts = 1000 watts) for an inverter drawing from a 12 volt dc system 83.33 amps are needed ( 83.33 amps x 12 volts = 1000 watts ) That's about 10 times the amps on the dc side.
The short version is you need 10 times the amps on the 12 volt side

83 amps requires a 6 or 7 gauge wire minimum and that's without considering the inefficiency of the inverter.
The 400 watt cigarette lighter plug in inverters are cheating by using peak watts for advertising purposes. The 400 watt inverter would need 33.33 amps dc to run at 400 watts ac (without considering conversion inefficiency). I think the outlets have 10 and 20 amp fuse capacity (I could be wrong) but I don't think they are over 30 amps unless they are heavy duty with thicker gauge wire. So a 20 amp outlet is going to provide 240 watts max before blowing a fuse. In reality it is probably a 200 watt continuous and 400 watt peak inverter. It can deliver 400 watts, but only for a fraction of a second before the fuse wire overheats and melts thus blowing the fuse.

For those of us that are prohibited from using a larger than cigarette lighter inverter, has anyone combined a deep cycle marine battery with a 1500 to 2000 watt inverter and a charger that plugs into the cigarette lighter. This would need a battery with a high amp hour rating probably 125 to 150 and the microwave or coffee maker would only be able to run for 20 minutes before over draining the battery, but who microwaves for 20 minutes anyway. The recharging would be tricky, it could be through the chassis battery by way of the cigarette plug. The alternator would push the recharging directly. That might overcharge and cause hydrogen gas formation so be careful with open flame near the battery. Or use a regular automotive ac battery charger set to slow charge and plugged into the cigarette lighter inverter to take dc convert it to ac then back to dc ( very inefficient but perhaps safer) The charger could trickle charge when the battery is full. You might get 4 heavy uses per day with several hours of charging in between to fully recharge. If direct charging dc to dc through the lighter outlet remember to pull the plug out before using the inverter or it would over draw on the 20 amp fuse. Checking the battery maximum discharge rate is a must, it might take 2 batteries to prevent overheating a single battery

Does this violate company policy, I don't know, but the rules don't appear to be broken because all that went into the cigarette lighter outlet was an inverter made for that purpose. Also devise a tie down for the battery box, don't want it flying around the cab. This setup would cost about $250 to $300 broken down as $120 battery $130 modified sinewave Xantrex $30 charger, $20 battery box and heavy guage wire.

Ok, now I'm ready to be called crazy, likely to blow up the truck, likely to be fired. So please be my reality check, Is a $300 science project worth a Microwaved Burrito? I would like to find out

 

I imagine you just leave the alone...