Inverters: Discussion here.

Bronze · Post by **Bronze** » 27 December 04 11:14 pm

This is an interter.

It basically changes 12 volts (Car power) to 240 volts (house power). Although you do have to be a little bit careful with them they are very handly for suited applications. The one I'm looking at is a baby inverter (150watt). For comparison a average light bulb is 75 watts and vacume cleaner 1200 watts. You can get much much bigger ones (800w) if you have the need like fridges and jugs or more importantly the prices are high but are coming down as they become more popular.

There was a couple of posts on inverters but I can't find the bloody things.

It went along the way of Inverters at Aldi (300w for $59). Well I went to there website and there was no mention so I went and seen them (Glendale) and they knew nothing about them. So anyway, I left seeking an inverter for my laptop in the capable hands of my caching Brother-In-Arms 'Doogan'. Here what he found:

http://www.dse.com.au/cgi-bin/dse.store ... View/M5110

In case the link is gone here are the details. The most important first.

Price- $50
DIGITOR Inverter 12V-240V 150W
This inverter is ideal for running small appliances like a portable television , Radio Cassette, CD Player that have a 12v source input.
DC Input Voltage: 10-15 Volt (12V Nominal)
Output Frequency: 50Hz + 1%
Output Wave Form: Modified Sine wave
Output Power: 160W (surge) 150W (continuous)
AC Output Voltage: 230-240V AC
Low Battery Alarm: Below 10.5V DC
Weight: 700g
Efficiency: 90%
No Load Current Draw:
Replacement for M 5100

Anyhow - It's been purchase and all is good. The toshiba with Ozi and GSAK is apparently humming along just fine and doing all that it's ment to do. Cheers mate. Hope you have a rippa holiday and your caching bounty is plentyful.

Bronze.
Feel free to post advice, stories, opinions, enhancements.

Geof · Post by **Geof** » 27 December 04 11:41 pm

One of the electronic mobs has a kit that converts 12 - 19 / 24 or what ever your laptop uses. I think that would be the 1 item solution. Some mates of mine took these type of inverters camping and tryed to use small plugpack transformers with them. They got fryed

probebly due to the strange waveform.
I have also played with running colour TVs of these. If your TV is rated say 75 watts you need at least a 300 watt inverter to get it going. The degausing circuit is very hungery on start up. I tryed the same TV on a 100 watt unit and it would run if I stared the TV on the power point thus geting the degausing posistor hot then pluging into the inverter but it would not start it from cold (even with a 150 watt surge rating).
Avoid running induction motors of them too (fridges pumps bench grinders etc etc)

Bronze · Post by **Bronze** » 28 December 04 12:31 am

Yes - I read a very informative thread a couple of nights ago on a 4WD forum here in Oz. The advice from there was very good. I have really no need for TV's, fridges, circular saws when camping. I was considering running a fluro light but when I though about it some more really there are very good fluros that run happily off 12 volts - to quote Steve Irwin," Don't Muck with it!"

I think at the most I will be running the laptop when on the run. I know many other more, how should we say, less camping orientated and lacking applianced challenged (Eg: Microwave, TV, Fridge and Aircon in the Caravan) will struggle with a 150 watt.

Bronze.

Post by **CraigRat** » 28 December 04 1:44 am

Funny you should mention this 150W unit Bronze....

I bought one from DES today...

My Laptop's power supply is rated at 70W so I thought... ok.. this'll do...

After 15 minutes operation, the Inverter shut off due to its intenal thermal protection... a quick power cycle later, and its runnig on AC power again... then .... off it goes...

Had to direct the cars aircon vents in the back seat over the unit to keep it from shutting down....

Any one else had this happen???

Lt. Sniper · Post by **Lt. Sniper** » 28 December 04 3:36 am

Well its definitely not 70 watts use but on most of the BBW basecamps there is a guy who brings along an inverter and motorbike battery and it powers 4 bright lights for 2-3 days. Its great for setting up near an eating area etc...

Kerry · Post by **Kerry** » 28 December 04 9:35 am

I believe a few of you have it a little wrong as 150W isn't enough to run a 70W AC/DC power supply. The 70watts in this case relates to the DC OUTPUT and for a laptop to run from 70watts is conditional on the actual volatge and amps required by the laptop. 70 watts @ 19.6volts is around 3.5 amps so if the notbook requires more than 3.5 amps @ 19.6 volts then the adapter watts must be increased to either a 90 or 120watt adapter.

150Watts @ 240 volts is 0.625 amps and most laptop AC/DC adapters are around 1.5 amps and 1.5 amps requires at least 360 watts and wilth loss more like a 500 watt inverter.

Laptops/PC's don't really like modified sine wave and I certainly wouldn't be running a laptop for any length of time from these cheap inverters.

Powering a laptop then either pure sine (minimum 500 watt) or best go with a DC/DC adapter.

Cheers, Kerry.

Geof · Post by **Geof** » 28 December 04 11:19 am

One of the electronic mobs has a kit that converts 12 - 19 / 24 or what ever

This is the thing I was talking about:
http://www.dse.com.au/cgi-bin/dse.store ... View/K3234

For the record I have nothing to do with DSE and the item is available from other companies. Could be worth talking to Pesky??

Want a real inverter?
http://www.selectronic.com.au/inverter/sine.html

Better check with your bank manager first however

I'v been to their factory and yes they are made in Australia.

(I'v nothing to do with them eather)

Geof · Post by **Geof** » 28 December 04 12:09 pm

Always make sure the company has full service backup and full schematic diagrams + a full range of spares before you spend money on big $$ inverters & make sure they will keep these for a good few years (get that signed and in writeing). Oh and make sure your warranty starts from when you buy it not when the wholesaler buys it

I have seen people get "burnt"

(wholesalers be carefull too)

aloysius · Post by **aloysius** » 28 December 04 3:14 pm

i have a 500w cheapy that i bougt off ebay ages ago which has worked a treat for a heap of different things....mainly used for a lead lamp whilst camping/ fishing at night and also to power cd player/ radio while camping. I have to admit i havent tried it on the laptop yet but its not far away. I have an 80watt solar panel planned for klaus the kombi's roof and two big 200ah deep cycle batteries. With these and the 500w inverter i hope to get most things i need done in the camper[/url]

Dooghan · Post by **Dooghan** » 28 December 04 7:38 pm

To give everyone a little background. The laptop battery is dead. The only way I can power it is by the mains. So I rang the Bronze to see if an inverter would work and what size would I need. He told me a 150W and NOT to get a square wave. So off I go to DSE only to find out they are all modified sine wave but one. As I didn't know what modified sine wave was I went up to the counter and asked if it was good enough to run a laptop. They said yes but you will need a 300W one. As the laptop is only a 266MHz, with 96MB ram, 2Gig harddrive and the laptop cost $50 I thought I would give the 150W ago. Well it all worked and the inverter didn't even get hot. I took it for a 1 hour drive to test it out and to test out the moving map on oziexplorer. The AC adaptor for the laptop wants an input of AC 100v - 240v ~ 1.50A - 0.85A 50 - 60Hz with an output of DC 15v 4A.

Now to the question. I want to use the laptop in the car on my holiday down in Brisbane (3 to 10 Jan) for caching. For the hour that I used it it worked. If I was to use it any longer will I have trouble with it. Will the laptop blow up in lap and I have to spend my holiday in hospital or should I take it back and get the pure sine wave which was a 300w

Dooghan

Kerry · Post by **Kerry** » 28 December 04 8:24 pm

Dooghan, A 300W pure sine is not going to be cheap and certainly a lot more expensive than a straight Air/Car DC/DC (or dual AC/DC to DC) Notebook adapter. There's probably not going to be much of a cost difference between a 150W mod sine inverter, which are relatively cheap (& nasty) and a Air/Car notebook adapter especially considering a 150W inverter really falls short of the power required.

The only thing to ensure with any Air/Car DC/DC adapter is that your particular notebook is supported and is capable of being configured (manually or via a power tip) to give 15V DC @ 4A.

Cheers, Kerry.

GammaPiSigma · Post by **GammaPiSigma** » 28 December 04 8:42 pm

Dooghan,
<br>
Have a look at this link: http://www1.electusdistribution.com.au/ ... &SUBCATID=
<br>
I have one of these and they work fine. You don't have to go along the inverter path to power a laptop in the car. Get Pesky to quote you on one, his prices are very competitive (wish I had known his prices when I bought mine). Looking at the specs it should be able to deliver the 15VDC @ 5A that you require.
<BR>
Hope this helps.
<br>
Mike.

Kerry · Post by **Kerry** » 28 December 04 9:44 pm

Star Burst: Contains Dell Laptop compatible plug

I wouldn't believe that bit as the question should be WHICH Dell laptop, Dell has several quirky laptops, which that adpater has absolutely no capability to power.

Cheers, Kerry.

Cached · Post by **Cached** » 28 December 04 9:55 pm

I've been uing a 150W DSE inverter for six months now running a Dell laptop. Never had a problem with it.

Have never tried to run anything else on it. My Dell 8600 didn't fit a generic adapter so I took this option.

I've driven Adelaide - Melbourne with it several times. It does need some air around it, but nothing major - just don't dump gear on it etc.

My 10c