Invertors

Arnold

Arnold

www.alanarnold.co.uk
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Hey guys

Im looking to get an inverter for my car, for JAE. I've checked out ebay but most of them come from hong kong and alot of negative feedbacks suggest they're unreliable items from there.

So... can anyone recommend any from over here? Im looking to charge up camera batteries, mobile phone, laptop battery, pump up air bed, that kind of thing. Im not sure what wattage i need, and how much roughly i should be paying.

I've seen one in the argos catalogue which is 300W, £60 with 2 year guarantee. Its in stock and is my last resort! Is 300W enough / too much? etc...

Cheers people
Arnold
 
Mine is yours for a tenner mate? Used it for the PS/2, have cut the ciggie lighter plug off it, but still works fine with splicers.
 
Would prefer one with the ciggy lighter end mate, nice n simple n all that :)
 
you can get them form halfords, i have a 300w one in the car with the socket flushed with the dash :p

280w is probably all you need, most of the things you want to run could probably be run straight off the cig lighter,

very cheap and easy to come by, try www.maplin.co.uk quite a few there :)
 
just wondering on this too how much power would u need say for a ps2 + screen? would u b able to plug an adaptor (4 more than 1 plug) into it or would that b too much n cause high risk of fire or something?
 
putting in a four way adaptor won't make a difference as long as all the connected equipment is below the maximun watts. most electrical stuff will have the amounts of watts it uses written on it somewhere.

but i wouldn't use an inverter i'd get a PS2 car adaptor and a 7" TFT car screen both can be run straight off the cig port.

an inverter boosts the volts but not the amps so you couldn't run something like a fridge or a vacume because they need alot of power to run which you just can't get from a car battery.

you can run pretty much anything that would normally use a transformer such as a mobile phone charger or a laptop but anything that plugs directly into the mains like a TV might not work

if you overload an inverter, the worst that will happen is the fuse will blow. make sure you ALWAYS fuse the inverter or bad things will happen :)
 
Maplin do 150w adapters which use the cigarette lighter socket. Any higher and they come with cables to directly connect them to the battery.

I've run some cabling through my car with my amp power cables, to come out under the passanger seat. I've then wired my 600w invertor directly to these cables.

150w will be fine for most laptops, chargers, etc. Mine is overkill tbh, but its only because it was on offer at Maplin, £30 instead of £70.

Hope that helps :)

With higher power equipment and invertors you'll be drawing significantly more current.

As an example, to get 240V at 1A (240w) you'll need 12V at 12A from the battery, not including voltage losses and heat losses.

Also remember most invertors do not produce perfect sine waves, but dirty ones with stepping in the wave. Not all equipment will like this, so be careful. Transformers can make interesting noises when run off invertors!

I have an invertor for all other things, and a laptop DC to DC convertor to run my GPS system :)
 
Right well i bought one off ebay anyway lol, but a UK seller.

300/600W for £30 + £10 postage & insurance.. cant complain really, most websites had simular ones for that price.

Cheers for the replies people
 
Peter has posted some excellent info here. As a side note however, do not try to draw more than 100 watts from the cigarette lighter socket for any length of time. The micra wiring is just not suited for this and youll get a massive volt drop. Instead wire the inverter directly to the battery. (Its best to do this anyway)
 
Ed's right,

don't even think the cig lighter can draw that much power before the fuse blows....

wire it the same way you'd wire an amp, with thick gauge wire and hefty fuses.
 
Ok some useful advice there, but if i was say, charging up a laptop battery.. (75w i believe that uses), could i still do that through the cigarette lighter anyway? or being a 300w inverter, will it always try and draw 300 watts, then only use 75 for charging?

I only bought 300w as it was cheapish, with the potential for being able to cope with more if required, but i doubt its going to do much more than charging etc.

The one i got >> Linky
 
it should be fine,

but then you could just get a laptop charger that plugs straight into the cig port.

you won't be able to run anything that uses the full 300w because it will blow the fuse in the cig port.
 
NeX said:
it should be fine,

but then you could just get a laptop charger that plugs straight into the cig port.

you won't be able to run anything that uses the full 300w because it will blow the fuse in the cig port.
Click to expand...

Thanks nex.. I've got a charger for my digital camera (which requires a socket) and a few other things .. also the laptop isnt mine and not worth buying an accessory charger for it! but i'l definitly use the direct battery connection if its going to be used for powerful things :)
 
Get down to Maplin. Got my 300w from there for £20. Great for playstation and I've even had a freeview digi-box running off it. Well worth.
 
no probs Arnold :)

let me know if you run into any problems installing it :)

another thing to keep in mind is keeping it cool, it won't get that hot but good air flow around the unit is recomended.

i'd go to helfrauds and get an amp wiring kit and wire it so that it sits in the boot maybe even under the spare wheel? and then run some sort of extention cord to the front that comes out in the glove box for example.

it depends on how many things your planning to run at any one time.

good luck with it mate :)
 
Broom DJ, i've already bought one!

Cheers Nex. I've bought three amp wiring kits in the last month lol.. I wont be using it that much really, one device at a time and for not very long either, and dont think it will be used often enough to be physically wired in permanently. :)
 
fair enough then :)

the only problem is you'll problaby have to connect it directly to the battery and to do that you'll have to have the bonnet open.

so if you want to drive and charge the laptop then you can't :) and i wouldn't recoment using it for a long time without the engine running.

but it depents, give it a try and see which works out for ya :)
 
NeX said:
fair enough then :)

the only problem is you'll problaby have to connect it directly to the battery and to do that you'll have to have the bonnet open.

so if you want to drive and charge the laptop then you can't :) and i wouldn't recoment using it for a long time without the engine running.

but it depents, give it a try and see which works out for ya :)
Click to expand...

Hehe thats ok, i'l pretend the laptop is some kind of engine management system for my K10! and i get to show off my recently sprayed strut brace lolol!!
 
hahaha i like it!

you just have to stand near the car with all this state of the art equipment plugged into the enigne and everyone will be asking you how much you charge to tune there engines lol,
 
It will be fine plugged into the cigarette lighter socket for the kind of things that you need :)

I run my laptop from my socket after all, but its not a high power laptop by all means!

I still have the invertor available for other things, just in case basically!!!

The cig socket in the K11 is fused at 10A and the wiring is quite thick, but I'm not sure about the K10.

Try it and see!
 
Retepetsir said:
The cig socket in the K11 is fused at 10A and the wiring is quite thick, but I'm not sure about the K10.

Try it and see!
Click to expand...

Not sure on the fusing either but the wiring is very thin. Should get it soon hopefully and will test it out!
 
I tried using a 300W invertor with a 135W laptop power supply in a K10 and the voltage drop caused the inverter's protection circuitry to kick in. Even with the laptop switched off and charging (I presume about 75W), the cabling became noticeably warm.

Something odd that I've noticed, and I really have no explanation for, is that the LED on the laptop power supply will stay on for about 2 minutes after you have unplugged it from the inverter. If it is plugged into mains, it will only stay on for 10 seconds or so. Nothing in the design of a switch mode power supply would do this, so I have no idea why.
 
My ebay inverter arrived today and im very chuffed with it! Typical the leads arent really long enough, especially the battery terminal one, but its not blown up and is fairly quiet so im happy!
 

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