New Electrical Supply for Computers
I am afraid the little Honda generator is no more. When I started it this time, it was a bit reluctant, and only wanted to run with the choke on.
But then it made a horrible clattering noise, as of innards being minced up. I stopped it promptly, and found an impressive garden machine place in Torquay who specialise in Honda machines and had a decent looking workshop. They opened up the generator, and said numerous bits were damaged – cylinder, piston plus rings, etc. In the view of the mechanic, it was not worth repairing, though they could do it for around £400. Ouch! He reckoned the culprit was a small piece of wire which had somehow got into the works.
So I have written that off. It cost £299 second hand about four years ago – maybe not a great buy.
We have used an inverter off car batteries for most events, plugging in to the “cigarette lighter” socket. For my old car that worked pretty well, and the 150W inverter was enough for two laptops plus two printers if required without emptying the battery, at an average event. The trouble with modern cars is that the 12V power outlet referred to above is only live with the ignition switched on. And the ignition circuit by itself does a pretty good job of flattening the battery when the engine is not running.
The following paragraphs are only for those who require all the technical detail.
I spoke to Barry Olds in KERNO. At the moment he is relying on the internal laptop battery. Our little white netbooks are supposed to last a whopping ten hours, but all rechargeable batteries gradually lose capacity, and need recharging after shorter and shorter periods of use. Barry found a 24V battery to supply the splits printer directly. Good solution if you have a charger. He has a spare supply lead as they had to replace their printer so that he can still run it off the mains supply. We also like to use an A4 printer in the field at big events, and mine, which I am happy to use, requires straight 240V.
It may seem a bit contrary to produce 240V from a 12V battery with an inverter and then reduce it again to whatever the computers and printers require. But it works as 240V AC is a common denominator.
After some cogitation I have gone for a heavy-duty electrical solution.
12V leisure battery from Halfords 70 Ah (ampere hours)
300W inverter which attaches to the battery with large crocodile clips
Two battery clamps if we need them
I also bought a 4-way extension cable, as the one with blue wire is actually mine.
I am confident this will work. I have a charger for the leisure battery.The main problem is that the battery is a bit heavy. I could have bought a smaller capacity battery from a specialist supplier, which would be smaller and lighter. But the price would be about the same. The Halfords batteries have a three-year guarantee.
PTO photo.
I hope the connections are self-evident, red to red and black to black. Red is positive.
I have highlighted the + and – on the battery. The inverter should have an incorrect polarity protection circuit if you get it wrong.
There is a power switch on the end of the inverter. 1 is on, 0 is off.
I would connect up to the battery, and then switch on rather than vice-versa, though it makes little difference.
Equipment/New Electrical Supply for computers.docAlan Simpson
11/09/2013