On Sun, 15 Oct 2017 11:41:06 -0700,
et...@whidbey.com wrote:
>>
>>It says on it, 400 Watts continuous, 800 Watts Peak. Your calculation
>>matches the formula you posted. In that case, if it needs 33.33A to
>>operate at full load, that built in 25A fuse wont handle it.
>>
>>But I connected it to my car with NO load. Why did it blow the 15A fuse
>>in my car? Obviously it's not dead shorted. My multimeter shows around
>>500ohms on the 12V input, (which climbs over time).
>>
>>Since I posted this message, I connected it directly to a car battery
>>using jumper cables. It threw a large spark (with power switch turned
>>on), as I touched the cable to the battery. Then it appeared to work. I
>>did not attach any 120VAC device to it yet, because the weather is too
>>rainy to mess with it outdoors. But the LED indicator showed it to be
>>working.
>>
>It probably blew the fuse because the inrush current to charge the
>caps was too high for the 15 amp fuse. There are ways to limit the
>inrush current. I know that the inverter drives for my machine tool
>spindles limit this current somehow. The manuals for each machine
>mention this feature. There is a lag in the machines between powering
>up and when drives signal the control that they are ready. Or in the
>case of the inverter based welder when the internal contactor for the
>welding output is enabled. There isn't a big spike in current draw
>when it powers up or when welding commences. It ramps up the welding
>current once the arc is established.
>Eric
I sort of thought the same thing. But when I connected it directly to a
battery, using auto jumper cables, as soon as I touched the POS cable to
the battery, I got heavy sparking, so I pulled the cable off the
battery. That's when I noticed the inverter's switch was in the OFF
position. With the battery still disconnected, I flipped the switch on
the ON position, and the LEDs on the front of it, lit up for a few
seconds. Thus, some capacitor became charged up, and it's stored charge,
caused the LED to light.
At that point, I thought that this inverter is just too big for plugging
it into a cig lighter. (My old inverter which is no longer working, was
rated at 300W peak, and continuous power is 125W. That never blew any
fuses).
So, I visited a friend the next day, and was telling him about this,
when he grabbed his inverter and plugged it into my car's cig lighter
socket. It worked perfectly. His inverter is rated at 700W continuous ,
or 1400W peak. So, if his 700W cont. works fine, my 400W cont. should
not cause any problems.
The seller of that thing told me to just throw it in the trash, if it
blows fuses. Of course I wont throw it in trash, and now I am more
curious why it blows fuses and why it throws large sparks when it's
turned OFF.
The bad thing is that they dont put schematics online for them. At least
I cant find one. It's a Cobra CPI 480 model.