Power Inverter A/C Power Voltage Quality - Oscilloscope Display

[WILDHOBO]

the opposite of a pure sine wave inverter. In other words, very bad news for sensitive electronics. If I knew this I would not have used that inverter to test my starlink mini. Hmm.... Pretty surprising, but also not surprising. I wonder if the one in the bed is any better for those who have that. But the factory inverter can be had for a couple hundred bucks I think which is very cheap compared to a high quality unit.

We actually had an issue with Starlink with the large mobility panel for the first time in over a year. It kept rebooting the WiFi router. The Jeep was running and it was running off the inverter. I moved it to the goal zero 1500 and it never recurred. I was at the time charging the goal zero, and charging a Milwaukee battery. So I was using more watts than usual, but I absolutely wasn’t getting close to 400w. The goal zero uses a max of 118w when charged via 120v. Starlink uses between 60 and 100w. I don’t know what the Milwaukee charger uses, but it was an old one, meaning not a fast or super charger. Either way, no more jeep inverter for Starlink, except maybe if it’s the only thing plugged in. But probably still not.

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[WILDHOBO]

I power my GoalZero from a 12v outlet rather than try to charge it from AC - too much lost converting from the truck's 12v to AC and then back again to charge the power station and the heat from the transformer tells me it's a waste.
So I've never bothered trying to use AC to charge it. I use either solar or DC unless I'm at home then I top it off from the home outlets.

I then wonder - why use the AC instead of charging a DC device via 12v DC? Seems like a loss of energy to heat and the double conversion as you convert from the truck's DC to higher voltage AC and then with your power station, from AC down to a lower voltage DC again to charge the battery in it.

I agree completely, but I don’t have a 12v charger for the goal zero. It didn’t come with one, other than the small Anderson connectors on the solar cable. What connector are you using to charge it via dc? I’m now looking it up to find one. I really don’t like the heat generated by the transformer. How many incoming watts do you get when charging?

 

[WILDHOBO]

I power my GoalZero from a 12v outlet rather than try to charge it from AC - too much lost converting from the truck's 12v to AC and then back again to charge the power station and the heat from the transformer tells me it's a waste.
So I've never bothered trying to use AC to charge it. I use either solar or DC unless I'm at home then I top it off from the home outlets.

I then wonder - why use the AC instead of charging a DC device via 12v DC? Seems like a loss of energy to heat and the double conversion as you convert from the truck's DC to higher voltage AC and then with your power station, from AC down to a lower voltage DC again to charge the battery in it.

Is this the charger you use? It says it’s got a 15amp fuse, so if the Jeep can give 15amp, that’d be 180 watts, and way more efficient than the ac adapter.

Edit: I now see the switch to choose either 5 or 10amps, so 120w max. Pretty much the same as the 118 that the ac charger puts out. I still like the fact that it won’t get hot.

 

[ChaseAlberti]

Hey guys, EE jumping in here that works with mostly analog and power designs. The transformers used in the vast majority of AC to DC power supplies are switched mode. In fact, you can power a lot of AC to DC power supplies with high voltage DC. There is often a small controller inside that PWM/PFM's the bottom side of the transformer primary, typically in the 100's of kHz. This is done so that the transformer size can be greatly reduced. Any electronics downstream won't "care" about what the AC waveform is because they only see the cleaned up DC.

But holy crap, that's a terrible inverter! I would suspect they have push-pull type transformer and are simply driving it with cheap FETs and small MCU. You could probably whip up something similar with a 555 timer.

 

[WILDHOBO]

Hey guys, EE jumping in here that works with mostly analog and power designs. The transformers used in the vast majority of AC to DC power supplies are switched mode. In fact, you can power a lot of AC to DC power supplies with high voltage DC. There is often a small controller inside that PWM/PFM's the bottom side of the transformer primary, typically in the 100's of kHz. This is done so that the transformer size can be greatly reduced. Any electronics downstream won't "care" about what the AC waveform is because they only see the cleaned up DC.

But holy crap, that's a terrible inverter! I would suspect they have push-pull type transformer and are simply driving it with cheap FETs and small MCU. You could probably whip up something similar with a 555 timer.

It makes me want to remove the inverter, replace it with a better one, and do the work to retain the outlet location on the console.

 

[Radio Guy]

I think the stock inverter lives under the dash on the drivers side and it’s very small, maybe somebody can confirm that. It might make a nice project to find a pure sinewave replacement with a control line that will power it on and off with the ignition just like the stock one and maybe up the power to 500-600w.

 

[WILDHOBO]

I think the stock inverter lives under the dash on the drivers side and it’s very small, maybe somebody can confirm that. It might make a nice project to find a pure sinewave replacement with a control line that will power it on and off with the ignition just like the stock one and maybe up the power to 500-600w.

I might be that person. Sounds fun.

 

[Radio Guy]

I might be that person. Sounds fun.

I can’t believe it’s not done yet……

 

[WILDHOBO]

I can’t believe it’s not done yet……

Good stuff. I need to polish the new steering setup first. Then go wheeling and camping a bunch before mountain summer is over.

 

[ChaseAlberti]

I might be that person. Sounds fun.

I'm thinking if you wanted to put a much larger inverter >1 kW. There's enough room under the console.

 

[WILDHOBO]

I'm thinking if you wanted to put a much larger inverter >1 kW. There's enough room under the console.

I honestly don’t care if it’s huge or not. Just pure sine wave. When I need a new project to occupy me, I’ll see how big the Oem one is. It’d be pretty cool to put it in the same location.

 

[guntrust]

I recently got this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0767F5DPJ?th=1

Actually picked it up at a local Home Depot due to delivery delays with Amazon.

Not a pure sine wave inverter, whatever that is, but worked fine with my coffee maker which is about all i plan to use it for.

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