Thread: Inverter not booting pc after second try

Ok a few things you should probably provide to get better answers. What type of setup are you running? I.E.(How do you have the inverter wired, what type of perifials do you have connected to the motherboard. etc) Also where is the inverter and are you shutting it off when you stop wherever you're stopping?

could be over voltage -

how new is your car battery?

Originally Posted by ChrisC

Ok what the setup is as follows:

The inverter is wired to a relay which is controlled by the remote turn on of the head unit. The inverter has its power button on all the time. Also worth mentioning is that it is a soft start inverter. The inverter is connected directly to the positive terminal from the relay and the ground of the inverter is connected to the electric anttenna ground and so is the inverter case ground. The pc case is grounded also to this point.

Also when using a diffent brand inverter direct using croc clips on the battery with no inverter case ground it worked fine. (not sure if this is relevant)

Normal pc setup really with gps and screen thats it.
Battery is just over a year old. I though it also could be over voltage so while running the engine I used a meter and it says 13.8 v at the inverter terminals 12.3 when engine off.

Any more info you think you will need?
Thanks

Including your first post that should be enough info. From what I see if everything is wired properly you shouldn't be having problems. That said three things pop out at me that could be potential problems. Remote turn on, grounds, and relay. When you used the other inverter with the clips you really didn't rule out any of these because you didn't use any of these. It's most likely something to do with the relay though. What are you using to trigger the relay?

You're set up is very similar to mine. Here's mine. I have a + coming from the battery to pin 87 on the relay. I have pin 85 on the relay grounded. I have pin 30 going direct to the inverter. I have +12 coming from head unit with diode inline going to pin 8 on comport for shutdown feature and I split this same line to go to pin 86 on the relay for the start up feature. I have another +12 going to pin 86 coming from my psu with diode inline for shutdown feature. Dunno why I posted that, but I guess that shows you that you're relay shouldn't be causing voltage problems if wired properly. The difference between your setup and mine is that I have my pc set to power on when it sees power so I don't have to hit a switch.

The issue with your pc is now even more interesting. So you say when the inverter starts up, you're seeing 13.8V at the inverter and yet the pc will just flash on for a second and then not turn on? Even worse you say that sometimes you have to wait 10-15 minutes b4 it will boot. So if you try to boot up within that time span it will only do that flash thing and then ?????

Now if your wiring is correct then I don't know what the heck to say. As mentioned b4 high voltage seems like a possbility although it just doesn't seem like that would be the case(does your inverter having warning beeps/lights).

Also as previously mentioned you could try turning the inverter off and on. Have you tried this?

Another test you could run is switching out the two inverters you have. I mean a complete swap. If the new inverter gives no issues under the same set up as the old then the issue would have to be the inverter.

Originally Posted by ChrisC

What happens when I turn on the relay to power up the inverter i can see the power led on the xenarc flashing (the xenarc is wired into the atx power supply). This is before I even try to boot it. If I press the power button I get nothing apart from a brightier flash. Its as if it spiking the voltage or interferance.

I dont think that trying to get it to boot extends the time I have to wait before it will however.
No warning beeps or fault signal, it keeps buzzing also which is somthing that would stop when safety cut out is in effect.
I have tried turning off the inverted when +12 is connected and also with the relay off. I though it could be somthing to do with the caps being grounded or sothing like that when the button is turned off , but this doesnt help.

I have a couple of the same inverters I will try those and see if it makes any diference.

You dont think that it could be interference on the power switch leads do you? I have some ferite noise reducers I could use one if you think it would help.

I didnt quite follow how you go the pc to shutdown and startup? I am intrested in how you set this up.

One other thing you could try is connecting something else to the inverter. Something that requires about the same power as the pc, although swapping inverters should narrow your problems down to either the inverter being the problem or if the same thing happens with a diff inverter then it's wiring(wires, relay) or the psu.

How my setup starts up. First you have to set your pc to boot when it sees power. Wire up your relay up the way I've described above(let me know if you need more detail on that). If wired correctly and set to boot on power then whenever you turn the key to the on position the remote turn on from your radio will trigger the relay, which will turn on the inverter(if the switch is in the on position) and then pc will start. Well w/o a change or addition the relay would just switch off if you turn the key to the off position. That's why I send the +12v from the power supply of the pc to pin 86. This way as long as the pc is on the trigger for the relay stays switched on.

Now for the shutdown you must run +5v(I use 12, but you need at least +5) to pin 8 on whichever comport you choose. There's someone on here that designed software to control shutdown, but the XP one works fine for me. You can go into power options in XP and set up a UPS. This function will then check pin 8 comport ? every few seconds to see if it is receiving +5v. When it isn't receiving it is when it will initiate shut down. I have mine set up to hibernate. So I turn key off and the +12v coming from head unit to pin 8 is no more. XP's UPS software sees this, begins hibernation, shuts down pc, psu relay trigger is no more, relay shuts down, inverter shuts down.

There are variations for the shutdown feature, but this was the simplest for me. You can search under the terms inverter, shutdown, auto and you should be able to get some info on the other options.