Thread: Inverter Outlet Question/Problem

Don't worry about the 110v vs. 115v thing... The inverter and PS should work just fine today. What kind of "error" is it giving you? I thought some PS units don't like the modified sine wave given by inexpensive (<$300) inverters.

If I plug in the pc into the inverter it will blink the red "Fault" light which can mean a few things:

dc input below 10 volts
or
Excessive appliance load-thermal shutdown

I'm sure its not the second, but as for the first I'm not sure, the battery I'm running it off of is litterally 1 day old and has around 3 hours of driving time on it (if that much at all) and its a duralast high end one. If I plug the pc in and get the error on the inverter and then try to turn the pc on you can hear the psu start to fire up, then stop. None of the fans start (I dont think) but I'm almost sure it gets super close to starting hah. Any ideas? I'de read that you should try a few different power cords on the psu since sometimes it can be fussy (which I found odd to begin with), so I tried that but I didnt see any change in the situation. Wierd. Hopefully I can get everything working correctly since I would really really love to keep the system with all the original componants (mainly because they will fit in my center console as part of the installation). Thanks for the reply!

-matt

Edit: Just for clarity, this is the psu:
http://www.shuttlecomputer.de/eu/pc30.htm#standard200w
And this is the inverter:
http://www.donrowe.com/inverters/vector_750.html
Hope that helps!

I still havent been able to get it working. It's totally bothering me now, what am I gonna do for a psu? Someone has to have some ideas!

-matt

Do you have a voltmeter or multimeter? You could measure the voltage across the DC power terminals on the inverter. Additionally, if the battery is really brand new, it's probably not charged too well, so I'd give it a few hours of drive-time (while the alternator charges the battery) to make sure that this isn't the case. The PSU is rated for 200W, correct? The computer you are running (well, the P4 processor in particular) is very power-hungry, so maybe your PSU is acting up and somehow (?) causing the inverter to go into 'fault'. My hunch is that you are really nearing the PSU's 200W limit when the processor is cranking full-speed given the incredibly poor thermal power handling of the P4s (relative to most AMDs and the P-Mobile).

Now that I look at the picture of the inverter, did you cut off the alligator clips and put on real battery terminals (e.g ring terminals, etc)? The alligator clips are likely providing a terrible connection, which certainly would be a possible cause for a <10V cutoff on the inverter. Get rid of the alligator clamps, put on some real terminals, make sure it has a solid connection to the battery... Then, check the voltage across the inverter DC terminals. When all that is done... I duno. Does the PC and PSU work on a normal household plug?

Break the ground prong off the power cable you're using for the computer.

You are the best numbers! I removed the prong and it fired right up. Now- any explaination why that was happening? And will that deperdise the system in the long run? I'm still going to do what you said WxGuy, I'll have to run out tomorrow and grab the new connectors and a meter. You guys rule, thanks!

-matt

Inside an atx psu, the ground prong is tied straight to chassis ground. The ground output of the psu is also tied to ground. Many inverters don't like this and go into fault mode. Removing the ground from the inverter has no ill effects on anything.