DaBretty

I'm using a Rally 300W Inverter, and two or three times now the second I've turned on my turning signal the computer freezes. This doesn't happen all that much, and I could just not use my turning signals anymore (I live in upstate NY anyways hehe).

Basically, does anybody know of any way to remedy this quick, short burst in voltage drop (that's what I assume it is)?

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psalmx

Throw a cap on the power line going to the inverter.

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DaBretty

Sorry to dig up this old trash (I know I initially wrote it a while ago), but I just installed a capacitor and ended up blowing the fuse to the cigarette lighter. I put it between the two wires going to the cigarette lighter, such that if there's a voltage spike or undervoltage it should take care of it. I can't figure out what happened exactly (possibly not a big enough capacitor???), so am looking at other possibilities now.

Does anybody know if a simple surge protector (oh, say a powerstrip) would take care of this occasional problem I have? I have to go buy a new fuse for the cigarette lighter (didn't have a 15A laying around), so couldn't just go slap in my home PCs surge protector to figure out if it does or doesn't.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

sproggy

You probably connected the capacitor (elecrolytic type) the wrong way around and it went short circuit. The short lead with the stripe next to it is negative lead.

Oh and don't try and use the same capacitor that went short cct ans it's now wasted.

DaBretty

Actually this was not a direction-sensitive (for lack of proper wording!) capacitor. When I bought it, I did make the mistake of thinking that I needed one rated for 200W or more, which (realistically) I'd only need say 15W or more. As a result, I picked up a pretty weak one I think, only 1 mF if I remember right. I'm going to go pick up another one today. As for the power strip/surge protector, anybody have any thoughts on that?

Aaron Cake

OK. Let me clear this up a little. It sounds like you used a HUGE capacitor, or a small one hooked up wrong. Eitehr way, it didn't work.

What you want to do is use two capacitors instead of one. Get a large unit, such as 6800uF, and a small one, such as 0.1uF. Connect them both in parallel to the power input of the inverter, but put the larger one first (ie. Closest to the power source). Be sure to watch the polarities of the large one. If it is connected wrong it will most likely overheat and explode.

This should solve your problem. Oh, and you wouldn't have this hassle if you had just used a DC-DC converter at the beginning... :-)

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DaBretty

Hehe hopefully if it exploded I'd at least have the A-Team themesong on for added effect.

Thanks for the advice though seriously, I'll give it a try.

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