Inverter.....whoops

[David Schweizer]

I hope thats all it is, it blew trying to draw power it couldnt cope with.......is that strange?

Not as far as I am aware, that is what they are designed to do, protect the wiring/circuits against overload.

[Pirate]

Not as far as I am aware, that is what they are designed to do, protect the wiring/circuits against overload.

 

 

Phew thanks, thats what I`m hopeing

[Guest]

Not as far as I am aware, that is what they are designed to do, protect the wiring/circuits against overload.

It is probably a "Mega fuse" often found on wagons. I think ours is 250Amps but would need to check it. It is a good idea to fasten a spare one nearby with a cable tie or bit of string etc. If everything was still switched on when you tried to restart the inverter, there would have been a fair surge, which could easily take the fuse out. Most chandlers where I frequent stcok mega fuses.

 

http://www.vteworld.com/content/electromec...ga/megafuse.php

[blackrose]

Jesus Christ!! Why is everyone so paranoid as to think they are being "got at". I was AGREEING with you and went into the technical bit because I thought (clearly mistakenly) that it might be of some interest to others who had never heard of the "Peukert Effect". I also referenced Gibbo's very good article in case anyone was further interested in the next layer of mathematics. If some people are not interested, that's fine too, they'll presumably just skip it. But you seem to want the general dumbing down that pervades most of the media these days and has even reached this forum apparently.

 

I give up. One gets so much hassle trying to help people so why bother.

 

If I ever need a question answered on something non-electrical, I'll log on as someone else.

 

Bye folks - you win!!

 

Well done! There goes another good contributor...

Edited December 6, 2006 by blackrose

[blackrose]

Chris you must really think all others are simple and you after all think you are a technical god.

 

I fully understand the principles involved but posted the words as I did to save going into detail as some people on here find it very tedious.

 

As you seem to be the self appointed god of electrics I will refrain from posting on electrics again as I dont have a degree and cant match your level of complex calculations.

 

However I think that I might just have the edge when it comes to real world experience of dealing with electrics and power problems.

 

I really don't think he was trying to compete with you.

[GUMPY]

I really don't think he was trying to compete with you.

Probarbly not, but no where did he say in his first reply he was agreeing with what I said.

Maybe I read the tone wrong, but he always come over as superior in the way he posts.

A couple of added words like

"I agree with you here is the technical expanation for those that want it"

would have changed the whole tone of his message.

Edited December 7, 2006 by idleness

[Lesd]

I for one hope Chris decides to come back.

I've learnt so much on here from many of you over the last couple of years and recently Chris's contributions had been very helpful.

My own view on these message boards is that you can almost always read posts in various 'tones' if you try hard enough, if only people didn't assuming the worse all the time the arguements would be avoided ! And ultimately if someone doesn't like another person's 'tone' then skip their messages and so we all avoid these petty arguements that seem to be getting more frequent on here.

rant over

[dor]

There are a number of good contributors on this site with a wealth of technical knowledge which we can all benefit from. There are others who think they know everything and anyone with an alternative view must be wrong.

 

We could do with a few more of the former and perhaps a few less of the latter.

 

I believe that Chris W is one of the former and the forum will be poorer if he goes.

[bottle]

Idleness, you said

 

A 2kw unit will flatten (50%) a 12V 400Ah battery bank in an hour and 10 minutes in theory, in practice less than that because of the high discharge rate.

Chrisw said

 

This is true due to the "Peukert Effect" (about which Gibbo has an excellent in-depth article on his website here )

 

If saying this is true is not agreeing with you what is.

 

He then went on to explain in more detail

 

You then said

I fully understand the principles involved but posted the words as I did to save going into detail as some people on here find it very tedious.

 

You may well understand the principles but decided not to write about them, yes some may find it tedious.

 

I for one do not pretend to understand a lot of what Chrisw and Gibbo write but it does make sense, to me, in the end,

 

You say you are 'more hands on' nothing wrong with that at all and your input is just as valuable.

[Dr Bradley]

Many of the electrical threads have taught me how little I know, which could be the mst valuable lesson. I've enjoyed following them with a (very) lttle bit of comrehension. What I really don't understand though is why some people seem to try and find personal insults in others posts so they can reply in kind. If you don't like something read another thread,don't insult the poster. I'm with the "come back Chris" brigade.

Edited December 7, 2006 by Dr Bradley

[John Orentas]

Many of the electrical threads have taught me how little I know, which could be the mst valuable lesson. I've enjoyed following them with a (very) lttle bit of comrehension. What I really don't understand though is why some people seem to try and find personal insults in others posts so they can reply in kind. If you don't like something read another thread,don't insult the poster. I'm with the "come back Chris" brigade.

 

 

Therein lies the problem Doctor, though not an electronics specialist I have worked alongside such chaps for most of my working life. I have always been capable of following the technology without any problems at all. The two or three pompous characters we had on here (I hope I am talking, past tense) are extremely poor communicators and not very good technically, I identified several massive blunders and I am not much good.

 

Such discussion should never leave anyone thinking 'how little I know', indeed they may well have left an unfortunate legacy of people being cautious of even thinking about electronic technology. The chaps were invariably far more interested in telling the world what splendid chaps they are and playing that very silly mutual admiration game.

Edited December 8, 2006 by John Orentas

[Gibbo]

I identified several massive blunders and I am not much good.

 

That's nothing more than arm waving.

 

A true engineer would precisely identify such "masive blunders" in order to correct the thread.

 

Can you please do so?

 

Gibbo

Edited December 7, 2006 by Gibbo

[tomsk]

That's nothing more than arm waving.

 

A true engineer would precisely identify such "masive blunders" in order to correct the thread.

 

Can you please do so?

 

Gibbo

 

 

I think that was probably Johns point, he couldn't....You do not need to know why something is wrong to know that it is so, in the same way as you don't need to drown yourself to prove the point that humans cannot breath underwater.

[blackrose]

Therein lies the problem Doctor, though not an electronics specialist I have worked alongside such chaps for most of my working life. I have always been capable of following the technology without any problems at all. The two or three pompous characters we had on here (I hope I am talking, past tense) are extremely poor communicators and not very good technically, I identified several massive blunders and I am not much good.

 

Such discussion should never leave anyone thinking 'how little I know', indeed they may well have left an unfortunate legacy of people being cautious of even thinking about electronic technology. The chaps were invariably far more interested in telling the world what splendid chaps they are and playing that very silly mutual admiration game.

 

No, I disagree. Communication of electrical expertise to laymen such as myself is always going to be difficult, but we do need people such as Gibbo and Chris on the forum and it would be much diminished without them. We all have our own area of expertise (if anyone wants to know about starch-based biodegradable plastics I'm yer man!).

 

When it comes to sounding pompous, I haven't noticed that anyone in particular has a monopoly, but perhaps this is more due to our own perception than the intention of the contributor. I think the real problem may be that some who've been on the forum for a while might be threatened by the fact that newer contributors might just know a bit more than themselves on certain subjects.

 

I paraphrase, but if you actually look what happened: Idleness explained something, Chris then explained it in a bit more detail, and Idleness launched into an unwarranted personal attack on Chris! (Totally out of order!). John then seems to imply he's glad that Chris has left the forum! What's going on?

Edited December 8, 2006 by blackrose

[blackrose]

You say you are 'more hands on' nothing wrong with that at all and your input is just as valuable.

 

Exactly! We can have both can't we - it doesn't have to be one or the other! I lived in the East for quite a few years (no I don't mean Hackney), and there the culture is much less confrontational & adversarial. Instead everyone is listened to in order to try to reach a consensus. I'm not saying one is better than the other, but we can certainly learn lessons from each other.

Edited December 7, 2006 by blackrose

[Sir Nibble]

Mathematics is a tool. You can use it to manufacture quite complex models of reality in order to test and develope ideas, much the same as a wind tunnel model. It is not of itself a physical reality, just a tool to observe what is. It is not however, a tool that readily fits every hand and in my experience of teaching an ounce of metaphor is worth a pound of mathematics when trying to explain technical basics to untrained people.

Also, there is NOTHING like mathematics to make people whose forte lies elsewhere feel that they are being talked down to. Might I suggest that posts should be pitched at the audience, and getting the rough idea across to 10 people is better than a detailed explaination to 2.

Clarity should be the target.

[tomsk]

Blooming CSE types

[Sir Nibble]

Sorry.

 

Maffs is boooring, I mean whats the pooiiint?

 

Better?

[tomsk]

Cool, you have identified yourself as non-nerd

[Gibbo]

I think that was probably Johns point, he couldn't....You do not need to know why something is wrong to know that it is so

 

I'm not so sure about that. If you don't know *why* something is wrong then you can't really *know* that it is wrong. You must just be relying on a gut feeling or perhaps something someone else told you. Both of which might be wrong.

 

Gibbo

[David Schweizer]

I'm not so sure about that. If you don't know *why* something is wrong then you can't really *know* that it is wrong. You must just be relying on a gut feeling or perhaps something someone else told you. Both of which might be wrong.

 

Gibbo

It really is not that cut and dried is it Gibbo? To use my car as an example, the ECU module attached to my ABS unit is designed to warn the driver if there is a fault with the brakes. Mine started doing that so I took it to the garage where a full dignostic test demonstrated that the brakes were fine but the ECU was giving a false alarm. At that point both I and the garage knew that the unit was faulty but neither of us knew why. Fortunately I found a man who knew why it was malfunctioning and was able to fix it. (which was about £1000 cheaper than the replacement part from VW/Audi!)

[Gibbo]

It really is not that cut and dried is it Gibbo? To use my car as an example, the ECU module attached to my ABS unit is designed to warn the driver if there is a fault with the brakes. Mine started doing that so I took it to the garage where a full dignostic test demonstrated that the brakes were fine but the ECU was giving a false alarm. At that point both I and the garage knew that the unit was faulty but neither of us knew why. Fortunately I found a man who knew why it was malfunctioning and was able to fix it. (which was about £1000 cheaper than the replacement part from VW/Audi!)

 

What's that got to do with it?

 

The point in question was someone knowing something was *wrong* not faulty. Not wrong as in "something is wrong with this because it isn't working" but wrong as in "no, what you are saying is wrong".

 

Completely different bag of fish.

 

Gibbo

Edited December 7, 2006 by Gibbo

[Pirate]

Well my inverters now up and running, it was the fuse underneath, Phew

 

I`m sorry my thread caused so much bother for some.

 

I`ve learnt two things anyway from this experience.

 

1 Watch what your useing even on the mains incase that gets a power cut and your inverter suddenly has to cope

 

and

 

2 Don`t ask about electrics on here

 

Thanks to all those that tried to put my mind at ease anyway, I`m sorry a couple had to fall out,

 

I dont care who knows what or how much they know, so long as they stay here and contribute with that knowledge, I`m sure we are all capable of sifting through the replies and makeing our own decisions on whats total waffle or what seems to make sence.

Edited December 7, 2006 by Pirate

[Jon]

I am not sure exactly what it is about this forum at the minute but we seem to have problems created whenever a techincal issue is discussed. Without naming names, it seems to be between the same groups of people who don't seem to be able to appreciate other peoples opinion. Again we have another thread with members threating to leave and complaints made to me.

 

Can I remind all users that in this form of communication it is easy to mis-read what was meant by the post. Quite often we read too much into it and see insults where there are none. Please re-read any post which you think is insultative to check that you have not just picked up on something that wasn't there/wasn't intended. Perhaps we might then get along better.

 

Pirate,

Glad you got it sorted. Just out of interest, is there any failsafe to prevent this from happening again. With the current weather the electricity supply is not exactly reliable.

 

Jon

[Pirate]

No Jon, I don`t think there is other than it tripping itself off, (mine did this but I switched it off and then back on not realiseing the mains was off) In future I would check my useage before doing that again.

 

I`m going to be more careful with what I put on incase like you say with this weather there are further power cuts....I`m learning.