Modified sine wave inverter and laptops

[rickngill]

We have recently had solar panels fitted with an MPPT unit, (we have a Trace inverter/charger) since then my tablet has stopped working as have the chargers for our electric toothbrushes. I am presuming they have burnt out due to surges in power, I may be wrong as I am not an expert. As our inverter isn't broken we don't really want to buy a new one, is they some sort of equipment which can regulate the power to prevent any more accidents...

[Theo]

The solar panels should not have a direct connection with the mains equipment so I am not at all sure how they could have damaged the stuff.

 

I wonder if there is a problem with the inverter.

 

Have you checked the faulty appliances on a shore line?

[rickngill]

Yes I have tried the appliances, tablet not working there either nor the chargers. May not be related to solar panels at all. We rarely charged anything before getting the solar so can't judge it.... Is this a common problem with modified sine wave inverters..

[ditchcrawler]

.. Is this a common problem with modified sine wave inverters..

Some times.

[alan_fincher]

People have previously specifically mentioned electric toothbrush chargers as an item that can be destroyed by modified sine wave inverters.

 

I'm not quite sure why they should be particularly vulnerable, but they seem to be.

 

So far I personally have never had any issue running any mains based laptop charger off one, (and we have used lots over the yeras), but perhaps that is just luck?

[Arthur Brown]

Have you taken anything elsewhere and determined whether the charger is faulty or not? Have you tried to use another charger for the tablet.

 

I find it hard to understand that something done to the 12v circuit should kill things using the 240v circuit. Have you tried to use anything (table lamp?) from the socket that now fails to run the tablet charger, or the toothbrush charger.

[abraxus]

Some toothbrush chargers don't like inverters, same with tablets and laptops, so can be a bit hit and miss.

 

Possibly easier to get a 12v car/cig lighter charger for the tablet, and use either an arm powered toothbrush or one that runs off an AA battery.

[ditchcrawler]

Some toothbrush chargers don't like inverters, same with tablets and laptops, so can be a bit hit and miss.

 

Tooth brushes work like a transformer, so a good sign wave is best

[Paul C]

I think its just down to luck. My success has been::

 

150W MSW Inverter 1500W MSW Inverter

Laptop 1 yes no

Laptop 2 yes no

Laptop 3, PSU1 no no

Laptop 3, PSU2 yes no

 

For laptop 3, PSU1 is the original power supply unit, and PSU2 is an aftermarket power supply unit.

 

As can be seen, the large (1500W) MSW inverter can't power any laptop supplies, while the little (150W) one can power all but one of them. When the large one doesn't power it, if its accidentally left plugged in (just the power supply plugged in to the mains, doesn't need to be plugged into the laptop) its indicator light will work but in addition to not charging the laptop, it will also "interfere" with the way the inverter works so nothing else will work on the inverter until the offending power supply is turned off, then the inverter turned off-on.

[DeanS]

We have 4 solar panels.

2 each are connected to it's own MPPT controller.

Both controllers connect to the batteries.

The batteries connect to a MSW invertor...a cheap one from China.

We have no problems powering laptops, etc etc.

We used the invertor for 8mths last year.

 

You may have an invertor with an issue, but I wouldn't say it's a common issue with all invertors.....