Getting a 120V 60Hz power supply in the UK
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ต.ค. 2024
- I have a number of old devices I want to demonstrate in upcoming videos that require a 60Hz power supply in order to run at the correct speed. In this video I show what components I used to convert the UK's 230V 50Hz power supply to the US 120V 60Hz standard.
POWER SUPPLY
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5-15V DC Variable power supply is the PS201ADJT and can be bought here goo.gl/OT1IgG
12V DC to AC 120V 60Hz Power Inverter was imported from B&H Photo in the US goo.gl/db17GS
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Man, this guy could make a video about putting new batteries in a flashlight and it would still interesting.
Yeah, I watched the whole thing even though I knew exactly what he was going to do.
That's rather like Big Clive
Now you have me really hoping that he'll make a video about putting new batteries in a flashlight.
+popeiler LOL (To be honest it was a barely audible chuckle but you did make me laugh.)
Except he would say "torch" and make a snarky puppet segment about comments that say "flashlight"
I got a job in a core engineering company because of the knowledge shared in this video (rather the ocean of knowledge in all your videos). In the final round Interviewers asked me about getting a 120 volt, 60 Hz supply from 240 volt, 50 Hz supply and I answered them in a TECHMOAN style and got the job 😎. Thank you very very much. Keep up your good work.
A 12V car device is really designed to be run at around 14V, which is the normal charging voltage from a car alternator.
I was going to say that. 14.4v or so
yea your right they can also run at 12v and under, basically anything using a battery has to be able to deal with voltages quite far from the voltage rated on the battery. in all honesty it really doesnt matter if all you meant to say was that you could get away with pushing the voltage more then your right
Except engineers have counted in the factor that there are situations where those devices are used when not driving (engine running). Like camping in an RV.
Of course things will run at 12V. However, the inverter power ratings are more often than not measured at 13,8V which is about the alternator charging voltage. If you run the inverter from 12V source, it will not be able to produce as much power but it will work.
He can't run it at full power anyway the inverter is rated at 400 watts while the dc power supply can only do 200 watts max. The real limiting factor is that the dc supply can only deliver 15 amps max which means you need 13.3 or more volts to get the full 200 watts. That said its probably not an issue because the sorts of devices he will want to run aren't all that high powered.
The reason for the step down transformer not being able to change the frequency is that it creates a magnetic field that resonates with the same frequency, so you can change the voltage with a different number of coils, 1:2 in this case, but you can't change the frequency.I was thinking it would be easier to use a frequency converter but a quick googling later told me they cost from $1100 and up, so no, I think you made the best choice by creating DC from AC and then reconverting it to AC again. The energy loss on this must be pretty high, though.
Are you Captain Obvious?
Definitely maybe.
He's explaining how it works, for people who don't already know.
Apparently, you already know. That's great, skip the comment and move on. Don't call people "captain obvious" for posting something that seems obvious to you, but that may be helpful to others.
It's ok, I'm used to youtube-commenters. They're a loveable bunch of sock puppets.
Great movie, btw.
yes, the inverter MUST be a PURE Sinewave type - ac syncronous motors are not happy on modified sinewave units
I saw the picture on the front, clearly showing the bastard sine wave superimposed on a real sine wave, and I started yelling at the screen as usual.
no it doesnt, regular modified sine wave inverters are used all over the US every day to run every day devices with no problem, pure sine wave inverters have improved harmonic distortion, if he was testing a solid state amp or something with electronically controlled variable speed then the true sine inv. would really show an advantage
***** Correct. But not before yelling.
I speak from experience. pure sinewave is good for almost bloody everything.
Yes, it does deliver a sine-wave: "Pure sine wave power allows devices to run cleaner & cooler". The price suggests that also. Funny that 'Techmoan' didn't mention this...
While it's clearly working in the video; the pedant in me wants to note that 12v is a nominal voltage. If it's designed to work in a car, then it'll probably do just fine accepting 12.6v (a fully charged lead acid battery), or 13.5-15v (the volt range of most car electrical systems with the engine running).
Yeah that's correct, i was thinking the same!
That would also allow for a higher wattage out of the inverter too. As it stands, running at 12v, you can only pull 180w because the power supply can only push 15 amps. But, at 15v (which should be within the inverter's tolerances) you could get over 40 additional watts out of it! (minus losses in the DC-to-AC conversion but you get what I mean)
Car batteries nominally charge at 13.8V, with 14.4V being their absolute limit. But since there's no batteries here, yeah, why not? Put the voltage up a bit. More volts means more power for the same amps. Might even be a good idea to get a 30V power supply, set it to 26V or so, and use a 24V inverter. They make them for trucks that often have 24V electrics. So again it's twice the power for the same amps, stuff runs cooler and you don't need to worry about those pretty thin wires Mat's using.
Then again sticking with a 12V inverter means you can use it in an actual car, which might be handy. He isn't going to put it to strenuous use powering bits of hifi stuff, as long as it's not some big loud amplifier.
The sound quality of this wire recorder is pretty impressive :) I really like this unit
banana to crocodile converter! what a time to be alive
Bravo. I'm glad you've got it all together. Thanks for the mention in your video. It's good that you've managed to find a power supply with adjustable voltage and amps plus a readout. I find that the invertor fan stays off for most of the time and is quiet. Perhaps a remote location as mentioned in the video for the 12v power supply is a good idea. You can get fanless 12v power suppliers but they tend to be much bigger and more expensive and a bit impractical.
Just a quick note: car power inverters are designed to run at the nominal voltage of a lead acid battery/car alternator which is 13.8Volts, not 12Volts.
Not that, for the application, the exact voltages matter, just the 60Hz and sine wave output do, but, still, there's difference between something working and things being correct.
Turning up the voltage also means that the devices consume less current for the same power, which decreases the losses in the wires. So yep, that would be worth doing.
Good point. Normal alternators run about 14.2-14.5V range. Also much thicker wires are needed if all 200 watts of that power supply will be on use, maybe 4mm² and better connections than banana plugs.
It doesn't make a huge difference. Depending on the design of the inverter, the difference could be as little as none. Some of the older designs just use a 60Hz transformer with some number of taps and switching transistors. The output waveform is a stepwise approximation of a sine wave. The peak voltage is just 13 times the battery voltage. No regulation of the output is done.
I do car audio and if you want the best performance out of the power supply max it out to 14.5 or max to replicate the cars voltage while it's on . buy doing so you will also reduce the amp draw. the lower the voltage the higher the amp draw . the power inverters are designed to run with a 16 power supply (max) so you can get the most out of the unit and not over heat the power supply .
yea a very good idea although that pincy little wire player doesnt seem to be drawing too much could be very good for other devices though
Yes 42v all the way. Ok, perhaps in the future, makes sense ...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/42-volt_electrical_system
large size ups we put in for hospital wards and the like run a 400v dc battery bank. dont want to short that out !
Yes 48 V battery is the new standard for car starter batteries. Also Renault is making car a with that.
+Jacana Productions; 42 V (actually 36 V battery) was the attempted standard back in ~2000, but did not get anywhere.
I don't know if someone said this before, but most modern online UPSs let you choose output voltage and frequency, and are pure sine wave. I think you could get a used one pretty cheap in the UK, and it'll output at least 2000 watts. They have fans too but since it's a sealed unit I guess it's easier to put them in another room to avoid the noise
@Sebastian Santa Maria, do you know a brand of a cheap device that allows you to choose output voltage and frequency, then? All the ones I found are incredibly expensive (eg KCC Scientific) hence why the video's suggestion of converting to DC first is appealing, you can save hundreds. However I appreciate two devices is cumbersome to deal with, hence why I ask you what is the cheap brand of a single device that both converts voltage and frequency.
@@amuthanshan It depends on what is cheap, the Eaton 9130 lets you choose output frequency, but there are bigger models like the 9PX6K that have selectable output frequncy and dual voltage. It's expensive new but it's huge (over 6kVA)
You made a AC-AC converter, and you have a pure sine wave output, good job
Wonderful solution! I never thought to use a power inverter with a DC power supply.
I appreciate you going thru all the trouble you have to go thru to make the videos that you do to share with us..
Keep in mind that the best power inverter is a pure sine wave if you are using sensitive electronics, The wire machine you demonstrated will be ok with a modified sine wave inverter.
crank your PSU up to 15v your power inverter will handle it (cars running provide around 13-15v to keep battery charged) and even provide some more watts closer to its rated output..
I did the same thing when I lived in Indonesia. It was the only way to get my coffee roaster and grinder to work properly. I started out with a 30 Amp 12 volt power supply which I plugged into a 5000 watt dual voltage power stabilizer. I then fed the clean 12 volts into a 2000 watt pure sine wave inverter. Expensive, but I brought lots of stabilizers over in my container for other reasons. i had the power supply and I got the inverter on Craigslist used. I told my wife it was for her welder.
you should increase the voltage to 13.8. at higher voltage you draw slightly fewer amps through the wires and helps the system run more efficiently. and that is the voltage of a car cigarette plug when turned on.
I have no interest whatsoever in UK power supply but your videos are so informative and entertaining that I watch them anyway. 😃🇨🇦
Many Bothans died to bring us this information.
My grandpa had that exact same head unit that you have in this video!
Very kewl to see it on here!
I did a similar trick 10 years ago. I use to buy many vintage quadraphonic stuff from the US. Once I've found a really good deal on a reel to reel quad machine but it worked only on 120V @60Hz. So I started with the capstan thing you did on this wire machine but it had a little "vibrating" sound that wasn't that bad but I couldn't stand it. The next but inevitable thing to do was to buy an US car inverter. The 12V power supply was an old but fully working ATX power supply, I just took the 12V I needed from there. But the only thing you don't mention in this video is (I think) the most important part. The US power inverter has to be a "Pure Sine Wave" model. This is because you can afford a cheaper inverter with a "derived sine wave" but it's not good for tv or hifi equipment. They could do a really annoying hum though they seem to be playing fine. That's my 2 cents. Great videos BTW. Luca
Just about to go to bed, and your video came up, I lit up! Thank you!
getting a pure sine power supply was the right way. motors like sine waves more than square or triangular waves. 60 Hz motors also run hot on 50Hz. I was in Germany for 4 years.
40% TAX on imports? Good gravy. No wonder we didn't want any more of His Majesty's tea!
No muppets?
Maybe muppets complaining about that there isn't any muppets? :D
Should be complaining how he gets bent over on Duties and VAT. Those fees are inexcusable IMHO. Just your government sticking their fists into your pockets and grabbing for whatever's in there.
That's how we pay for free health care. Which something like 90% of the public love, and want to keep.
we need muppits to make sense of the world.....techmoan muppit needs to make an appearance
The UK is a money grabbing shit hole that will sting you even after death.. On one hand.
On the other hand, We are very charitable and we look after our sick, vulnerable, helpless and families in general with little or no income..
The down side about the latter is the system gets abused to fuck, A large majority of the culprits being foreigners.
But apart from that my country great :D
The UK has a much broader public dental scheme, has a lot more public housing, and a lot better disability scheme. These things are paid for by higher income and (I believe) corporate taxes.
Australians pay for healthcare through a Medicare Levy which is added to the tax bill, a big chunk of their income tax, and GST which goes to Canberra and is then fed back (unevenly) to the states, and some of that income tax (and other taxes) being fed back to the states, who then fund hospitals. The Feds fund Medicare, the PBS and primary care.
I would say to William, however, that the overall tax burdens for the UK and US citizens would be comparable, but Australians' overall tax burden is lower than both. Also, the US Government funds healthcare very inefficiently, but that it was worse pre-Obamacare, as well as many other services that provide poor outcomes dollar-to-dollar than what the UK would get pound-to-pound, one example being education where outcomes are better in the UK.
Congratulations on passing 300,000 subscribers.
One thing that may be more workable is using the type of step down converter that military personnel use. When we lived in Germany, we had to use these. They were big metal boxes that had the standard two prong European plug on one end and a North American socket on the other. Everything ran at the proper speed too.
Aaah! Thank you so much for this! I have the same problem with vintage video game consoles from the United States and Japan being run in South Africa. This is a perfect solution for testing my consoles. Thank you!
Hey techmoan, thank you for making videos! You obviously put a lot of work into them. I enjoy watching them so much. Thank you!!
Since I'm into RC aircraft and have several chargers and power supplies this is exactly how I would have strung it together! :)
R/C guys often use an old PC power supply to run their battery chargers. I'd recommend using two 12v rails and soldering the wires into a pair of 4mm bullet plugs to supply the charger though because if you're charging big batteries like 6S 5000mah lipos then it'll pull a lot of amps (1C on these batteries is 5 amps) and the stock molex plug on a PC power supply will turn brown and burn up over time.
I've seen some pretty huge bullet plugs used in big RC planes and helicopters e.g. 8mm gold plated bullet plugs that are designed to take 300 amps at 50v
You might want to double up on those Power Supply wires, they look a little thin for the current you were drawing and certainly won't handle the maximum 15A of the PSU without melting. A typical car battery is capable of 100 to 150 A and that inverter can no doubt draw in excess of 30A (based on the 400W rating and depending on the load).
yea they are definitely not thick enough probably worth checking the gauge as well i have been cheated into buying some wire thinking it was a thicker gauge based on the total thickness of the wire turned out there was virtually no copper and it was mostly insulation, ended up melting on a robot drawing 40 amps, have to be careful when you think you are getting a bargain.
If he wants 100-400 watts, he can use a car battery.
He might want to consider turning up the power supply to 13.5Vdc which is closer to a car's normal operating voltage. 12vdc is a rated minimum voltage. Running at 13.5Vdc would reduce his operating amperage by about 12%
Those cables are absolutely fine for 12v @ 15A. The power supply itself is only 200w.
...and a car battery is capable of more like 500-800A, not 100-150A.
+Fungi hudson (fungifilm) They are likely about #18AWG, if so they will handle 15A safely, though there will be a fair bit of voltage drop and they will get warm (but they should stay well below the typical insulation temperature rating, so they are safe to use). For perspective, the full-current battery cable clamps are typically #14AWG and they will handle in excess of 40A at full load when connected to a lightly discharged battery (again, they will get warm due to voltage drop, but not too warm).
Super neat setup. Goings from 230v on your wall. To a 12v inverter, to another 110/120v inverter! Genius really. And you could get a bigger, perhaps UK power supply for a desktop pc, to get more amperage.
Also worth noting 12 volts at 15 amps is only 180 watts. Pure sinewave inverters are expensive, but worth it, so you don't want to be wasting money on a 400 watt inverter if your power supply can only deliver 180 watts.
I was just about say it's a waste running a 400W inverter off a 200W DC source. From the instructions, it looked like there was a 180W model available - better to save money and get that one.
400watt version may deal with heat better though... running it under-spec would be better than pushing it to the edge.
He can use a car battery if he needs more power. :)
Future-proofing. What if he wants to run some monstrosity of a system off it in future? I'm sure somewhere there exists a giant reel-to-reel video recording system that runs with the RPM of a circular saw.
*****
Private backyard nuclear plant? :P
Glenwood springs.... Yep. That was from Colorado...
Cool idea! I restore vintage electronics gear from various countries and in some older gear the mains transformer is frequency sensitive. I'll get one of these and do some testing - should help nicely. Thanks Techmoan!
Cheers, John
Do you think you could upload a recording of what was on that spool of wire? Sounds like a neat listen.
I've got an old APC SmartUPS UPS unit that, when "cold-started" on battery without a mains input present, defaults to 60Hz output (admittedly still at 240V, but this can be put through a transformer). It only drops down to 50Hz when it "sees" a 50Hz mains input, but will then stay at 50Hz until the battery is disconnected. I discovered this quirk when I tried to use it as an off-grid inverter for a solar power system.
UK-Crocodile clips=US-Alligator clips. I always find these differences fascinating.
Good to see you used a pure sine wave inverter. I'd be curious to see if you would have any issues with hums or buzzing if you use a 60hz player with a 50hz amp.
You can use a computer power supply, supplying 12 V at 30 Amps or more. You can find them at Thrift shops or ebay for very little money. Solder all the yellow wires together ( pins 11,10 will do) and that is your +12V (on 24 pin plug), solder all the black wires together, and that is your -12V (or GND) and solder Pin 16 to Pin 17, use the Power Supply's rocker switch to turn on/off
okay, last video before I go to sleep... I SWEAR
It's not a very efficient way to do it, but it works. I should keep this in mind for my European stuff that needs 50Hz.
By the way, your DC power supply is only 200W, so you're never going to get more than 200W out of that 400W inverter. If you try to draw more, the power supply will start dropping the voltage which will probably make the inverter stop working.
Because your power supply doesn't supply more than 200W you could have bought a 200W inverter, those are usually a lot cheaper because they can put smaller transistors in them, and they're more popular because they don't need to be connected directly to the car battery (there's a 10A fuse in your car that keeps you from drawing more than 130W or so from your cigarette lighter plug). And as someone already said, your cigarette plug is probably closer to 14V when the engine is running.
By the way, there's something you may want to keep in mind when doing things this way: those inverters always generate block waves instead of sine waves, so they may generate a lot of noise in whatever you hook it up to.
Another problem is that the 60Hz that comes out of the inverter is probably not even close to accurate or stable. If you have a clock or clock radio that plugs into the mains, you probably noticed you never have to set it (except to change to Daylight Savings Time and back), because the power company provides AC that (in the long run) is accurate enough for a clock and doesn't vary more than maybe 1/2 Hz or so. But inverters don't have an accurate frequency reference so their frequency may still be off by a significant percentage. If you would connect your clock to the output of your inverter (with a step-up transformer if necessary), you'd probably see that it runs slow or fast, by a lot. Also, depending on how big the flywheel in your tape/wire recorder is, the instability of the inverter's frequency may induce a lot of wow and flutter. Just so you know.
Congrats on 300k subscribers
Oh power conversion isn't fun. And in the U.S. the standard voltage is anywhere between 100 and 125 volts. So you could design a board that takes the UK 230V and step it down to 115V. Then you'd have to do some circuitry to change the frequency which is where it gets complex.
Have you considered using a KCCScientific frequency converter? The Athena converter at 40 watts would convert the VOLTAGE AND FREQUENCY from the front panel. Plug in your device, select your voltage and frequency from the front panel and plug it in. Now you can purchase your favorite electronics from anywhere in the world up to 200 watts and use them anywhere.
Nice video, been using a similar set up for years to run American O gauge trains here in the UK. They use 18v AC at the track so the 60Hz is important for a number of reasons. Without going into details some items don't like 50Hz at all.
A few tips. Use 13.8V DC as this simulates a fully charged car battery. Led DC drivers are available cheaply on eBay. Easy to find a 400w 12v Led driver. Pay special attention to earthing/grounding. (Not just for the safety aspect.)
Basically make sure you have continuity from the US socket earth through to the UK mains earth. This is particularly important for one of the control systems I use which uses the earth wiring as a antenna.
I had a somewhat reverse situation her in the US some time ago when I bought a blow dryer for my hair that was supposed to be quieter than other cheap ones on the market. Knowing that induction motors were less noisy than the brushed 'universal' motors then in use in such hairdryers, I sprung for the more expensive "quiet' one that had it. Those others used the resistance element to drop the the motor voltage to the 12V for which it was designed and saved quite a bit of product cost.
The blow dryer I bought was made in Italy. For the American 120V system they had put the resistance element into a parallel circuit, which was fine, and perhaps the induction motor was also changed for our voltage. But the squirrel cage blower fan had not been altered for 60hz. That made its resonance very close to the harmonic that the Italian designers had sought to eliminate with their choice of blade pitch. It was as noisy or more so than the cheap one.
Techmoan, the making of, very cool
I would put a car battery in circuit personally, as that is 12 volts and would allow you not to have to run the power supply at all times, and serves as a bit of a voltage stabilizer. While It isn't necessary, I would personally find it beneficial
I have no idea what any of this means but I do enjoy these videos somehow.
I would have gotten a fixed voltage DC power supply. There are a wide variety available at 13.8 V (which is the float voltage for a lead acid battery), and is what ham and two way radios are designed for. In the US, Astron is a popular brand and makes very high quality, clean supplies. The lower power models are fanless (and are thermostatically controlled if they do have one).
You wouldn't think 50 to 60 Hz would make that much difference. I guess over on this side of the pond we take things for granted when it comes to things like that. As always great video Matt. See you in the next one! -John
on a motor its a 20% increase in speed lol
Just run it on 50 Cycles and speed it up in software ;-)
+PuchMaxi1988 haha but that's cheating
Decent turntables still use AC Synchronous motors. I purchased my Pro-ject 2Xperience turntable from an EU seller and the only thing I needed to use it in the US market was a Speedbox controller. It's just a simple op-amp inverter that outputs 50 or 60HZ (at 16VAC) for 33.3RPM depending on unit. The only difference between the EU and US Speedboxes is the frequency of the oscillator used. 10.000Mhz for 50HZ and 11.2896Mhz for 60HZ. The microcontroller inside just runs some simple divider code. The physical motors of the turntables themselves have a different number of poles for whichever market (50/60HZ) its sold in.
congratulations on 300k subs
Hey man, just wanted to say I love the videos, they are fun and informative, and I love seeing all the retro and vintage tech as well. Plus the little muppet sketches you've been doing at the end of your videos lately have been hilarious. Keep the videos coming, I love them. Also you should try to do a collab with Ashens at some point, I think you guys would be hilarious together! :)
You may want to take the time to create some proper cables between the devices, banana plugs and crocodile clamps are great in a pinch, but spade connectors (aka blade connectors or horseshoe connectors) provide much better contact, which means less power loss and less chance of things heating up. If you solder them onto a heavy wire you should get much cleaner power.
At this point, you should have an electrician rewire your house for both US and UK outlets. :P
Steve Lovelace Also Royal Caribbean cruise ships uses 60Hz for both 230V (EU outlet) and 115V (US outlet).
To power the inverter, look at the 13.8v CB/Ham desktop supplies that can take current loads that will drive radios up to 50-100w. That should be more than adequate to run a couple of inverters to give you 4 US sockets as long as they're on'y drawing a few watts each.
I'd never have thought of knocking the voltage down to 12 just to convert it, but it seems to work fine. The overall system efficiency, with all those conversions and fans, is probably terrible, but as you say it's fine for a demo and will waste very little if you are just doing demos with it.
You could use an old computer power supply for the AC>DC stage. They output some decent amps and you can find old PSUs all over the place (bin rooms are a good start).
A very clever solution to a sticky problem.
fix the noisy fans by replacing them with noctuas or similar, just make sure not to confuse power controlled fans and PWM fans
oh wow u have a recording of the colorado hotel opening thats really cool
Pedant here: we actually use 240 V in the UK, and Europe uses 220. EU regulations specify 230 V with a tolerance sufficiently large to accept both 220 and 240.
Thanks, this will come in handy with turntables and tape machines!
you could probably get that power supply up to around 14.4 volts safely, to emulate the car running. current draw would go down as well. If you wanma stick to 12V, you can use an old computer power supply easily, get a lot more power out of it.
A car battery charger would work in place of the power supply. Those are often capable of reaching 10+ amps on the output side with higher end units putting out 20+ amps.
A bit late to the comments but if you care to do so, on some older devices dependent on line frequency for speed, there is sometimes another pulley or idler or intermediate part that is included for the other frequency. Have run across this with various tape recorders and turntables using an AC motor. I believe you did a crude approximation with wrapping tape around something once. Of course, such a part could always be machined. Perhaps you need a small bench top lathe for such a project. :-) (another hobby)
Of course if it's a DC motor the power supply input voltage just needs to be correct
I would recommend replacing the alligator clips with spade connectors for a more secure connection.
Here in sweden we use 230 volts 50 hz in our homes. And 380 volts 3-phase for machines and in the kitchen.
You could try using a three-phase inverter. It's basically variable frequency supply, which can overdrive to higher than the supplied 50Hz. Only one of the live outputs needs to be used, not all three phases. Oh. Hang on, you'd still need to step down the voltage. Maybe not the best idea then.
if those fans get too loud, you could use long enough cords and hide them in a vented box with some sound deafening pads or something.
Your about to the point where you need a machine-room and some strategically placed input/output panels. A small closet works great for that application although you'll need to route an AC duct to it as well.
grats on 300k
Great information and solution. I'd wondered about how to do this for years.
Nice work around. A proper 50Hz to 60Hz frequency converter alone can run a minimum of $1200(USD). The NMS IF-VC International Dual Voltage & Frequency Travel Converter (50Hz 220V
to 60Hz 120V) made by National Material Supply Co. LLC carried by Sears.com for $256.12(USD). If your lucky can be found online for around $180(USD) including shipping and sometimes on Ebay for around $50(USD). It is a more permanent solution if one is going to power a single device analog demanding a 120V 60Hz conversion on a regular basis such as a 50's period record player. Apparently Sears sought out a solution years ago when they found it's costumers were having issues with electric razors when they traveled. I did not look at the wattage but it worked when I was assisting a colleague working in the UK converting to archiving old computer from data tapes and that player was built with little concern for it's electric use foot print. If you happen to read this thank you for your work.
Remember to purchase a pure sine wave inverter! The cheaper ones output what's called "modified sine wave" which can break the electronic device that is connected to the inverter. Modified sine wave looks quite harsh when inspected with oscilloscope while pure sine wave is, well, pure and smooth.
It may be a good idea to think a bit about grounding the device attached to the inverter output, especially since you are using it to supply old equipment which often used metal cases (I've seen too many old equipment shorting out on first use due to some internal defects that have developed by inappropriate storage for decades). I'm not sure if it is actually needed from a safety point of view as there might be enough low-amp fuses along the way but it wouldn't hurt trying to avoid getting hurt either way. Please note that I'm not entirely sure about this but AFAIR there are some users here who have more experience on that topic, maybe they could comment on the idea of adding a ground connection?
Nice job making that work! I never considered using an inverter to get the proper cycles for equipment. It is worth noting though, the inverter would much happier running at 13.8v as it is optimized to work at the voltage put out by an alternator.
altough it's not a very efficient setup,it may be the cheapest solution avaible :) thanks for sharing your experience with this!
A bench top power supply variable Amps and Volts will power all sorts of things but still doesn't change the Freq.
Sounds like Ronald Regan mentioning the Director at about 4:58. Might be a rare recording?
You should look into "online" or "double conversion" Uninterruptible Power Supplies, they should be able to do what you want at a reasonable(ish) price, and even make it easy to plug in multiple devices at once. I found one that was under 300 USD, there are probably cheaper ones out there.
I want more ending Techmopettes discussions.
Probably would be worth a few words on the true sine wave vs. what most inverters do, square waves. Makes a big difference in price. For most electronics a sine wave is desirable.
that recorder is something straight outta Fallout 4!
I would suggest a variable frequency drive, though they can get very pricy. But at least you can adjuast pretty much every parameter.
I bought some UK equipment off ebay in "untested due to UK power plug" condition (in Australia). All I needed was a plug adapter to discover that the thing didn't work because all the power plug did was charge an internal battery which had been removed & discarded.
You should just get a variable frequency drive. Normally they're used for controlling AC motors, but they can output a wide range of frequencies.
most inverters don't like to be connected to a switching supply , if there's too much audible noise you will need a large capacitor in-between
just in time; i was just binge watching your videos~!
Uninterruptible Power Supply (APC) would work too. Most of them will charge the batteries on 50/60hz system. Then you could run it off battery for your video with noiseless operation.
Very informative! Though only to people outside the US, that need 50Hz. But still.
You can also use the 12V line from a PC power supply.
this video would also come in handy if i want a 240v 50hz power supply in the us.
as long as the units dont get warm, you can disable the fans.
Not that its a big deal but you could replace the first thing (rc hoby box) with a UK car battery trickle charger I think, essentially they turn socket into 12v and the US thing takes 12v, but im sure there is a easier way to do this.
It sounded a lot clearer as well as the right speed - the tubes (valves) are reacting to the proper frequency, too. This is something you see in old video standards - because the US uses a 60 Hz power sine wave, we have 30 frames per second (NTSC), as oppsed to the 50 Hz of the UK which is why 25 frames per second (PAL)is used.
One thing, not it will matter much, but car electrical system normally put out 13.8 volts id they are healthy. When powering my 12 volt amateur radio gear from a power supply, there should be 13.8 volts coming off the supply. I don't know if the inverter you were using noticed the 1.8 volt difference, though.
Car electrical systems put out 13.8V give or take 13.8V. They are horrifically noisy things - the voltage can sag down to practically nothing when cranking the starter (Notice the lights dim?), they can shoot up to twice the nominal when the engine at at max revs because the alternator puts out more voltage than the battery can take, and throughout all of it they have really evil spikes due to EMI from the ignition. Modern cars are not as bad as they used to be, as they have better electronics to regulate the alternator and electronic ignition systems, but anything designed to be powered off a car should be designed for the worst-case power supply.