DC to AC Power inverter questions

Sean

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Does anyone have any experience with these type of power inverters?

Power Inverter

I'd rather have an "all in one" like the one in the link above so it's not laying on the floor or in the way.

I'm looking for one that's about 100W continuous to power a Playstation 2 that's rated at 79 watts.

I've found some that are rated at 70-75W continuous power but I don't know if the PS2 rated at 79W is too much. I wondering the PS2 spec is it's max rating.

Anybody know anything about these?
 

LED-FX

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Take it you have a 12V powered display to see your PS2 on?

Plug in type like that relies too heavily, literally, on the lighter socket, it`ll wobble and crash all the time.

Get one with a lead on it so you can stow it in a resonable position, get more power for less money allowing headroom for other non 12V entertainment products like DVD/VCR mains voltage lamps and even mains pwered battery chargers.

HTH
Adam
 

Unicorn

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If by chance you are a Cosco member, they have, or had a few months ago, a 400 watt one that could plug into your cigarrete plug (but only for 110 watts), or clip to your battery. They were selling it for only $25. Fred Myer (chain department store, sort of a NW Wal-Mart but now owned by Kroger) was selling them for $50. These would be better as you'd have plenty of power, and could be used for more things with less chance of an overload.
 

kitelights

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I've been using these constantly in my business for the past 14 years and I've purchased about a dozen of them. DON'T get the "small" ones (70-150w). They won't give you their rated power and they don't last very long. I'd recommend the 300-500w versions that the discount warehouses (like Costco and Sams) carry. These are not pure wave converters and can't be used for everything, but are fine for basics. They don't like some power transformers, so be careful. If your transformer gets extremely hot when you use it, I would stop using it.
 

haertig

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I've been using a 400 watter for a Playstation 2, XBOX, Nintendo, etc. in our van for a few years. Works like a champ. The TV was already built into the van, so I don't have to power that. I've never had a problem with wobble or intermittancy of the cigarette lighter cord. Nothing but good experiences. I bought a generic model from Target. As somebody else pointed out, you can't draw the full rated power our of a cigarette lighter adapter. I think only 120 watts or something like that. To get the full power you need to clip it directly to the battery. Cigarette lighter power is fine for game consoles alone, I would doubt it would be enough to power a TV in addition.
 

Sean

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Ok, I'm trying out a cheapie that cost less than $15 from Wal-mart. It's an all in one so I'm not expecting it to last long from the comments. I'll look a Sam's, I think they have a 400-500W inverter for about $30. All I'm using it for is to power a Playstation 2. The monitor is built-in and powered by the vehicle.

Thanks again everybody. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 

The_LED_Museum

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Some devices do not like square waves that come out of some of these inverters; get a sine wave inverter if you have problems with the device (in this case, a PS2) you're powering.
 

mattheww50

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True sinewave inverters are horribly inefficient, the are amplfiers. In larer inverters what you usually see is a 12 step (sine wave cared up into 12 pieces using a square wave, and some Low pass filtering to remove the worst of the high frequency transients. Plan B is a rotating machine, and in fact in the 1940's and 1950's there were these things called dynamotors that had a generator and motor onthe same shaft. Car radios used 'vibrators' to generate the B+ voltages required. By the late 1950's low voltage tubes were available, and the audio was transistorized, by the early 1960's it was all transistorized.
 

K A

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I had purchased an inverter in March 2003 from the automotive clearance section of a nearby Walmart. I paid $30 for it from an apparent retail of $49.74. It's only a 300 watt unit and as of tonight (to consult the pamphlets for a website) I had never actually opened it up. It's a Koss Pi300. I had bought it for one of those "Just In Case" Moments one might have like for an emergancy or somesuch. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Looking over its features it at least has a Low voltage alarm & shutoff, thermal shutoff, short circuit protection and it's fused. I assume other inverters also have these same features. I have been meaning to put it out into the trunk of my car, but have never got around to it.. even after a year. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif
 

Unicorn

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One last thing. The reason that you can't use th plug adapter for over 110 or 120 or whatever watts isn't anything to do with the inverter itself. Most vehicles electrical systems can't handle the amperage draw of th inverter trying to use it's full potential. If you were to be to find a high amperage power plug (I've never seen one over 15 amps), and hard wired it to the batter you could use the plug. Of course that then would be the point, you could just hardwire the inverter itself.
 
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