Kilowatt Inverters

Thread Starter

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
It is a fairly regular occurance that somebody does their first post on AAC as "Plz design a multi-kilowatt inverter for me, complete with battery charger. It must be cheap, use available parts (no transformers), and I never heard of disconnecting it from the mains."

These people don't understand what they are asking for, let alone how to be safe building it, and it never turns out well. I suggest that this topic be banned as being similar to "mains with no transformer". If these discussions are banned, it will save a lot of wasted time and storage space on AAC, as well as keeping newbie fingers out of the mains.

Thank you.
 

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
I have an article I started and haven't finished. I started an article to address the other side, people trying to get power off a single 555, transistor and transformer. I'll get around to finishing it eventually.

AC/DC Inverters

I don't think banning is the right answer directly. We just have to keep educating these people in the simple math, which in and off itself shows the practicality. The real problem is somewhat like overunity, they don't want to believe us.
 

Thread Starter

#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
One thing I appreciate about this site is that I can post my opinion. Whatever the bosses decide is OK with me.

I just felt an urge to object to entertaining these discussions, considering the danger and lack of positive results. I also felt a wonderment about why these requests keep happening on AAC. I googled 5000 watt inverter, 5000 watt inverter schematic, and such as that, and found that google is not directing people to AAC. I began to wonder if somebody is walking around third world countries, ringing a bell and proclaiming loudly, "allaboutcircuits.com designs inverters of any size just for the asking".

I hope you can finish a tutorial that we can direct the newbies to. It will save a lot of time and space on AAC, and might even keep somebody from getting killed.

Thank you for your efforts.
 

Adjuster

Joined Dec 26, 2010
2,148
The driver for this is probably the dreadfully poor state of the mains supplies in large parts of the world, together with the high cost of safe and effective emergency backup systems. There must be a lot of desperate people out there, and since most of them will not be all that well-informed about Electronics, it can't come as much of a surprise that some of them have unrealistic ideas.

Frankly I have some pity for these people, and I think that we are doing some good if we manage to disabuse any among them of their incorrect and sometimes dangerous ideas.
 

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
Something I find mildly aggravating is the request is stated "sine wave generator" or "oscillator". I don't know if they are being deliberately deceptive or are really that ignorant of the differences. I suspect the latter, it goes with one of my basic philosophies, "Never attribute to malice when stupidity will suffice.". I also have sympathy for them too, having seen one rolling blackout and being recently threatened by another I get quite angry, what would it be like to never have reliable power?
 

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
Yes, but not on this site. It is right up there with power supplies without transformers, matter of fact it is power supplies without transformers. It is possible to make one, but too many people would hurt themselves doing it. Trying to show how to do it would get your thread (rightfully IMO) closed quickly.

I have mentioned it in passing, but I've worked on commercial models that were like this. Betcha missed it when I said it.
 
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