Reviewing the Powerjack 2000 Inverter

[BT Humble]

If you've been following my little inverter saga, you'd know that I bought this little beastie on EBay the other day:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=32630&item=4508314281

It arrived on Thursday, which I though was a pretty fair effort (Taipei to Canberra in 6 days).  It was well packed, and arrived uninjured. The included accessories were a spare set of fuses and 2 x universal plug adaptors (I didn't order the optional wireless remote control).

On Saturday I attached it to the wall, hooked it up to the battery bank, and flipped the switch.  It worked.  It then proceeded to work all weekend long powering the drill that I was using to twist roofing screws into the 20-year-old hardwood rafters of my shed roof[1].  I also found time to do a couple of loads of washing, and it coped admirably with that too.  here are it's good and bad points:

• It works;
  
• It's cheap;
  
• It doesn't have a "no-load power down" mode;
  
• It only draws 300mA when idle with the cooling fans off;
  
• The cooling fans seem to run all the time, making it draw 650mA when idle;
  
• It has a switchable LED display which shows either battery voltage or load wattage;
  
• For some reason my fridge doesn't display any value in "Watt Meter" mode;
  
• It seems my washing machine peaks at 1300W while winding up in spin mode, but once up to speed settles back down to 700W.
  
  

I suspect that the fans are cheap 12V computer power supply types, so if anyone knows of a simple means of adding a thermostatic control to them I'd be very pleased.

All in all though, it seems to be an excellent piece of equipment for the price.

BTH

[1] Shed's finished now, except for the door.  It's a rigid 6x2m panel, and I doubt I'll be able to manoeuver it by myself.

[ghurd]

Fan control.

A simple thermistor circuit?

Not all of those fans are equal. Some move a lot more air with a lot less power. Some have a built in temp sensor. The hotter it gets the faster it spins.

G-

[baggo]

When I'm building high power audio amplifiers I usually control the cooling fan with a simple Bi-metallic thermal switch mounted on the heat sink. Just get a normally open type that operates at about 50 degrees C, mount it near the mosfets and connect one fan lead via the switch. I've noticed on the inverters that I've repaired that the position of the thermal sensor in them varies from type to type. Some of them have the sensor on the output mosfets and some are on the transformers of the DC to DC converter. My experience is that it is the DC to DC converter mosfets that run the hottest. Might be worth running the inverter for a time under load and see which bits get hot! Then put your thermal sensor close to these.

John

[domwild]

Hi,

AUS$200 ($100+$100 freight to Australia) is a good price for a 2000W inverter. Tell me, is this a new unit? How come your drill worked when there is a big warning about modified sine wave and 300W limit or is your drill less than that?

Good luck with your shed building!

dominic - western australia

[BT Humble]

Hi,

AUS$200 ($100+$100 freight to Australia) is a good price for a 2000W inverter. Tell me, is this a new unit? How come your drill worked when there is a big warning about modified sine wave and 300W limit or is your drill less than that?

Good luck with your shed building!

dominic - western australia

It came to $230 or so, which I still thought was very good considering that my "interim" 400W inverter from Jaycar cost $170 (I needed something quickly to keep the fridge running).

I knew perfectly well that my drill would work, since it's a 650W Bosch that worked with the previous 1800W one.  Similarly, I knew that the fridge would work and almost certainly the washing machine.

I've loaned my little 2hp air compressor to my cousin in town (since even my generator can't get it going), but I think it would probably be too much for the new inverter.

The shed's finished, including all the trims and guttering.  I just need a helper to get the door up.  Feel like popping over to Tarago this weekend? ;-)

BTH

[nogrid]

I've got a 12v to 240v 6000 watts (12000 surge)for about 350 euros to my home (other side of the world) including the remote option.

Well, is real big and heavy, works well, finally I can plug anything, far less rf interference than my little one, the cons are the no load draw, 3 amperes, 4 with the fans ... two 0.5 amp fans and the weird watt metter. But that is not a real problem as that big monster is used only when real power is needed.

I am very satisfied, for the same money I've got the 1200W on a local dealer I have plenty of power, besides I was unable to get here anything like that for 12 volts.