>...Solar equipment retailers I know say some charging units are not too happy >with the modified sine or square wave (as opposed to true sine wave) that >inexpensive inverters put out. I have killed a cordless drill and a >rechargeable flashlight by using them with inverters. They appeared to work fine initially, but died within a few months when plugged into inverter power...
>Beverly Beverly is right again! Invertors try to emulate the 60-cyle AC power, and most cheapies use a 2-transistor multivibrator to output a square-wave at 60 Hz, which then is "rounded" a bit with filter capacitors. Coupled with many items (particularly those with electrical motors), they set up all kinds of flux rexistance in the windings, and other nasty-sounding stuff! (particularly bad for ie TVs, stereos, VCRs... ) THE GOOD NEWS: Cheapie invertors used with resistive appliances (ie heaters and light bulbs) will do no harm. Better invertors have more sophisticated designs that shape the output more closely to what the appliance expects, so you can use it with the appliances that contain circuitry (You have to check out the specs before you buy). The BEST news for us Powerbook users, is that Apple (as is, or was, typical of them) had Powerbook supplies made to very high standards. These are NOT cheap wall-warts with a no-name transformer and one capacitor inside. All the Powerbook power supplies I've seen are sophisticated Switching Supplies, with all kinds of filtering and suppression and some even have a fuse right on the circuitboard (too bad you can't open it!). That's why they're so light; no big transformer. SO Powerbook supplies can handle the dirty spikey noisy crap output from a cheapie invertor for the intermittent periods most users have it hooked up to their car supplies. Over time, you *might* shorten the life of your Apple supply, but they are really nicely designed. For a permanent hookup (perhaps on a boat?), you'd want something more sophisticated. BTW, anytime you use a BATTERY between your charging supply and your appliance, the battery acts like a filter of sorts. You can run off a battery that's topped up with a sleazy charger, So Beverly, with her beautiful clean DC supply coming directly from her solar panels, should tap into the DC BEFORE it goes to the invertor, and use THAT power to charge a battery of cells from which she can run her Powerbook very safely for as long as she wants. Beverly, if you need a checklist for doing this, just ask me offlist! Since solar panels usually put out � 0.5 - 1.5 Volts DC, it's just a matter of hooking enough together in series AND parallel to get the desired voltage AND current. Shveet! martin -- PowerBooks is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Enter To Win A | -- Canon PowerShot Digital Cameras start at $299 | Free iBook! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> PowerBooks list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/powerbooks.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/powerbooks%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
