| Author |
Message |
califbob (199.174.218.47)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 12:19 am: | |
Okey Now I'm really confused.
Some guys say converters are junk some say we need them as a filter if nothing else.
I got to thinking. On my 04 I have a 2000 watt ENvertor, with a battery charger built in, and 5000 watts of solor panels. 6 6 volt batteries for house and 2 12v for starter All my DC stuff runs right off my batteries and of course every thing AC comes from my inverter.
I'v had it that way for almost 20 years with out any apperent problem. BUT my AM radio has terrible interferance but the FM works great, whats that all about? The radio is just a plain car radio, rather expencive one at that.
I can take the same radio and hook it to a battery and antenna outside and no interfrence?? |
Stan (68.150.140.91)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 7:59 am: | |
It is caused by the type of charger in your inverter.
The easy solution is to connect your radio to the engine battery and about once a month run the engine or connect a battery charger to the engine battery. |
CoryDane RTSII (66.155.188.12)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 2:30 pm: | |
First, in RV language, a CONverter does have some filter effect. the CONverter in my RV has two DCV outputs, one for regular items, lights/motors, and one for electronics. When plugged into 120vac at the park or at home, the CONverter charges the battery. Does not do a good job, it will eventually cook the battery if you don't have some kind of load on it.
The INverter comes in many flavours. SINEwave, MODified SINEwave, both come WITH or WITHOUT a battery charger, and the BATTery chargers come in various degrees from no control to very suffisticated control design.
It is probably your inverter that is giving you the noise on the AM radio. AM radios are the most vulnerable to ANY KIND OF NOISE interception and IF you have a MODIFIED SINE WAVE inverter, that is most likely your problem.
If the vehicle is running, your alternator/generator might cause the noise, as was the case in the 60's in cars. Try with the motor off, not running.
Try running the radio with the inverter off and see if the problem is fixed. Also see if you have any dimmers that you can turn off. Dimmers are the second worst contributor to noise.
There are filters that can be added to the power side that should take care of most of the noise. Also, can you check you antenna lead, if you had mice in the camper they can eat away at the sheild coax which will allow noise to inject into the incoming signal.
There is a lot more but those are the first place to look. |
Scott Whitney (69.35.62.177)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, May 10, 2004 - 6:47 pm: | |
Probably a typo, but I doubt you have 5000 Watts of solar panels unless you pull a trailer behind you layered from end to end in panels.
I don't know why you would need a converter as a filter. The battery (bank) itself makes a fine filter. I'd venture a guess that 95% of coach conversions are running large battery banks with an inverter-charger. All high dollar RVs I have seen lately use this method. It is mostly inexpensive RVs and travel trailers, which have maybe one or two house batteries, and maybe 4 or 5 AC circuits, that tend to use a converter with built-in DC and AC load centers.
I am not saying that converters don't have a place in some applications, just saying that there is a better way to do it, ala an inverter/charger. For your money you would spend on a mid-grade converter, I think you would do well to buy a good 3-stage charger, or better yet, apply it to the purchase of an inverter-charger. Of couse, YMMV, and you can take my opinion with a grain of salt.
Scott |
califbob (199.174.219.226)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, May 11, 2004 - 12:46 am: | |
Scott
Your right I have 5- 100 watt panels.
You guys are sure a big help. Thanks a million. |
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