WARNING large inverter chargers

You really don't want anything Lucas it stops when it looks like rain, I think that is hove the Poms ( Britis) sort out over crouting on the roads.
Frank.

MrWizard wrote:

BTW where do I buy and apply the Lucas smoke?

can't help with where to buy, it seems to as rare as Hens Teeth, like ALL Lucas parts are
but to install the smoke, you need a vacuum pump and a funnel
attach pump to one end of suspect wiring, and turn it on
at the other end attach funnel, and slowly pour smoke into funnel, careful not to spill any, its not toxic, but it always smells awful, replacement smoke is EPA approved

I'll sell it to you !
Just 19.95 +S&H, and if you order NOW you'll get a second bottle free, just pay S&H...

Be right back, I need to find some jelly jars, cat hair, and a little butter

BTW where do I buy and apply the Lucas smoke?

can't help with where to buy, it seems to as rare as Hens Teeth, like ALL Lucas parts are
but to install the smoke, you need a vacuum pump and a funnel
attach pump to one end of suspect wiring, and turn it on
at the other end attach funnel, and slowly pour smoke into funnel, careful not to spill any, its not toxic, but it always smells awful, replacement smoke is EPA approved

Woohoo! Glad you are up and running again.

I do wonder why it can't do voltage boosting only current boosting, still useful, I may do an autoformer at some point.

Really the best way to get good power from bad power would be to just always run off the inverter and have a big charger supply enough for keep things neutral. Then your getting perfect clean AC no matter how bad it is coming in.

Jack Mayer recommends keeping your old converter around for this purpose which I have, they will usually keep working even with pretty bad power (90v). Plug the converter in separately then run everything off the inverter, course that won't work for running the AC unless you had a big converter and lots solar too.

For 48v here is the way to go, Prevost conversion 76 KWH lithium, DC genset, 4 alternators, all coach power comes from inverters, can run AC for 48H on a charge!: http://parliamentmotorcoach.com/press-release-060316/

Hi,

The cause is unknown.

Issues had started to develop with charging via the generator. It would charge at 8 to 10 amps--until I placed a large load on the generator--then charging would spike to 75 amps.

The replacement installation has enhanced cooling--better air flow around the inverter. I may well add a 120 volt fan to boost that even more. I won't bother with a thermostat--I'll just have it so if the inverter is on the fan operates.

The history of over heating and "protection" shut down was pretty low. I had an FET warning twice. Once when running the Magnum "flat out" (I don't remember the loads) and once when charging after I had deliberately depleted the battery bank by running a 1000 watt load (oil filled heaters) for four hours. In the charging case I had not yet limited charging rate. Magnum limits that to 125 amps--and because I had generator power it went to 127--and shut down.

I'll no longer need to "trick" the unit into doing voltage support since I have an autoformer. I did that for several many weeks starting in May of 2016. I was drawing between 20 and 80 amps to do forced voltage support. Of course, that meant the charger worked *hard* when ever the air conditioner would cycle off.

I'll probably adopt an "either or" approach to using the autoformer and load support. I only had the opportunity to try that once or twice. The Magnum may have been failing by the time I had the autoformer. I originally thought the Magnum would do voltage support. It doesn't. It is one of the few disappointments for me with the Magnum.

I'll probably adopt an "either or" approach to running the air conditioner from the generator and NOT using load support.

I'll still rely on load support when I only have 15 amp power--and I'll still "dial that down" to 12 amps to avoid burned plugs.

I may "break out" the air conditioning circuit with one more plug so that I could run just the roof air via the autoformer. I won't bother with a 4th shore power cord, but use one of my existing auxiliary shore power circuits.

If I were starting over, I'd definitely have wired to 48 volts and gotten an appropriate inverter in the 4000 watt class.

BTW where do I buy and apply the Lucas smoke?

pianotuna wrote:
Magnum replaced the unit rather than repairing it. I'm happy that they "stood up to the plate".

Glad to hear you are soon back in business. Nothing gets repaired anymore. Although I think Magnum will have their engineers go over the failed unit.

So will you do anything different? The stories seem like a lot was expected out of this unit with all the voltage load support trickery.

I assume you do not get any additional time on the original warranty.

So, still no idea what operating procedure/sequence led to the FET board frying? If none, how can you avoid doing it again?

pianotuna wrote:
Hi all,

Magnum replaced the unit rather than repairing it. I'm happy that they "stood up to the plate".

Good to hear, having the same inverter I have been watching with interest in how they handle it and the cause.

I have worked mine pretty hard and even abused it some (Hot transfer with while AC is running) and so far it has worked well and shut down with a recorded fault if I asked too much.

Hopefully that was just infant mortality.

Take some of this and sprinkle generously in the Magnum