Small Cabin

Small Cabin Forum
 - Forums - Register/Sign Up - Reply - Search - Statistics -

Small Cabin Forum / Off-Grid Living / Pure sine wave inverter quality (from automobile) for lithium ion charging
Author Message
harrymanimus
Member
# Posted: 5 Dec 2021 22:32 - Edited by: harrymanimus
Reply 


I have 2 products. An inverter for my car, and an EcoFlow Delta Portable Power Station. My goal here is to charge my EcoFlow Delta (also have a Pro version on order) from the car inverter in a non detrimental way to the life of the EcoFlow battery. I use the EcoFlow for weekend trips to my cabin and for emergency home power.

Inverter Product:
https://handypowerx.com/products/handy-power-x-hpx1530invcblbg-power-source-1500w-300 0w
PSW, THD listed as 3% or less
This inverter is a 60-0-60 split phase.

I gave about $170 for this one.

I bought a Liumy Waveform Multimeter so I could inspect the wave and ensure it is not a modified sine wave.

Thoughts on what the sine wave is showing? Does this look like < 3% THD? Is this bad to use for any types of products?

Inverter with no load shows pretty clean sinewave. 1.1KW load looks cleaner than 700W load.

I was considering buying a Xantrex or something else to compare and return that if it looks similar.
Pulling 700W
Pulling 700W
Pulling 1.1KW
Pulling 1.1KW


gcrank1
Member
# Posted: 5 Dec 2021 22:58 - Edited by: gcrank1
Reply 


More than a few solar techies at the excellent solar site:
diysolarforum.com

Brettny
Member
# Posted: 6 Dec 2021 10:11
Reply 


$170 for a 1500w inverter..highly doubt it's pure sinewave. That's only $30 more than harbor freights 1500w modified sinewave.

Bruces
Member
# Posted: 6 Dec 2021 10:34
Reply 


The graphs posted above do look correct for full sine wave ,the modified ones have a flat spot in the graph .

harrymanimus
Member
# Posted: 6 Dec 2021 11:47
Reply 


I did post on diysolarforum first but I wasn't getting any replies so I thought I'd check other places too, and I've posted on this forum some before.

The product started out at 300+ but I think they didn't sell as well as expected so there have been discounts. It is definitely pure sine wave based on oscilloscope reading as advertised, but not sure if it is good enough for my purposes. Or maybe I need a better oscilloscope to tell that.

It definitely does appear to do what I need it to do, charge my EcoFlow. But if it is doing slow damage or something, I'd like to rectify that situation.

travellerw
Member
# Posted: 6 Dec 2021 13:40
Reply 


Quoting: harrymanimus
It definitely does appear to do what I need it to do, charge my EcoFlow. But if it is doing slow damage or something, I'd like to rectify that situation.


I'm %99 sure you will be fine. Inside your EcoFlow is a power supply/charger that isolates the battery from mains voltage. It would be that device that would be damaged by "dirty power". In most supplies its actually and external brick that is easily replaced, however it appears to be built in to your device. So yes a little more concerning as its not easily replaceable.

Based on the above graphs, the power looks nice and clean. If it was me and my device, I wouldn't worry about it.

The bigger thing I would worry about is if your inverter is installed properly. 1500W is nothing to sneeze at and requires some beefy cables on the 12V side. That power supply has high speed charging and looks to be pulling 700W. I would make sure your cables are sized right and you have things fused!

harrymanimus
Member
# Posted: 6 Dec 2021 13:57
Reply 


The inverter does come with some super thick cables.

I'm actually pretty impressed the build of the thing (cables, sturdy casing, airflow in bag where you never have to take it out of the carrying bag).

I have not opened it up, and probably couldn't tell you if the insides look good.

razmichael
Member
# Posted: 7 Dec 2021 07:10
Reply 


I'm with Travellerw on this. The specs clearly state Pure Sine Wave and the graph supports that so I would stop worrying about that (not even sure if a modified sine wave would really cause much of an issue - depends on the pack converter used for charging). Also agree about making sure you connect the inverter properly to the car battery as that is is big draw for an extended period of time if the specs are valid. Likely not an issue but if the vehicle is small, with a small alternator, it may not be able to keep up for the two plus hours it takes to do the fast charge (not sure which model you have). This assumes charging from "empty". I really suspect it will all work (assuming you are not using some tiny little car) but you are going from 12VDC -> 120AC ->12VDC (for charging) so there are losses along the way.

harrymanimus
Member
# Posted: 7 Dec 2021 11:48
Reply 


So the Delta appears to monitor the input and back off when tolerances are getting close to what it can't take. It starts low, upping the watts and then stops upping the watts. It appears it will stop based on a voltage drop, maybe. Toward the end of the charge it ramps down, assuming to keep battery cool.

From a wall outlet it will pull 1300w. I've tested it on 2 vehicles a Chevy Traverse, and a Ford Fusion 1.5L. With the Traverse seems to max out at 1.1kw. With the Fusion, close to 1kw. Both were successful at charging the Delta but a little slower than wall outlet.

With the Delta Pro (on order), there is an app you set the max watts to charge at.

gcrank1
Member
# Posted: 7 Dec 2021 12:14
Reply 


You mention an inv for your car.
Iirc Trav has big experience with engine alt charging; ie heavy load charging over hours upon hours is hard on them.

harrymanimus
Member
# Posted: 7 Dec 2021 12:39 - Edited by: harrymanimus
Reply 


Quoting: gcrank1
Iirc Trav has big experience


Is that travellerw from previous post?

Your comment is noted. Thankfully, I don't think I'll need to do all that much charging via car/truck in the future. This is mostly getting things in order for emergency type situation at home, or at the cabin and perchance there's no gas for the inverter generator there.

I limped by for 3+ days last major power outage in the Texas winter storm with Delta and my car inverter (not running all the time of course). I'll be WAY more prepared now for anything in the future with all my 120v home plugs and central heat working now plus 3x more battery power with Delta Pro when it gets here.

I justified the kickstarter price of the Delta Pro with the wife for home emergency. But mostly it will be a "easy livin box" for the cabin.

Your reply
Bold Style  Italic Style  Underlined Style  Thumbnail Image Link  Large Image Link  URL Link           :) ;) :-( :confused: More smilies...

» Username  » Password 
Only registered users can post here. Please enter your login/password details before posting a message, or register here first.