Sine wave generator output testing

Submitted: Saturday, Jul 31, 2021 at 14:50

ThreadID: 142298 Views:3914 Replies:3 FollowUps:10

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JJAdv

I bought a Genny to freeze down the fillets when the days are short and cloudy.. Thought.I would see what the power looked like on the scope.

I guess all good gennys output clean power, and all cheap ones may not be as clean.. My cheap inverter was really crappy...

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Reply By: RMD - Saturday, Jul 31, 2021 at 15:06

Saturday, Jul 31, 2021 at 15:06

That is ok, but how does anybody who buys a generator, cheap or otherwise, and wish it use it for camp power check the sine wave etc, without an oscilloscope. Most don't have them and therefore would not know what wave was produced. Will you buy a few different brands of generator and then test them, and chart the output waves, then people will more likely to know what is what.

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Follow Up By: JJAdv - Saturday, Jul 31, 2021 at 15:50

Saturday, Jul 31, 2021 at 15:50

I just tested what I has around, and thought others would be interested.. If someone wants to supply a few gennys I don't mind testing them..

I would guess all the gennys out there are pretty good. It seems the cheaper they are the noisier they get. There is a youtube video where a guy modifies the Kings to reduce the noise so he could use his HF radio without interference..

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Follow Up By: RMD - Saturday, Jul 31, 2021 at 17:43

Saturday, Jul 31, 2021 at 17:43

Yes, cheaper ones are noisier but the assumption their waveforms are worse may not be true seeing circuitry is stolen/copied by a certain country who makes most of them.
You said your cheap one has frapoy wave form but yiu showed a video and siad itvis a nice sine wave. OR are you talking about a different generator to the one which you video tested. I assumed same same seeing no others shown on bench.
What did theHF radio man do??? Is the noise you are referring to rf noise or audible noise? Not clear what you mean there and the concepts are very different.
As far as freezing fish, why would you question it. Aren't you charging batteries which runs the fridge/freezer which does the freezing? A generator never freezes fish!

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Follow Up By: JJAdv - Saturday, Jul 31, 2021 at 19:40

Saturday, Jul 31, 2021 at 19:40

I cant follow with all the typos..

But if you are an expert on this topic please do some playing around yourself and post it.. I am interested in what you find with other types and brands. Every one else just sees it for what it is.. Its an info bite..

Electrical noise is what I was referring to (I thought it was a given as we are talking radio interference and using scopes.. but hey.. maybe not).. Yes, I expect cheap gennys to be OK, or at least good enough.. There are many being used, and I don't find anyone really complaining about it.

I don't understand you freezing fish reply?

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Follow Up By: RMD - Saturday, Jul 31, 2021 at 20:20

Saturday, Jul 31, 2021 at 20:20

The radio interference he may have experienced, was it because of the generator inverter and closeness to the HF or from a 240v ac switchmode charger used at the same time to charge the battery the HF radio was connected to? My bet it is the charger. If he was using the usual 8 amp 12v output to that battery then the rf noise would be horrendous. No one uses that method do they? especially somone who knows and operates a HF.

If people just run a genny to charge batteries then they would never know unless the batteries fail to charge because the charger couldn't accept the power delivery.

You mentioned the generator to freeze fish, they can't do it, only a freezer can.

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Follow Up By: JJAdv - Saturday, Jul 31, 2021 at 20:43

Saturday, Jul 31, 2021 at 20:43

There's one in every thread.. ;)

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Follow Up By: RMD - Sunday, Aug 01, 2021 at 12:28

Sunday, Aug 01, 2021 at 12:28

WE all know what a sine wave looks like but have no control over the output of any generator we may buy. Showing us yours is confusing to me because it doesn't prove anything much part from it is making a sine wave as expected it will. I asked, queried the HF man and what he did, but you refused to elaborate so we could get a picture of what was done. I think you are wrong in stating about noise and expecting ALL to know what classification of "noise" you were meaning, most would have no idea you mean electrical, radio frequency noise. You did mention the cheaper ones are noisier. Why would you use a HF unit why a generator was charging it's battery pack anyway, turn it off and charge a bit later. You didn't mention if what charging style was used as I asked about above. I would like to see some substance in what you show so credibility is better.

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Reply By: Member - Bigfish - Saturday, Jul 31, 2021 at 15:08

Saturday, Jul 31, 2021 at 15:08

Good video. Unfortunately Mickey Blue gennies have a bad reputation. No after sales service and owner of business couldn't care less after the sale has been made. Check out the reviews...abysmal!!

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Follow Up By: JJAdv - Saturday, Jul 31, 2021 at 15:47

Saturday, Jul 31, 2021 at 15:47

I found the opposite. He has been very helpful and accommodating.. He help us supply a heap of them (50+) to Kalbarri, one had a sticky float valve and he just replaced it with a new one..

No one else was interested in helping, and I doubt anyone else would have been any more helpful.

And if you get a really cheap one you just throw it away and start again.

As far as the Genny, it's a Hyundai, cant be any better or worse than any other genny in its class. The value is in the back up and support. And so far, I don't have a complaint.. Its a Sh*t load better than Yamaha.. we have 2 x 30Kg paper weights with Yamaha on the badge.. there support isn't rubbish.. its non existent..

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Follow Up By: JJAdv - Saturday, Jul 31, 2021 at 15:56

Saturday, Jul 31, 2021 at 15:56

Where are the reviews. I just took a look, and there are a few bad ones, thats happened to everyone, he has a 4.5/5 with most being 5 stars..

Mick, who I have never met in person BTW, is a unique character that's for sure.. but he has always done what he said he would, and always been helpful.. Time will tell I guess. I will be putting through it paces I hope freezing down the fish.. Lets see if it's up to it :)

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Follow Up By: RMD - Sunday, Aug 01, 2021 at 18:00

Sunday, Aug 01, 2021 at 18:00

I was interested in a Hyundai generator but declined when reviews and reports stated many faults and poor after sales. I thought they would be good. Any generator should be able to run just a few small watts to drive the compressor, or solenoid in an Engel. Hardly a load for a generator, they should all breeze it in. Even my 25cc Honda Whipper Snipper motor with small alt attached can easily achieve running a fridge, even a home fridge through batteries and 1000w inverter.

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Follow Up By: JJAdv - Monday, Aug 09, 2021 at 15:02

Monday, Aug 09, 2021 at 15:02

Yeh, I could easily get away with a 900 watt one. But I got a good deal on this one, and parts etc are available, after having a Yamaha, and having no parts or service at all, this is important.. I would have liked a more compact one.. but hey, you take a deal when you can get it.

So far it's been good. I have tested it to its rated capacity and it achieved it easily. It will mainly run a charger to keep the batteries topped up when it cloudy, or I have the freezer going flat out for the fish..

Maybe some good lighting from time to time. Maybe I should throw in a coffee machine, seems to be the rage at the moment.

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Reply By: Geoff (Newcastle, NSW) - Saturday, Aug 28, 2021 at 17:16

Saturday, Aug 28, 2021 at 17:16

I did a bit of this sort of testing quite a few years ago with some extremely interesting results, if you are interested in this sort of thing.
At the time I had access to a range of inverters and a couple of EU10i Honda generators.
One of the inverters was from a quite well known company that's still around today. At full load its output resembled no AC power waveform I have ever seen in my over 40 years in the electrical industry.
The best performer up to full load was one of the Honda generators, second best was the other Honda. I even tested them to about 1,600 Watts in parallel. They still performed extremely well, they did have a little noise superimposed on the sine wave. I put that down to some form of "communication" between the inverters to give them load balancing.
As was to be expected with any solid state switching device the 12V DC inverters did start to become quite "wooly" on the output as they approached full load.
I am pretty sure I still have the screen capture images of these tests somewhere.