1200VA Power Pack

1200VA Power Pack

Testing the waters off the Grid...

I swear this stuff lands on my door step simply as a challenge to see how it'll be used...

Ted AKA - Old Patch recovered this APC 1200VX UPS from a Decomm Pile in the city...

The Hawker Genesis Cells are from the Original E-Bike project

The Trolley cart is Brand Spankin' new off the rack from Canadian Tire... Purchased entirely from Poker winnings over the past 2 months... You know you're a shitty poker player when it takes 2 months to win $19.95 in Canadian Tire Money...

This is intended to act as a buffer for grid failure (which will only become more of a common occurrence, I suspect), and a cheap way to learn a bit more about alternate power systems (a skill I'll not regret having, I suspect).

The unit was originally thought of as an upgrade for the Hunt-Camp which is still only running the original 400VA or so inverter.

But realistically, when the camp gets used, one Deep Cycle boat battery will run from about 5 PM till 3AM no sweat...

Stereo or 12" B&W TV, Cell Charger, 40Watt Fluorescent Fixture...

It would be more hassle trying to ensure you always had 2 (two) Batteries fully charged... So this 24VDC unit has sat & sat for sometime now... (it must be in 3 or 4 other parts of the web site in the background.)

The unit looks very impressive, especially if it can supply 1.2KVA (Although Voltage times Current does equal power measured in watts... I tend to think that these a difference between VA and watts)

The unit has a split Chassis making the actual inverter considerably smaller...

Once the dead batteries are removed all of the casing will be reassembled since space and weight aren't real considerations for this project.

The Battery space can be used for additional circuitry if needed.

By the fuck' this looks pretty damn smart!!!

I mean real pro-like, screwed together with fancy band steel, real rubber tires with air... The kind of job you might see on TV ...

Get this if nothing else... This looks good but is really a piece of shit...

What I really wish I had was video with sound and a good camera operator to catch the shop filling with smoke, sparks flying, a steady stream of profanity that eventually has the whole contraption outside on the driveway in the middle of the night on fire

Carefully every wire is crimped and soldered to achieve maximum connectivity and minimize any loses. I wired a double pole double throw switch rated for 15Amps @ 120VAC. The batteries are soldered to the center poles while the UPS is one side and a set of solar panels will be on the other side (part 2 of this project).

The switch was cut right into the Band Steel of the cart with as snug a fit as any off-shore OEM could do. I even tested the wiring to the batteries and thought to myself "What an awesomely powerful inverter this must be to draw such a wicked blue spark off the terminal."

So the last connection was torqued down with a wrench on the battery terminals and the switch flipped with great anticipation and joy.

When I heard the first loud bang, I went dumb... and then numb... All I could do was stand and watch as the cabling harness quickly went limp and then burst into flames. I decided to act when I saw the fire, the switch did nothing, so I grabbed a pair of cutters and cut the lines from the UPS and just past the switch down to the batteries.

The shop is now as I said earlier full of smoke and things are looking bad as I still see fire under the UPS, and now it is making a loud arcing noise. I seriously think that this fucking thing could blow-up and kill me along with it or burn down the house. The shop is a disaster with power cords and tools all over the place, so I kick everything clear of the door way and wheel this rig out into the night to burn up in the driveway.

As I'm watching this blue arc right at a battery terminal I use the cutters I still have in my hand and fish out a length of wire that burnt right through the battery casing and was shorting the battery internally. (Image on the above right)

The Hawkers are now toast as they won't hold a charge over 11.5VDC, the burnt unit discharges within hours of being charged with no load applied.

Nothing inside the UPS is damaged, and the switch wasn't the issue as it metered out fine in all positions. The only fault I could find is that I must have mixed-up the terminals internally and wired the batteries in reverse.

So here I'm testing every wire and connection as I introduce it back to the set-up... something I never did once until this point.

Here is the re-assembled unit running theworkshop.ca system and capture unit while an image is being processed on it.

The UPS functionality is even still intact as I plugged in the unit and switched back and forth a couple of times to ensure that it still was functional.

The silver hard board is mounted on a pair of hinges and will act as the base for the 2 Solar cells that are to be mounted...

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