How much can Wires on AC outlet Sustain

[kimchimik]

I want to run an external Hard drive and an External CD rom drive using the exsisting wiring from the AC outlet. Can the wiring sustain this or would i have to change the wires?

[millster]

The good news is, the inverter has a breaker on it that will trip well before you'll damage the wires.The inverter is rated for 100 watts so as long as your equipment doesn't pull more than that, should be OK.

[Regize]

Your total current must be under an amp. if your two devices running at the same time is close 1 Amp you'll likely blow the fuse after a short time of use.First of all I have no cluse what the capacity of the inverter is, so I suggest you leave it alone. If you draw more power from the unit, you need to size a larger fuse AND you need to rate the wiring 125% above the fuse rating.What are you trying to rig up anyway?

[northvibe]

a PC,couldnt you tap the cig. lighter plugs or just hard wire the pc powersupply right from the battery with a fuse etc. ?

[kimchimik]

No, for the pc itself i plan on running a line from the battery itself with a fuse directly to the pc using a DC-DC power converter. The Drives I plan to run on a seperate line. That's why i'm looking into the feasability of using the AC outlet for the drives.

[the_nite_owl]

I assume you are using the AC/DC power supplies that come with the external drives? Look at the power supplies themselves to see what they are rated at for output. The max output is always higher than the device will draw even at power up when it draws the most current.Add together the current draw of both transformers and see if they run total less than the 1 amp the Vibe's AC outlet can provide.The farther below 1 amp they total the better off you are of course, but if they are close to 1 amp then you are going to be better off powering the devices on separately. The startup power draw on the drives is much higher than the normal working draw.Powering them up together can spike the amount of draw higher than it would run after power up and might cause you to trip the circuit.As a rough workaround if power requirements are too tight you could try using a small UPS. The UPS would act as a voltage regulator to make sure you had stable power during any spikes in power draw and would keep itself charged when the power draw is not so high.Get's bulky in the car though.If you are electronically inclined you could build your own DC convertor and bypass the AC line alltogether. Or you could use a computer power supply to provide you with 12v and 5v lines and plug that into the AC line.That makes me wonder. I have an OLD lapotp and I wonder what kind of current I can get out of it as a mobile AC/DC convertor.Quote, originally posted by kimchimik »I want to run an external Hard drive and an External CD rom drive using the exsisting wiring from the AC outlet. Can the wiring sustain this or would i have to change the wires?

[kimchimik]

after thinking about this solution i actually am thinking hard about buying an old laptop and putting it into my system.

[joatmon]

I know from personal experience that if you try to draw more current out of the inverter than it can provide, it shuts down, and automatically recovers after the load is removed. I also know that in the event of a power failure at my house, the inverter in the Vibe is only capable of powering the blower in my woodstove at the lowest speed setting, but that is better than not at all.I thnk you would be better off trying to power all of the computer components from a single power source, whether that is the inverter or a DC-DC converter. The parts of a computer like to have a common ground, and isolating some from the car ground by running it through the AC inverter and then back through the AC-DC power supply built in to the external drives could be ok, or it could produce some wicked ground currents that might cause some unpredicatbility in performance.

[northvibe]

yea im getting a old laptop from my work to do this in my car, prolly install it next summer when i will have a little more money.

[GMJAP]

Quote, originally posted by the_nite_owl »As a rough workaround if power requirements are too tight you could try using a small UPS. The UPS would act as a voltage regulator to make sure you had stable power during any spikes in power draw and would keep itself charged when the power draw is not so high.This is a good idea in theory, but in practice it could probably actually cause you more issues. UPS's can pull large currents when charging their batteries.I think you will be fine for running your external drives from the 100W. I would be suprised if they pull more than 1 Amp from 120V together.Try it and if it trips your inverter fuse you can always mess with something else.

[kimchimik]

Quote, originally posted by GMJAP »This is a good idea in theory, but in practice it could probably actually cause you more issues. UPS's can pull large currents when charging their batteries.I think you will be fine for running your external drives from the 100W. I would be suprised if they pull more than 1 Amp from 120V together.Try it and if it trips your inverter fuse you can always mess with something else.sounds like a plan when i get the enclosures in and tested i'll let you guys know.