"Rod Speed" wrote in message
...
Arfa Daily wrote
Rod Speed wrote
Arfa Daily wrote
Martin Brown wrote
D. T. Green wrote

On just buying a 800 watt 'two' stroke petrol generator from Aldi, we
have heard from someone who says that he has got one; and that his is
running very roughly, and is really noisy.

Also it says in the instructions that it is *not* suitable for
connecting to televisions or other sensitive electronic equipment.

Likely it is not just acoustically noisy but electronically noisy too
and the ignition system radio emissions will cause snow on a portable
TV. It might be so rough and ready electrically either voltage or
frequency wise that it could fail or wreck some old sets completely.
I'd expect most modern switched mode PSUs to cope with almost anything
but then you are taking a risk since the maker says it is unsuitable.

I would have said the exact opposite of that. Linear supplies with a
nice big chunk of L in the way, are pretty much unconcerned about such
nasties as spikes, whereas switchers will fail if you just look at them
wrongly on a day with a Y in it ...

Like hell they do.

However, that said, I would agree with everyone else that using this
with modern electronic equipment would not be a good idea.

That's just plain wrong with modern switch mode power supplys.

I repair hundreds of the things,

But clearly don't understand the basics with well designed switch mode
power supplys.

and irrespective of the topology of any individual design, most work by
the skin of their teeth.

That's just plain wrong.

Left alone, in general, today's generation are fairly reliable, but in my
experience, subject them to the slightest abuse, and they fail - often
catastrophically

Switch mode power supplys, particularly the ones designed
to work on a voltage range of 80-260V don't, and they
don't give a damn about the frequency of the mains
from a generator, because they rectify the mains.


Oh, how silly of me not to know that ...


Where did I ever dispute that such designs don't care about frequency or
input voltage ? I merely stated that if you abuse them, they have a
predisposition towards catastrophic failure - and I base that on many years
of repairing the things every week for a living. Even if they do have a PFC
front end, that in itself is just another SMPS, and the control IC and
switching FET are just as prone to failure as in any other design.

Arfa