I did something silly (Surge protector)

aggressiveGrey said:
Mine is also modified sine wave.

Read this is that thread you posted:
"Edit: Just to clarify on em Ellis plug, they send surges down the G wire ie: create a short. SO do not use them when powering from battery."
But ye did exactly that. Im hopinggggggg --- worst case scenario that happened... It tripped the surge protector and that was the end of it... and not passing any current through the surge protector to PC.
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Does the PC still work?
 
Sounds like your surge protector did its job by activating.

All it does it clamp the voltage to a certain level...and diverts the excess to ground. Might be that your inverter's output was higher than your surge protector's nominal rating - especially when plugged in with load.

It won't damage your pc because there's no short between phases occuring.

EDIT: Worth noting, different classes do different things. Some clamp voltage, others break contact between source/load on a phase and so on. Might be the noise you heard was the disconnector, which resets when you remove and re-apply power / reset a trip switch etc.
 
Voicy said:
Sounds like your surge protector did its job by activating.

All it does it clamp the voltage to a certain level...and diverts the excess to ground. Might be that your inverter's output was higher than your surge protector's nominal rating - especially when plugged in with load.

It won't damage your pc because there's no short between phases occuring.
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The only idiotic thing i did was try twice more.. unplug surge protector - turn off inverter, turn on inverter - switch PC on... worked... (Didnt trip)
Did that twice... does that sound "normal" given the circumstances?
 
aggressiveGrey said:
The only idiotic thing i did was try twice more.. unplug surge protector - turn off inverter, turn on inverter - switch PC on... worked... (Didnt trip)
Did that twice... does that sound "normal" given the circumstances?
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You know the old saying about doing something more then once after it failed right ;-)
 
Lupus said:
You know the old saying about doing something more then once after it failed right ;-)
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sure Just hoping it wasnt by passing any protection.. If thats even possible , my knowledge of this stuff is pretty bad
 
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I hope by what im "understanding" here is that
a) PC is fine, surge protector did was it was designed to do (me plugging it in while inverter was on)
b) Voltage was probably regulated after second and third retries doing the same method hence to trip
c) Dont be an idiot and plug a surge protector into a extension cord (to inverter)
 
Park@82 said:
@AlphaJohn can you please clarify if this issue only effects Modified sine wave inverters? It's the first time that I've heard of this issue.
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If you refering to Surge protection, its not a case of what type of inverter more than what does the inverter do with Output vs Ground Pin

The way surge protectors work is that big surges get send back to ground:

surge-jpg.1582548


If your inverter is loose-standing ie: not "installed and hard-wired" and not "properly grounded", that surge she is gonna eat your inverter alive.

In the case of the Mecer 2400 it just sends ground back to the input wire, so the moment you unplug it that surge has nowhere to go.

I have seen proper inverters that actually have a trip switch on output. <-- they ok for surge plugs.

Edit: Meant to add that surge plug ground is meant to trip the switch on your DB board killing the feed but if the inverter doesn't have a trip switch, its just gonna continue feeding power via batteries to whatever is overloaded till it basically kills itself.
 

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AlphaJohn said:
If you refering to Surge protection, its not a case of what type of inverter more than what does the inverter do with Output vs Ground Pin

The way surge protectors work is that big surges get send back to ground:

surge-jpg.1582548


If your inverter is loose-standing ie: not installed and hard-wired and not properly grounded, that surge she is gonna eat your inverter alive.

In the case of the Mecer 2400 it just sends ground back to the input wire, so the moment you unplug it that surge has nowhere to go.

I have seen proper inverters that actually have a trip switch on output. <-- they ok for surge plugs.

Edit: Meant to add that surge plug ground is meant to trip the switch on your DB board but if the inverter doesn't have a trip switch, its just gonna continue feeding power via batteries to whatever is overloaded till it basically kills itself.
Click to expand...

I have the mecer 1200va - if that makes any difference, but you need to put this in laymans terms for me xD.
Regarding the overall statement you are making :)

To your edit - ye basically the only thing that happened was the surge protector stopped feeding power, (1st time) after 2 tries after it of unplugging and replugging surgeprotector ... it then started working ok... until i realized it wasnt meant for that use.... inverter was still on the entire time - never tripped either.. - nothing tripped on DB board.
 
AlphaJohn said:
If you refering to Surge protection, its not a case of what type of inverter more than what does the inverter do with Output vs Ground Pin

The way surge protectors work is that big surges get send back to ground:

surge-jpg.1582548


If your inverter is loose-standing ie: not installed and hard-wired and not properly grounded, that surge she is gonna eat your inverter alive.

In the case of the Mecer 2400 it just sends ground back to the input wire, so the moment you unplug it that surge has nowhere to go.

I have seen proper inverters that actually have a trip switch on output. <-- they ok for surge plugs.

Edit: Meant to add that surge plug ground is meant to trip the switch on your DB board killing the feed but if the inverter doesn't have a trip switch, its just gonna continue feeding power via batteries to whatever is overloaded till it basically kills itself.
Click to expand...
Wait but the OP said he plugged the surge protector into the output of the inverter if I understood correctly, why would that damage the inverter if there is no surge?

Thanks for the detailed explanation above. Lets say the inverter does not have trip switch and you charge it via surge protector, a surge happens and and it fries the electronics of the inverter vs you had no surge protector and the surge fried the electronics of the inverter... Is there any senario in which having a suerge protector would be worse than not having one?
 
aggressiveGrey said:
I have the mecer 1200va - if that makes any difference, but you need to put this in laymans terms for me xD.
Regarding the overall statement you are making :)

To your edit - ye basically the only thing that happened was the surge protector stopped feeding power, (1st time) after 2 tries after it of unplugging and replugging surgeprotector ... it then started working ok... until i realized it wasnt meant for that use.... inverter was still on the entire time - never tripped either.. - nothing tripped on DB board.
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I have not tested it but I do suspect that the Mecer is a double hot inverter ie:

supplies both 120 & 240V

Neutral + Ground = 120v
Ground + Live = 120v
Neutral + Live = 240v

In a case of s surge plug it would explain the problems

Edit: Anyway in general not a good idea to use a surge plug on either a loose Inverter or generator output for that matter.
Edit2: The manual says no, so only 240 on N + L
1693909492033.png
Still would like to test that.....
 
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AlphaJohn said:
I have not tested it but I do suspect that the Mecer is a double hot inverter ie:

supplies both 120 & 240V

Neutral + Ground = 120v
Ground + Live = 120v
Neutral + Live = 240v

In a case of s surge plug it would explain the problems

Edit: Anyway in general not a good idea to use a surge plug on either a loose Inverter or generator output for that matter.
Click to expand...

"In the case of a surge plug it would explain the problems"

Refering to it tripping the once?
Ye i only realized after its not a good idea
But basically the end answer that im looking for is
A) Worse case is that inverter would be affected (i dont care that much about the inverter
b) Without a doubt - nothing plugged into the surge plug would have been affected (statisically or otherwise)

Will post picture shortly.
 
aggressiveGrey said:
"In the case of a surge plug it would explain the problems"

Refering to it tripping the once?
Ye i only realized after its not a good idea
But basically the end answer that im looking for is
A) Worse case is that inverter would be affected (i dont care that much about the inverter
b) Without a doubt - nothing plugged into the surge plug would have been affected (statisically or otherwise)

Will post picture shortly.
Click to expand...
And anything pluged into the output, cause that surge wont stop at the inverter it will send it via Ground to anything that is plugged into it. Remember the power is "looking" for a path to earth.

So even a simple action as plugging in a normal plug can cause a simple short and everything on the inverter "sees" that short.
 
AlphaJohn said:
And anything pluged into the output, cause that surge wont stop at the inverter it will send it via Ground to anything that is plugged into it. Remember the power is "looking" for a path to earth.
Click to expand...

Oh boy that tells me that the what cause the initial "sound" and the plug not working, likely could have jumped to output - in this case computers.
 
:( :( :( :( :(
Now the question remains - considering PC boots fine and all - how exactly would i know if anything "went bad" ?
 
AlphaJohn said:
If you refering to Surge protection, its not a case of what type of inverter more than what does the inverter do with Output vs Ground Pin
Click to expand...
Jis brah, nice explanation.
You're as bad as everyone says you are.
 
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