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I bet you $50.000 is for testing aircraft equipment, so if you are on the aeronautics world, why you don't use a scrapped aircraft inverter? It needs 28 VDC, output 115 VAC 400 Hz, and no risk of burning the expensive flight instruments
I bet you $50.000 is for testing aircraft equipment, so if you are on the aeronautics world, why you don't use a scrapped aircraft inverter? It needs 28 VDC, output 115 VAC 400 Hz, and no risk of burning the expensive flight instruments
That's right 400Hz is used in aircraft because the alternators and transformers can be smaller.
1.6kHz has also been used before but the skin effect losses are higher. 400kHz was chosen in the end as a compromise between skin effect losses and weight.
Haha I'm glad to read that. Yes, onboard a plane the electrical system is:
Engine driven generator(s) 115 VAC 400 Hz
Batteries: 28 VDC
In case of generator failure, the other generators (if available) will take the place of the dead one
In case of total generator failure, the battery is connected to a inverter, to provide 115 VAC to the essential flight instruments.
On any emergency case, the electrical load is reduced to the minimum (galleys, non essencial lights, etc are turned off)
On bigger airplanes they have the RAT, a small generator with a propeller, somthing like a windmill. Is normally retracted inside the plane but on a total power failure it's deployed to provide a bit of electrical power, to be able to move the control surfaces of the plane.
Sorry by the double post, I couldnt edit my previous one.
Don't worry about people's lives, any aircraft equipment is extensively revised and tested before beign certified by the authorities (in the US case FAA, in Colombia is Aeronautica Civil, etc.). Modifications on the equipment should also be revised and certified.
Any installation of uncertified equipment is illegal (even the pine air freshener of the cockpit hahaha), also using non certified people to the work is severely punished.
That's a niceone Hero999, although the prices are very high from $1000 to $13000. I'm wondering, can a common 12V to 120V inverter be modified? Maybe to get the 400 Hz, or a more mundane task: 120 VAC 60hz to 120 VAC 50 hz
Pre-built frequency converters will be expensive because they're produced in relatively small volumes.
It might be possible to modify an automotive converter:
A modified sinewave unit shouldn't be hard to modifiy.
A true sinewave unit would be much more difficult, since the output filter would need re-designing.
However, I don't think it's worth it because you need to buy another unit to convert the mains to 12V. Most 12V inverters have a DC-DC converter to increase the 12V to 170V or 340V (depending on the output voltage), then an h-bridge to convert it to AC. If you were to use an automotive inverter, you could not use the DC-DC converter part so you don't need a mains to 12VDC converter but there's no point as the DC-DC converter is half of the inverter.
Your best bet is to build one yourself. You'll need an isolation transformer and bridge rectifier to get 170VDC and an oscillator (for modified sinewave) or PWM (for puresinewave) driving an h-bridge with a filter on the output (the filter is only need for pure sinewave).
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