Turning a UPS into a 320 W splash-resistant, pure sine, under-car inverter
Channel: FFcossag
Date: 2016-07-14

I turn a trash-picked EATON/Powerware PW5115 500i USB UPS into a splash-resistant outdoors inverter to be mounted mere centimeters above the road surface underneath my van. I do this using a plastic storage box, cut-up water bottles, duct tape and imagination.

The PW5115 500i is a really nice UPS for hacking. It puts out about 320 W, but its somewhat unique topology allows for a really compact device that fits on one PCB, with no chunky mains-freq transformer (like APC do it) or electrolytic output capacitors (like cheap inverters do it). The surge power is sadly limited to well below a kW.

Keep in mind that the battery charger is LIVE AT MAINS VOLTAGE in these, so don't even think about connecting external batteries up to one. You don't want your battery terminals to be live.
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