For 2011. when we setup our AAF display, I want to have some background music, and for the evening when we're camping, some lights would be good I thought, so I went a bought a SIP 'Medusa' T1000 'suitcase' generator. I researched this model and it got good reviews in alot of mags/websites, and at a shade under £100 for 'as new' I am happy.
It arrived this week and we fired it up yesterday to test all is ok with it - starts first time, seen little if any use, but then we came across a 'problem' - or is it??
To test AC mains output, we plugged a 300w Black & Decker power file into the socket. This has a normal mains plug on it, but the Earth pin is unused. It did nothing - not even an attempt to work. It worked on the mains socket, so the powerfile was fine.
We then tried a halogen spotlight (500w) and this has a metal earth pin on its plug, earthed I guess to the metal lamp unit - this lit up fine and generator adjusted for the load on it. We tried other devices and anything that didn't have/require an 'active' earth pin would not work. We tried using a 4 way extension and same happened - earthed devices worked, no earth devices would not work.
So the generator works fine (starts and makes 240v AC), but I don't understand why it appears every device must have an 'active' earth on the 3 pin plug? I mean, if you wanted to run an old fashioned lightbulb, you would only have 2 wires, so does this mean you could never use the generator to power lights? Likewise for portable music systems - most are solid state and have no earth, so unless there's something wrong with my generator, I guess you can;t use it for such devices? I had thought the 3 pin socket on the genny should behave exactly the same as a household socket, but it doesn;t on this one?
Anyone know why the above happens, any work-arounds or tips to get these non-earth items working?
Question
Chris Warne
For 2011. when we setup our AAF display, I want to have some background music, and for the evening when we're camping, some lights would be good I thought, so I went a bought a SIP 'Medusa' T1000 'suitcase' generator. I researched this model and it got good reviews in alot of mags/websites, and at a shade under £100 for 'as new' I am happy.
It arrived this week and we fired it up yesterday to test all is ok with it - starts first time, seen little if any use, but then we came across a 'problem' - or is it??
To test AC mains output, we plugged a 300w Black & Decker power file into the socket. This has a normal mains plug on it, but the Earth pin is unused. It did nothing - not even an attempt to work. It worked on the mains socket, so the powerfile was fine.
We then tried a halogen spotlight (500w) and this has a metal earth pin on its plug, earthed I guess to the metal lamp unit - this lit up fine and generator adjusted for the load on it. We tried other devices and anything that didn't have/require an 'active' earth pin would not work. We tried using a 4 way extension and same happened - earthed devices worked, no earth devices would not work.
So the generator works fine (starts and makes 240v AC), but I don't understand why it appears every device must have an 'active' earth on the 3 pin plug? I mean, if you wanted to run an old fashioned lightbulb, you would only have 2 wires, so does this mean you could never use the generator to power lights? Likewise for portable music systems - most are solid state and have no earth, so unless there's something wrong with my generator, I guess you can;t use it for such devices? I had thought the 3 pin socket on the genny should behave exactly the same as a household socket, but it doesn;t on this one?
Anyone know why the above happens, any work-arounds or tips to get these non-earth items working?
Thanks in advance,
Chris
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