Generator power spikes...blows speakers

[twstd02]

Hello everyone...Newbie here! thanks for the site.

Here is my problem.....

I live in Cen Cali and do a lot of camping both on the beach and in the mountains. I take a 5.5hp Honda/Colman generator and plug my old *** Pioneer reciever into it then I hook up some 6.5" outdoor speakers.

I keep blowing the tweeters!!!!

The only thing that I can think of is that the inconsistancy of the power from the generator and maybe there are power spikes from the generator then they move to the reciever, then the reciever pushes too much power to the tweeters and then they pop!

I don't have alot of money to invest into speakers and revievers right now. Does anyone know if I can hook up a computer UPC to the generator and then hook the reciever to the UPC and that way the UPC would control power spikes.

Thanks for everyones time!

 

[lsiberian]

Hello everyone...Newbie here! thanks for the site.

Here is my problem.....

I live in Cen Cali and do a lot of camping both on the beach and in the mountains. I take a 5.5hp Honda/Colman generator and plug my old *** Pioneer reciever into it then I hook up some 6.5" outdoor speakers.

I keep blowing the tweeters!!!!

The only thing that I can think of is that the inconsistancy of the power from the generator and maybe there are power spikes from the generator then they move to the reciever, then the reciever pushes too much power to the tweeters and then they pop!

I don't have alot of money to invest into speakers and revievers right now. Does anyone know if I can hook up a computer UPC to the generator and then hook the reciever to the UPC and that way the UPC would control power spikes.

Thanks for everyones time!

I would try a power conditioner. APC silver one's are very cheap right now. I got mine for 30 bucks.

 

[TLS Guy]

I would try a power conditioner. APC silver one's are very cheap right now. I got mine for 30 bucks.

Sorry but that will not do the trick. Portable generators produce a ghastly wave form and a lot else besides. He must have had a lot of supersonic interference blowing his tweeters.

I have quite a large standby generator here. If you are going to use audio equipment with a generator, you need a UPS deigned specifically for generator use. APC make some UPS units for use if you have a standby generator, and that it what I use here. In fact I have four of them. I have to have, as my generator starts immediately on interruption of grid power. So far touch wood, they have protected everything.

 

[WmAx]

As a further note.... most regular computer UPS units will not even operate properly from generators. I have tried this and the UPS units will keep switching in and out of the circuit and/or give error signals. They just go crazy on the horrible waveforms coming out of regular consumer grade generators. You will need a special one as TLS Guy mentioned in order to deal with these sloppy waveforms.

-Chris

 

[mike c]

or since you use it outdoors, you could simply be clipping your receiver by cranking it too loud

 

[majorloser]

You need an inverter generator to give you stable sine wave AC power.

I believe the only decent consumer generators that are "Inverter" are true Hondas. Not the one sold by other companies with Honda engines.

http://www.hondapowerequipment.com/products/models.aspx?page=models&section=P2GG&category=inv

Cummins Onan make some, but not as easy to find as Hondas:
http://www.cumminsonan.com/portable/products/inverter

An inverter generator is the only way to power electronics.
(they ain't cheap)

 

[CraigV]

Is it possible to plug a power inverter into your car via a power outlet/cigarette lighter socket?

 

[majorloser]

Is it possible to plug a power inverter into your car via a power outlet/cigarette lighter socket?

Yes, but they can also have power swings from changing loads and engine speed changes.

 

[CraigV]

If the engine were off & the power was just coming from the battery, asides from wearing down the charge, would there be any issues? I sometimes use a small inverter to power a laptop in the car for the kids to watch DVD’s on for long car trips.

 

[agarwalro]

He must have had a lot of supersonic interference blowing his tweeters.

That makes sense. Just out of curiousity, can the OP use some sort of low pass filter, say, pass through signal only < 20KHz. As a followup, would this be possible on the speaker level at all?

 

[majorloser]

If the engine were off & the power was just coming from the battery, asides from wearing down the charge, would there be any issues? I sometimes use a small inverter to power a laptop in the car for the kids to watch DVD’s on for long car trips.

It's not a real problem. Just about every police car and fire engine has a laptop in them running off of an inverter. They run just fine.

 

[Rickster71]

If you go the inverter route, I’d get a ‘true sine wave’ inverter.(my 2 cents)

There are two types of power inverters: True-sine wave or Modified-sine wave (square wave). True-sine wave inverters produce power that is like the power from the utility power grid. The power is a smooth sine wave when viewed through an oscilloscope.

Modified-sine wave and square wave inverters are the most common and cheaper types of power inverters. Modified-sine wave power inverters produce a power wave that is sufficient for most devices. The power wave is not exactly the same as electricity from the power grid. It has a wave form that appears as a choppy squared-off wave when viewed through an oscilloscope.

 

[highfigh]

Hello everyone...Newbie here! thanks for the site.

Here is my problem.....

I live in Cen Cali and do a lot of camping both on the beach and in the mountains. I take a 5.5hp Honda/Colman generator and plug my old *** Pioneer reciever into it then I hook up some 6.5" outdoor speakers.

I keep blowing the tweeters!!!!

The only thing that I can think of is that the inconsistancy of the power from the generator and maybe there are power spikes from the generator then they move to the reciever, then the reciever pushes too much power to the tweeters and then they pop!

I don't have alot of money to invest into speakers and revievers right now. Does anyone know if I can hook up a computer UPC to the generator and then hook the reciever to the UPC and that way the UPC would control power spikes.

Thanks for everyones time!

If the tweeters are blowing, get a surge suppressor. A good one. Also, it's usually clipping that causes tweeters to die although if they aren't made for high power, they're doomed, anyway.

How are these speakers mounted- in an RV panel?

An easy way to limit the current going to the speakers is with a polyswitch, sold by most places that deal with speaker components, like Parts Express, Madisound, etc. You can also use a car dome light, in series. As the current increases, the filament heats up and this causes higher resistance. You'll see it glowing at times but that means it's doing its job.

 

[Pogre]

Hey, not to mention it takes a lot of speaker and power to play loud outdoors. Tweeters are usually the first to go when an amp starts clipping.