Running Laserpoint 24 from Power Inverter

[sheister 1]

I was considering making my operation mobile and wanted to run my laserpoint off of a power inverter hooked up to my car battery. Car running of course. I want to be clear that I want to do it this way to avoid the noise and uhh expense of a generator. I can get my hands on a power inverter with some impressive specs, 1500 to 2500 watts. What I was curious about is 1. Can this be done and if so, is there any reason why it shouldn't? 2. I have heard things about the purity of the power being such that if its not that good it could do some damage to the machine , is there any substance to this info I overheard a while ago?? 3. Is there anybody currently doing this and if so what brand and specs of inverter are you using? Any suggestions or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Oh and does anybody know the power specs of a laserpoint 24 . Amps and volts??

Thanks again.

After Doing some reading from the manual and using the sparse specs provided I came up with this.

100 VA x .06 / 12volts  = 5 amps

5 amps x 120 volts = 600 watts

source http://www.powerstream.com/VA-Watts.htm

I am not sure if this is correct. Any thoughts on this??

[OutlawCustom 0]

FWIW - most inverters (small ones in particular) are -very- basic square-wave units that produce choppy power that sensitive things like computers don't react well to, especially over time. Running the cutter will probably work but it could have problems down the road, the timing and results of which are somewhat unpredictable (though would most likely involved a damaged or burnt power supply). For something as finicky as a plotter, this could also translate to cutting problems as well.

Honestly, I'm not sure (these are just some things to consider) and would be -very- interested to hear your results. What I've shared is based off the fact that my last house was 85% solar powered and used one of the first true sine-wave inverters available on the market at the time. I'd waited until it was available before buying because of the extensive use of computers and such in my daily life. The nice thing about working with that kind of power setup is that it runs your -whole-house- on one gigantic UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply). ;-)

If you do it please share your results!

[sheister 1]

Hello,

Thanks for your input and youre right! For some reason this thread took off in the general discussion catagory. here http://forum.uscutter.com/index.php/topic,21339.45.html

To save you some time reading all the replies here is my conclusion post. As I suspected a true sine wave inverter is needed.

Hello Again.

I am the person whom started this thread and I wanted to post some results since I have purchased a 1000 watt Briggs and Stratton Generator. Since generators produce pure sine wave energy I was pretty sure this or a pure sine wave inverter would work. Since this generator was about as expensive as a quality pure sine wave inverter (ebay 325.00 brand new shipped. Was a steal of a deal. Usually priced at about 450.00 and up!), I decided on the generator because this model is somewhat more quite than other generators, is very portable (about 60 pounds), and will allow me to go places where my car cant. I took my whole setup outside and tested it out. This included my laptop, generator, cutter, and a piece of vinyl to test on. The whole thing worked without any problem. Tested 2 times and cuts came out perfect.  So my conclusion is: Since I am very confident the 400 watt modified sine wave inverter I first tested was more than enough power, (cutter jogged fine, laptop powered up just fine) but my cutter was never recognized by the laptop both times. I am sure that this is due to the power being generated by a modified sine wave. I.E the cheaper more common power inverters out there. Since going with a pure sine wave generated source, I have not had the same problem between the laptop and the cutter. And since I am very confident this was not due to a lack of power I am going to state that for the Laser Point 24, (the model I use) if you want to operate it in an environment where power is not available you will either need a generator or a PURE SINE WAVE inverter. The regular , cheaper, and more common, inverters do not generate the correct type of "clean" power necessary for the communications between the cutter and the laptop to work properly.

Though I am not as happy that I couldn't just use a regular inverter. (and for all I know some other models of cutters or laptops may work together just fine on a modified sine wave inverter) I am happy to have this lesson learned now instead of at an event. Further, I am hoping others will be able to benefit from the information in this thread as folks know you need to be able to go where the money is , it wont always come to you!

I would like to thank all of the generous contributions by those who have helped this question along! I would like to encourage any others who would like to offer some expertise or experience from those who are successfully running a mobile cutting operation to please post your info. This will help a lot of ppl save a lot of time and money and get us in the game faster.

Thanks Again

Sheister

I hope this helps you and others take your operation on the road. Any input would be appreciated!

[sparkness 1]

Using a power inverter will work just fine , does not need to be a sine wave inverter as the power supply inside is a SMPS type or ac power converter which first converts the ac to dc high voltage then switches it at high frequency square wave thru a small transformer to produce low voltage dc so a cheap inverter will do perfect. the same is true for computers.Sine wave inverter is needed for items that have motors and ferroresonant type power supplies ( the heavy transformer type) the cutter uses no more than 100 watts, a laptop is about 75- 100 watts so an inverter rated at double what you need will do fine and not be over worked.

[sheister 1]

Thanks for your input and I beleive your right about the wattage of the Laser Point . Its about 60 watts. however I have tested this with a 400 watt modified sine wave inverter for laptop and laser Point 24. it wouldnt work . Several attempts yeilded nothing. cutter jogged just fine and powered up ok as did the laptop but the two couldnt communicate. Same set up but with a 900 watt generator and everything worked perfectly. Now that being said, it could be that the laptop needs pure sine wave and the cutter can handle modified sine wave or the other way arround. But after purchasing a 900 watt generator, I am not prepared to purch a pure sine wave inverter to see if this is true or not. But something else you stated made me feel better. I posted this question in another thread in the General Category and this one guy was begging me to not purch a 300 watt pure sine wave inverter, he kept insisting it wasnt enough to handle the laptop and the cutter. I kept telling his it was about 100 watts more than I needed. Your comments have once more confirmed what I already knew and what some other experts told me. Thanks for your input and please offer up any further contributions to this interesting question.

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

4 minutes ago, Rorence said:

Thanks for your nice sharing. Until now, I show never use the inverter to running laser point. The only use for me about the inverter is to charge when we camping or travel. Last year, I bought Bestek 300w power inverter from Amazon. This simple tool can satisfy all requirements. After reading your post, I will be glad to try how to run lase point from this inverter. Interesting sharing. 

how is the camping in Hong kong - never thought about that before?

 

[arty-rc 719]

8 hours ago, Rorence said:

Thanks for your nice sharing. Until now, I show never use the inverter to running laser point. The only use for me about the inverter is to charge when we camping or travel. Last year, I bought Bestek 300w power inverter from Amazon. This simple tool can satisfy all requirements. After reading your post, I will be glad to try how to run lase point from this inverter. Interesting sharing. 

I use a 300w inverter to run my Graphtec ce5000 and my laptop off a 230 CCA mower battery. Works great.