Inverter

After I made my 300 W inverter, I saw this 200 W international adapterIt says input voltage of 90-240V, so it SHOULD work from 120V from a generator, but I never tried it. 200w would charge a few laptops and phones/tablets. Would have been a little low for me.

I made an Inverter that can be powered by the generator and then generates a sine wave output

Bought a AC to 12VDC power supply and a car inverter (12 VDC to clean AC) and a few other things to do this

BTW, I bought a LED 12VDC PS from ebay first, but it didn't work so I bought the Mean Well because they make nice power supplies. So I cut the AC cord and wires from the Ebay PS for this project.

Mean Well LRS-350-12 10.2 to 13.8VDC out, 47-63 Hz AC in, $28

Bestek 300 W power Inverter, Pure Sine Wave $46

Ebay for Cigarette Lighter Adapter $8. Need this to get power from Meanwell to Bestek

Home Depot 18 qt latch storage box $7. Bought this to hold it all

Wire maybe $10 at most, power strip, ties, glue

Around $100 total for project.

Assembly

Cut up an AC cord, and used it to connect AC to the Mean Well. The screws are labeled, connect per the labels

See figure below for wiring to AC plug. Black/Hot = L (Line).
N = Neutral

I soldered two 12 gauge wires to cigarette lighter socket. Outside is ground, inside is +12V. Each of these wires connected to three smaller 18 gauge wires that connected to the Mean Well outputs.

The AC cord and smaller 18 gauge wires were from the broken ebay power supply. I had the 12 gauge wire

Testing

On the Mean Well, there is a 240/120V red switch on the side. Side to 120 if its at 240.

Plug in AC cord, and green light on Mean Well should come on.

Measure output of Mean Well with a meter. I adjusted the voltage on my Mean Well up to around 14V. It's max is around 15V. High voltage is lower DC current for the same power output.

Unplug Mean Well and wait for a while for 12V to go down, and green LED to turn off

Plug in cigarette adapter from Bestek into the socket. Plug in Mean Well then turn on switch on Bestek. Its LED should turn on.

Plug something cheap, like a light, into Bestek and make sure it works.

I plugged my Kill A Watt clone into the Bestek, to check voltage, power output, amp, frequency to make sure they were ok.

If ok, you can try on a laptop or whatever you want to really power, under 300W.

I have a power strip too, to make it easy to connect things when required.

Final Packaging

I put shrink sleeving and/or tape over all the wire connections, and over the AC screws on the Mean Well.

Glued the Mean Well down to my container so it won't move, then used zip ties and a stick on clamp to keep the wires in place, especially AC cord.

I store some 3 to 2 prong adapters, and any other small things that I will need in the storage box, so this and the generator are all we need when power goes out.

Final Thoughts

At 300 W, it should charge up to 5 laptops and some phones and tablets. Maybe even a TV, I need to see how much power my TV uses.

I will run lights and other non critical things directly from the generator.