Date:         Fri, 22 Sep 1995 11:32:00 -0700 (PDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Maher, Steve (SD-MS)" <SMAHER@PO2.GI.COM>
Subject:      RE: 110 volt power inverter


NO!!!!!
Absolutely don't plug anything valuable into this thing! Unless it's
designed for 330 Hz, of course. You will make smoke, especially with
that laptop.

There may be a few exceptions to this rule, but I don't know what they are.
Shavers, maybe? Incandescent light bulbs (are those curly filaments
inductively coupled?) Anybody know?

I've never heard of ANY devices designed for 330 Hz, thought some must
exist someplace, obviously. Anybody know of such? I've seen CDC mainframe
computers that ran on 400 Hz AC current, but that's it.

Yes, normal AC in the U.S. is 60 Hz. In some countries, the standard
is 50 Hz. In others (Philippines comes to mind), they have 60 Hz, but
at 220VAC! In the Philippines, their plugs look just like ours, so
travellers from the U.S. can fry all their fancy gadgets without knowing
they're doing it, until the smoke detector in the ceiling goes off.
Except they don't have smoke detectors in most places there, either.

 -Steve Maher   smaher@gi.com   '71 VW Transporter

______________________________

>I know that some of the bus folks have 110 volt power installed in their
>VWs, some with major enhancements (solar panels, multiple batteries, i.e.
>David, Sami).  Wanting to have 110 v for misc stuff (battery rechargers,
>etc), I was recently given a unit marked as follows:
>R.L. Drake Co.
>Miamisburg, OH 45342
>Model DC-4 Mobile Power Supply
>12 DC Negative Ground
>650 VDC, 250 VDC, and -45 to -65 VDC
>or 110 VAC (330 Hz) @ 150 W
>There is an inspection tag on it that says Tested 9-17-68
>
>The friend that gave it to me said that it was a power supply for a mobile, 

>tube-type ham radio he had.
>
>It has a normal AC type plug on the unit, and wires that fasten to the
>battery.  Is it OK to use this unit?  Isn't normal AC 60 Hz?  Would this be 

>OK to plug a laptop computer into?