The UPS is a very profitable device. While it works, the user has no problems with the power supply. But the functionality of this device does not end there. The simplest refinement an uninterruptible power supply makes it possible to create on its basis such devices as a converter, power supply and charging.

How to convert an uninterruptible power supply into a 12/220 V voltage converter

A voltage converter (inverter) converts a 12-volt direct current into an alternating current, simultaneously increasing the voltage to 220 volts. The average cost of such a device is 60-70 US dollars. However, even owners of worn-out uninterruptible power supplies with a battery start function have a very real chance of getting a working converter for nothing. To do this, do the following:

Open the UPS case.

Dismantle the battery by removing two wires from the drive terminals - red (to plus) and black (to minus).

Dismantle the speaker device sound signal ization, similar to a centimeter washer.

Solder the fuse to the red wire. Most designers advise using 5 amp fuses.

Connect the fuse to the "input" contact of the UPS - the socket where the cable was inserted connecting the uninterruptible power supply to the outlet.

Connect the black wire to the free contact of the “input” socket.

Take a regular cable to connect the UPS to the outlet, cut off the plug. Connect the connector to the input jack and determine the colors of the wires corresponding to the red and black contacts.

Connect the wire from the red terminal to the positive of the battery, and from the black terminal to the negative.

Turn on the UPS.

Eaton 5P 1150i UPS internals

Such a transformation is only allowed by uninterruptible power supplies with a battery start function. That is, the UPS must initially be able to turn on from, without being connected to a power outlet.

If the UPS has a regular outlet, 220 volts can be removed from its contacts. If there is no such outlet, it will be replaced by an extension cord connected to the “output” socket of the uninterruptible power supply. The extension plug is removed, after which the wires are soldered to the contacts of the “output” socket.

The main disadvantages of such converters:

• The recommended operating time for such an inverter is up to 20 minutes, since the UPS is not designed for long-term battery operation. However, this disadvantage can be eliminated by cutting into the body UPS computer fan powered by 12 V.
• No battery charge controller. The user will have to periodically check the voltage at the drive terminals. To eliminate this drawback, you can embed a conventional automotive relay into the design of the converter by soldering the red wire behind the fuse to pin 87. At correct connection such a relay will open the power supply when the voltage on the battery drops below 12 volts.

How to make a power supply from an uninterruptible power supply

In this case, only an uninterruptible power supply will be needed from the entire design. Therefore, having decided on such rework UPS the user will either have to gut the entire UPS, leaving only the case and transformer, or remove this part, preparing a separate case for it. Then proceed according to the following plan:

Using an ohmmeter, the winding with the highest resistance is determined. Typical colors are black and white. These wires will be the input to the power supply. If the transformer remains in the UPS, then this step can be skipped - the input to the home-made power supply in this case will be the "input" socket on the end of the UPS, connecting the device with the outlet.

Next, the transformer is supplied with alternating current at 220 volts. After that, voltage is removed from the remaining contacts, looking for a pair with a potential difference of up to 15 volts. Typical colors are white and yellow. These wires will be the output from the power supply.

The input to the power supply is formed from wires, on one side of the core. The output from the block is formed from wires located on the opposite side.

A diode bridge is placed at the output of the power supply.

Consumers are connected to the contacts of the diode bridge.

Transformer

The typical voltage at the output of the transformer is up to 15 V, however, it will drop after connecting to makeshift block load power supply. The output voltage of the designer of such a device will have to be selected through experiments. Therefore, the practice of using a UPS transformer as the basis of a computer power supply is far from the best idea.

Alteration of an uninterruptible power supply for charging

In this case, a minimal transformation similar to the one described in the paragraph above is not needed. After all, the uninterruptible power supply has its own battery, which is charged as needed. As a result, to turn the UPS into Charger you need to do the following:

Locate the primary and secondary circuit of the transformer. This process is described in the paragraph above.

Apply 220 volts to the primary circuit by inserting a voltage regulator into the circuit - as such, you can use a rheostat for light bulbs that replaces the traditional switch.

The regulator will help calibrate the voltage at the output winding in the range from 0 to 14-15 volts. The insertion point of the regulator is in front of the primary winding.

Connect a 40-50 ampere diode bridge to the secondary winding of the transformer.

Connect the terminals of the diode bridge to the corresponding poles of the battery.

The battery charge level is monitored by its indicator or voltmeter.

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Many PC users have old, end-of-life UPSs in stock. Their most common cause of disability is the failure of the batteries. Since replacement with new batteries is unprofitable, and sometimes simply impossible due to the lack of analogues, these devices simply lie idle or are thrown into the trash.

But you can give a second life to the UPS, making it very useful device- an inverter that converts 12 in the vehicle's on-board network into the 220 V necessary for some devices. Moreover, the factory version of the inverter will cost a lot of money, otherwise you will save money and make the right thing out of the trash.

So, the first thing to do is to remove the old, leaking batteries. They are quite simply dismantled by removing the bottom cover and disconnecting the power wires. If there are traces of leaked electrolyte, we clean the case from oxidation crystals.

Such an operation will ensure the elimination of further leakage of acid, as well as significantly lighten the weight of the apparatus.

Changing the wiring diagram

Uninterruptible power supplies differ in design, but they have the same principle of operation - to convert 12 V voltage to 220 V. That is, in each model there is a board with an electronic voltage converter. He is what we need. But there is one condition, it must be working.

Since the devices that will be connected to this device have a standard 220 V plug, it is necessary to install a regular household socket for flush wiring on the side or rear panel. We solder the output wires from the 220 V converter to it, which previously fit the special three-pronged plugs on the rear panel of the UPS.

In the first and second cases, the wires are soldered to those that went to the UPS battery. It is very important to observe the polarity of the connection. The red wire is positive and the black wire is negative.

Both in the auto network and in the UPS, these colors must match. It is best, of course, to check the polarity with a multimeter to be sure.

This connection scheme provides for instant operation of the device when it is connected. If you want to turn it on through a toggle switch or a machine, then simply break the “plus” in the wire coming from the car’s battery and connect one wire to the input and the other to the output of the machine mounted on the UPS case. This cuts off the power to the inverter when needed.

Subtleties at work

It should be understood that such a device will not produce much power. Usually. it is no more than 150 W, but this is quite enough to connect a small TV, laptop and other low-current equipment.

Why is the car battery not charging from the charger

There is a good use for old uninterruptible power supplies that are not used due to a small malfunction or because battery replacement is not cost effective. I have such a unit, manufactured in the mid-90s, with a long-unusable battery. I will remake it.

These UPSs usually have sealed lead batteries that can be easily removed by removing 1-2 screws through the door at the bottom. In my case, it turned out that the battery swelled, leaked, covering the compartment with white acid crystals. Therefore, it was necessary to remove the case to remove and clean it.

Electrical modification

We assume that the electronics are working, then the alteration is as follows:

1. Disable network cable. We cut off the mains plug and solder the connector for 12V. Although this cord will work, it is better to use a different one with a larger wire diameter. Low voltage and constant current means high amperage, hence thicker wires are needed.

2. We insert a new cable into a regular hole and strengthen it with a stopper.
3. Disconnect the wires from the circuit breaker. We solder one wire of the new cable to the rear contact of the circuit breaker.
4. We connect the wires battery to the new entrance. We connect one wire to the 2nd contact of the circuit breaker. The other is with the second wire of the new cable. OBSERVE POLARITY! Usually on cars, the red wires are “+” and the black ones are “-”.
5. We modify the mechanical switch on the front panel so that the unit works immediately when the connector is connected (you can also use a two-position switch). Often they have 3 positions. “Common” is usually in the middle, the value of the other 2 is determined by the tester when the switch is pressed. We connect the test / network incl.

Testing

We check the performance, the correct values ​​\u200b\u200bof voltage and frequency.

To adjust them, these blocks usually have trimming resistors.

Carefully! Present high voltage in 220V!

Usage

We assemble the body. The new inverter can be used for laptop, etc. Do not connect devices with motors to it. For a UPS, it is generally recommended to load no more than 75% of the output power. If you weren't using a thick enough wire and plug, I would recommend reducing this figure to 50-60%.

And I also want to note one point, if you decide to buy a new car, then there is an excellent car dealership in Moscow, where prices will pleasantly surprise you. Hurry up, promotions and loans, discounts and helpful staff will help you with your choice.

With this post, I begin a story about a series of upgrades that my Volga has undergone recently. Today we will talk about how to get a relatively powerful source of 220V electricity in a car, and, in fact, with zero investment.

Situations when it is required to have the voltage of the city electrical network in the car occur quite often. For example, for work, I occasionally need to transport live fish over long distances, and I need to connect oxygen compressors somewhere. Plus, for a long time there was an idea to organize a full-fledged navigational place for long hauls, and this requires connecting a laptop. Then, in the future, there are plans to assemble a refrigeration unit for transporting fish in the heat, the donor for which will be an old refrigerator powered by a 220V network. Well, the little things - often you don’t even expect when and why you need apartment electricity in the car, so it’s better that it always be.

Of course, today you can buy various kinds of inverters, as they say, for every taste and budget, but those devices that I had to deal with had two significant drawbacks. First of all, it is a low maximum power. Say, the most common inverters, included in the light and do not require special installation on the car, have a maximum load of about 150W. Slightly more advanced modules that require a standard installation still rarely reach the 300W mark, and they are more expensive. The second important drawback is the quality of the electrical sine wave produced by the inverter. It is clear that when converted from direct current into an alternating one, the sinusoid is modulated artificially, but the quality of this modulation is different for different devices. In the same inverter connected to the cigarette lighter (which I had until now), the nature of the sinusoid is far from optimal, as a result, when connecting a laptop, its adapter was very hot, which, in theory, could lead to a breakdown of an expensive unit. It is possible, of course, that inverters of higher price category and are devoid of the voiced shortcomings, but they have another, no less significant, minus - the price. Personally, I am not ready to give the cost of a set of winter tires for an inverter.

The solution was found in using the board from an old uninterruptible power supply (hereinafter referred to as UPS). In general, I already wrote about how I successfully used a car battery for a UPS at home (), and now the opposite idea arose - to use a UPS in a car. Fortunately, I just had a broken UPS - it did not see the connection to the network (i.e., it did not charge the battery and did not pass the mains current to consumers), but it perfectly converted 12V DC to 220V AC, while having peak power of 800W. Exactly what is needed!

True, if you decide to follow in my footsteps and make a car inverter from a UPS, then do not forget to take into account one point - many modern uninterruptible power supplies have a shutdown timer that is hard-wired into the board. Such devices, after a certain operating time (say, after 15 minutes), are turned off, regardless of the battery charge level. They are not suitable for use as a car inverter. But I was lucky, I didn’t have a UPS of the first freshness, and when it was produced, then, probably, the shutdown timer had not yet gained popularity (I don’t remember the exact model, but CyberPower).

And so, for starters, you should throw away the body of the device - it will not be needed, because it is planned to install a stationary socket mounted in the passenger compartment. Getting into the car, you need to solve two main problems - where to get power from and where to place the inverter. I'll tell you about solving these issues using the example of my Volga.

To begin with, I began to solve the issue of power, even asked on the thematic forum, but opinions were divided there - some insisted on connecting such a load directly to the battery, while others allowed connection to the steering column. It is clear that it is more reliable to connect to the battery, but I really did not want to drill a hole into the engine compartment. At the same time, the wire, in fact, directly from the battery, goes to the ignition switch, and this is convenient, but the downside is that this wire has an insufficient diameter to provide such power. In addition, I planned to bring seat heating to the same line.

But, in the end, I figured out all the options, and still decided to connect to the ignition switch, only by supplying the connection with a fuse not for 70A, as it should be for the load, but for 40A, i.e., for the load for which the on-board network is designed " Volga". This solution will slightly reduce the maximum allowable power of the inverter, but I don’t have the task of using it 100% (the load, at least according to the plans, should not exceed 400W, and this will rarely happen). In any case, I don’t risk a fire in the car - the borate network is designed for 40A, and the fuse will not let a large load through.

Connection through a fuse under the steering block (in the photo, during the tests, a 20A fuse was used).

Now, when it became clear what to connect the inverter to, it remains to solve the second question - where to put it. The board there is quite impressive, it should stand not far from the control panel (because I didn’t want to bother with lengthening two dozen small wires). At the same time, it was necessary to place the socket on the side of the seat of the passenger-navigator.

Then I remembered that on the Volga with the ZMZ-406 engine, to the right of the passenger's foot, behind the door, under the "pot-bellied" plastic lining, there is an ECU. But I have a car with a Chrysler engine, and its “brain” is under the hood, but that same “pot-bellied” pad is still present. It would be logical to think that it is empty under it, and there is enough space there to locate the entire inverter unit. In short, I unscrewed this overlay, and there really is emptiness - lucky!

Now I figured out how the inverter nodes would be located (and there are, in fact, three of them - a socket, a control board and a conversion board), outlined this location, and began to melt holes with a hot knife on the burner.

Plastic plate with socket and control unit installed on it.

True, the weather left much to be desired, pouring rain, so I had to pull the army OZK between the door and the roof, and turn on the burner already under such shelter.

Here's a makeshift shelter from the rain

After the socket and the control board have taken their places, it remains to install the inverter board itself on the back of the plastic panel. But this is no longer difficult.

Inverter assembly on the back side of the panel.

Now it remains to connect to the power supply and put the plastic cover in place. Plus I used the same one that I spoke about above, and I took the minus from the case from the nearest reliable connection. Collected everything, checked - it works!

View of the 220V socket in the seat of the passenger-navigator

At the same time, the system, of course, is not always on (so as not to put a load on the on-board network when it is not necessary). I saved regular system UPS control, with all indication - it not only informs about the state of the inverter, but also allows you to turn it on and off as needed.

From a close distance, the control board and socket are visible.

But just in case, I didn’t turn off the sound signal about the operation of the inverter - a soft squeak once a minute or two (I don’t remember exactly) doesn’t really bother me, but the chances of accidentally leaving the device on and landing the battery will drop sharply.

Well, actually, everything is on the sim - now I always have a powerful and high-quality source in my car alternating current 220V. In the next post, we'll talk about how to modernize and improve the climate control unit on the Volga.