How to clean up 12V power for electronics?

[maillemaker]

Hi,

I have a very old (1990) Winnebago Warrior RV.

The converter makes "dirty" power and as a result the TV, when we are plugged into shore power, goes haywire. Runs fine on battery power.

To get around this, I plug it into 12V when we are on batteries, and I plug it into its wall wart when we are on shore power or generator.

This is kind of annoying though.

I do not want to go to the trouble of replacing the converter.

Is there a device that will take 12 VDC in and clean it up to provide clean 12 VDC out? If so I will simply wire the TV into the "cleaner" and problem solved.

Thanks,

Steve

[wa8yxm]

What converter do you have?

I have a progressive Dymamacs 9100 with charge wizard (9180 in my case)

I've been known to accidentally disconnect the batteries and run 100% on the converter.. I am a ham radio operator. my TS-2000 which is more than a little bit sensitive to power issues runs the same no matter if the batteries are there or not. it runs off the converter.

[maillemaker]

Old fuse board....only 7-9 and only if battery installed

Well, that must be it. I just spliced into the nearest 12V line in the cabinet for the light that went to it. I guess that is not a filtered line for the old converter.

Steve

[MEXICOWANDERER]

10-20 mv max ripple DISCONNECTED from battery will be good enough. Be sure whatever you choose does not out-stupid itself and somehow goes into equalization mode without your permission.

When Magnatek came out with their early abor... I mean designs, RV hotel systems did not have a lot of huge capacitors in their accessories, that has changed and it's like pairing nitroglycerin with a paint shaker.

Early Magnetek perverters frequently had in excess of .7 volt ripple WITH THE BATTERY CONNECTED!

[BFL13]

I just got a 1991 Class C we will use once I get it shape. It has a Magnetek 6345, which I just finished working on. Thank goodness I remembered that good info on bestconverter and that it is still "up" on his site.

In my case, I kept the old fuse panel, jumpering the two sides, and disconnected the 6345's 120v and DC outputs, using the outputs (still on the fuse panel lugs) to go over to a deck mount PowerMax converter that I will be using as the rig's converter now. I left the 6345 remains in place and have the deck mount elsewhere.

Newsflash! You don't have to get a PD for this job. (There is a PD fan club on here 🙂 ) Any newer type converter will do. Iota, PowerMax, even a newer Parallax. IMO a WFCO would be a poor choice though (that Ultra upgrade is a WFCO), because so many forum members are unhappy with their WFCOs.

[Old-Biscuit]

jkwilson wrote:
Unless you are disconnecting the batteries when you are on shore power, you are running off the batteries all the time you are on 12V. On shore power, your convertor comes on to charge the battery. It is possible your convertor is so noisy it causes issues with your electronics, but a battery is a pretty good filter to remove the noise so it would have to be fairly significant.

I'd be thinking that your convertor is bad.

Converters have 2 functions
*Maintain/charge batteries as needed
*Provide 12V DC Power

When connected to 120V AC Power the converter supplies the 12V DC System voltage demands and charges battery until battery is charges then 'charging' section goes into float mode .....
Disconnect the battery cable and RV will still have 12V DC Power from converter

(OLD converters needed battery in place as a 'load' but still provided the needed 12V DC -----modern/new converters do not even need a battery to function)




OP............
Replace that OLD 'OBSOLETE' B&W Model 6332 with a PD Unit
Instead of the 35A unit (in link) I would go with 45A at minimum
Amp rating is total DC load available......DC System and charging

New fuse board......all circuits are filtered with/without battery
Old fuse board....only 7-9 and only if battery installed

Magnetek/B&W etc direct replacment

[time2roll]

http://www.bestconverter.com/PD4635V-35-Amp-Converter-Upgrade

[maillemaker]

Unless you are disconnecting the batteries when you are on shore power, you are running off the batteries all the time you are on 12V. On shore power, your convertor comes on to charge the battery. It is possible your convertor is so noisy it causes issues with your electronics, but a battery is a pretty good filter to remove the noise so it would have to be fairly significant.

Yes, everything is 12V, shore power or not, but the noise is present when on shore power. It's not that the converter is bad, it's just 30 years old and back then they didn't have sensitive electronic devices running on the internal 12V circuitry in the RV.

The converter is a B&W Model 6332. I have no idea what to replace it with.

Steve

[DrewE]

x2 on what BFL13 says. I also would suggest replacing the converter; besides cleaner power and happier batteries, a new multistage converter will charge your batteries a whole lot faster when they are discharged than the existing one (assuming it has separate charge and converter outputs).

You could also wire up a DPDT switch in the TV power cord and flip between the wall wart power and the battery power as needed with the switch. A center-off switch is recommended to ensure that it has break before make contacts.

[BFL13]

The Magnetek 6300 converter has a split fuse panel that has 6 DC circuits on straight dirty converter output, while 3 other fused DC circuits require the battery to be connected to act as a filter to clean up the DC power. Those 3 are called ACC and are intended for TVs and other electronics.

If you can't run the TV from a filtered ACC circuit you can avoid the whole thing by upgrading to a newer type of converter that makes clean power. Good example here. Note the 6300 part at the end of this about the 7300

http://home.earthlink.net/~whemme/

Note you can either jumper your old fuse panel or replace with a non-split one. If you keep the old one you need the new converter to have its own reverse polarity fuses like on a deck mount converter.

[Old-Biscuit]

DBL Post.....delete

[Old-Biscuit]

Why not solve two problems........

*Clean up the DC
*Provide better charging/maintenance of batteries


REPLACE THAT OLD CONVERTER WITH NEW MODEL.......Simple/Cheap and effective!

[time2roll]

I know you don't want to replace the converter but that is the best solution.
Your battery will perform better and last longer too.

[MrWizard]

Well maybe
You can buy DC to DC power converter/regulator

What is the power rating of the TV, 50w? 100w

Check out Drock DC power on eBay or Amazon you will want one that is 'buck' aka reduces voltage
Or a Buck boost, one that does either reducing or increasing (you will be using Buck mode)
A boost only will not work for your application

Shore power converter charger voltage is always higher than 12v a k a 13 to 14+
So a boost only won't do the job
You need to knock the 13.6? Down to clean 12v,

[jkwilson]

Unless you are disconnecting the batteries when you are on shore power, you are running off the batteries all the time you are on 12V. On shore power, your convertor comes on to charge the battery. It is possible your convertor is so noisy it causes issues with your electronics, but a battery is a pretty good filter to remove the noise so it would have to be fairly significant.

I'd be thinking that your convertor is bad.