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DIY Power Conditioner
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inlifeindeath



Joined: Apr 02, 2010
Posts: 316
Location: Albuquerque, NM

PostPosted: Fri Aug 09, 2013 7:21 pm    Post subject: DIY Power Conditioner Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Any schematics or build experiences out there?

Thoughts?

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JovianPyx



Joined: Nov 20, 2007
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Location: West Red Spot, Jupiter
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 10, 2013 8:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

You might want to write about why you want this.

I think it's safe to say that most of the DIY people (myself included) don't like to mess with mains power, mainly because the voltages are high enough to kill.

As to my first statement, modern music electronics have builtin volgate regulators which keep internal voltages stable. Beyond this, there are things that can happen to the mains voltage that might make it through that system of regulators such as a serious brown-out and of course short term power losses. In the case of both serious brown-outs and short term power loss, it is worth considering a battery backup system in which the inverter always powers the output and the battery is used only when mains power input is insufficient. You would choose a battery backup unit by looking at it's output power capacity and make sure that it will supply more than your equipment requires. These units can be a bit expensive and will need to have a battery replacement on occasion.

If the problem is something like fluorescent lighting noise, a power conditioner may or may not help depending on building wiring problems. If your noise is coming from a bad grounding system in your equipment, a power conditioner will likely not help either.

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oculus



Joined: Oct 30, 2011
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Location: Iceland, Reykjavik

PostPosted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 3:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

i also have been wondering about this, but i didnĀ“t find any schematics or anything about what is actually going on in these units(power conditioners)

but my intensions was to build one to save money if it would make sense.

i have heard of people talking bout how this has made everything run more smoothly(without problems) in theyr studios.

is this just some cheap regulators and filter capacitors
or is there a reason for the price of these units ?
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JovianPyx



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PostPosted: Tue Aug 13, 2013 4:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

There are units that use a ferro-resonant transformer and capacitor system. Let's assume a 60 Hertz power system, these devices have a 1:1 transformer (no voltage increase) with an additional resonant winding that is connected to nothing but a capacitor. The inductance value L (in Henries) when paralleled with the capacitor of value C (in Farads) resonates at a frequency of 60 Hertz. These devices are used to get rid of harmonics that may appear on the line from other devices (like a large number of computer workstations) and can also withstand momentary outages (like 1/2 cycle or 1 cycle). The reason they are expensive is that 60 Hertz is a rather low frequency and at the power ratings needed, the components are physically large (The transformer, lots of iron, lots of copper wire). Again, for the most part, commercial musical gear has internal regulator components that can handle most line conditions. The only reason to consider such things, or even a battery backup device is for specific line problems. If you have a specific local problem, you need to first determine its source and work the solution from there. If you are (for example) on an overloaded circuit, all of the power conditioning in the world may be of little use. The solution there is to get onto a breaker circuit with a lighter load. These things are expensive enough that one should not employ them "just because". They should be employed only after analyzing the power environment and a determination of cause has been made. In other words, there is no "box" that can fix "any" power problem, except perhaps for a large motor generator flywheel which will be ridiculously expensive - or a large inverter battery system, also very expensive.

Is there a particular issue that is causing concern?

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