Generator noise

[Tim M]

I've recently bought a small (950watt) 2-stroke generator to run a regrigerated barrow off. Anyway, I'm testing it at the moment (running my PC off it!) the only problem with it is the exhast noise; it's like a mo-ped with a "pop-pop" noise. It's not that loud, but loud enough. I was wondering whether there was some sort of silencer I could get to attach to the exast to make it a bit quiter.
Failing that, I was thinking about making a little dog-kenel type thing to put over the top of it - this will also keep it dry if it's raining as well as keeping it away from any children who might like to play with it. Will this affect it's performance; too much carbon dioxide, too little oxygen? I suppose I need a comprimise between noise and ventalation.....

[jwalker]

If you make an elbow for the exhaust outlet and point it downward, it'll knock the crack off the exhaust note. Make a wee tent to keep the water off.

[danny]

Be carefull with your PC. The set is probable not stabelised. Currents can get high very quick when you put the set from max.use to no use.

Try to put the set further away and use extension cords.

Dan.

[Swifty]

Whilst doing some design on generators, I put an oscilloscope (shows the electrical waveform) onto a "suitcase" generator. One thing is for sure it aint smooth. It is supposed to be a sinewave...

To make the output smoother you have to load the generator up to about half its rated capacity. Then sensitive electronics like computers and tv's will run alot more happily.
The problem is the generator output is full of little spikes which at light loads are electrically quite conciderable. As the load on the gen increases then the spikes decrease.

To prove the point, plug in a normal flourescent striplight and watch it flicker. Now plug in a 500watt halogen floodlight and the flickering will reduce.

The new honda i series gen sets have an inverter to convert the rough spikey output to a super smooth output. They are reccomended for tv's and computers.

But in the real world we just plug it in and put up with it. Dont be surprised though when the power supply overheats. The spike protection circuit in any power supply will absorb the spikes and break them down into heat which has to go somewhere.

Tim'mers.

[Tim M]

I'll attach a small pipe to try and reduce the noise.

I couldn't get the bloody thing started this morning. After about ten minutes of three of us having a go I relised I hadn't set the on/off switch.....

[Swifty]

DOOHHH