ac travel adapter question

[g1]

Wonder how many times they've provided a Mark 4 COMBO, just because.

[Justin Thomas]

Juan,

She's awesome! She reminds me of BOTH Vaughan brothers, together. And she's a whole lot more original & less derivative than all the "Vaughanabees." Her tone is different - more cut to it. I like it! Doesn't endlessly go on, knows how to begin and end a solo, and trades voices with band members. And a gritty voice doesn't hurt, either. Just like the original British Invasion, leave it to Europeans and other places to kick our ass at our own games...

Justin

[Richard]

The Classic 30 claims a load of 75W on the rear. Course that'll be quite bit more VA. Pity they didn't give VA. Also the power transformers in these things are tiny.

Oddly, on checking the user manual they state 150W....! Clearly someone messed up here

https://peavey.com/products/index.cf...0/Classic%2030

I thought VA and Watts were similar but VA is more correct for AC and Watts for DC. Could someone enlighten me?

[nickb]

I thought VA and Watts were similar but VA is more correct for AC and Watts for DC. Could someone enlighten me?

For AC circuits

EDIT: Sorry meant to say Watts= VA x Power factor - thanks DH

[The Dude]

Juan,

She's awesome! She reminds me of BOTH Vaughan brothers, together. And she's a whole lot more original & less derivative than all the "Vaughanabees." Her tone is different - more cut to it. I like it! Doesn't endlessly go on, knows how to begin and end a solo, and trades voices with band members. And a gritty voice doesn't hurt, either. Just like the original British Invasion, leave it to Europeans and other places to kick our ass at our own games...

Justin

...and she's easy on the eyes.

[mozwell]

Borrowing an amp in Turkey would be the best bet, if however you are taking your amp, be extra careful & check the rating plate of your amp.
If the rating plate says 110V (or 120V) 60Hz only, then supplying it with 110V (120V) 50Hz may saturate the transformers & cause you to blow a supply fuse in the amp.
If the rating plate says 50/60Hz, then you are ok

All that said, rent or borrow an amp over there

[Randall]

He quickly had a friend in Turkey purchase a converter for him to use when he arrives. Problem solved I supposed. This guy is a serious talent on guitar. Thanks for all the advice, as always.

[Leo_Gnardo]

Borrowing an amp in Turkey would be the best bet, if however you are taking your amp, be extra careful & check the rating plate of your amp.
If the rating plate says 110V (or 120V) 60Hz only, then supplying it with 110V (120V) 50Hz may saturate the transformers & cause you to blow a supply fuse in the amp.
If the rating plate says 50/60Hz, then you are ok

Perhaps some have had a problem with running 50 Hz on presumably 60 Hz power transformers, I never have. BUT I have had some amps run high bias currents. 70's Ampegs like V2, V4, VT22, VT40 & similar, also rare Sundown amps, where bias supplies' power is derived thru capacitor didn't reach planned voltage levels. A quick mod with a resistor & trimpot on each and all was well.

If I'm not mistook Marshall's JCM 900 series amps have a similar bias supply. Best policy to test and adjust every time you take any of these from one power frequency zone to another. What a PIA...

[J M Fahey]

He quickly had a friend in Turkey purchase a converter for him to use when he arrives. Problem solved I supposed. This guy is a serious talent on guitar. Thanks for all the advice, as always.

Please post something,even if YT stuff

[Dave H]

For AC circuits VA = Watts X Power Factor

I was thinking VA x Power Factor = Watts. Do I have it backwards?

[nickb]

I was thinking VA x Power Factor = Watts. Do I have it backwards?

No, I had it backwards - thx

[Zozobra]

Autoformer is what you're looking for. Like a transformer but only one winding. Imagine your variac, but stuck at one position, not variable. Power rating somewhere beyond what the amp will draw at full honk, and that may be expressed in watts or VA. A little one say 250 VA will be plenty enough, and you'll need the appropriate 220V plug, plus edison outlets for the 110-120V side. Something along these lines:

Allied 6K170VCP, STEP-DOWN AUTOFORMER, 50/60HZ, PRI:230V, SEC:115V, 3-WIRE, 6'CORD& OUTLET, 250VA: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

$103 plus shipping, OW! Funny in the USA we pay up the wazoo for these things. I've found 'em in London and other European cities for typically a quarter that price or even less. Snoop around, you may find a better deal and I hope you do.

If you need more than one edison receptacle you'd better carry along a plug strip. They're rare as rocking horse turds when you need 'em and not in USA/Canada.

Gadget-adapters meant for electric shavers and such will either not work at all or go up in a cloud of smoke.



No, step down. The Peavey wants to see 110-120V I expect, not 440V. Of course I could be mistook...

And this is why I shouldn't post things after just waking up

[Fredduojet]

I had the same problem. My amp tech recommended an American-made brand that I found on amazon. Don't buy a chinese-made transformer because they're notorious for blowing up. Musicians take amps overseas all the time. Some are capable of being used with any of the four voltage standards used worldwide, such as recent Fenders. Other's are fixed at 110-120 or 220-240 or Japan''s 100v, common with boutique amps.

[R.G.]

A bit more on VA versus watts.

For highly inductive or capacitive loads, current flows but is not in phase with the voltage like it is in a resistor. That means that the real heating power in the load is less than it would be for a resistor drawing the same current. The term "power factor" reflects this, being the ratio of real power in a composite resistor + reactive load to the "apparent power" you'd get by multiplying the AC voltage times the measured AC current. Sometimes you see "VA" (for Volt-Amps) or VAR (Volt-Amps-Reactive).

This is an important issue in electrical wiring and power calculations because for highly inductive loads, like motors and transformers, the inductive nature of the load adds extra current without adding real heat/power in the load. So the fuses and the power wiring have to be sized for the current, not just the power.

A purely inductive load (of which there are none - there is always some wire resistance) would have zero heat generated by an AC voltage impressed across it. But large currents could flow, burning the incoming wires and popping fuses and breakers.

And now for news of the bizarre.

Correcting power factor on AC mains distribution wiring is a Big Deal. Those wires top out on the maximum voltage they can carry, and the maximum current they can carry separately, but customers only pay for the real power (which comes out as heat in the end) they buy. You can max out your distribution wiring without getting paid for the current if the power factor on the AC mains gets pulled out of whack by the customers' crazy motor/welder/transformer loads. So the AC mains utilities use capacitors to correct the AC mains power factor, bringing the power factor back to nearer one.

These are big capacitors. They are housed in metal boxes measured in feet, not inches (fractional meters, not cm). But it is possible to do the same job with a motor. If you need a really big capacitor, impractical to implement as a real capacitor, you can take an AC induction motor and drive its shaft mechanically with another motor. If you turn the shaft faster than it wants to go, it becomes not only a lossy alternator, but the power coming out of it has the opposite phase of voltage and current than an inductor. That is, to the AC mains electricity, it looks like a big fat capacitor.

These were called "rotating capacitors" back in the day.

I suspect that a lot of this is now moot, as modern AC mains stuff is often "corrected" at the generation point.

[loudthud]

I worked at a company that put a product through UL testing. It had an off the shelf SMPS that was lightly loaded. UL dictated that it be labeled with VA instead of watts because the power factor was low.

With some products being required to have a power factor close to one, ICs have been designed to accomplish this. But most don't make the current look like a resistive load, (like you would think) they just make them draw a constant current.