Amp susceptible to mains voltage changes?

[chrisc]

Due to poor local electrical reticulation and frequent power cuts, my system, along with lights, runs from an inverter which is powered from PV panels, the incoming mains and has batteries.  The inverter can supply up to 8000VA

At about 5.30 in the afternoon in winter here, the inverter switches over to "bypass" mode where it stops generating power from the PV panels and switches to the incoming mains, if it is present

This changeover takes 2ms and sometimes, but not always you can see the lights flicker, if they are on.  The inverter supplies 230 volts at exactly 50Hz.  The incoming mains can be anywhere between 210 and 245 volts and often the frequency will dip to 48-49Hz

At this point, the amplifier switches itself off immediately

The computer carries on as usual.  It is a desktop and runs off the mains

[Stino]

I guess it is one of the protections built inside the amp that switches off. Not much you can do about that.

You can always write Devialet support about it.

[K4680]

Hello Chrisc, I can not believe the 2ms! At 50 Hz, a sine wave is 20 ms, so to synchronize the voltage of PV and the mains voltage / frequency, most inverters measure 2 or 3 sine waves between 40 and 60 ms. Add to that the response time of the high load relay. Your interruption will be> 1 sec.

[Axel]

@chrisc. Can you restart the amp after it shuts down?

[chrisc]

Well, being a Chinese product, some of their specs are what you might call "optimistic". I just repeated what I had read from the booklet

Certainly the changeover is fast, certainly the light flicker is just that. Plus, all my house lights are LED lamps. If you had incandescent lamps, there would probably be no discernable effect since the filament would still be white-hot.

I have since moved the system to a pure sine-wave inverter, which runs from 24 volt batteries all the time and allow it to recharge when I have finished listening.

[chrisc]

@chrisc. Can you restart the amp after it shuts down?

Yes, immediately

[Confused]

This reminds me of an event many years ago. I was at the Harley Davidson rally, an event held at Littlecote House in Berkshire. Somehow, myself and a friend had landed the gig and were on DJ duties for the night. We had set up, and we were in this big marquee watching one of the bands sound checking. There was a decent PA system with mixing desk, all very professional.

Then something happened, a strange noise, then things sounded bad. As it turned out, everything was running from electric generators. There was a hog roast running outside with big electric heaters. What appeared to have happened is that someone shut down the power to big electric heaters on the hog roast, this caused some kind of spike in the power, this then destroyed the drivers in a pair of 15" bass bins. Following this, there was a negotiation between me and the PA guys, because we had a nice pair of undamaged bass bins, and they had a problem. Looking at what had just happened to their bins, I was a little reluctant to help out, but we did in the end. Curiously, at this point, some guy wearing a Hells Angel jacket and absolutely nothing else rode into the marquee and started doing donuts. It was a memorable evening!

So what I am thinking is that it might be a little annoying if your Devialet shuts down from time to time due to power issues, but this is a much better result than potentially destroying very expensive kit. Just a thought.

Also, have you checked for error messages in the Devialet menu after one of these shutdown events? This might give you a clue as to what is actually happening.

[K4680]

This reminds me of an event many years ago.  I was at the Harley Davidson rally, an event held at Littlecote House in Berkshire.  Somehow, myself and a friend had landed the gig and were on DJ duties for the night.  We had set up, and we were in this big marquee watching one of the bands sound checking.  There was a decent PA system with mixing desk, all very professional.

Then something happened, a strange noise, then things sounded bad.  As it turned out, everything was running from electric generators.  There was a hog roast running outside with big electric heaters.  What appeared to have happened is that someone shut down the power to big electric heaters on the hog roast, this caused some kind of spike in the power, this then destroyed the drivers in a pair of 15" bass bins.  Following this, there was a negotiation between me and the PA guys, because we had a nice pair of undamaged bass bins, and they had a problem.  Looking at what had just happened to their bins, I was a little reluctant to help out, but we did in the end.  Curiously, at this point, some guy wearing a Hells Angel jacket and absolutely nothing else rode into the marquee and started doing donuts.  It was a memorable evening!

So what I am thinking is that it might be a little annoying if your Devialet shuts down from time to time due to power issues, but this is a much better result than potentially destroying very expensive kit.  Just a thought.

Also, have you checked for error messages in the Devialet menu after one of these shutdown events?  This might give you a clue as to what is actually happening.

Hi Confused, I think these brief interruptions are dangerous. Who knows what happens with these transient switching processes for voltage peaks, finally the box smokes off !!

[chrisc]

I had no idea there is an error message function in the menu! How is this accessed?

The booklet that accompanies the device is light on detail, about anything

[K4680]

I had no idea there is an error message function in the menu!   How is this accessed?

The booklet that accompanies the device is light on detail, about anything

Hi Chrisc, look here:
https://help.devialet.com/hc/en-us/artic...ation-Menu-