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Unread 15-05-2009, 14:45
sanddrag sanddrag is offline
On to my 16th year in FRC
FRC #0696 (Circuit Breakers)
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Join Date: Jul 2002
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Re: Solar Panel Help

You are correct, in that you need an inverter circuit. I doubt the pump will operate on DC. I'm not aware of any off the shelf devices for 12VDC to 12VAC but I'm sure they must exist somewhere. Some are better than others, in the quality of the waveform produced. Not knowing how your pump works, you may get away with a square wave, you may not.

Might take a look at building something like this:
http://www.aaroncake.net/circuits/inverter.asp
or like this:
http://www3.telus.net/chemelec/Proje...t-Inverter.htm

You might also consider using a 555 timer, and a band-pass filter to create a pseud0-sine wave.

Perhaps one of the EE's on this forum can chime in.
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Teacher/Engineer/Machinist - Team 696 Circuit Breakers, 2011 - Present
Mentor/Engineer/Machinist, Team 968 RAWC, 2007-2010
Technical Mentor, Team 696 Circuit Breakers, 2005-2007
Student Mechanical Leader and Driver, Team 696 Circuit Breakers, 2002-2004