Hello Guest, Welcome to Apnea Board !
As a guest, you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use.
To post a message, you must create a free account using a valid email address.

or Create an Account


New Posts   Today's Posts

Tonight's the night!
#1
Tonight's the night!
Alrighty then. Wicked bad storms supposed to be coming through. Dog is doped up with Zanex. I am about ready to go to bed. With the storms out there, I decided to go ahead and press the homemade DC CPAP UPS into service. This is not your Best Buy or Newegg UPS. I assembled it from a small radio power supply I cranked up to 14.5 V, a Super PowerGate from West Mountain Radio and a 12 V 35 AH battery. I have some fine tuning yet to do on cables (YAY! More stripping and Power Pole crimping! So much fun!), but it is functional in current state.

Not that I expect a big outage, but with storms, particularly big thunderstorms as we see in North Texas, often the power blinks for a minute or two. Usually just long enough for me to wake up real good (I roll over waking about 3 seconds after the CPAP goes dead - at that 60 second mark I am usually WIDE awake). Sometimes it lasts for 5-10 minutes before power comes back. Sometimes once it goes out and comes back up, but it will go out again one or two more times. I am thinking this usually has something to do with a transformer somewhere in the area getting popped or maybe even a structure at a local substation, followed by a kind of reset. But what do I know? My electrical engineering education consisted of spending the night at a Holiday Inn Express while traveling on business a few years back.

I intend for this to be a full time setup once I do some housekeeping an the aforementioned fine tuning to the cable configuration. Will hit ya back up afterwards.

OMMOHY
Post Reply Post Reply
#2
RE: Tonight's the night!
I heard you were having wicked weather in Texas.
So the power supply was, I am guessing, formerly a 13.9 VDC supply for Ham radio.
And you modified the resistor divider in the either the sense or reference side of the regulator to get 14.5 V.
I assume that was to compensate for the forward diode drop in the Super PowerGate.
(I do believe the Super PowerGate uses Schottky diodes to minimize forward drop.)

Have a good evening there...

Mongo
Admin Note:
JustMongo passed away in August 2017
Click HERE to read his Memorial Thread

~ Rest in Peace ~
Post Reply Post Reply
#3
RE: Tonight's the night!
Hope everything works well for you! It is smart to be proactive and have a backup plan at the ready. Lucky you to be so technologically minded!!
APNEABOARD - A great place to be if you're a hosehead!!  Rolleyes  

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EVERY ACCOMPLISHMENT BEGINS WITH THE DECISION TO TRY!
Post Reply Post Reply
#4
RE: Tonight's the night!
(10-22-2015, 10:17 PM)justMongo Wrote: So the power supply was, I am guessing, formerly a 13.9 VDC supply for Ham radio.
And you modified the resistor divider in the either the sense or reference side of the regulator to get 14.5 V.
I assume that was to compensate for the forward diode drop in the Super PowerGate.
(I do believe the Super PowerGate uses Schottky diodes to minimize forward drop.)

Mongo

Voltage adjustment was easier than that. It's an Astron 12 A switching supply (SS-12). It has an adjustment pot on the side of the box. Changed primarily to feed battery during charging. However, most all the time, it will be in float mode and may not need that much.

Works slicker than owl snot when I click the switch the power supply off/on/off/on.

OMMOHY
Post Reply Post Reply
#5
RE: Tonight's the night!
I have two Astron supplies. One is a switcher, SS-25M. And the other is a linear, RS-35M.
Sounds like last night was a success...
Admin Note:
JustMongo passed away in August 2017
Click HERE to read his Memorial Thread

~ Rest in Peace ~
Post Reply Post Reply
#6
RE: Tonight's the night!
I am not sure what the coefficient of slickness is for owl snot? Smile

But congrats on deriving a working backup solution!


Post Reply Post Reply
#7
RE: Tonight's the night!
The slickness coefficient for owl snot is slicker than snot on a doorknob. That makes it pretty slick.

Admin Note:
PaytonA passed away in September 2017
Click HERE to read his Memorial Thread

~ Rest in Peace ~
Post Reply Post Reply
#8
RE: Tonight's the night!
Generator. Lol
I thought about a battery backup and running our two pr machines off constantly trickle charging batts. But gassing batteries in the bedtoom doesnt sound appealing
Post Reply Post Reply
#9
RE: Tonight's the night!
These are not flooded lead acid batteries. They are sealed gel electrolyte. They don't leak or out-gas.
Many Ham operators have very similar setups for their radios.
Admin Note:
JustMongo passed away in August 2017
Click HERE to read his Memorial Thread

~ Rest in Peace ~
Post Reply Post Reply
#10
RE: Tonight's the night!
You guys quack me up.
Using FlashAir W-03 SD card in machine. You can download your data through wifi with FlashPAP or Sleep Master utilities.

I wanted to learn Binary so I enrolled in Binary 101. I seemed to have missed the first four courses. Big Grinnie

Stick it to the man, Download OSCAR and take back control of your data!

Thanks Ian. Like I didn't have enough Honey-Do projects to tackle. Mornincoffee
Post Reply Post Reply


Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  iNAP First Night Test Tonight (Running with APAP) Apnea23 4 1,211 01-21-2024, 10:32 PM
Last Post: scowell
  First night with hose cover, night was full of major mask leaks TiredTom111 2 849 06-30-2023, 01:44 PM
Last Post: TiredTom111
  Hello folks, here is my graph from last night and night before Phil487 5 897 06-15-2023, 02:05 PM
Last Post: OpalRose
Sad [CPAP] Need help tonight Chavonda67 1 431 11-01-2022, 09:25 PM
Last Post: KeepSmiling
  Came home to a surprise tonight! speed3914 7 1,237 09-20-2021, 10:21 AM
Last Post: factor
  Question re: Virtuox Ultra test with RemStar Auto A-Flex tonight. Help, please. Helena 2 822 08-30-2021, 06:57 PM
Last Post: Helena
  [Pressure] Titration study last night - Recommended settings for tonight? trialNerror 5 787 06-13-2021, 01:26 PM
Last Post: SarcasticDave94


New Posts   Today's Posts


About Apnea Board

Apnea Board is an educational web site designed to empower Sleep Apnea patients.