C Audio SRX3701 amp on a genny

Filiment lamps e.g. halogen are ideal

For UV I'd say no, florescent strip/discharge type UV lamps are inductive loads but 'should' have a capacitor to correct the power factor, but the actual PF will vary with voltage so I wouldn't want to rely on it in this case.

That's all absolutely true. Good quality SMPS/class D are the ideal solution.

The problem is, you need to spend a lot more money (even second hand) to get good quality Class D/SMPS amps, with active PFC and good limiters. If you need 3-4 amps to run all your channels, it's likely going to work out much cheaper overall, to just get a bigger Genny, or use a second one.

So if you are on a tight budget, Toroidal amps (of any quality/price) are a probably a better bet, and certainly much less likely to cause problems than cheapo class D.

But SMPS amps use 6 pulse inversion (massive current distortion) and often have leading power factors, which causes absolute HAVOC with, basically any Genset you can get you hands on upto about 500KVA, so that is thing...

Gensets ( all of them) are absolute crap in a 0> x% load aspect, if you want solid mains you need a full phase sensing AVR controlled unit working in a 15-X% load aspect...

Under 15% all sets exhibit shocking load regulation, so what the f*** might this mean en Anglias?

Always use an amp equal to or above the max wattage of you amps, (bear in mind 6K+4K+2K+2KW sat in a rack ain't EVER gonna pull 10KW let alone 14KW) so you have head room.

Use something stupid like a some HMI movers, a fan heater, some floods to give the genset some base load to chew on, for big shows I used to think nothing of a 30Kw load bank so when the LD bumped in 8 MolePhay (40Kw bump) the gensset didn't blink (some black smoke, sorry Greta!) but def keep like 1KW load on a 6KVA set solid...

Above all use proper cable, 4mm 32a is crap (and not allowed under XXXX blah blah regs) but even 6mm is only good for like 30m, so don't wreck you rig with shite cabling...

I have recently run 35mm2 for 32A feed, yep 35mm!!!

Esc4pe wrote: I feel like every time a generator is brought up this information gets thrown up and scares people away! This and telling people they need a monster towable gen set for a mini rig. Albeit you’re not lying in what you’ve put, he’s only using 2 scoops and a couple of amps. Throw them on a gx390 Honda or similar and have a constant load then he’s away and laughing! I’ve used far far less ideal situations and the one and only time I have ever had a problem is running a SMPS amp.

I have to say that I must agree. I have a 5kVA petrol generator that I use for small events, where I will run either 1 or 2 7001's off the thing. Mainly speech, background music - or a couple of times a duo o trio playing live.

Needless to say, no problems at all with the Crests, but ages ago I did try a QSC Powerlight 2 on the generator and it gave me all sorts of problems. I also recently had huge problems with 2 Lab Gruppen FP10000's off a large, hire generator.

So despite all the talk about PF issues with transformer powered amps, there definitely seems to be far more issues when using amps with SMPS.

csg wrote: Yet we do it week in week out with SMPS amps without any issue whatsoever in nearly 20 years since we sold all our crest p series in favour of lab gruppens, and that’s probably 5 stock changeovers ago now. Don't blame the technology, get your temp power system design right.

 

Off generators - or mains?

And I know that there are millions of lightweights doing the job day in and day out, no doubt, but I can only comment on my personal experiences. I do actually still have a couple of lightweights - a Chevin A1000 and Crest 9200. Both used regularly, but I'd think twice before powering them off a generator - especially a small petrol job.

Majority of the time generators, any size from 20 to 2000kva often across multiple sets, loadsharing. But even a single 20Kva correctly specified with a reasonable ballast load and no issues resulting. Of course that is a different kettle of fish to a small petrol machine