I have a elevation sensor on a Winegard antenna that is currently using a 9 volt battery. I am replacing the existing battery every 3 months. The directions say I can use "12 volts filtered" to power the the elevation sensor.
Exactly what do they mean.
Thank you.
When AC is converted to DC there can be current ripples in the DC ( not quite a straight line yet). Filtering takes this out and is generally a capacitor or a battery. So if you have a battery in the circuit, (you're battery bank) you're okay.
Ray D
There are two kinds of "filtering" that you should be concerned with here. First is "ripple". That comes from the rectifiers in a ac to dc converter power supply used in the coach. Mine disconnectes the bats when it sees enuf ac to make dc for the coach...16 volts actually. If you are using a smart charger and your bats are connected for the coach power when you have "pole" power you would have this superb battery filtering.
The other is noise and is a higher frequency. A capacitor will eliminate this but it has to be a BIG cap. Noise comes from the brushes, for sure, but also from a myrid of other sources. Another fly in the ointment is that the noise will be "developed" over only a few feet of wire. One exasperating (for the Tuner) situation was with a ignition module that would work if it was connected to one end of a three foot line but went spastic if connected to the other for it's perminent location. A digital voltmeter showed 12 volts dc everywhere. On ac it showed 17 volts at one end of the wire and 13 on the other. In this case a "small" capacitor connected at the device DC input cured the problem and I was the hero de jour or for a short minute anyway.
HTH
John
We have that same winegard elevation sensor on our bus. We wired it directly to our 12 volt house battery system (which is charged by a one wire alternator will driving and the charger side of our Heart Interface inverter when parked) when we originally installed it about 8 years ago. We have nver had any problems with it. Jack