DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND TESTING OF

TOP-NOTCH DIGITAL AUTOMATIC 5KVA

POWER INVERTER

WRITTEN BY
NWOKE UCHECHUKWU I. O.

04/127861.

NWAIRO CHINWEIK O.

04/127831.

AGU CHRISTOPHER U.

04/127726.

UKWUEZE ONYEKACHI S.

04/127811.

OBINECHE UCHEAKACHI. C.

04/127617.

A FINAL YEAR PROJECT REPORT PRESENTED TO THE

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS, FACULTY OF ENGINEERING,
UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA.

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE

AWARD OF BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING
(B.ENGR)

FEBRUARY, 2010.

CERTIFICATION
This is to certify that this project work design, construction and
testing of Top-notch Digital Automatic 5kva Power Inverter was carried out
by Nwoke U. I. O., Nwairo C. O., Agu C. U., Ukwueze O. S., and Obineche
U. C. of the department of Electronics, Faculty of Engineering, University of
Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State.

.
Nwoke U. I. O.
(Student)

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Date

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Nwairo C. O.
(Student)

..
Date

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Agu C. U.
(Student)

Date

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Ukwueze O. S.
(Student)

..
Date

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Obineche U. C.
(Student)

.
Date

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Engr. Ms Iloanusi O. N.
(Supervisor)

Date

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Prof. Madueme T. C.
(Head of Department)

Date

ii

DEDICATION
This work is dedicated most especially, to the Almighty God for His
benevolence on us towards the completion of this work. We gratefully
dedicate it to our parents, to children of the world and to all lovers of
electronics.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We wish to thank God Almighty, whose grace and help kept us
through the most trying periods of the realization of this work. Our dream
has come true, through the infinite mercies of the Supreme Being (God
Almighty) whose never failing grace has taken us to this height.
We would also like to express our appreciation to our parents, for
their constant advice, encouragements and prayers; to Eng. Oge, our
supervisor, whose help and advice were numerous and valuable.
We will not fail to express our profound gratitude to everybody who
has contributed in one way or the other to the successful completion of this
work.
Nwoke U. I. O.
Nwairo C. O.
Agu C. U.
Ukwueze O. S.
Obineche U.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page ....i
Certification ii
Dedication .................iii
Acknowledgement ...iv
Table of contents .v
Abstract ...................................vii
List of figuresviii
List of tables .ix
CHAPTER ONE

1.0

Introduction ......1

1.1

The meaning of an inverter........1

1.2

Comparisons between generator and inverter ......6

1.3

Comparison between UPS and inverter .8

1.4

General description........................................................................10

CHAPTER TWO

2.0

Literature review..12

2.1

The basic working principle of inverter ...12

2.2

The basic operation of the inverter ..17

2.2.1

When the AC mains supply is available......17

2.2.2

When the AC mains supply is not available .......19

2.3

The meaning of PWM technology and why it is used19

2.4

Important components of the inverter .....21

2.5

ICs in the inverter circuit .29

CHAPTER THREE

3.0

Circuit design .....36

3.0.1

Design considerations .....36

3.1

PWM controller section and how the PWM work ....38

3.2

Automatic sections and various protection circuits ....45

3.2.1

Shutdown section .45

3.2.2

Overload section....46

3.2.3

Changeover section..48

3.2.4

Low battery cut section.52

3.2.5

Battery charging section...53

3.2.6

AC mains sensing section57

3.2.7

Soft start section.57

3.2.8

Temperature monitor section...58

3.2.9

Digital display for the inverter...59

CHAPTER FOUR

4.0

Construction and testing...........................61

4.1

Construction details 61

4.2

Construction of inverter-cum-charger transformer.......................64

4.3

Testing ......65

4.4

Casing.............................................................................................66

4.5

External connections of the inverter...............................................67

4.5

Construction precautions ...67

CHAPTER FIVE

5.0

Conclusion................71

5.1

Summary of work done...71

5.2

Recommendations...72
Reference .74
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ABSTRACT
The project presented is a top-notch digital automatic 5KVA power
inverter designed for backup during utility failures. The inverter is
affectionately called top-notch automatic 5KVA power inverter for some
reasons. It has a 5KVA output capacity, it provide the enormous start-up
currents required, for example many motors especially single phase motor
under load such as those found in the average natural gas furnace,
currently almost all the inverter available in the market use the PWM (pulse
width modulator) technology. PWM based inverters are superior in ways
compared to the inverters based on traditional technology. Although many
have been building inverters but we decide to do more research and come
out with top-notch digital automatic power inverter, it is full automatic
because it contains many protection/automatic circuits to protect the
inverter, inverter battery, load at the inverter output and user from various
fault conditions. Some of the special control/protection circuits used in the
top-notch digital automatic 5KVA power inverter are:
Battery charging current sensing circuit.
Battery voltage sensing circuit.
AC mains sensing circuit.
Soft start circuit.
Low battery cut circuit.
Changeover circuit.
Overload protection circuit.
Load detection circuit.
Temperature monitor circuit.
Shutdown section.
Digital display for conditions of inverter at any time.
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LIST OF FIGURES
Fig.1.0 The basic circuit scheme used in many modern DC-AC inverter....3
Fig.1.1 DC-AC invert the switching MOSFETs............................................4
Fig. 2.1 Basic circuit of inverter..................................................................13
Fig.2.2 Basic circuit of an inverter with two switches and centre tap
transformer....................................................................................14
Fig. 2.3 Inverter using two transistors and one transformer......................15
Fig 2.4 Basic Block Diagram of an Inverter..............................................18
Fig. 2.5 Pin connection of SG3524............................................................30
Fig. 2.6 Reference voltage at inverting (-) input.........................................31
Fig. 2.7 Reference voltage at non-inverting (+) input................................33
Fig. 2.8 Pin connection of 4N35.................................................................34
Fig.2.9 Pin connection of MOC3021.........................................................34
Fig.3.1 Oscillator, PWM, Error Amplifier and Regulation Section.............39
Fig.3.2 Output section...............................................................................43
Fig. 3.3 Overload section...........................................................................46
Fig 3.4 Changeover section......................................................................50
Fig. 3.5 Low battery cut section.................................................................53
Fig. 3.6 Battery level sensing and charging ampere sensing section.......54
Fig. 3.7 Charging control and soft start charging section..........................55
Fig. 3.8 Charging control section using SCR.............................................56
Fig. 3.9 Temperature monitor section........................................................58

viii

LIST OF TABLE
Table 1.1 comparisons between generator and inverter..............................6

ix