Generator Gen

[Auntie Ange]

Any advice on Generators (and surge protection) at Orienteering events - based on real personal experience?

We've just acquired a two-stroke Aldi's best generator and our elderly Lap-top used at events(new battery last year)has lost battery-power.

Do I blame the generator?
Do I need to use a Surge-protector?

All right, so I buy a new lap-top, but how much do I need to protect the new one from the generator? Any other info?

[Adventure Racer]

Your laptop battery shouldn't be affected by the power source - it is protected from that by both the laptop external power supply and the laptop charging circuitry. If the generator was causing problems I'd expect the power supply to blow before anything else happened. I'd suggest it's the laptop charging circuitry which isn't working properly.

[stodge]

Those Aldi 2 strokes are great. Our chasers one (originally from screwfix but the same wolf one I think) has just given up the ghost after over two years intensive use (Ive just got the 2.2kw Aldi 4 stroke to replace it with - £139)
We just use a little basic APC 500VA UPS
http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BK500EI&total_watts=200 for current equivilant...
(its about 6 years old and still going strong). It just gives us that couple of minutes ( and a nice little alarm) if someone forgets to top up the fuel, and protects against spikes.

[Auntie Ange]

Hey, that's instant service!
Many thanks folks!

I'm just off to rub two boy scouts together.......