Usually those portable generators have very poor wave forms, with a big
spike on the leading edge of the sine wave. Frequency regulation also
can be all over the place as it gulps gas and sputters on impurities,
etc. When they get loaded, you keep the nasty little spike, but then
the whole wave just squashes down too. I've seen the peak (which should
be 169v on a 117 v pure sine) hitting under 140 v peak.
I usually recommend charging with cheap gennies in the day, and limiting
other loads. He definitely can't blame the inverter, as the generator
power is just passing through a transfer switch straight to the loads
when its running. You're right to try backing down the charge rate and
watch the generator waveform. If you don't have an oscilloscope, a
Fluke 87 can capture the peaks in fast capture mode. Todd is also on to
something, that generator doesn't have full output at 120 v, so you need
a transformer to get a balanced full output from it. Maxing out one
leg, while the other leg is unloaded will eventually cause uneven wear
of the generator.
Ray Walters
On 1/27/2013 4:20 PM, [email protected] wrote:
just curious... is this a 240 volt genny with only one leg loaded?
todd
On Sunday, January 27, 2013 1:34pm, "Greg Egan"
<[email protected]> said:
Wrenchers and Wrenchettes,
A customer has a husq. 5500 generator and an Outback inverter. His
lights flicker in the house when he's charging. Recently his
generator died and he's having it repaired next week. I think he
thinks the inverter is causing the problem. My understanding is that
some generators have less accurate voltage regulators than others and
the ones with the cheaper regulators have a hard time regulating when
connected to a non linear load such as a battery charger. I don't
have a way to look at the sine wave but I suspect this is the problem
here.
The trouble shooting I was planning was to take his (repaired)
generator and connect it to the inverter and put a 15 amp charging
load on the genny and turn on some lights. If they flicker, start
backing off on the charging amps and see if the flickering goes to
zero as the charging load on the genset goes to zero. The logic here
is that if we take the charging load out of the circuit and the lights
stop flickering and the genny stops surging, that what we have is an
AVR that doesn't like the battery charger as a load and is "confused"
by it. Would this be correct?
If it is a VR problem I think switching to a Honda EU series inverter
will solve the problem but customer doesn't want to buy a new genny.
I read a post in the archives regarding generator compatibility and
they recommended adding a resistive load when the charger is running.
I've also heard there was a way of correcting compatibility problems
with a capacitor. If this is so, has anyone done it before and if so
do you know the size and type of cap I'd need and where I would
connect it in the circuit?
I called Outback Tech support and the person I talked to didn't seem
to really know what I was talking about. If I get this resolved I'll
probably forward the solution to Outback for their FAQ's
Thanks for the assist - I appreciate it!
--
Greg Egan
Remote Power Inc.
ph (907)457-4299
fx (907)457-4290
www.remotepowerinc.com <http://www.remotepowerinc.com>
Sent from Finest Planet WebMail.
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