Coleman 5,000W Electric Generator - Page 3

 



somewhere

inverter

Aha, that is the question.  The wiring diagram that comes with the owner's
manual shows 3 coil connections and a second coil with two connections and
no indication of input voltage or polarity.  I suspect it is some kind of
dual polarity configuration but I'm only familiar with that for input on OP
Amps.  My plan is to either repair the engine or to somehow utilize the
inverter.  Either one will require tearing it down to find the exact problem
with the engine and to determine if it's possible to remove the
magneto/alternator and attach it to another Honda engine.  I suspect it is a
variation on a GX engine and can only hope that the crankshaft is standard.

All other things aside where can you get a 1500 watt pure sine wave inverter
for the price of a Honda eu2000?  Probably nowhere.

Too bad they didn't just make it so the inverter could be run directly from
batteries so the generator could charge the batteries while running and with
an automatic transfer switch shutting down the generator would be seamless.

Anyway, it looks like it's time to buy the shop manual.

One thing I did determine is that the engine will not run if it is
disconnected from the inverter.  I think I read that the engine timing is
electronically controlled and this is determined by a wire going to the
ignition coil.  I'm not even sure how the ignition coil works because it's
just kinda stuck onto the side of the engine and not directly over the
flywheel like most other coils.

BTW I still have 120VAC output on the poor little thing and it's still more
or less capable of running a load, just not sure how big a load now.

 

On Mon, 8 Aug 2005 20:38:06 -0700, "Ulysses"


Looks like the generator part is a 3 phase alternator:

<http://www.motorhomemagazine.com/forums/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/CFB/1/Tid/302237/DoOnePage/Yes.cfm>

So I guess the AC would be rectified and smoothed to high voltage DC
then stepped down by a switching mode circuit to produce 120VAC pure
sine.

The extra coil could be for starting, engine timing and speed, and/or
generate the 12V DC output.

It may be possible to get a MSW inverter, rectify the output and feed
it into the inverter for it to be converted to a pure sine output, but
could be a bit tricky.

If so, measuring the smoothed high voltage DC in the inverter at
different engine load/revs would tell what sort of voltage would be
allowable.

cheers,
Pete.

 



owner's

problem

standard.

inverter

seamless.

Thanks for the input.  Now I just need to find out what a 3 phase alternator
is...
<http://www.motorhomemagazine.com/forums/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/CFB/1/T
id/302237/DoOnePage/Yes.cfm>

Would this somehow be preferable to using batteries for the input?

 



     Hmmm (the sound of Vaughn thinking).  You have one in your car...


     I don't know.  FWIW One of the Yamaha inverter generators has a little
battery to draw from to handle surges.  If it is a switcher (it almost certainly
is) it may not really care if it gets AC or DC.  However, it sounds like it may
operate with an input above 110 Volts so a 12 volt battery would not work.

     And what waveform works.

Vaughn

 



My two-bits is from experience selling various generators for several years.
In the retail game, the cheapest price usually gets the bulk of the market.
For constant use, often a customer buys the cheap one first, then comes back
for the quality one after the first one burns out for the last time.  For
the camping market, Coleman is the king, often being able to come in with a
price that beats all, but you can not usually count on a camping generator
cutting it when it's run under heavy load day-in and day-out.

For constant use, you should look at a heavier duty or an industrial model,
which could cost you twice as much or more, but if you like trouble-free
operation, it may be worth it.