×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Small (portable) generator problem

Small (portable) generator problem

Small (portable) generator problem

(OP)
Dont really know where else to get help so I will post here. Ive got someone local willing to help me with this but we are both pretty busy all the time and getting us both available at the same time is difficult.

I am working with a 6.0 KVa (sold to me as 6,000 watt, but according to the conversion formula I found, 6.0kva translates to 4800 watt. However it says on the side of the generator that it is 50.0 Amp @ 115v and 25.0 amp @ 230v which is 5750 watts.) Anyways I digress. I purchased just the generator head, without engine. I attached an 11hp engine I had to it directly driven (2 pole generator, requires 3600rpm for 60hz). When I started it up, its output voltage was 5.2 volts. Ive tried "flashing" it with a 12v battery for a couple seconds with no success (voltage climbed to about 20ish volts with the battery connect but immediately dropped back off the 5.2 when the battery was removed. It has sat about 2 years since it was last used. I dont know if the capacitor is bad  or if it is something else? (its a brushless capacitor excited Markon BL105E [RVG 2 bearing type] generator) The person i bought it from swore up and down that it worked and he would take it back if it didnt, but by the time i got the frame built and the couplers ordered and picked up i had lost his contact information.

Does anyone have any idea what might be wrong? My first thought is the capacitor but if it was the capacitor wouldnt it produce zero volts? I tried plugging in a 300 watt work light thinking maybe it needed to have a load on it to start making power but that didnt work. I have also been told that a diode could be bad. But here again if that was the case I would think it wouldnt give any reading at all.  

RE: Small (portable) generator problem

You are measuring "residual" voltage, from the residual magnetic field left from the last run. This output does not depend on a functioning field or excitation, only on the AC section and the residual magnetic field.

You might try
http://www.smokstak.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=6

RE: Small (portable) generator problem

Buy a new capacitor, take an aspirin, and call us in the morning.
BTW, 120 has been the standard voltage in much of North America for decades. 50 A x 120 V = 6000 W
 

Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources