Honda Gennie Problem [RE-wrenches]

[Roy Butler, Four Winds RE]

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Hi Allan,

Is that Honda 12vdc battery charging circuit being used for anything 
other than your fuel relay? I wonder if it wouldn't be as simple as 
connecting a low-cost 12 volt starting battery to that charging circuit. 
That would act as a ballast to smooth out the ripples. I know....it's 
probably not going to be that easy!!

-- 
Roy Butler
NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer™
Four Winds Renewable Energy, LLC
8902 Route 46
Arkport, NY 14807
607-324-9747
www.four-winds-energy.com
NYSERDA eligible PV installer for PON 716
NYSERDA eligible wind installer for PON 792


Allan Sindelar wrote:

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>
>Wrenches,
>
>Here's a one-of-a-kind problem for me, that one or another of you has
>hopefully faced before.
>
>Background: One of our favorite clients, an artist in his seventies with a
>heart of gold, has lived offgrid since around 1985. Windy originally set
>James up, and the basic 12V system is still in place with some upgrades over
>the years.
>
>His backup generator since 1987 was a 5.5 hp Honda engine running a 100A
>truck alternator without internal regulation via belt drive (See HP
>2:23-27). In 1998 we added a Mark VI field controller, built from the
>HP42:28-32 article, which has worked well. The engine finally wore out (17
>years!). His Trace 1512 inverter lacks a battery charger (they were an
>option in the early days) and I just can't see that he needs a new inverter.
>I had a dead Winco Tri-Fuel 6000 watt generator with a good 11 hp Honda
>engine with electric start and propane conversion, so I had a local
>welder/fabricator combine the two. We ran a propane line into the generator
>shed with a shutoff valve. The generator uses a fuel solenoid with a manual
>prime: open the valve, push a release button on the solenoid to let LP gas
>into the intake, and turn the key; works well.
>
>We're getting to the problem. James asked me if there was a way to
>automatically shut off the LP gas supply if the the engine stopped for any
>reason. He preferred the safety of an additional shutoff. No problem, I
>thought. I purchased an automatic fuel solenoid kit from Winco, designed to
>fit this generator. The kit consists of an ASCO electric LP gas fuel
>solenoid that runs on 12VDC, along with a relay with an AC coil and a manual
>pushbutton override. An AC cord plugs into the AC output of the generator.
>To start the generator you push the override pushbutton, which opens the
>solenoid using power from the 12V starting battery (in this case, from the
>12V house battery, which provides the power for starting the engine as
>well). Start the engine normally; the relay coil uses 120VAC power from the
>now-running generator to allow 12VDC to keep the solenoid open as long as
>the engine is running. If the engine stops for any reason, AC voltage is
>lost, the relay opens and the solenoid closes. Simple system.
>
>Here's the problem: We have no AC to plug into, as the AC generator is gone.
>So I figured the simple solution was to replace the AC relay with a 12VDC
>relay and use the engine's starting battery charging circuit to power the
>relay, as this source would also stop if the engine stopped. What I
>discovered only after hooking it all up is that the Honda engine puts out a
>rectified pulsed DC current, rather than smooth DC, and the 12V relay
>"chatters" -- that is, it opens and closes with each revolution of the
>flywheel. The relay doesn't stay open and the gas doesn't flow.
>
>Any ideas? I can't use straight battery power, as it is continuous. I could
>use a voltage-based switch, but with the Concorde sealed batteries we are
>using the voltage setting would be very sensitive and probably wouldn't
>allow the generator to get the batteries completely full before the 14.2
>setting would shut it off -- would that work well enough? I could use a big
>diode on the output current to block backfeeding, but that sounds expensive
>and kind of brutal. There must be some simple, elegant solution here. Can
>anyone suggest a simple circuit to smooth out the power so that the relay
>works?
>
>Thank you for any responses.
>Allan @ Positive Energy
>
>
>
>
>
>  
>

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