Excellent responses, all...much appreciated. I think I can borrow a Honda-i genset with inverter technology. I'll cart that out for a test run; that should "illuminate" the situation. <div><br></div><div>Jolliness,</div>
<div><br clear="all">Mick Abraham, Proprietor<br><a href="http://www.abrahamsolar.com">www.abrahamsolar.com</a><br><br>Voice: 970-731-4675<br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 11:57 PM, R Ray Walters <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ray@solarray.com">ray@solarray.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div style="word-wrap:break-word">Backwoods sells the buck boost transformers for a reasonable price.<div>I have to add belatedly that as bomb proof as the venerable DRs were, they indeed never charged well from cruddy generators. I had one once that made 0.5 amps at 12 volts DC.</div>
<div>The culprit as you already pointed out: Peak voltage was under 130 vac with the genie loaded. A Fluke 87/89 can be set to capture peak, and is very handy for diagnosing these DR/ genie ailments.</div><div>I've had a couple of systems add grid later, and amazingly the DR will crank close to rated charging output when fed good pure sinewave.</div>
<div>It was designed as backup power for ongrid in the Dominican Republic (DR), not genie power. </div><div><br></div><div><div>
<span style="border-collapse:separate;border-spacing:0px 0px;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-align:auto;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><div>
R. Walters</div><div><a href="mailto:ray@solarray.com" target="_blank">ray@solarray.com</a></div><div>Solar Engineer</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><br></span>
</div>
<br><div><div><div></div><div class="h5"><div>On Aug 19, 2010, at 7:29 PM, Allan Sindelar wrote:</div><br></div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div></div><div class="h5">
<div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
Sure, Jay, but what does one of those puppies cost (I have never
used one)? If the main reason for using a DR instead of a sine-wave
inverter is lower cost, adding a transformer to improve charge rate
kind of negates any argument for using one of these, doesn't it? <br>
Allan<br>
<br>
<div>
On 8/19/2010 8:45 PM, jay peltz
wrote:</div>
<blockquote type="cite">HI All,
<div><br>
</div>
<div>If the voltage from the generators is low ( probably) then a
old trick is to use a buck/boost transformer to bump it up the
voltage.</div>
<div>This trick has the advantage that it doesn't have the hz be
too high.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>yours,</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>jay</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>peltz power</div>
</blockquote>
</div></div></div>
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