PD or Iota for my upgrade?

Salvo wrote:
The thread is too long to go back. As I recall, we had this discussion before. You acknowledged boosting the ac input voltage.

I agree it's too long to go back :)
I tested once at 105 VAC on an extension cord. I tested once at 113 VAC with the generator cranked down (Onan CCK 4.0) at 113 VAC. Those are voltages with the PD9280 at full load. With the PD9280 off, the voltages were higher. I regularly operate the generator above 120 volts loaded, but did not record the data from those runs, as the run at 115 VAC was satisfactory.

As I understand it, the Onan MicroQuiet generator does not produce a pure sine wave.

The Onan Quiet Diesel is an inverter gen. I'm not familiar with the microquiet line, but you could be right. In general, the input circuits rely upon the peak voltage to charge and they can suffer with modified sine wave or square wave outputs of the same RMS.

Those powering a PD with an Onan will have a very difficult time getting anywhere near full current. If your generator is not pure sine, the PD will suffer. .... The mods won't help.

You could well be right. I already owned the PD, and the mods were made 1) to increase output voltage and 2/3) because I thought there was in interaction between the sensed current and the duty cycle of the charge circuit. It could not compensate for a problem at the input stage, but Wayne Dohnal's testing and other indications led me to believe that the PD could output more current than it was outputting. If that was the case, it was a control issue, not an lack of power at the input stage. The modifications to the current stages were made to address the possibility that it was a control issue. I didn't worry about it if it was a lack of voltage at the input stage, since I had control over that voltage by controlling my generator output voltage.

If anyone is looking for a fast battery charge, or doesn't want to run the gen for longer time periods, then going with a different converter is a better option.

I won't disagree with this, except to note that 1) the PD will let me decide to turn on boost mode. I don't know what other brands will do, and 2) the PD is the only model that has circuit diagrams available, and that's important to me. I get to select the voltage and current limits I want.

I can get faster charging with the PD using its boosted voltage mod and OEM override for entering boost mode than I can with my other chargers, which will not enter boost mode when I want, and won't charge to the voltage I want.

I like that when I know my batteries are fully charged, I can put the PD into float mode. If I'm plugged in, I can just switch it to normal mode and let it do its thing. If I know I need to charge up, and I'm only going to be running the gen long enough to run the MW, then I can force it into boost mode and get the maximum benefit out of that short gen run. I like that I can add multiple charger controls for the PD, so there's a control near my generator starter, and another near the batteries for when I'm working on them.

Other chargers do just what they were programmed to do. For many people, that's all they want or need.