Portable Generator open ground

[185EZ]

nothing to see here

[wnjj]

What Drew said.

To further test, turn the generator OFF but leave the RV and the bonding plug connected. If you then go inside the RV, there should be continuity between the ground and neutral of any receptacle. That is what the EMS is looking for. If, for example, your RV shore power cord has them reversed you’ll instead find that hot and ground are shorted.

[DrewE]

185EZ wrote:

wnjj wrote:

185EZ wrote:
I fixed the E2 open ground issue with a plug wired with the ground and neutral together.
NOW I have code E1 reverse polarity

I’m thinking you bonded ground and hot, not ground and neutral. Did you connect ground to the wider blade of the plug?

Wouldn't that trip the breaker?
Yes ground to silver wider blade

It would be nice to use the EMS but it's probably not best suited for generator use.

Bonding ground to the hot would not trip a breaker unless there is a (significant) ground/neutral fault somewhere else in the wiring, causing a short circuit.

On the generator itself, the whole output is floating (not bonded to anything), so neutral and ground are electrically interchangeable; it's just a question of which is wired to which blade of the socket.

If the EMS is saying reversed polarity, it means that it sees ground as at the same voltage as hot. This would mean either the bond is between the hot line and the ground, or the hot and neutral are getting switched around somewhere between the plug and the EMS (because something is miswired). Either way, whatever the problem is should be fixed.

[185EZ]

wnjj wrote:

185EZ wrote:
I fixed the E2 open ground issue with a plug wired with the ground and neutral together.
NOW I have code E1 reverse polarity

I’m thinking you bonded ground and hot, not ground and neutral. Did you connect ground to the wider blade of the plug?

Wouldn't that trip the breaker?
Yes ground to silver wider blade

It would be nice to use the EMS but it's probably not best suited for generator use.

[TurnThePage]

2oldman wrote:
Bypass the EMS. Nobody grounds a generator.

This would be my solution too.

[agesilaus]

MrWizard wrote:
Factory extension cord ?

Or one that has one or both ends replaced ?
Check the wiring on the replaced ends

Store bought and new. On one of the 120V outlets not the 30 amp. 4K generator.

[2oldman]

Bypass the EMS. Nobody grounds a generator.

[MrWizard]

Factory extension cord ?

Or one that has one or both ends replaced ?
Check the wiring on the replaced ends

[agesilaus]

Well I made a plug with the green gnd screw and the silver neutral screw are connected with a short length of 12 gauge wire. It fixed the one amber light problem but then appliances at the end of the extension cords started shocking people.

Oddly using the tester at the end of the extension cord gave two amber lights before adding the plug.

[wnjj]

185EZ wrote:
I fixed the E2 open ground issue with a plug wired with the ground and neutral together.
NOW I have code E1 reverse polarity

I’m thinking you bonded ground and hot, not ground and neutral. Did you connect ground to the wider blade of the plug?

[185EZ]

I fixed the E2 open ground issue with a plug wired with the ground and neutral together.
NOW I have code E1 reverse polarity

[185EZ]

It's ok guys. Not worth getting into a tiff over it.
I got my answer and even a link to a part
Can't ask for much more than that.
Thanks to everyone! 🙂

BTW, which oil should I run in it?
Lol, JUST KIDDING!

[Optimistic_Para]

The original poster should take five minutes to look at this YouTube video and it will explain the whole problem - and the cure.

Testing and Bonding a Floating Neutral Generator

[road-runner]

stickdog wrote:

Thanks for the info but it is irrelevant to solving the OPs problem of clearing the EMS code and more of a nerd reply to show how smart they are.

I really hate these mud slinging contests. In my first reply I specifically stated how to solve the problem:
"To make the EMS happy you need to add this neutral-ground bond. Many people think the simplest way is to take a standard plug and wire the neutral (wide blade) and ground pins together, then plug it into the same generator outlet that you plug the RV into."
Then I added a link to an article with a photo of the solution. What the heck else do you want?

[enblethen]

Whether you call it a floating ground or an open ground, it is corrected by lieing to the EMS with the jumpered plug.
I will add that it is a floating neutral.

[stickdog]

road-runner wrote:

Teamfour wrote:

road-runner wrote:
The "open ground" diagnosis is not correct.

The open ground diagnosis is correct. Straight from the folks who make the EMS:

I'm curious if you read the rest of my post where I explained why it wasn't correct? If the EMS doesn't have its own independent connection to ground (which it doesn't), it cannot positively diagnose an open ground. The EMS is sensing the lack of a neural-ground bond, and if it's not present, it assumes the fault is an open ground, when it in fact has no way of determining if that assumption is correct or not. In the floating output generator situation, you could drive the world's best ground rod, positively connect it to the EMS, and it will still say "open ground".

Thanks for the info but it is irrelevant to solving the OPs problem of clearing the EMS code and more of a nerd reply to show how smart they are.