bill2
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Re: 3000W Chinese Gensets Info.
allpraisebob wrote: scottnjenrv wrote: to Mr Wizzard, Professor95, or other electrical gurus, I completed the rewire of my Power Pro 3500 today. ... Now for the not-so-good news. Neither of my protection devices seems to work. I have two. First the mainline CB in the genset... Leave the BROWN and BLUE wires that come from the generator head connected to the circuit breaker then parallel the RED wire with the BROWN wire at the plug(s) and the BLUE wire with the added on WHITE wire!!!. This is very important, hence the italics - the WHITE wire is bonded to the RED wire inside the wiring harness coming out of the back of the generator head. This connection needs to be broken, and the WHITE wire extended all the way to the front panel so it can be paralleled with the BLUE one. allpraisebob, I paralleled the RED and the BROWN at the CB input. I disconnected the WHITE from the RED in the genhead then I ran a new WHITE wire and paralleled it with the BLUE. I did not run the BLUE/WHITE (neutral) side of the circiut through the CB. I only ran the BROWN/RED (hot) side through. I jumpered both CBs to be in parallel. This is electrically the same. It certainly works. Is it a safe connection? Bill (Scott's assistant for this project) My second protection device is a GFI ... blah, blah, blah. Can anyone tell me what's going on here? I did NOT notice when I opened the generator head up, but I imagine that the yellow/green wire is simply a chassis ground and therefore not "bonded" to the RED/WHITE "neutral". Connecting the BLUE wire side of the generator windings to the YELLOW/GREEN wire, or the chassis, would then provide the additonal return path for ground fault current just like in your service entrance. GFI's work by detecting an imbalance in current between the HOT and NEUTRAL wires (they don't actually need to be grounded to work, in other words!), but if neutral isn't connected to ground at any point then fault current can not flow between hot and ground either. This is not such a big deal, though, because without a return path to follow, the current from the generator can't shock you anyway! ;) I DID notice when I opened up the gen head. The YELLOW/GREEN wire is in fact a chassis ground and not connected electrically to either the RED/WHITE neutral in the original wiring or the BLUE/WHITE neutral in my modified wiring. In fact I measured about 60v between the YELLOW/GREEN wire and the BLUE/WHITE neutral in my genset. Are you saying that I should connect the BLUE/WHITE neutral to the YELLOW/GREEN? What would happen to the 60v I was measuring there? Would this be a safer connection than I have now? thanks, Bill (Soctt's helper for thie project)297Views0likes0CommentsRe: 3000W Chinese Gensets Info.
tvantuyl wrote: scottnjenrv wrote: to Mr Wizzard, Professor95, or other electrical gurus, I completed the rewire ...yadda, yadda yadda (omitted for brevity) My second protection device is a GFI. This is in line with my power cord. I did a test at my garage where I ran the space heater with the generator and grounded the hot lead to my house water pipe. The GFI did not trip. I also grounded the genset to the water pipe. I checked the voltage between the green wire and the hot lead and found about 60v as expected. When I grounded this 60v point the GFI didn't trip and the voltmeter on the genset didn't budge - 115v solid. Can anyone tell me what's going on here? I have learned a lot from this thread. Thanks again for any help you can offer. Scott, Scottnjenrv: Did you have the genset connected to an earth ground that would be common with the cold water pipe you used as a GFI test? I suspect the fault path the genset would see was incomplete. If the genset is not grounded to an earth ground, then the GFI cannot see the ground return "fault" that it is designed to protect from. Let me know if that helps the GFI work correctly to protect the user. Ted Ted, Both the genset and my test set up were grounded to the water pipe. The genset was grounded at the external post where you normally connect the green wire to a rod driven into the ground. ???297Views0likes0CommentsRe: 3000W Chinese Gensets Info.
NM_Desert_Rat wrote: scottnjenrv, I tried to find a data sheet on the Cochirk (sp) breaker without luck. PowerPro told me over the phone that it is a 13A breaker, I'm sure that I have drawn more than that without it tripping. Out of curiosity, whose wiring mod did you use, MrWizard's or allpraisebob's? Thanks Desert NM_Desert_Rat I used the alpraisebob model since he thoughtfully included an annotated picture. What do you suggest relative to the mainline CB? I'm sure I was drawing more than 30a. Bill (Scott's assistant for this project)297Views0likes0Comments
