Generac 17,500w

Thats not Good , KISS is what is needed for me !!


I fix these new puter spaceships we drive , MOST ,& Fiber with 5 CAN speeds and protocols .
My appliances are all click & clunk around here. I have sold all the new puter crap that times out or NLA .
5 years is the adv for electronic deaths as I have seen .
Below is a read to give you a brain drain ..

Sloth

Vehicle System Design

Automotive Networking System
The Volcano family includes system design tools, network design tools, virtual validation tools, test tools, and embedded software for automotive electronic and SW systems using multiplexed communication networks.

 

I'm a dumb ass I caused it to not work.
But generac went full retard when they designed this thing.
Oh and their tech support doesn't have a clue. They claim there never was a N-G, bond if that were the case then it wouldn't be useable as a stand alone generator.
Turns out this damn generator won't work with the neutral ground bond severed.
To me that's a pretty big design flaw for a 17kw generator.
So you can't wire it into a breaker panel according to NEC.
You can tell they don't teach electrical code in electrical engineering school.

I guess I can explore other options.
I'm thinking take the N-G bond put it on one of my rheostats, turn it up until the generator freaks out. Determine the value of the resistance needed to block that signal and go with a resistor that is about 1/2 to 3/4 and hopefully its enough resistance to block most of the current trying flow on the ground during panel tie in.

 

So Why frigg over one wire .
I have all my Main ground rods that are into the service panels with MY INTERNAL grid all tied in .N-G and no problems .
All inspectors have a different book or don't look / care , but need something ..

I run Shielded Conseal between Service panels that are grounded & Tied . Arc fault trip if only a distant one is on a sub panel & not Tied into is BASE GROUND ..

The CODE is a guide line , but to be followed .

Sloth

 

G-N tie issue is really silly, code or not, since the power company (here, at least) has neutral grounded on the pole with the service drop, plus the N can contact the grounded conduit.
Add to that the neutral on our new range is tied to its chassis...effectively bonding to ground...silly, I say, just plain silly.

 

Alright this generator is really starting to piss me off.
It's still not working.
Hell the dealer wasn't even sure which wiring diagram to be using, they are waiting on tech support to confirm which one it should be.
I'm about to take it back, with a copy of the proper wiring diagram so I at least have a starting point and rip out all proprietary generac crap and at least put in an off the shelf electronic governor, if I can find one that works with the electronic throttle body.
None of the speed controls I have found use 60hz as a reference speed, probably because it's too slow to give fast responce.
Generac uses a 60hz signal off the main windings.
(Generac should be tanking notes)
In the air force the 400hz air craft, and 60hz facility generators I worked on used a magnetic pickup on the engine flywheel to speed ref. Obviously I would need to install a magnetic pickup on the flywheel.

My wild ass guess is that removing the neutral ground bond and trying to start it fried the electronic speed control, because all the individual components and connections between them are testing good.
One of the trouble shooting tests indicates the voltage regulator has to have a N-G bond to work.

I would redesign it to be more like a military gen set. Manual controls, switches and so on. Have a manual oil pressure by pass for starting, a start switch, idle/run control switch and build up volts switch.
Make the AVR and speed control as separate as possible.
They try to design everything like a damn iPhone these days, where you have 1 button that does everything. Decreasing external complexity by one order of magnitude inversely increases internal complexity many orders of magnitude.

 

It's probably best not to have heating oil as your primary source.
It's in the top 2 for the most expensive sources of heat.

 

I think the voltage regular is bad.
The generac junk AVR field power circuit has to be tied in to the ground, the 20 amp universal voltage regulators I am looking at run the field power on an isolated circuit.
Maybe by why removing the neutral ground bond fried it.

The 20 amp AVR looks like it's used on 15kw up to 300kw. My guess is the larger ones on that scale are brushless.

 

I found an actual generac forum, registered there, posted a question and they deleted it.
Generac tech support doesn't know what to do, or doesn't care, the forums redacted my post...
I have been disavowed.

 

Ok, it wasn' on that one. I wll give that one a try.

 

OK they just moved my post. But it didn't show "post moved" in the forum title lines and I didn' get a privet message.

 

Looks like a cool forum. Real broad, nearly all encompassing maybe a bit chaotic.

 

It's still broke.
Generac tech support doesn't know their ass from a hole in the ground.
They are recommending buying parts that are testing good and aren't even trying to offer up any tests for parts that can' easily be checked with a multimeter.

 

You buy it @ costco Or home depot ? If so return it and RUN after a refund . Then go but quality .

 

That's ok I will redesign the electrical to be more like a million spec gen set.

I bought if from Lowes no warranty for $1,100 out the door.
Can't complain too much.

I just haven't had a lot of time to work on it.