REVERSE POLARITY

[Vasco]

Nelsonsmoody,

Like I said earlier I ignore the reversed polarity light on my AC panel when the Honda's running. I heard from others that this happens all the time. I run the Heart inverter/charger and it charges the batteries. Why do you say your inverter/charger might be shot?

[Chuck Baier]

nelsonmoody, that is the problem when one company buys another and the techs are replaced. These problems where typically with the heart system and I am not sure if they ever occurred with the Xantrex units, which now everything is. My question too is why you think the charger is bad? If there is an electronics shop near you that can test it, pull the unit and have it checked out before you just go and replace it.

[Chuck Baier]

Hey Gord, I thought I fixed that but there are rumors on the board that you have a three letter nickname and I thought that was it.

[Vasco]

Hellosailor,

Don't know what you're getting at here. The only time I use the Honda is when I'm at anchor (and the wind generator hasn't kept up the batteries) and as you might know it's hard to be plugged into shore power at anchor. The Honda puts out AC and I use an extension cord and a cheater to connect it to my AC circuit. The Honda is not connected directly to the charger/inverter. I think the reverse polarity indication when the Honda is running is a faulty indication.

[hellosailor]

And here I though he meant reverse polarity from the GENERATOR ON THE 12VDC SIDE, where it would count.

Reverse polarity on the AC side?? So, unplug from shore power while using the Honda and ignore the AC side. I know I've read something about problems like this because of grounding (and lack thereof) on gensets versus "mains" power and real earthed grounds.

[nelsonsmoody]

Vasco,
I don't know how he arrived to that answer.
going to plug to dock power.
I'll let you know the results.

[nelsonsmoody]

Vasco,
I do connect the shore power cord directly in the gen. and always worked w/sometimes the polarity light on the AC panel.

[nelsonsmoody]

Great news

She alive!!!!!!!!!!

OK, I plugged into the dock and she came alive and working normal.

[hellosailor]

Vasco-
Confusion. So, you were using the Honda genset as your primary power source, then plugging the boat's AC "feed" into that, and using the Honda as the AC supply for the boat. And at that point, the boat's AC-to-DC charger/inverter was showing an AC supply fault light?

Wouldn't be surprised...connecting multiple "converters" into each other tends to confuse them. Since you can pull DC out of the Honda...why would you want to double convert the AC from the Honda back into DC via another unit? I've seen oscilloscope tracings of the Honda output waveform, and IIRC the DC coming out of them is outright ugly, better for charging than for devices. But that would also make it an ugly source to feed into another converter, no?

Anyway...Yes, gensets and ungrounded frames and different schemes for the neutral and ground can set off false fault indicators. Or real ones. It just means you need to look into things and confirm what really is going on. As the med labs would say, there will be some false positives, which is better than not getting a fault alert.

And if you haven't seen the Honda scope tracings...They *are* good gensets but I can try to find that URL for you. It's another "eyes wide shut" experience for some.<G>

[Vasco]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Since you can pull DC out of the Honda...why would you want to double convert the AC from the Honda back into DC via another unit

hellosailor,

Because you can't get 100 amps out of the DC. You have to hitch the Honda to your shorepower and charge the batteries through the Xantrax battery charger/inverter unit. When at anchor the battery bank is run down a couple of hundred amp hrs so I run the Honda for an hour or two to get the batteries up to 85% of capacity.

[hellosailor]

Rick-
From their ratings that's certainly true!

I'd heard that these Honda's were actually 12v gensets with the AC produced from their 12V output, by the internal electronics. Would that be wrong then? Is is this one of those "the magic of numbers" and AC RMS conversions being part of the larger picture? (Still caffeinating here.)

It just seems odd that double-converting would produce more output than direct output, one way or the other. Which probably means I'm misunderstanding something. Or maybe...the full (internal) DC output can't be tapped on their DC-output connection, but could be tapped by going internal?

[GordMay]

Most portable Generators are actually Alternators, producing Alternating Current.
The DC Output, when provided, is rectified from AC, hence the lower DC power.

[Alan Wheeler]

You can get a "loop" if your xantrex charger is trying to charge the batteries AND supply AC. What is happening is that the Batteries are supplying power to the charger that is intern trying to charge the batteries.

[Vasco]

Not on my Xantrax. Once shore power (or the Honda) is on, the inverter doesn't work. The Link monitor senses AC input and cuts out the inverter.

[Alan Wheeler]

Yes true Vasco, but I had the feeling nelson had somethign a little different. Anyways, on re-reading I see it is the AC polarity light that is lit, not the charger having a jissy fit, so I am off track anyway.