charging on generator

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thew

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 30, 2011
Messages
248
Location
Gold Beach OR
I have been working on charging my leaf with my Honda 2000 generator. But the on board charger does not think it sees a ground. The genie is grounded so I think its a sine wave issue. Any one out there find a fix for this.has anyone tried to use a portable genorator like the Honda 2000.
 
I have. The ESVE looks to see if the neutral and ground are tied together. The easiest way to fix this is to buy a plug and wire the ground lug to the neutral lug. Then the ESVE will charge properly.
 
jwallace3 said:
I have. The ESVE looks to see if the neutral and ground are tied together. The easiest way to fix this is to buy a plug and wire the ground lug to the neutral lug. Then the ESVE will charge properly.

Yes been there. The evse unit does not work like that.. it still throws no ground error.. thus the sine way question. I have lots of experience powering large events via Geni ..ie lighting rigs sound etc. We have always needed a delta wave in between the generator and the dimmers and sound electronics to allow them to function correctly. Without it they get a pilot but the sinsitive electronics in the rack will not recognize the sine way and shut down.... what type of generator have you used?
 
I know that Honda makes some nice sine wave generators:
http://www.hayesequipment.com/eu2000i.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.hayesequipment.com/eu3000is.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
It has been reported elsewhere that something like the Honda EU2000i functions properly as long as the ground and neutral are tied together for the EVSE GFCI check. Personally, I'm trying to locate a good diesel (biodiesel compatible) generator that isn't too overkill (maybe 4 KW max) to use as an emergency backup.
 
jwallace3 said:
I have. The ESVE looks to see if the neutral and ground are tied together. The easiest way to fix this is to buy a plug and wire the ground lug to the neutral lug. Then the ESVE will charge properly.

x2
 
keydiver said:
I know that Honda makes some nice sine wave generators:
http://www.hayesequipment.com/eu2000i.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.hayesequipment.com/eu3000is.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yup that's the Generator, the 2000 its a very nice unit. I have owned it for about 4 years now. I used it as my backup for my Zap Truck.. I just locked it to the bed and always had emergency power :).

As for my charging with the EU2000, I have now discovered that the Ground lug was not connetd to teh Generator properly, Ill go back and try again now that i have found that.
Sounds like it should work fine now..

More info to follow....
 
Has any one used inverter ( 12 to 120) ? I guess it would have to be or more then 2000 watt. If it was a good sin wave it should work ya,. But 180 amp at 12 volts might be the killer ..then you use Auto Alt. and engine ..
 
I am sure my Xantrex Prosine 1800 would easily drive the L1 charging. Not sure if there is a neutral ground bond when inverting to get through the brick.

I need to give it a go and see what happens.
 
Yes, I have successfully charged using my EU2000i after providing a path for the ground verification.

pic


I suspect the LEAF's on-board charger will also happily accept DC. Modified sine (step square wave) should not be a problem.

-Phil
 
FWIW, in case you hadn't noticed, there is a general (probably CYA) warning in the manual on page CH-11:
Only charge using a standard 110 - 120 volt, 20A dedicated electrical outlet (For example do not use an electric generator). Failure to do so may cause charging to fail and could cause damage to the Li-ion battery charging equipment due to power surges.
A Priuschatter from Japan has noted that the JDM Leaf's manual has a similar warning.

Take it for what it's worth (or not).
 
I have charged L1 using an ETQ1800 I bought new for $359 on Ebay. Same deal ground error until I tied neutral and ground together. Then it charged like a champ. Slow as Christmas though.
 
And with Christmas coming September first these days, that is pretty darn slow! It also works fine with the Honda EU2000I by the way...

jwallace3 said:
I have charged L1 using an ETQ1800 I bought new for $359 on Ebay. Same deal ground error until I tied neutral and ground together. Then it charged like a champ. Slow as Christmas though.
 
Hmmm, well just because you CAN do this, you think it's a good idea? Your putting out a lot of pollution with these low cost generators, kind of defeating the entire purpose of the Leaf.

Just Sayin...
 
cwerdna said:
FWIW, in case you hadn't noticed, there is a general (probably CYA) warning in the manual on page CH-11:
Only charge using a standard 110 - 120 volt, 20A dedicated electrical outlet (For example do not use an electric generator). Failure to do so may cause charging to fail and could cause damage to the Li-ion battery charging equipment due to power surges.
A Priuschatter from Japan has noted that the JDM Leaf's manual has a similar warning.

Take it for what it's worth (or not).

Um, aren't ALL outlets powered by generators?
 
The wall (Grid-Powered) outlets usually have pretty good sine wave waveshapes, and only infrequent spikes.

A "modified sinewave" inverter (or generator) actually outputs a 2-step square wave, with the waveshape looking like a 2-layer wedding cake up, and the same (but inverted) down. So, it essentially has 8 substantial "spikes" each cycle, or 480 "spikes" per second.

Some electronics do NOT like that type of input, while some other devices do not care.

So, the "modified sine-wave" is NOT a sine-wave, but just advertising, similar to a "Range Extended EV".
 
Most generators are sine wave. Although they don't always hold a good pattern under load.

Charging from an inverter is kinda pointless unless you have a large off grid type system. And if so it is probably a sine wave inverter.
 
Phil mentioned a few posts back that the LEAF's on-board charger MIGHT take DC.

If so, that MIGHT mean that one (possibly modified) LEAF "donor" could charge another LEAF "recipient", using a special DC-EVSE from the donor to the standard J1772 input port on the stranded LEAF.

To be somewhat safe, the "donor" LEAF's high-voltage would probably feed a special "QC-EVSE". Depending upon how the donor EV's QC Port works, perhaps this very special "DC-QC-EVSE" would be connected to the donor car's QC port.

Yes, that would be cool if it would work ... safely.

Soon we will know many of the important QC-CAN Message codes.
 
mitch672 said:
Hmmm, well just because you CAN do this, you think it's a good idea? Your putting out a lot of pollution with these low cost generators, kind of defeating the entire purpose of the Leaf.

Just Sayin...

I will periodically charge my Leaf from a Honda EU65is generator. This is because I have no power lines to my cabin in the mountains. I can get there by fast chargers, but have to get a full charge before returning to the fast charger. The trip is ~400 miles and I will use about 4 gallons for a full charge (I think...), giving me 100mpg. I think this is better tham using the 45mpg VW Touran 2.0TDI we also have.
 
mitch672 said:
Hmmm, well just because you CAN do this, you think it's a good idea? Your putting out a lot of pollution with these low cost generators, kind of defeating the entire purpose of the Leaf.

Just Sayin...

The efficiency is around 25mpg, and probably less polluting than having to be flat-bedded out.
 
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