Honda EU Generators?

[David Oxland]

I've been trying to find out a bit about the "Holda EU" type generators. The dealers don't have a very good technical grasp of them it seems. They claim that the engine speed varies with load.

Does that mean they are generating DC and operating an inverter?

If that's the case is there some kind of DC storage device.

Couldn't find much about this side of things on the Honda site.



Any electronics types know about these?



Seems like I'm not seeing any negative comments about the EU's at all.



Thanks

David

 

[klenger]

Read about them and buy them here.



http://www.mayberrys.com/honda/generator/html/invertgenerator.htm

 

[Blu-meanie]

If you plan on buying two of them and running them in parallel pm me. I have two EU2000I's and they do run the A/C at just above idle, one would not. You can do the cable thing for less than $50. 00.

 

[Speedo]

Honda EU

If I remember what I was told, they create a sine wave via micro-

processor so it is independent of engine speed.

 

[BK]

Speedo is in the correct ball park.

There's a micro controlled PWM high freg inverter that generates a sinewave. since there are soo many pulses to build the sinewave with, they can control the formation of the Sinewave. This results in a much cleaner sinewave which many pieces of electronic hardware will really apperciate. Since they are monitoring the sinewave/voltage/current, they have a "close loop" which also controls the engine's RPM to generate enough power to keep the above mentioned items in spec.

So if the load is light and easy on a sinewave (good power factor)... the engine can run at lower RPM .

If the load is much higher (and / or has poor power factor) the engine needs to run at a higher RPM to generate more "raw power" for the inverter to work off of.



Power factor is related to "how well current is drawn" over the voltage sinewave. . PC power supplies and electric motors are terrible, they tend to draw their current more at the peaks of the sinewave. Resistive loads like light bulbs are much better or near perfect, they draw current during the whole sinewave.

The loads with terrible power factors tend to clip the sinewave, distorting it. . The Electronic inverter in the Honda's are designed to fight loads with bad powerfactors from distrorting the voltage sinewave.

 

[Cummins Corvette]

I have an eu3000 and I absolutely LOVE IT!!!!!!!!! That thing is whisper quiet. It runs my dometic 13500 btu ac just fine, even through a 50 foot 14 gauge extension cord with the eco throttle on. The eco throttle is what lets the load determine the engine speed, and you can turn it off to help start stuff like ac. That thing is sweet.

Chris

 

[David Oxland]

Thanks Gentlemen



BK; whats a PWM?



Does this chop up and reform AC to AC or does it make AC/DC/AC? I don't know if this question makes sense.



I guess I'm talking about a cyclo-converter as used in variable AC out put devices except that input freq. is variable and the output is 60.

David



Last question is there much potential for trouble or maintenance on the electrical end?

 

[The patriot]

What would be a good price on an EU 3000?

Eric

 

[BK]

"Does this chop up and reform AC to AC or does it make AC/DC/AC? I don't know if this question makes sense. "



David ,

your actually pretty darn close... .



PWM is Pulse Width Modulation. A common form of "switch mode power supply" (smps) design topology used. Helps makes the circuits and transformers small since the switching is done usually at about 100Khz. Don't know at what freq the Honda inverters are operating at. But if they are using 100khz, a single Sine wave is made up of about 1666 pulses. . gives them 1666 datapoints to "make" the sinewave. Most generators a or cheap 12v car inverters look like a 2 step or square wave... . very distorted.



Not having the chance to open up a Honda EU , I'm not sure. . but the most logic would be AC from the mechanical generator. . then rectified to DC (high voltage. . 300-400 or so - depends on the topology of the power inverter. . many different ways to skin that cat too) off of which the control circuits are powered and the inverter runs... to form the AC finally used by the loads.

 

[BaileyFlyer]

My friend has an EU 3000i and he loves it. I even pulled my trailer to his place to see if it would run my 15,000 BTU air conditioner and it does just fine. Initially, it drops down to about 90 volts (about 1 second) then it jumps back up to about 118 volts. It does a better job than the RV park power in lake powell. Powells power will only sustain about 100 volts while my A/C is running!!! That is not a good thing for compressor motors. Try Mayberrys.com for the best price I have found. About $1600 with the RV pigtail installed, a cover, and shipping. Here in Denver, nobody will even come close to it (the best offer I had was 1800 bucks)

 

[David Oxland]

I got the picture BK



Thanks again all

It's appreciated!

David

 

[JohnE]

The Honda EU series generates power in A/C, <em>converts</em> it to D/C, then <em>inverts</em> it to A/C. The A/C to D/C to A/C system is used for many things. High horsepower motors, high load start up such as big A/C (air conditioning) units, and computer power buses. They have many colloquial names as well with freaks & choppers the more common I've heard.



If you have a varying load the EU series may be the answer. If you have a relatively constant load, IMHO go with a standard generator. If you are worried about your computer don't. It may be a power glutton in Power Factor (PF) terms, but it is only converting to D/C and is very forgiving on the source voltage as well as being a very small load (200 Watts)

If you are only looking for the low (audible) noise factor, another option is the 1800 RPM RV generator units.



Sorry for the long post, but I did try keep it brief.

-John

 

[bighammer]

They sound great. I would like something with 220V output for our well pump. They seem to only be 110V.

 

[FL70CAT]

I have an ONAN 7. 5K quiet diesel genset that varies rpm to match loads, I absolutelt LOVE it.

Currently it is almost two years old with over 4,400HRS and not a single problem. Maintainance has only been oil and filter changes and one water pump belt. I changed the belt at about 3,300hrs because it was starting to look tired(some cracking).

The quiet diesel is incredibly quiet and smooth running!!

 

[NVR FNSH]

Originally posted by Blu-meanie

You can do the cable thing for less than $50. 00.

Can you tell me how to do the parallel cable for $50?



I paid $1550 for my EU3000 from 'The Honda Shop' in Ukiah, CA.



Brian

 

[Rambling]

Check the links in a post by "nhbob" on Escapees Forum for how he solved the sync cord problem. It's readily availabe hardware that is relatively inexpensive.



HondaBox Parallel Cable Setup:

http://home.earthlink.net/~rehhrd/



HondaBox Polarity Project

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=840567&uid=558963



Latest effort; Howe's HondaBoxes:

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=848900&uid=558963&members=1



DuckBu** Shroud

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=858901&uid=558963&members=1