Stacking Inverter Generators

Small Engines Charcoal Gasification
#36

very true. That is why I wasn’t making recommendations. Just a general idea. :slight_smile:

Generally speaking the slower you charge a battery the longer life it will have.

The devil is in the details though like Life batteries I pointed out while they should last for like 20 years, don’t work in below freezing which may mean you have set up a system in each house or keep the shed warm. There is no sense in using lead acid batteries even in this case because they cost too much per charge cycle.

They may also now require 200a service instead of 60a or 100a service. Which means to be up to code, you may have to have a 400a service at the shed and 200a at each of the subpanels in the houses and it will require running new wires. I believe panel upgrades and associated wiring is covered with the tax credits now as well. But it is certainly an additional expense because wire isn’t cheap. It is all part of the preparation for running out of =cheaply= extractable oil which is most likely in the next 30-40 years and prices will start to spike before that. It is easier and cheaper to not wait until the last minute, but certainly some people will.

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#37

Made me think of my copper tube framed pyramid I made in the early 70’s to meditate under and become cosmically conscious. That didn’t work for shit, but it did have slanted sides. Maybe my generator under one could figure out how to regenerate it’s fuel. I’m not crazy. My mother had me tested. :face_with_spiral_eyes:

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#38

Thats what is really going on, the goverments are not going to spell that out as this will crash the global markets. I have sources that have conveyed this to me from all over the world. That time frame is not 30-40 years we are talking in the next decade. Thats why they are not tapping our oil, they want to run the others out first. That will make our oil worth more, as the prices rise. This will be a problem long before those resources are tapped. We have already hit peak oil; we are now on the down slope and this will soon be a topic, that no one can dispute. It will simply be reality.

The car companies did not willfully transition to EV’s they were forced.

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#39

There is a oil field that is called the Liberty Bell in Alaska and it was found many years a ago. We have never tapped into it and it is a big oil field. Out of sight out of mind and don’t talk about it. Yes it is on federal land. We have only tapped into the smaller fields up there close to it. Easy to get at nope not with all the environmental impack issues we have to deal with in the USA. We will just keep buying oil a put in the governments caverns for future reserves. Did you know you can put oil into old oil fields too. If you can pump it out you can put it back into the ground.

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#40

To keep it shorter… There is a TON Of misinformation being thrown around by both sides. It can vary regionally. Like Europe could be out in 10 years. Or we could have 50% of the current production in 10 years. It doesn’t mean we don’t have oil, but the price of what is left goes through the roof. To add to that China and India are increasing consumption.

The main issue is we don’t know how long it will take, and it is the -price- that affects the economy. so we find have cost effective solutions otherwise it drives up prices. The longer we work at it, the better solutions we have.

The issue with the automakers is they got burned hard with the EV1/Ford Ranger by really poorly written California policy with their zero emissions mandate. It is a posterchild law of what not to do.

The to top it off, oil -investors- did a hostile takeovers in part to get rid of the electric vehicles.

Under the Obama rules, we didn’t mandate EVs. They have emissions credits that they can trade from other companies to meet the emissions/mileage requirements. It is a subtle change in philosophy, we care about the US fleet mileage, not the individual manufacturers. Biden is trying to push it a lot harder then I think is possible.

Then we helped Tesla, to demonstrate there is a market for EVs. It is a much different discussion in the boardroom if Tesla is selling 100k EVs a year, then if there is no proven market and you say you want to build EVs.

We are hoping by 2030 for price parity of the equivalent EV. But that was a rushed timeline and I have only seen a few things on the technological side for fast charging, and there isn’t even a charging network that can support it. It needs to be about 1mw charging.

Liberty Bell is the mining district in Alaska where they mainly mine for gold. There is another project called Liberty that is off-shore near prudhoe bay. Prudhoe bay has a lot of oil. You may be right, or it may be mixed up information. It also could be a bitumen deposit similar to the tar sands. I don’t know. But there isn’t enough to feed the world’s thirst for oil and only a small fraction of the US needs. Bakkan is a large deposit and output is 1m/barrels a day which is a small fraction of US needs. So will there be oil? yes, will you be able to afford it? probably not. The timeline for when that will occur, no one really has a great idea, but the more work we do to come up with cost effective solutions the easier it gets to transition. The longer we stretch it out, the more time we have.

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#41

I stumbled on this looking for generators. It’s the electronics for a Harbor Freight 9500 generator. Seems like a reasonable price for a backup.

https://www.amazon.com/Tapa-Inverter-Predator-Invertor-Generator/dp/B0B6R3MXVL/

Here’s the rotor and stator:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B6R63CN3/

There are some reviews that seem to say this could be used on Harbor Freight’s open-frame inverter-generator. I wonder if that means they can be paralleled?

edit: I guess you can, sort of: DIY Predator Parallel Kit - #5 by Matt

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#42

Yup if you swap the inverter out you then should be able to run in paralell.

With this stuff you could DIY one for half the cost. You would need the rear engine casing cover and stator housing cover though.

Actually you may not need the housing. Just need to make a plate that bolts to the back of the engine to hold the stator center and in place is all. One could then Im sure make a housing guard to keep fingers away from the spinning parts. I see where 3D printing could come to the rescue.

Man look what you have done!! Now I have another DIY project I have to do now. lol

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#43

Thinking about this further the Stator is on the outside not inside and I think it is directional as those three wires I think are for positioning like a crank shaft / cam shaft sensor. I cant think of any other reason those extra wires are there and that lead plugs into a socket on the Inverter side.

Also studying the picture it does look like that rotor has a tapered socket I dont think it is a straight shaft. However there are taper adapter on market.

https://www.amazon.com/DEEPSOUND-Tapered-Clutch-Adapter-Predator/dp/B0833T3BMD/ref=m_crc_dp_lf_d_t1_d_sccl_2_2/144-9533600-0359504?pd_rd_w=liRmt&content-id=amzn1.sym.76a0b561-a7b4-41dc-9467-a85a2fa27c1c&pf_rd_p=76a0b561-a7b4-41dc-9467-a85a2fa27c1c&pf_rd_r=FY3Y0MS0VK7X313BTEKA&pd_rd_wg=uqYVS&pd_rd_r=2e89ea42-7e57-490a-a436-0c06a557f002&pd_rd_i=B0833T3BMD&psc=1

So to make an off the shelf engine work, you will need the housing or an alternative. Could 3D print and then use it as a master to create a mold to poor your own aluminum parts. I just happen to have a high end 3D scanner that can create an exact digital copy of the original engine back cover and housing. I could then 3D print them to create the masters for creating the mold.

1 Like
#44

This is what I found for a ‘wiring diagram’

This is for a different inverter generator, but I am not sure the wiring is different.

Im kind of wondering what the connector wires do. It looks like there is a stepper motor driver in the wiring diagram.

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#45

The stepper motor output from the Inverter “control modual” is for the engine carburetor speed controlling.
The Inverter is going to need an RPM signal input. And a power input. The separate sub-coil is supping one, or both of these.
The DC coil is for the USB output port power.
With separate coils for starting battery charging.
Separate coil for ignition signal and ignition power.
Allowing the engine to be started and ran without main main generating outputs.

Note that the 1st diagram has two Wye sets of Main coils. This is for an Inverter made split phase 240VAC capable output.
the 2nd diagram only has one main charging coil for an Inverter made only 120VAC output.
S.U.

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#46

You probably don’t -need- the stepper for the carb control hooked up, but for efficiency it would be worth looking at your stepper to see what model it is to get a ballpark idea of what is being used.

I did not know you had the 3d scanner adds note for beach trip :rofl:

If you have a cnc router or mill, you just need a rough casting. Then finish it with the mill.

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#47

You are right on. The labeling was messing me up. :slight_smile:

Tapa seems to make them for a number of sizes of generators which makes it more interesting for converting a smaller generator or using an induction motor, type of thing.

1 Like
#48

Yeah I bought an EinStar Scanner plus a 2500 dollar PC to run it. Its for another company I plan to develop after Im done with this last stage of development for the gasifier company.

Yeah Id like to use all off the shelf parts and engines for a build. So yeah the Stepper carb wont be an option unless you can buy all that too. But I wouldnt; Id just get rid of that complexity do it manually with the thottle setting on the engine as those have a lever throtle control. The hard part is going to make a DIY friendly housing to fit the stater. Or reversing this somehow but with that tapered socket that might not be possible.

I might have to tear apart that 8750 I have and see what I can do to make something.

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#49

OH that is sweet. Does it work well? The last 3d scan I got was probably accurate but the parts didn’t line up when I imported it into a cad program. It was similar to trying to convert a pixel image to a vector based drawing program. Just a lot of clean up to get something usable. You kind of used it as a pattern to redraw the image. But that was a long long time ago.

I would document the stepper ie grab numbers off it and such. Just in case, you or someone else might want it later. I don’t know how it is put together. I haven’t really looked at the generators at all in any detail.

The taper is probably some standard metric, but you have to measure it.

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#50

The stepper set up is built into the inverter part. You just plug that cable in like Steve U is saying. Then you plug the stepper / throttle control into the inverter as well. So the controller is already pre built into the inverter.

Yes its very accurate! You do however have to adjust the plane orientation when you import the mesh into CAD. I then convert it to a solid and can edit the part. Then once done I then convert back to an STL mesh file. I was planning to scan my entire 68 K-20 to make an RC replica of it. lol

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#51

The controller is built-in. I was talking about the motor so you have an idea of what motor to connect to it.

RC? You could just 3d print the parts with a bigger printer. :rofl:

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#52

Yeah I know but why source it? When you can just the buy whats supposed to go on it or just use the manual controller.

If you want to run in eco mode just throttle it down with the manual control. I dont want that electronic controller its just something to break. I want to get rid of that part of it. Eco mode is worthless with a gasifier.

Yeah dont forget this is an inverter generator. RPM dont matter anymore. Set it at the power level you need and forget it.

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#53

With the manual set up you can get the generator running at a higher RPM to better absorb the load when running on wood gas. It may also be more responsive to loads as well. You are pretty restricted with the stepper control and there is some lag.

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#54

You can buy this one on Ebay. I cant see the pic of connector so assuming it will work.

1 Like
#55

I’ve been wondering about generator fuel consumption, and the difference between inverter and conventional generators. Either my choice of search terms is terrible, or Google isn’t what it used to be, or there isn’t much data out there. Many of the manufacturers list fuel use at 25% output power, which is not that interesting for battery charging.

I came across this webpage, which is old, but at least has some data. Scroll all the way down for a spreadsheet with all the tested generators included. It may partly explain why the inverter generators are spec’d at one quarter power.