Not quite a valve radio but a topical issue as our clown governments fail to grasp the fact we need big generators to provide power stability not fans and batterys and solar cells. It does not matter what boils the water to make the steam for the turbines, coal/atomic/gas/oil its the rotating plant that provides the inertia for all the kettles, aircons and hairdryers to work!

Anyway, I have little experience with generators of small size having one of those horrible Invertor sets of 3.5 kVA size as a left over from Jaycar. It was a warranty reject and I finally fixed it so it would keep running and provide a back up for when the lights go out and run 1 fridge and freezer. The attached article details replacing the original crap Ruixing carburettor with a Honda carburettor and the electronics involved. Oh yes, there are 3 wiring looms attached to the carburettor! I just shake my head at this unnecessary complexity.

Cheers, Fred.

Fixing My Standby Generating Set

Did you forget to attach the article Fred?

A topical thread. Have been giving serious thought to acquiring a standby generator and need to learn about them. Does "inverter" mean generation in DC and inversion to AC, or does it refer to inverter as in air conditioners and refrigerators?

Sorry guys I was not clear about that, I created a PDF and emailed that to Brad separately for attaching to the topic.
Hi STC when Brad does the attach a read of that will give you a bit of a clue about the basic operating principles.
One could write a book sized article like anything else. I have hands on experience in the subject so see everything from a practical view.
Happy to answer any general questions but of course not up in the current market as I retired from that career in about 2000.
I worked for Lister Australia the diesel engine manufacturer and wound up as the designer for gensets towards the end of manufacturing so was the stupid engineer responsible for success or blamed for not!
Fred.

A good outcome I think, and a good article.

The current trend of power station closure will only increase the need for homes and businesses to possess their own backup generating sets. I own two, which were purchased for camping trips, not the left-wing ideology of governments who think stringing up a few solar panels and windmills are an adequate replacement for power stations. Both my generators are inverter types and the output is a nice clean sinewave at exactly 50Hz. The first is 700VA and can be carried in one hand and has a recoil starter and a four stroke engine so I don't have to mix up two-stroke fuel. The other unit is 5.5kVA and comes with a choice of recoil, electric and remote control start and shutdown and this one also has a four stroke engine. This weighs 60kg so it only goes when the smaller generator is not big enough.

With the way our moronic politicians on both sides of politics are going at the moment we will return to the 1950s when power shedding and rolling blackouts were a part of life before the states created electricity commissions to generate and transmit power. I have a feeling that in the next few years I will be using my 5.5kVA generator for more than camping trips. If the dickheads we keep voting for don't change tack pretty sharpish they will be debating the issue in the dark, which I may add is no less than they deserve.

Ten years ago, Australia had 29 coal-fired power stations online. At the moment there are 21 and counting down, it seems.

I enjoyed reading the article on fixing the "Chonda" generator very much. I was recently given a GMC 850W generator by a friend who said his father had given it to him stating that it worked properly once and was now is dead. I put some 2 stroke fuel in which immediately started pouring out around the fuel tap. Removing the fuel line and screwing the tap several more turns into the tank cured that. Reassembled it and fired it up. It started straight away but was running rather fast. I checked the output voltage and was a bit startled to see it was about 400V AC!!. I adjusted the mechanical govenor on the carby to bring it back to 240 ish and it now seems to regulate reasonably well with varying loads. There was no locktite or any means to lock the govenor screw which rotates very easily and the fuel issue was just poor assembly. I wonder how many users have smoked appliances with these cheap generators. Not sure what I'll use it for but I just can't bring myself to throw such items out for the sake of some basic fault finding.

Hey Fred I LOVED your article!

Reflects some issues I have with a mix of Korean, Chinese and locally made products where I work.

I wonder how many users have smoked appliances with these cheap generators.

I once owned a couple of those small GMC jobs. Mine were 750VA and with two-stroke engines. I found the power output on them quite dirty to be honest and electronic appliances such as switchmode chargers and my laptop didn't like it at all. They ran lighting quite fine though.

The one thing that made me throw them out was that they didn't start well in cold weather, which is common at the times of year I go camping and that led me to buying the generators I described before. It's a case of getting what one pays for. That said, I didn't pay a lot for the generators I now have. The big one was only about $700 on Ebay about three years ago yet it starts first go every time. For 5.5kVA with electric remote starting, that is very good value if the reliability is there.

You have me puzzled Fred.

Are you an electronics tech. well versed in the valve era?

A sheet metal worker?

A mechanical engineer, or a bloody alien from another planet?

Good work mate!

Fred has the characteristics of a Renaissance Man.

I wish I had those characteristics.

I have thousands of ideas, just cannot overcome the inertia to get them "off the drawing board."

BBTV, um........ I think........... the alien alternative is the right one!
At least that's how I always felt in work situations when the answer to a problem was staring everybody in the face but no one could see it.
I along with a bunch of other people have a 'sense' that cuts all the crap out of the way and gets to the nub of a problem.
Also ..........believing you can do anything helps as well!
I suppose the central part of all of it is understanding how things work and gnawing away at it until you have a clear understanding.
If you have a clear idea of why something should work, then you can always understand why it doesn't and take the best remedial steps.
I dont think even an education would have made much difference to the way I approach things.
I was building cars out of junk parts before I was 10 to make 'paddock bashers' and that practical approach of bolting this to that and cutting that to fit that was the start of the life long approach.
I would have a room full of graduates discussing how to make some machine at work and the weeks of planning needed to start a project, I would just walk out go down to the workshop and make a working model out of scrap bits and say is this what you want? They would think i'm a genius but no, its just common sense to me.
I think there is a bunch of us that are getting just a bit tired of the jerks running this country when what is needed is obvious, bad sadly I think we are way outnumbered!
O well back to tin bashing/welding/soldering and having fun before I die!
Fred.

Fred it's called "uncommon sense".

I find that so many people these days when faced with a fault want to dive in and pull things to pieces rather than sit back and have a good hard look at the overall problem and think about it for a few moments. Then devise a fault finding strategy changing only one thing at a time and observing the result. Not the scatter gun approach I see so often where many changes/replacements are done at once thus confusing the issue completely. I was quite lucky as during my apprenticeship as a radio tradesman in the mid seventies my boss at the time drummed this into me and it's stood me in very good stead over my career as a radio tradesman then technical officer and finally a broadcast engineer. All the basic rules still apply.

Yes!

"Think with your head, not with your hands"!

I used to drum that into my apprentices too.

1. Observe! Ask questions!
2. Measure, disturbing as little as possible
3. Write the facts down
4. Plan a course of action based on the facts.
5. Only then do you replace anything.

Now, the observed facts might include a chassis full of wax paper caps or a chassis so rusted and weathered that a complete strip-down is called for. In this case the course of action includes taking lots of pictures before you dismantle anything and possibly more during the dismantling process.

Conversely, they might be a clean chassis that doesn't work. In this case, measure and test stage by stage, DON'T GUESS!!

Preaching to the converted in many cases I suppose!

But how often do we read here: "I've replaced all the paper caps and the valves and it still doesn't work"!!