Context 6848 Battery Charging Issue

[AOCSkooney]

I have been reading these forums for the past couple days as I am having issues charging my batteries from a generator through the Context 6848.
I am not grid tied at all, completely off grid.
Using a 10kw Champion Generator.
I have 2 MPPT 80 Schneider charge controllers, this is all working well.
Had issues getting it to qualify, but noticed my frequency was out of range at 72Hz, so I hooked up a 1,500watt heater to the generator and that brought the hz to qualify. Using AC2, and selected AC2 as priority input. Turned my charging amps to 25 amps, and breaker size to 40 amps. This causes the XW to switch to the generator but it makes a loud humming sound from the inverter XWPro, and seems to pulsate, if I go higher than 25 amps, it'll run for about 5 minutes and then kick out back to batteries.

I'm starting to think generator issue? Has anyone experienced this, or should I try any other settings in the XWPro 6848.

If I have missed any details, I apologies.

Thank you in advance.

 

[400bird]

If your generator idles at 72 hz (and changes with a load), I'd agree you're right, it is probably a generator issue.

Edit: you can mess with the input parameters. Widen the voltage and frequency limits to the max as a test.

 

[AOCSkooney]

If your generator idles at 72 hz (and changes with a load), I'd agree you're right, it is probably a generator issue.

Edit: you can mess with the input parameters. Widen the voltage and frequency limits to the max as a test.

Thank you, will play some more.

Should I be concerned with the loud humming sound coming from what I believe is the DC Charging section of the inverter? I know "loud" is relative, but it is louder than any AC hum when the inverter is fully loaded.

I was thinking about changing charging amps to 50 Amps, and unplugging the 1,500 watt heater.

 

[400bird]

Yeah, loud is hard to quantify. My XW makes about the same volume of noise charging at 5kW as it does inverting at 6kW. One is a lower pitch than the other, but I can't remember which.
Also, I've never done a back to back comparison, so they might just relatively similar volume levels.
As we're near the winter solstice, I haven't heard the charger going full blast in a while.

If the XW is happy enough to charge, it's probably fine.
What firmware is the XW on? Members here have reported lower volume as of an update from last year.

 

[AOCSkooney]

I tried playing with settings, it just does not seem happy with the generator. My lights begin to flicker, it gets louder then reverts back to batteries. Which is fine, for now, but like you said in Winter Solstice and I'm in Northern Canada so about 4 hours of usable sunlight per day. My last charge lasted about 20 minutes before it kicked out the generator. I can tell it is going to kick out because my UPS systems on security system begins to get really upset and switched to batteries prior to XW booting the generator.

Here is screen shot of my Firmware.

 

[AOCSkooney]

This morning, as soon as the sun comes up, I'm going to try shutting off all generator support, and try and just use it for charging batteries. Try and narrow it down; as of this morning I'm using my back up chargers. So the back up to my back up - lol.

 

[AOCSkooney]

So I turned Generator Support - OFF, turned Generator Support Plus - OFF, kept Charger - ON and put charging amps to 32. Ran for about 45 minutes, then cut out, so I shut it down, as the sun is out now.

It still seems that the generator is taking the load from the inverter as well as charging the batteries, I was hoping it would just charge the batteries only.

I will see if I can borrow a different generator, and see if that makes a difference.

 

[400bird]

It still seems that the generator is taking the load from the inverter as well as charging the batteries, I was hoping it would just charge the batteries only.

This isn't possible for any inverter/charger. They can only do one at a time. It either inverts to support the loads or it charges (from the generator and the gen supports the loads)

 

[400bird]

I believe generator support allows the inverter to switch back and forth from charger to invert if the loads exceed the generator breaker. Or it has to do with changing charge current to respect the generator breaker setting as loads change.

 

[n2aws]

Honestly, this is why inverter generators are becoming more popular.

Your generator isn't able to provide a good and clean power supply. Most inverters, pass that dirty power directly to loads. During hurricane irma when I was without power, I had starlink connected to my inverters critical loads. As the batteries started getting low, I connected a generator thinking I was perfectly good. Within minutes, starlink stopped working. It wouldn't even power up.

Inverter generators of this size are insanely expensive. but it isn't all bad news. EG4 sells a chargeverter.

Instead of wiring your generator into AC2, just wire a chargeverter to your batteries. When you need to run the generator, plug the chargeverter into your generator, and allow it to provide *clean* power directly to your batteries. Let the inverter use that DC power as needed, providing a clean output to the connected loads. The chargeverter is expensive IMO, but $399 for a chargeverter would have saved me from having to buy another starlkink for $599.