Puzzled mechanical fitter

[p0689109]

I decided to replace the fuel in my mobile generator (Pro user 2.3Kva petrol generator G2300 with Honda engine). I do not use it much as it sits in the van and is for when I might need electric when out and about). It has been a pig to start the last year or so but a squirt of the magic can gets it going. I decided to use the Aspen stuff. Its £20 for a 5L can but it can last up to 2 years without going off. I have just put my second carb in for sonic cleaning due to the petrol going off and gunging the carb. First was my lawnmower. It would start and run but only at full throttle. Then my mobile compressor would not start. The petrol stank when I drained it. Again these only get used rarely.
So drained and refilled the generator and it started straight away and the volt meter showed 230 Volts. Switched on the breaker and plugged in my Dremel and nothing. Accessed the wiring and "con" checked the lot and everything seemed fine. Put it back together and tried again. Nothing. I then looked at the Dremel and noticed that the earth pin was plastic and the wiring was only two cables. I then decided to try my angle grinder on the generator and bingo all okay. So I am assuming these generators need to see three wires at the plug. Is that for safety and does that mean that any tool that I assume is doubly insulated and uses only two wires does not work on these generators? I am not an electrician but can normally work my way around the simple stuff by the way!
Regards, Michael T

 

[Robotstar5]

Did you try the Dremel in a normal (house) socket?

Must admit I've never heard of something that needs to sense a metal earth pin

 

[Paul.]

Unless your angle grinder is very old I would be surprised if the earth pin is connected to the machine, just about everything hand held is double insulated nowadays, as above I would suspect the dremel to be faulty

 

[500e]

How would it sense the pin, capacity or resistance would think that is far to advanced for a simple gen set

 

[Bill Edwards]

I've yet to encounter a generator that won't run an appliance that is double insulated, I think there is a fault with your Dremel.

 

[the snooper]

did you try the dremel again after the grinder ? maybe the dremel was too small to excite the windings on the genny

 

[AndyStobbs]

You haven't got neutral wired to earth have you?

 

[the snooper]

You haven't got neutral wired to earth have you?

cant have, dremel plug has plastic earth pin

 

[AndyStobbs]

Yeah, and doesn't work.

Edit: i meant on the genset

 

[the snooper]

Yeah, and doesn't work.

Edit: i meant on the genset

but the grinder wouldn't have worked

 

[BrokenBiker]

not having an earth on an appliance makes absolutely no difference until there is a fault. on double insulated (the ones with a plastic earth pin on plug) there is no possible way that you can come into contact with any live part without using tools to do so, even under fault conditions.

I would assume the dremmel has a fault, not the genny, if the voltmeter is showing 230V and it runs the grinder then it works as it should. try the dremmel on a different supply and see what happens

 

[ben8vgte]

did you try the dremel again after the grinder ? maybe the dremel was too small to excite the windings on the genny

I'd say it was this, my mosa wont run up with out at least 0.5kva load as it has a sense circuit to control the throttle.

 

[AndyStobbs]

You can't have 230v OC then nothing though can you.

 

[p0689109]

The Dremmel does work on a normal socket supply. I have 3 of them(I go to a lot of auctions, and have a couple of sheds and a garage and its sods law the tool you want will be in the other shed. That's my excuse for her indoors anyway!) I will check the other two tomorrow when I get back from another auction! I did not try the Dremmel after the grinder. I was just happy the gennie was working!

 

[p0689109]

Tried one of my other Dremmels on the genie and it worked. It also has a plastic earth pin. The only difference between the drills is that the one that works has a sliding lever speed control and the one that does not has a digital speed control. i.e a little screen on which the rpm indicates and is increased and decreased by little push buttons. It also has a on/off slider control.The first one is a 300i and the other with the digital speed control is a "professional". If you plug it into a normal supply the screen defaults to indicate 5 rpm. Then you can set the speed you want and turn on or turn on and then set your speed. Using the genie the screen does not indicate at all and so no work!

 

[octo0072000]

try plugging in another power tool leave it running then plug in that dremmel as well bet it works then

 

[p0689109]

There is only one outlet on the machine but I will use an extension lead tomorrow and see. Thanks for the tip.

 

[p0689109]

I tried the extension lead with two outlets and the same result. The digital speed model will not work. I tried my 3rd model "the multi" which has the slider control and it worked OK. So it seems that the digital control model is the odd one out for some reason. It works ok on a normal supply though.

 

[Rig Pig]

Maybe it doesn't like the dirty output from the generator?

 

[p0689109]

Rig Pig I do not understand the term "dirty output". Please explain.