Beats me Arild:

I have a LPG 8 kw generator outside my house which starts automatically
in the event of a power failure, and supplies all essentials - cooking,
lights, phone outlets, etc to the house. Why the heck can't one have
such a thing on a boat. My 8kw Onan the boat had automatic shut down
provisions for water temp and low oil so I am not too bothered about
that side of the coin. I have tried calling Onan without much success.
Surely there must be a gadget that can sense low battery voltage and
automatically kick in the preheat button for about 15 seconds then the
start button? It would then sense the charging flow and if it didn't
sense any recycle a few times before shutting off in case for some
unlikely reason the generator wouldn't start. It doesn't have to be
perfect ie: I prefer to run my generator without a load for a couple of
minutes to circulate the oil. But it could have a timer to shut down the
generator after a chosen interval. The operator could calculate based on
past charging experience pretty easily. Otherwise I am not sure how it
it would recognise sufficient charge - but ther may be a way.
How about it all your electrical gurus out there? Great idea if you
leave you boat on a mooring with the fridge on!

Ron Barr
M/V Lady Brookhaven
42ft Hatteras LRC

-----Original Message-----
From: Arild Jensen [mailto:elnav@uniserve.com]
Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2002 2:10 AM
To: ronald barr
Subject: Genset autostart

Hi Ron

I checked into the Heart Autostart product.
I had ben told it was discontinued but I managed to get hold of an old
Owner's manual.

^From the description this is definitely a limited function device.
In addition it specifically states that the auto start feature be turned
of
when the "coach" is in motion.
This product was evidently intended for RV use and most likely for
gasoline
genset use wher a simple contact closure would be sufficient to start
the
genset.

You have got me curious as to why such a function is so difficult to
implement. Or is it?
What is really  involved and why  do some products  fail to fulfil the
userrs expectations.

Regards
Arild

<Surely there must be a gadget that can sense low battery voltage and
automatically kick in the preheat button for about 15 seconds then the
start button?>

I would swear that I saw genset autostart as one of the options in the
Xantrex product line, but I can't find it now.

I know there are remote autostart products for my diesel pickup that
have a programmable preheat delay built into them.  Seems that it
shouldn't be a big lift to add a low voltage relay into such a system
that would trigger startup at a certain voltage.  But how would you shut
it off?  Perhaps just run a set period of time, then shut down with a
timer?

Bob Deering
Juneau Alaska

Northern Lights offers a single-contact feature for their gensets.  The
close of a switch somewhere will preheat and start the generator, opening it
will kill it.  I have that feature on an 8KW controlled by a Trace/Xantex
SW4024 charger/inverter.  This inverter is especially suited for this
application as it has separate "grid" and "backup" 110VAC inputs.  I have
the grid input wired through the normal shore selector switch, while the
"backup" input comes directly from the 8KW, through a cb of course.

The inverter is set to start the genset on either (adjustable) low voltage
or high current.

Hal