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Posted: Apr 21, 2007 07:48 AM	I think my generator cooked my motor control board I have been using a 45kw MQ generator without any problems for the last two years. I started using a different generator last week. The second spray day, there was a pop sound in the trailer, and my heaters were on but the motor showed a high current code. I found the bottom corner of the board cooked. I put a new motor control board in yesterday morning and sprayed for 3 or 4 hours. After that I looked and found the same corner on the new board has smoke soot, even though it still worked. Has anyone else experienced this? I have a Graco E-30.
Thomas Kasper Posted: Apr 21, 2007 02:13 PM	What size is the generator you just started using? I would guess if it is to small, it could be a problem. Whenever you try to power something without enough power, it is hard on what you are powering.
Posted: Apr 21, 2007 07:06 PM	Hello Tom, The MQ was a 45kw and the one I'm using now is an older 45kw Baldor. I didn't know that too little power can hurt. I had some work done to the Baldor last month. Now I'm going to take the Baldor to another repair facility to see if they can figure out if something is not right. One thing that is different is that when I check the current with the voltmeter, one hot to either the ground or neutral used to give me 120 and hot to hot was always 240. I still get the 240 hot to hot, but only get the 120 reading on a hot to either the ground or neutral, I can't remember which. Erik
Posted: Apr 21, 2007 09:19 PM	I am not an electrician so please verify this!! But in single phase residential electric the neutral acts as the first "ground" and the ground is the backup ground. If you look inside a panel you will often find that the neutral and ground bus bars are used together. They shouldn't be for code reasons but they often are. Basically the ground is there is the neutral should fail. If you wire without the ground, the fixture will still work provided the neutral is connected properly. So you should see 120 between any of the two hot leads and neutral or ground, and 240 between the two hot leads. Electrical equipment does not look for exactly the voltage rating, it looks for "power" so a 120 appliance may run fine on 90-135 volts. It is designed to run most efficiently at 120 volts. If your generator surges or does not provide sufficient power then the complex electronics of the E-30 may suffer. You should check with a voltmeter when everything is running and see what output you have, also check the frequency. Please be sure you have your generator wired for single phase if that is in fact what you are running and not three phase! Tim Granite State Spray Foam Co.
Posted: Apr 22, 2007 09:13 AM	Thanks Tom and Thanks Tim I plan on putting the generator in the hands of a different generator professional next week. I don't plan on saying anything to them about the recent work done to the generator, I want to see what info they come to me with.
Posted: Apr 27, 2007 06:01 AM	tim,,i would let the wrench know you had someone else in the can,,it will help him in the diagnosis in refixing schtuff if neccesary... why be embarrassed to say someone else didnt know what the hell they were doing.... happens all the time.....(you should see the newbee work out there :) ).....
Wayne Townsend Posted: Apr 29, 2007 09:42 PM	I have a EXP-2 (three phase) My generator ran out of gas one day and I fried my board too It pumped up to 5000 psi and almost blew the hoses off the thing (not good) Since then I make sure I have enof fuel in the tank Just goes to show ya computers aren't always better
Timothy Sonney Posted: May 02, 2007 03:46 AM	I have heard this story over and over again…. Start counting the jobs that you have sprayed that have electric available to you, compared to the jobs that you have done that have no electric available. Even though the electric was available – shore power – but you still opted to run the generator….. fried board…. How many jobs have you done on average that shore power was available, but you opted out just to run your generator? Remember, shore power is free… generator requires fuel, and regular upkeep. Another question to bring to mind is, the generator that you purchased: is it covered under warranty if installed in a trailer. Many of them are not. You need to check with the manufacture. 2yrs of spraying, and have yet to run into a job that shore power wasn’t available. From large commercial jobs, to camps in the middle of the woods.
Posted: May 02, 2007 06:49 AM	....ps with all the newbees,, selling "the best foam" "with the HIGHEST RVALUE, even more than their foam" "the lowest prices anywhere" i use the fact that i am not useing their power in my sales pitch,,, stand alone,,, and no additional hidden cost to the general contractor,,, (do you know what the $$$ of electricity you are pulling out of their wallet???you need to,,cause i do...and i let em know when "competitive bidding...) foam,,foam,,foam,, foam da home,,home,,, home..
Michael Flander Posted: May 03, 2007 04:17 PM	I agree completely foamdude. BHI: If you are running a generator that is frying the electronic boards, then you either need to have some service work done to your generator or need a new generator. The generator isn't necessarily what causes a board to go bad, which is exactly why you can still have a board go bad on shore power.... Mike Flander
Gerry Wagoner Posted: May 03, 2007 10:09 PM	Our MH is 3-phase, pardner. 16,000 watts of primary heat.
Michael Flander Posted: May 04, 2007 04:23 PM	I got to thinking about it a little more, and decided I wanted to add a little more about generators. Our generators have electronic controls that provide alarms and displays for just about everything on the generator, including fuel, frequency, and voltage. If the generator were to just die, our set-up would cut power to the system before the voltage/frequency dip could harm the solid state electronics. It also alarms at a user setpoint for fuel, and gives you a digital % readout on your fuel level, greatly decreasing the chance you will run out of fuel. As far as warranty issues, you can bring the generator to any john deere dealer in the U.S. And considering that the generators we sell are built for trailers, including a double-walled D.O.T. approved 80 gallon fuel tank, you will never have anyone tell you that you can not get warranty work done because it is in a trailer. Not all generators are the same, and they won't all cause problems. Just like anything else, I can give you a ton of references of people that have NEVER had a problem with there generator, a long with a few that have had problems. It comes down to personal preference, and your overall presentation to the customer. There is at least two ways to do everything in this business, and they both work. My .02 cents. Mike
foamhome Posted: Aug 15, 2017 12:59 AM	Burnt out 2 boards before I found the solution. It's the ground on the generator. A earth ground is a most for most generators. I ran a #4 weld wire from gen. ground to a large weld clamp. At every job I dive a length of rebar into the ground and connect clamp. Never had another problem. Also sent out burnt boards and had rebuilt as spares. Hope this helps

Author

Comments

Posted: Apr 21, 2007 07:48 AM

I think my generator cooked my motor control board

I have been using a 45kw MQ generator without any problems for the last two years. I started using a different generator last week. The second spray day, there was a pop sound in the trailer, and my heaters were on but the motor showed a high current code. I found the bottom corner of the board cooked. I put a new motor control board in yesterday morning and sprayed for 3 or 4 hours. After that I looked and found the same corner on the new board has smoke soot, even though it still worked.
Has anyone else experienced this?
I have a Graco E-30.

Thomas Kasper

Posted: Apr 21, 2007 02:13 PM

What size is the generator you just started using?
I would guess if it is to small, it could be a problem.
Whenever you try to power something without enough power, it is hard on what you are powering.

Posted: Apr 21, 2007 07:06 PM

Hello Tom,
The MQ was a 45kw and the one I'm using now is an older 45kw Baldor. I didn't know that too little power can hurt. I had some work done to the Baldor last month. Now I'm going to take the Baldor to another repair facility to see if they can figure out if something is not right. One thing that is different is that when I check the current with the voltmeter, one hot to either the ground or neutral used to give me 120 and hot to hot was always 240. I still get the 240 hot to hot, but only get the 120 reading on a hot to either the ground or neutral, I can't remember which. Erik

Posted: Apr 21, 2007 09:19 PM

I am not an electrician so please verify this!! But in single phase residential electric the neutral acts as the first "ground" and the ground is the backup ground. If you look inside a panel you will often find that the neutral and ground bus bars are used together. They shouldn't be for code reasons but they often are. Basically the ground is there is the neutral should fail. If you wire without the ground, the fixture will still work provided the neutral is connected properly. So you should see 120 between any of the two hot leads and neutral or ground, and 240 between the two hot leads.

Electrical equipment does not look for exactly the voltage rating, it looks for "power" so a 120 appliance may run fine on 90-135 volts. It is designed to run most efficiently at 120 volts. If your generator surges or does not provide sufficient power then the complex electronics of the E-30 may suffer. You should check with a voltmeter when everything is running and see what output you have, also check the frequency. Please be sure you have your generator wired for single phase if that is in fact what you are running and not three phase!
Tim
Granite State Spray Foam Co.

Posted: Apr 22, 2007 09:13 AM

Thanks Tom

and

Thanks Tim

I plan on putting the generator in the hands of a different generator professional next week. I don't plan on saying anything to them about the recent work done to the generator, I want to see what info they come to me with.

Posted: Apr 27, 2007 06:01 AM

tim,,i would let the wrench know you had someone else in the can,,it will help him in the diagnosis in refixing schtuff if neccesary...

why be embarrassed to say someone else didnt know what the hell they were doing....
happens all the time.....(you should see the newbee work out there :) ).....

Wayne Townsend

Posted: Apr 29, 2007 09:42 PM

I have a EXP-2 (three phase) My generator ran out of gas one day and I fried my board too It pumped up to 5000 psi and almost blew the hoses off the thing (not good) Since then I make sure I have enof fuel in the tank Just goes to show ya computers aren't always better

Timothy Sonney

Posted: May 02, 2007 03:46 AM

I have heard this story over and over again…. Start counting the jobs that you have sprayed that have electric available to you, compared to the jobs that you have done that have no electric available.

Even though the electric was available – shore power – but you still opted to run the generator….. fried board…. How many jobs have you done on average that shore power was available, but you opted out just to run your generator? Remember, shore power is free… generator requires fuel, and regular upkeep. Another question to bring to mind is, the generator that you purchased: is it covered under warranty if installed in a trailer. Many of them are not. You need to check with the manufacture.

2yrs of spraying, and have yet to run into a job that shore power wasn’t available. From large commercial jobs, to camps in the middle of the woods.

Posted: May 02, 2007 06:49 AM

....ps
with all the newbees,,
selling "the best foam"
"with the HIGHEST RVALUE, even more than their foam"
"the lowest prices anywhere"

i use the fact that i am not useing their power in my sales pitch,,,
stand alone,,,
and no additional hidden cost to the general contractor,,,
(do you know what the $$$ of electricity you are pulling out of their wallet???you need to,,cause i do...and i let em know when "competitive bidding...)

foam,,foam,,foam,,
foam da home,,home,,, home..

Michael Flander

Posted: May 03, 2007 04:17 PM

I agree completely foamdude.

BHI: If you are running a generator that is frying the electronic boards, then you either need to have some service work done to your generator or need a new generator.

The generator isn't necessarily what causes a board to go bad, which is exactly why you can still have a board go bad on shore power....

Mike Flander

Gerry Wagoner

Posted: May 03, 2007 10:09 PM

Our MH is 3-phase, pardner. 16,000 watts of primary heat.

Michael Flander

Posted: May 04, 2007 04:23 PM

I got to thinking about it a little more, and decided I wanted to add a little more about generators.

Our generators have electronic controls that provide alarms and displays for just about everything on the generator, including fuel, frequency, and voltage. If the generator were to just die, our set-up would cut power to the system before the voltage/frequency dip could harm the solid state electronics. It also alarms at a user setpoint for fuel, and gives you a digital % readout on your fuel level, greatly decreasing the chance you will run out of fuel.

As far as warranty issues, you can bring the generator to any john deere dealer in the U.S. And considering that the generators we sell are built for trailers, including a double-walled D.O.T. approved 80 gallon fuel tank, you will never have anyone tell you that you can not get warranty work done because it is in a trailer.

Not all generators are the same, and they won't all cause problems. Just like anything else, I can give you a ton of references of people that have NEVER had a problem with there generator, a long with a few that have had problems. It comes down to personal preference, and your overall presentation to the customer.

There is at least two ways to do everything in this business, and they both work. My .02 cents.

Mike

foamhome

Posted: Aug 15, 2017 12:59 AM

Burnt out 2 boards before I found the solution. It's the ground on the generator. A earth ground is a most for most generators. I ran a #4 weld wire from gen. ground to a large weld clamp. At every job I dive a length of rebar into the ground and connect clamp. Never had another problem. Also sent out burnt boards and had rebuilt as spares. Hope this helps

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