Portable Generator...

[1793]

I've had a few bad days troubleshooting issues at work so I'm a little brain dead tonight. I just got back from my parents house where they had to hook up their portable generator. The generator is connected to a manual transfer switch, 30A, my issue is:

While on generator power the two car garage door will not go up more than about 8". When line power came back I spent just a few min. to investigate and I found that with the door all of the way open it would not close on generator power -- it would start down and after about 12" it would stop and reverse back to full open.

I would appreciate any input on what to check when I can get back over there with my tools.

Thanks

 

[qcroanoke]

Did they work ok on utility?
I would suspect a safety being activated causing this.
Something blocking the electric eyes or too much torque and the motor thinking something is hanging the motor up and returning to where it was.
But I really don't know a lot about garage door openers.

 

[1793]

Did they work ok on utility?
I would suspect a safety being activated causing this.
Something blocking the electric eyes or too much torque and the motor thinking something is hanging the motor up and returning to where it was.
But I really don't know a lot about garage door openers.

Yes, works great on Utility power

There was nothing blocking the eye

There are some incandescent lights on the same circuit and with the lights "on" when the opener started working there was NO change in the output of the lights.

I'm stumped at this point

 

[drcampbell]

If it measures motor current to determine when the door's obstructed, it might be tripping on harmonic current. Try a low-pass filter or isolation transformer between the generator & door opener.

FD: I'm SWAGging.

 

[charlie b]

Is the entire house is powered via the manual transfer switch? If so, I can see one significant difference between being on the utility and being on the generator. If the load that is running throughout the house is close to the generator's limit, then running the garage door opener might drop the available voltage below what the door opener's motor needs. That would cause it to stop. For garage doors, the "safe" direction is "open." So if it were trying to open when the motor ran low on voltage, it would just stay there. If it were trying to close, it would stop, and then return to fully open.

There is also a difference in the amount of work it takes the motor to bring a fully closed door to the open position and the work it takes to bring a door that is only closed by 12 inches back to the fully open position. When the door is fully closed, the motor has to lift the weight of the entire door. When the door is only closed by 12 inches, the greater part of the door is laying flat on the track just below the ceiling. So the motor does not need to do as much work to pull the door back along the track to the fully open position.

 

[ammklq143]

Try pulling the release rope on the garage door and run the opener without it actually having the burden of the door on it. With no load on the motor it should easily run the opener (without the door) to what would be a fully closed or open position. If it does fine with the door release pulled the generator voltage is probably dropping to low when it has to move the door.

 

[K8MHZ]

Kind of a long shot, but...

If the voltage checks out OK and the unit still shuts off when the weight of the door is removed, it may be RF noise coming from the generator and interfering with the remote control signal.

If you can move the generator, try using it as far away from the door receiver as you can and see what happens.

 

[1793]

Is the entire house is powered via the manual transfer switch? If so, I can see one significant difference between being on the utility and being on the generator. .......So the motor does not need to do as much work to pull the door back along the track to the fully open position.

I only had the circuit for the garage door opener on when testing the door.

Try pulling the release rope on the garage door and run the opener without it actually having the burden of the door on it. With no load on the motor it should easily run the opener (without the door) to what would be a fully closed or open position. If it does fine with the door release pulled the generator voltage is probably dropping to low when it has to move the door.

Great suggestion, I only had a short time last night so when I get back over there with more time I definitely give that a try.

Kind of a long shot, but...

If the voltage checks out OK and the unit still shuts off when the weight of the door is removed, it may be RF noise coming from the generator and interfering with the remote control signal.

If you can move the generator, try using it as far away from the door receiver as you can and see what happens.

Will try that too,

Thanks All.

 

[ghostbuster]

We have found some "newer" dishwashers and microwave ovens will not work on generator power or are intermittent when supplied with" electrical noisey " generator power.Looking at the voltage sinusoid on a scope will show you how dirty or clean the supply is.