Cute little generator!

[Chris C]

Okay, the Power Pony Generator is pretty wimpy................but wouldn't it do just fine to power my battery charger when I'm 60 miles from the nearest power pole?

[Q]

Be careful if you build the field controller from the schematic on the page. I built one and it worked fine for a while but one of the ICs failed and it ended up raising the battery voltage to 16+ volts which fried my inverter.

Q

Here's another way to build your own...

http://www.mikenchell.com/images/generatorbuild.pdf

Mike...

[Q]

Sure. You might just have to run it a few hours but it should do the job. The 12V charging circuit which puts out 4 amps would take about 20 hours to fully charge a dead 80 amphour battery.

Q

Okay, the Power Pony Generator is pretty wimpy................but wouldn't it do just fine to power my battery charger when I'm 60 miles from the nearest power pole?

[Chris C]

Q,

I "got" that the charging circuit was inadequate, but surely the 120v circuit would run my charger and charge the battery at the same rate as a 120VAC outlet, wouldn't it?

[Frank]

Sorry Guy's, checked out the power pony, NO LONGER AVAILABLE.

[Chris C]

Wonder why? Looked like a pretty good solution to a lot of problems.

[Q]

It depends on the size of your charger and it depends on if the little generator will really put out a sustained 350 watts of 120vac. If the specs were correct and there were no losses involved in the battery charger, you could expect to see about 26 amps charging current. However, there are substantial losses involved and I would be surprised to see over 10 amps from the battery charger. Perhaps a solid state switching power supply type battery charger would have less loss.

Q

Q,

I "got" that the charging circuit was inadequate, but surely the 120v circuit would run my charger and charge the battery at the same rate as a 120VAC outlet, wouldn't it?

[ceebe]

Sorry Guy's, checked out the power pony, NO LONGER AVAILABLE.

I'd bet half a groat that since it's a 2 stroke, California sales are banned. There goes a huge market share.

[Chris C]

Oh well, guess it's a moot point now. Sure would like to find a simple solution to my off-grid style of camping for extended periods of time. (without spending tons of money on solar cells or an expensive and "too powerful" generator)

[Laredo]

Ahem.
Go to ebay. Buy a minibike. Frame, engine, muffler. You can even resell the handlebars and wheels.

[Frank]

Ceebe
Your right, he said due to it being a 2 stroke. I did not know what that had to do with anything. Calif don't allow 2 stroke engines? What about motorcycles and boat motors?

Frank

[txturbo]

Most riding mowers and electric start push mowers engines already have an alternator built in. Of course they are only going to charge at 3 or 4 amps as well.

[Endo]

Just saw this generator in the new Northern tool catalog. It looks great for camping and the price is right!

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/ ... =200313480

[Gage]

Just saw this generator in the new Northern tool catalog. It looks great for camping and the price is right!

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/ ... =200313480

But it won't operate an electric coffee maker.

Have a good day

Got to have my coffee first thing in the morning.

[Arne]

with generators it is not 'a rose is a rose'... the good ones run at 1,800 rpm... the cheap ones run at 3,600...... 2 cycles burn oil..... either you or your neighbor is going to be unhappy.....

do a lot of checking before purchasing any one of these things, but I'll bet the more you pay, the more liveable the unit will be.