AC300 "generator charging cable" does it exist? and why?

Product Discussion Accessories
1

Hey all,
We’ve just received our AC300 and B300. We will mainly charge it from the grid/AC and solar, but may occasionally need a generator charge.

The AC300 manual mentions a “generator charging cable (sold separately)” (section 8.1.2) but it doesn’t look like one is listed under additional purchase accessories in section 3: In the box/Additional purchase accessories.

There is one listed on the Bluettie website: Generator Charging Cable but it’s listed for the EP500

Is there any reason we shouldn’t just use the AC charging cable included with the AC300? There is no brick in any picture of the cable in the AC300 manual or on the link above.

PS I’ve read through all the comments about the pure sine wave inverter, low amperage, etc. regarding generator charging on the boards. We may end up having issues with that since our generator is just a little Honda EU200i:I think I’ll definitely need to drop the amps on the AC300! However, first I need to know if I can use the included cable. I’d hate to buy a redundant (And moderately expensive) cable for no reason…

Thanks!!

2

Hi @catdoc , sorry for inconvenience caused.
We have just checked with the technical department and we have been informed that this generator charging cable is not required for the AC300, only for the EP500. Thank you very much for your understanding.

3

thank you for the informtion!

4

The generator charging cable allows you to connect your AC300 to a gas generator for fast 25 amp charging. Otherwise you can use the 15amp cord into your generator with no problems… it just might take bit longer to charge on the 15 amp cord.

And your Honda generator is an invertor… it will work perfectly, if needed.

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5

thanks everyone! We charged last night using our Honda 2000i and the supplied standard AC cable. We did have to decrease the input amps on the AC300 but it worked well (perhaps too well: I must be doing the math wrong, but we were at 63% when we hooked up the generator. Within 30 minutes with ~300 watts coming from PV and ~950 watts coming from the generator/AC input we were at 98%. Based on my crude understanding of electricity I’d assumed we’d have had to run at that rate for at least an hour to get to 98%.

6

So, how can I charge my AC300 using a generator? What type of cable is needed? Is there a special cable or?

7

Directly use the AC charging cable that comes with the AC300 .
Your gasoline generator needs to meet.

  1. The output power is the same as AC300
  2. The output is pure sine wave
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8

If the AC300 is connected to a standard gas/propane generator, will it not accept the 120v output from the generator to the AC300 unit?

Thanks!

9

@DrewLoker Do you mean the propane generator feeds AC300 or vice versa?

10

From propane generator to charge the AC300.

11

@DrewLoker Your propane generator can be charged as long as its output voltage and frequency are within the range of AC300.

12

Question is if the charge can go from non-inverter propane generator (with voltage regulator, but not officially clean electricity with >3% THD) into the AC300 to charge the AC300 with120v AC.

In other words, what will happen if I hook up my gas powered generator to recharge the AC300 if solar and grid power are notavailable.

13

There may be instances where compatibility issues arise.
If you try to power it with the propane generator without success, let me know your AC300 SN code and I’ll have an engineer push you a firmware

14

Please send un update to AC3002215000010020

15

@alexzaporozhets May I ask if your AC300 needs to be connected to a gas generator? Are there any compatibility issues? If so, I will send you a specific firmware for this issue.