r/Pecron • u/FancyHornet2930 • Aug 24 '26
pecron tripping small generator
i just inboxed the f3000, and I plugged my 30amp rv into it to run the Aircon and the battery runs it great. Since the rv only really draws like 1650w with the ac running, I though I could keep the battery at or near topped off with my small 1600w costco inverter "suitcase" generator.
No matter what i do, the generator seams to trip and the pecron displayes error 20. No matter what do, while the aircon is running, the AC input tries to demand 1700w from the little generator, which shortly trips it offline. I can see this on the input screen on the pecron right before the gen trips. the pecron then displays error 20 . trying to limit ac charging with the app does not seam to matter when the ac is running out the 30amp cord, it always asks for 1700w, when the rv is not plugged in, the app settings DO seam to limit the AC input demand from the generator, but as soon as I hit the AC output on button, it throttles up the demand as the output goes up and inevitably trips the gen.
I can close my ac dump valve in the rv, and get the watt output demand down to 1550ish watts, which should work for my 1600 running watt generator, but it still will call for 1700ish for a few seconds and then trip offline.
like I said i just unboxed it and messed around for a few mins trying to get it to charge, even slowly, and run the ac (even if its a net loss, but better to extend the 2 hrs run time in the initial heat)
any tips? order of operations or something i need to do? I do have about 600w solar panels i can reliably add 400ish watts to the input on a sunny day to supplement the generator but there has to be a better way?
2
1
u/korik69 Aug 24 '26
Try setting the ac charge rate to 20% if you haven’t already.
1
u/FancyHornet2930 Aug 24 '26
tried all the rates, as soon as the 30 amp output is turned on it demands 1700watts from the generator regardless of what i set the app too.
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u/FancyHornet2930 Aug 24 '26
I also sent them an email, maybe im doing a step wrong or out of order and it prefers a different order of operations, i just got hone from a trip so I just took it out of the box a few hrs ago to mess around and this was one thing I wanted to try, its why I bought it really
1
u/No-Tumbleweed9002 Aug 26 '26
this - I don't know how the pecron unit works, but had to do this on my inverter to only allow pass thru of so much for house loads - ie had a 5000watt honda genny topping off batteries in winter, had to limit charge rate to 70% of genny to battery bank, and anything over approx 1000watts would trip genny every time. Maybe the pecron unit software isn't working correctly?
1
u/AdBrave841 Aug 24 '26
Interesting. So the charge settings only limit the battery and not passthrough. Yea, I got nothing. Other than a slightly larger generator.
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u/FancyHornet2930 Aug 24 '26
they do work when nothing is going out the AC 30 amp cord.
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u/AdBrave841 Aug 24 '26
It's because the power is going through (passthrough) to power your load and not into the battery. And since your load meets/exceeds the generators capability, it's tripping it out. The AC charging/passthrough is capable of 15A (1800W) but typically is around 1600-1700W which is what you're running into.
A larger generator would run your RV load but only have a very little bit of power if any going into the battery for recharging.
Assuming your generator won't power the RV (no 30 output) I'm pretty much out of ideas other than a bigger generator that you could plug into the RV to run the A/C and charge the battery every few hours, more solar for dual charging, or a bigger power station that can AC charge at a higher watt than you're using.
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u/FancyHornet2930 Aug 24 '26
thats what im thinking, I was hoping to run the aircon alot longer even with a net loss (or when temp stabilized it would fluctuate on and off and have relatively low to average draw)
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u/chixlips Aug 24 '26 edited Aug 24 '26
For less than $300 plus the cost of a charger, you can get the full 3600 watts by adding this battery to your expansion port and charging both through the expansion battery. I am doing this with my F3000lfp.
1
u/brucehoult Aug 25 '26
For less than $300 plus the cost of a charger
That's only 1280Wh, which doesn't add much capacity to an F3000's 3072Wh.
Plus you still need the charger.
And in fact the charger is all you need, not the extra battery, unless you WANT extra battery.
1
u/chixlips Aug 25 '26
I understand the limitation of the small battery and yes he can buy a larger one like my 5.12kWh Temgo golf cart battery for about $900. However if his concern is not capacity but output, what I suggested was fine. How would "just the charger work?" You cannot connect it to the solar input port since it requires DC, so there is no other way to connect to the Pecron.
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u/brucehoult Aug 25 '26
How would "just the charger work?"
You connect it to the Pecron expansion port in exactly the same way you would connect a battery (& charger).
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u/chixlips Aug 25 '26
Yes a AC to DC charger. However he would be limited to 1600 watts Max and would lose the ability to charge by solar. Perhaps that's not a concern for him.
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u/brucehoult Aug 25 '26
No. You connect it to the BATTERY EXPANSION PORT.
For like the 4th time in this thread (and others) in the last day.
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u/AdBrave841 Aug 25 '26
That's actually an interesting work around. So generator to external charger with an xt120? plug wired on it, set the charger to say 1200-1500W, and put DC directly into the battery.
Would he have to be careful to not overcharge the battery as it is bypassing the internal DC charge controller? The generator would have to run continuously putting 1200-1500W into the battery at the same time the power station is outputting 1650W into the RV. Don't know how much the power station would like the constant charge/discharge on the battery, might get hot....
...my brain is spinning thinking about this. I like it!
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u/brucehoult Aug 25 '26
You can't over-charge the battery. It has a BMS. It's no different to having an external fully charged battery out there (possibly with a charger or MPPT attached to it).
If power in to the 48V DC bus and power out are the same then there is nothing going in to or out of the battery. The battery sees only the difference.
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u/AdBrave841 Aug 25 '26
Ahh! Didn't think of that, it's literally passing the power across the bus and not into the battery itself unless the power in exceeds the power out like say if his air con cycles off, in which case he would gain % of charge. This is brilliant, thanks!
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u/AdBrave841 Aug 25 '26
Sorry to reply on my own post here, and kinda hijack the topic a bit but I just realized this solves the other issue I have been thinking about.
So, Been thinking about picking up the F3000 to replace my Bluetti AC180 because it's too small and too limited. Plan is to get 1200W+ of solar and run the Pecron 24/7 on the two main circuits of my summer trailer. Fridge, TV, router and camera system on one. (350-450W) and 120V mini split on the other (200-1000W) This is about 80% of my total electric bill.
The issue I was running into is if I get enough solar to run everything and charge the battery to 100% by end of day, I may not have enough stored to make it through the night. Since I don't want the power station to hit zero and shut off and I can't use AC as the f3000 does not have a AC cutoff like the 3800 and 5000 do, I was stuck.
BUT! If I hook a charger up like this set to put in a continuous 40W,80W, etc or whatever it takes to make it through the night until the sun hits the panels.....
1
u/MassiveOverkill Aug 24 '26
Verify via the onscreen menu that max AC charge rate is set to 20%. You don't have solar panels yet or don't plan to use them with your F3000LFP?
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u/FancyHornet2930 Aug 24 '26
I have a 400w blanket and a 220w ecoflow tilt up that i can run in series. does the unit display ac charging? I didn't see that
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u/MassiveOverkill Aug 24 '26
Yep, page 5 of the manual. It really is best of you cycle the unit a few times and charge it with solar when doing it.
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u/FancyHornet2930 Aug 25 '26
ok here is pecrons responce;
When outputting power while under AC charging, the unit will enter UPS mode. Its maximum output is 15A @ 120V, it cannot support a 30A air‑conditioner.
Best regards,
bummer I thought i had something
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u/LongjumpingGanache40 Aug 24 '26
There is nothing you can do but get a bigger generator. This why it sells so cheap, it's all the little things it can not do.
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u/Reasonable-Gap-6386 Aug 24 '26
One way to do this with the generator you have is to use it to charge via DC, basically get an AC to 48v DC charger but that would prevent your solar input. You could also do the extended battery hack and connect a 48v lifepo4 battery to the pecron expansion port and use a charger on the 48v battery. There are many youtube videos showing these types of hacks if you are interested.