GENSET Polarity Issue with Progressive EMS 30

[Chappy133]

I installed a Progressive EMS 30 in our 16 TBS.  Works well until I hook up the Briggs and Stratton P3000 generator inverter. I do have a neural ground plug hooked in too but I am getting a reversed polarity error on the EMS (PE 01) message and will not power the camper unless I go to by pass.   Could B&S hooked up the GENSET with the polarity reversed?  Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.  I am sure I will hear from David M on this.  Have a great Labor Day weekend and hope those in Florida are spared. 

[DavidM]

Merlin is the real pro on this stuff. I am just a retired chemical engineer who knows a few things about electricity 

So you said you had a neutral ground plug hooked in. Don't know what that means. But:

Almost all gensets do not have a ground connection. They leave the ground terminal unconnected and open. You can establish one by getting to the outlet terminals on the genset and tying the neutral to the ground with a short jumper. That will establish a proper ground/neutral connection at the power source- the genset.

I suspect it is this lack of ground that is causing your reverse polarity indicator to light. This exact same thing happens in the boating world, and tying the ground to the neutral solves it for them.

David

[ADR]

There are "adapters' sold to fix this.   You can make one cheap and easy- get a replacement 110 plug  - inside it jump neutral to ground with a piece of wire.  Plug it into a spare outlet on your generator.   Should fix it.

More info here> http://noshockzone.org/generator-ground-neutral-bonding/

[Merlin]

I doubt the B&S genset was mis-wired, but you can check that easily and cheaply with simple outlet tester from your local hardware or big box store (although you may also need a 30A-15A adapter if you suspect a problem with the 30A receptacle and can get only a 15A outlet tester). You mentioned you already have installed a neutral-ground bonding plug, which Progressive recommends when using their EMS devices with portable gensets. The B&S P3000 has a floating neutral, so the ground pin on the AC receptacle is not active unless you use that plug, as DavidM noted. Is your neutral-ground bonding plug wired correctly and are you using it correctly? I recall you had an issue with the wiring in your hardwired EMS 30 when you installed it and you corrected the problem. Is everything ok with that now?

And, like DavidM, I've only barely managed to survive learning about electricity from messing around with it. I'm a retired biologist and know just enough to realize electricity can kill you if you screw up. So, all I can do without being there with my test equipment is ask questions.

[Chappy133]

Merlin - Previous issue was corrected with the EMS.  I have ordered a neutral - ground plug since maybe the one I created is not doing the job correctly. On my volunteer fire department we have a retired electrician who has the correct tester and will have him look at it if the neutral - ground plug does not fix the issue. 

[Merlin]

Great. I bet the new plug will make all the electrons happy and play well together.