Fischer panda generator isssues

Bran said:
Hello, no, the resistors must be removed.
This video gives a good summary of the test procedure:
In my experience if they have failed you will get a definite short on one of the readings.
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Thank you - it's all I needed to know. The board is coming from Spain and I'm away for at least a week, so this will get done once I come back.
That still leaves a question of why the whole thing blew up. Assuming IGBTs are bad I will test the cooling circuit and see if the flow is sufficient. It was really hot that day - over 100F, the engine room was over 110 according to my data loggers.
 
Difficult to advise further on this as the control circuitry is very complex. You have gone well beyond what most people would do in regard to diagnosis but there comes a point when you just cannot proceed because you don’t have all the information you need. I feel your pain but am quite sure most Fisher Panda service reps won’t have a clue as to the cause of your issues and would only bomb the problem with new parts. These sort of electronic controls are in a very electrically noisy environment and are very difficult to pinpoint issues. Unfortunately it’s the modern way of engineering, in my job I had the same issues and I was the specialist engineer trying to sort the issues, modules were outsourced and we did not have all the information we needed to fault find in depth. AKeep us posted keen to help if I can.
 
Bran said:
Difficult to advise further on this as the control circuitry is very complex. You have gone well beyond what most people would do in regard to diagnosis but there comes a point when you just cannot proceed because you don’t have all the information you need. I feel your pain but am quite sure most Fisher Panda service reps won’t have a clue as to the cause of your issues and would only bomb the problem with new parts. These sort of electronic controls are in a very electrically noisy environment and are very difficult to pinpoint issues. Unfortunately it’s the modern way of engineering, in my job I had the same issues and I was the specialist engineer trying to sort the issues, modules were outsourced and we did not have all the information we needed to fault find in depth. AKeep us posted keen to help if I can.
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Thank you for the kind words. I am going to try connecting everything back and see if the generator works. I have all new capacitors and a new control board that has the same exact interfaces and size, but components look remarkably different- looks like it was redesigned. The worst thing it will blow the capacitors the same way it did before and then I will send to it to FP. If it does work, I will continue testing the generator.
 
Well, the good news is that nothing blew up, the bad news is that the generator starts and immediately stops with error 19 fuel supply error. Bled the pump just because - fuel is flowing freely, no bubbles. We didn’t touch the engine through the whole ordeal, so either I manage to connect something incorrectly, again doubtful since I didn’t really touch low voltage parts or the new board reads the values differently.
 
Doesn’t look like it. It does have a micro USB port, which probably serial configuration interface. I will speak to FPon Monday and find out what is going on.
 
Fuel solinoid ? Most genys you hear a click just before start as it energisers , needs power to open and stay open .

Could be basic connection or even battery issues - enough juice to turn the starter to fire it up but after not enough to run ( energise ) the fuel solinoid so it shuts down .

Or the new boards de energising it ?
 
AlexLbk said:
Well, the good news is that nothing blew up, the bad news is that the generator starts and immediately stops with error 19 fuel supply error. Bled the pump just because - fuel is flowing freely, no bubbles. We didn’t touch the engine through the whole ordeal, so either I manage to connect something incorrectly, again doubtful since I didn’t really touch low voltage parts or the new board reads the values differently.
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well, going along Porto's post above, there may be a solenoid that needs to be energised to keep geny running.
If it fires up means it's energised by the board, the stopping straight after means that another sensor is not sending the right values to the board so board removes power from solenoid.
if you're bored and have sometime in your hands, you could measure the voltage (pretty sure it's going to be 12V) on the solenoid when it fires up and note that it goes to 0V soon after. Then you can wire a whatever terminal the solenoid has to 12V (guess +12V as engine block would be GND) and fire up the geny like that (disconnecing obvs the original cable to the solenoid to avoid burning anything on the pcb!)
It sure wont stop if you feed the thing with fuel...

However, I've no idea if there's any fancy governor operated by the board to change rpm on the thing when on load, if so, I guess pcb will mess the governor settings to protect the engine.

good luck
 
As suspected the board needed to be programmed in order to work correctly. The board expected input from the fuel sensor that doesn’t exist. When it didn’t see the input from the non existent sensor the board cut off the solenoid and killed the engine. I just finished eemprom setup and the generator starts, runs, and produces voltage. While I was at it, I am pretty sure I know what made it blow up. It was another hot day yesterday and then it started pouring I turned on the AC. As soon as the pump turned on the breaker in the dock popped. Tried again, same result. I started tracing and testing wiring for the pump and found the issue (picture attached). A little history on this boat: it was mostly built in Germany, however some pieces were added in the US. I can immediately spot who did what as the US work is sloppy and performed with no thought process, while generally using high quality components. German stuff is super neat and organized, while also being over engineered and using components that are good enough, not the best. This particular pump is very well made and made in the US, however the wire coming out of it is short and whoever installed it though that using a non waterproof connector below the fresh water pump and above the intake hose for the AC pump is a good idea. At this point it looks like it was just an overload and instead of tripping the breaker, the overload blew up the caps, which then blew up the board. Thanks everyone for the input and assistance with this. You t was quite painful, but I learned a lot.
 
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The electrical part works fine, however while I was testing it I had the raw water intake shutoff and that destroyed the impeller. The impeller is replaced, but I’m still getting excessive exhaust temperature errors. Never ends.
 
well at least it works, fixing all the other bits should be "manageable" now
good luck, and while you are at it, check all other connections/wiring around for silly workmanship!

V.
 
After replacing an impeller, removing and cleaning the impeller catcher, which is for some reason installed behind the icontrol board housing so getting the bolt in requires lots of patience and some bleeding, I was still overheating. Took the raw water system apart and tested each segment. The strainer seal got old and was leaking air. Since I couldn’t find a metric size O ring anywhere I had to purchase a whole new top with seal for about $100. The generator started, ran for 30 minutes then shutdown with a fuel error. It wouldn’t start after this. I replaced the lift pump and all fuel filters. Bled low pressure once more and it finally started working. Ran it under load for about an hour. Restarted it a couple of times - all clear. Looks like the nightmare is over for now.
 
FP marine generators have a bad rep .
I have had one ( 2003 variant ) and like you nursed it along .
Never again .

Hope it works out , or at least staves off dementia figuring out the fixes along the way .That’s the upside keeps your brain busy .Thx for keeping us posted and not disappearing.
 
no surprises in all the issues you mention Alex...
even went through the trouble of getting a full rebuilt on my yanmar 2GMF generator engine and took me a couple of years after that to figure out that after all it was the bleeding lift pump to blame for the air leaking in and inability to start after leaving it off for more than 4-5h. That was after having to fully rebuilt the seawater pump, the built in yanmar useless diesel filter, the starter (which I killed with the endless cranking sessions) and of course ditching the stop solenoid which was erratic and killing the engine.
And mind all that on an diesel engine which is not renown for problems and used on thousands of 25-30ft sailing boats.

Now it's working fine, but three weeks onboard this summer and only used it for a total of 2h. LifePO4 bank has proved a life changer... Sun getting lower so may use it another hour in September ?

V.
 
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