Hi Eric, Yes we are using solar panels, the generator fills in the gaps when needed. We use electricity for lighting, deep freeze, washer, dryer (gas), entertainment TV & stereo, pumping water, ham radio equipment & power tools such as air compressor. Refrigeration came before electricity so that is propane. This homemade auto-choke is still working fine for me.
Hi Tony. I'd be more than happy to walk you through all of the wiring. The two wires for the solenoid for the auto choke are wired to A) The heavy wire from the starter solenoid to the starter, and the other wire B) is wired to ground. On the solenoid I used for the auto choke, my solenoid, it doesn't matter which wire of the two are used for either contact. Other solenoids might be grounded to the frame of the solenoid. For the generator start/stop coming from the house I wired the AGS wires right to the back of the switch behind the dashboard. Actually, I used a power plug for a internal hard drive male & female so that I can unplug it when needed. Someday I hope to attach to more accessible wires, but this is how it is for right now. Hope this helps, if more information is needed contact me: Jeff dot T dot Bishop at comcast dot net.
Thank you. Here we are years later, still works perfectly. I pulled the rivets at the air cleaner and brazed the metal together there instead. I need to replace the other rivets with a weld as well. Rivets are only good for a few years. The real beauty of this is if you priced generators that are set up for this duty and see how much money can be saved. Most people don't have lots of money laying around.
brilliant ideas ! on another note, noticed your call sign began with a K. but your are in Maine. Isn't the east coast W ? .. Father has been a HAM since the 60's. one thing i remember him telling be about call signs and how K were typically issued to west coast license holders. i once lived in lamoine for 10 years
The K and W for eastern and western US are for television stations. The number in a ham radio call sign designates location though it doesn't have to change when you move. I was originally licensed in Pennsylvania, so I have a "3" in my call sign. We are in New England now where the number here is a "1" but I retained my original call sign. I did design a different bracket that holds the solenoid this year but everything else remains the same and still works great. I have to replace the solenoid every so often and have recently altered the linkage to a spring instead. We've been using this since 2016, moving it to different generators as they wear out. I'm still very happy with how this works. Have a good New Year.
@@JeffBishop_KB3QMT I have been considering the AIMS 6600 but there are no reviews to be found anywhere. It is the only split phase, auto choke/start Inverter style sub 420cc, mid 5-6KW generator I can find. The others are 301cc which would be big enough (5kw) but the engine case doesn't have provisions for a starter motor. ie; WEN 625i or the Champion 100519. The briggs and stratton has a 6500 Inverter gen with 240v but it is not electric start
@@nwmi493 The only generators I'm familiar with are the low-priced Honda "clones." Electric start and an automatic choke are an absolute requirement for our electric system for the auto start/stop feature to function. That's the whole purpose behind my design, so that I can use cheap generators by adding a feature that's only available on the generators that cost 4-5 times as much.
@@JeffBishop_KB3QMT I was about to pull the trigger on the westinghouse wgen5600df. all the things i was looking for at a reasonable price BUT its a traditional output and i was concerned it would beat the snot out of my rinnai heater and tankless water heater.. so i went back to keeping my eye on an inverter gen. the wen6251 and the champion 100519 are right in the my wheelhouse but they dont even have provisions in the block to drill out for a starter. let alone trying to locate a flywheel with ring gear for a 301. predator makes an horizontal 301 with electric start, but that is way way way out practicality to change out a perfectly new motor for one with e start. alas. i will keep looking
Nice Video Jeff. Are you charging with a solar array as well as generator? Can you say what you run mainly with your setup? TV, Refrigerator other? Have you set it up to work off of propane? Do you think you would need the choking mechanism with propane?
Our system is Xantrex. We run everything on it, refrigerator, chest freezer, water pump, television, stereo, everything you find in a regular house. We have 120/240 volts A/C available. Yes, we are currently using four 325w panels and a Xantrex Solar Charge Controller. When we get the new house built there will be a larger battery bank and more panels. With enough panels and a large enough battery bank I'm hoping that there will be a reduced reliance on the generators. If the generator rarely starts I will convert it to propane to avoid fuel setting in the carburetor for long periods of tie. With propane you don't use a choke.
Here's what I used: www.ebay.com/itm/JF-0520B-DC12V-300mA-10mm-4N-Pull-Push-Type-Open-Frame-Solenoid-Electromagnet-/232380018267?hash=item361aedae5bOne thing that needs to be done with these is the addition of Loc-Tite on the threaded surfaces as they will vibrate apart otherwise. I dismantle all of the moving parts and used the red Loc-Tite on them. That keeps them together. This only takes a few minutes of your time but must be done for longevity. I made the video after I had already been using this homemade choke for a year. It's still working now.This is one of the best things I've come up with, and being off-grid this choke and the AGS module on the Xantrex system really has impacted our lives in a positive manner. All I do now is keep the oil changed and keep gas in the generator. I did put a 110v hour meter on one leg of the power coming in from the generator for maintenance and to judge the fuel level so that I don't have to walk out and check it, that works out good too.There are probably other ways to accomplish the auto-choke using the air moving through the blower shroud, I tried to use that (and failed) a couple times. This being coupled to the circuit for the starter motor only activates the choke while the engine is cranking and does work perfect for me.When I ordered those solenoids I ordered a number of them to keep them in stock since they were shipped on the slow boat from China. I was glad I did because I had two of the vibrate apart, and being spring loaded they flung those parts. Consider the Loc-Tite as a required procedure in this adaptation.
We've been using this for quite awhile now and it's still working great.
Hi Eric, Yes we are using solar panels, the generator fills in the gaps when needed. We use electricity for lighting, deep freeze, washer, dryer (gas), entertainment TV & stereo, pumping water, ham radio equipment & power tools such as air compressor. Refrigeration came before electricity so that is propane. This homemade auto-choke is still working fine for me.
I wish you had showed more of the actual wiring, what wires from the Ags connected to the generator wires?
Hi Tony. I'd be more than happy to walk you through all of the wiring. The two wires for the solenoid for the auto choke are wired to A) The heavy wire from the starter solenoid to the starter, and the other wire B) is wired to ground. On the solenoid I used for the auto choke, my solenoid, it doesn't matter which wire of the two are used for either contact. Other solenoids might be grounded to the frame of the solenoid.
For the generator start/stop coming from the house I wired the AGS wires right to the back of the switch behind the dashboard. Actually, I used a power plug for a internal hard drive male & female so that I can unplug it when needed. Someday I hope to attach to more accessible wires, but this is how it is for right now.
Hope this helps, if more information is needed contact me: Jeff dot T dot Bishop at comcast dot net.
Cheers mate , amazing hack !!!
Thank you. Here we are years later, still works perfectly. I pulled the rivets at the air cleaner and brazed the metal together there instead. I need to replace the other rivets with a weld as well. Rivets are only good for a few years. The real beauty of this is if you priced generators that are set up for this duty and see how much money can be saved. Most people don't have lots of money laying around.
brilliant ideas ! on another note, noticed your call sign began with a K. but your are in Maine. Isn't the east coast W ? .. Father has been a HAM since the 60's. one thing i remember him telling be about call signs and how K were typically issued to west coast license holders. i once lived in lamoine for 10 years
The K and W for eastern and western US are for television stations. The number in a ham radio call sign designates location though it doesn't have to change when you move. I was originally licensed in Pennsylvania, so I have a "3" in my call sign. We are in New England now where the number here is a "1" but I retained my original call sign.
I did design a different bracket that holds the solenoid this year but everything else remains the same and still works great. I have to replace the solenoid every so often and have recently altered the linkage to a spring instead. We've been using this since 2016, moving it to different generators as they wear out. I'm still very happy with how this works. Have a good New Year.
@@JeffBishop_KB3QMT I have been considering the AIMS 6600 but there are no reviews to be found anywhere. It is the only split phase, auto choke/start Inverter style sub 420cc, mid 5-6KW generator I can find. The others are 301cc which would be big enough (5kw) but the engine case doesn't have provisions for a starter motor. ie; WEN 625i or the Champion 100519. The briggs and stratton has a 6500 Inverter gen with 240v but it is not electric start
@@nwmi493 The only generators I'm familiar with are the low-priced Honda "clones." Electric start and an automatic choke are an absolute requirement for our electric system for the auto start/stop feature to function. That's the whole purpose behind my design, so that I can use cheap generators by adding a feature that's only available on the generators that cost 4-5 times as much.
@@JeffBishop_KB3QMT I was about to pull the trigger on the westinghouse wgen5600df. all the things i was looking for at a reasonable price BUT its a traditional output and i was concerned it would beat the snot out of my rinnai heater and tankless water heater.. so i went back to keeping my eye on an inverter gen. the wen6251 and the champion 100519 are right in the my wheelhouse but they dont even have provisions in the block to drill out for a starter. let alone trying to locate a flywheel with ring gear for a 301. predator makes an horizontal 301 with electric start, but that is way way way out practicality to change out a perfectly new motor for one with e start. alas. i will keep looking
@@nwmi493 Good luck with your search.
Nice!!
Nice Video Jeff. Are you charging with a solar array as well as generator? Can you say what you run mainly with your setup? TV, Refrigerator other? Have you set it up to work off of propane? Do you think you would need the choking mechanism with propane?
Our system is Xantrex. We run everything on it, refrigerator, chest freezer, water pump, television, stereo, everything you find in a regular house. We have 120/240 volts A/C available. Yes, we are currently using four 325w panels and a Xantrex Solar Charge Controller. When we get the new house built there will be a larger battery bank and more panels. With enough panels and a large enough battery bank I'm hoping that there will be a reduced reliance on the generators. If the generator rarely starts I will convert it to propane to avoid fuel setting in the carburetor for long periods of tie. With propane you don't use a choke.
what force of solenoid are you using? I'm thinking you don't need much.
Here's what I used: www.ebay.com/itm/JF-0520B-DC12V-300mA-10mm-4N-Pull-Push-Type-Open-Frame-Solenoid-Electromagnet-/232380018267?hash=item361aedae5bOne thing that needs to be done with these is the addition of Loc-Tite on the threaded surfaces as they will vibrate apart otherwise. I dismantle all of the moving parts and used the red Loc-Tite on them. That keeps them together. This only takes a few minutes of your time but must be done for longevity. I made the video after I had already been using this homemade choke for a year. It's still working now.This is one of the best things I've come up with, and being off-grid this choke and the AGS module on the Xantrex system really has impacted our lives in a positive manner. All I do now is keep the oil changed and keep gas in the generator. I did put a 110v hour meter on one leg of the power coming in from the generator for maintenance and to judge the fuel level so that I don't have to walk out and check it, that works out good too.There are probably other ways to accomplish the auto-choke using the air moving through the blower shroud, I tried to use that (and failed) a couple times. This being coupled to the circuit for the starter motor only activates the choke while the engine is cranking and does work perfect for me.When I ordered those solenoids I ordered a number of them to keep them in stock since they were shipped on the slow boat from China. I was glad I did because I had two of the vibrate apart, and being spring loaded they flung those parts. Consider the Loc-Tite as a required procedure in this adaptation.