At 01:28 PM 2/9/2010, Don Hanson wrote:
>working.  When I get back to the Northwest I'll get more serious about
>finding a good used Honda or maybe decide to just buy a new one and E-bay
>away the Coleman Powermate..

Don, unless I'm completely missing something, that particular unit is
broken.  Sure would be nice to have someone put a scope on the output
and see what happens when you plug in a load.  It should be able to
provide 15 amps without losing regulation.  The manual says if you're
using the 12v output, take away 180 watts from the AC rating.

With no load you should see a nice clean output that peaks around 165
volts plus and minus both, frequency 60 Hz +/- 3 Hz.  As you add load
the engine note should deepen but the speed stay the same; the
waveform may get dirtied up a bit but should still be a recognizable
sine wave that peaks around 165 volts and the freq should stay within
+/- three.

If you don't get those results then the machine is busted in some
concrete manner; if you do then it should run pretty much anything
within its power rating (including starting surge), although an
electric clock may not keep good time.

I'd be reluctant to sell the thing without finding out what's wrong with it.

Yours,
David