Reverse polarity light.

[Perfect Excuse]

A puzzle to me is that when I plug my my Honda 2000i into my shore power, the reverse polarity light comes on but quite faintly. If I connect the Honda directly to the batteries the polarity on the Honda is correct. All the wiring appears to be correct. An possible explanation presented to me was that perhaps voltage difference between the shore power at 120-130 volts and the output of the generator is outside the range of recognized by the charger/inverter. Anyone have thoughts on this? I am reluctant to connected to the shore power plug because of the faint polarity light on the panel. Should I be?

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

Common issue because the Honda has a floating ground.

 

[Benny17441]

No need to be reluctant. Like Don indicates it is a common issue.

 

[splax]

What is a solution?

 

[Capt jgw]

Mine did that too. Floating ground means the neutral (white) and safety ground (green) are not connected at the generator. The light is reading a slight difference in potential between the two. On an installed marine generator they would be connected, and they are in the wiring in your house. On mine I connected the white and green wires in the cord that plugs into the generator. Don't know if that's exactly proper but it made the light go out. Been running it that way for years.

 

[Stu Jackson]

What is a solution?

There simply isn't one except what jgw did. No need to, either. A search on this or almost any other boating forum on Honda reverse polarity will soon give you more details than you'd maybe wanna know. Not an issue.

 

[Perfect Excuse]

Thanks all. It was one of those thoughts that poke you with a stick in the middle of the night.