Generator integration

The Giraffe Edge Controller and cloud platform can be used to monitor and control a gasoline or diesel generator.

Overview

If the device definition is setup for a generator, you will see a generator widget on the system status page:

Operation

You can start or stop the generator by pressing the buttons. When the generator is running the start button is hidden and vice versa.

The generators actual status is shown in the top right. The available statuses are:

• stopped

• starting

• running

• stopping

You can also see the timestamp that the generator last started and stopped.

Automatic mode

You can set the generator to automatically start depending on the battery voltage by toggling the 'Auto' switch. When auto is enable, the generator will automatically control it's start and stop cycles.

If the generator enters an error state, auto mode will be immediately disabled until you clear the error and enable auto mode again.

If the generator is manually started or stopped whilst auto mode is enabled, auto mode will be immediately disabled.

The start and stop parameters for auto mode are configured in the definition

Hour meter

The Edge Controller will internally track the hours that the generator has run for. It will count hours only when the generator is running.

This is most useful for tracking how many hours the generator has run for since the last time it was refuelled.

You can reset reset the hours counter back to zero with the reset button.

Errors

If at any time the generator gets into a situation where it's expected state does not match the actual state, it will enter an error state.

This situation will happen if the Edge Controller commands the generator to start but the generator is not reported to be running within 10 seconds.

If the generator returns to the expected state at any point, the error will automatically clear.

You can manually reset the Edge Controllers state machine by pressing the reset button. This will set the Edge Controllers state machine for the generator back to the generators current reported state.

Graphs

The generator status can be seen on the Power Connections graph. You can see here that the generator was running for a couple of hours and the resulting charge current that flowed into the battery.

On the System Status graph you can also see the status of the generator. This will show you if the generator was in an error state or not.

Events history

You can see the error state history for the Generator on the Errors page.

You can also see all the events that have happened on the generator via the Events page

The list of events that the generator can create are:

• Manual Start

• Manual Stop

• Reset Running Time

• Generator Fault

Generator definition setup

The generator is configured using a device definition. This can only be configured by the Giraffe support team.

'generator' => [
    'enabled' => true,
    'start' => [
        'method' => 'pulse_toggle', // pulse_toggle | latching_run | pulse_dual
        'pin' => 27, // output_id is not supported here, must be pin string
        'pulse_duration_milliseconds' => 300,
    ],
    'status' => [
        'inverted' => true,
        'pin' => 24, // output_id is not supported here, must be pin string
    ],
    'auto' => [
        'enabled' => true,
        'start_voltage' => 12.0,
        'stop_voltage' => 13.2,
        'start_delay_seconds' => 60,
        'stop_delay_seconds' => 60,
        'minimum_run_seconds' => 300,
        'minimum_off_seconds' => 120,
    ],
],

Wiring

The Edge Controller requires a minimum of two connections to the generator:

Start / stop control

This is used to start and stop the generator.

We can support three different styles of generator control:

Single output pulse toggle

This is where a single output is pulsed to both start and stop the generator. A pulse when the generator is running will stop it and a pulse when the generator is stopped will start it.

The length of the pulse is configurable.

Latching run

This is where a single output is used to control the output. The output will stay on whenever the generator is meant to run, and will switch off whenever the generator should stop.

This can be used with many generator PLC controllers.

Please contact us before using this integration as it requires some custom integration.

Dual output start / stop

This is where there are two separate outputs - one to start the generator and one to stop it. Both outputs are temporary pulses where the length of the pulse is configurable.

Please contact us before using this integration as it requires some custom integration.

Status feedback

The Edge Controller needs to know the current status of the generator. This needs to be connected to one of the Edge Controllers inputs.

The signal can either be high or low when the generator is running.

Custom integration

If you require further generation integration, such as monitoring fuel level or other error signals, please contact us. We can also integrate with a serial connection from your generator controller.