Yamaha EF3000iSE Inverter Generator (Part 1) - No Power Output (Bad Inverter Module?) 

I’m glad we’re friends as none of that electrical jargon made sense!!

We have used the ru-vid.comUgkxOTeIs0vv4_9B5hsmnLsk9r930uDQLu_Y for probably 30 hours with our camper and it’s been great! The noise level is really only noticeable when running the AC and other appliances like the microwave, hair dryer, or coffee pot. It’s not huge like other ones and it has wheels so even at 90lbs, I can move it!

Glad you spotted your initial mistake around the third wiring's voltages - I was shouting "BUT THERE'S A DECIMAL POINT!" at the screen. :)

I’m an electrical hobbyist. And do electrical work full time on complicated equipment. One of my favorite things todo is to repair things that are “not repairable” if you suspect those caps you can use force and remove them. Add little pig tails and remote mount some caps. (Only do this if your sure that the inverter bored is dead) with that being said it’s so much fun to bring junk back to life!!!!

What a treat on a Thursday morning!

You could replace caps, open them around bottom where leads come out, cut wires and solder new caps to stubs. Caps do go bad and will make internal voltages un stable causing internal shut down.

Great Video James, always impressed by your methodology. Wish I had what you needed , it would already be on the way. Looking forward to part II. Chris

Nice, I know people at my dump too and I usually go an look at the computers people throw away and sometimes get some good stuff.

Just came from part 2, don’t know how i missed part 1……going back to part 2 now👍👍👍

Good to see one disassembled to some degree, looks like a nice quality piece of equipment. But like so many modern higher tech devices, the parts costs can be outrageous in price. I hope you can find a module at a decent price to fix it.

Last time it took me about three evenings (working like 1-2h/day) to depot an inverter and repair it. The de-potting is the trickiest. I used the hot air rework station to soften the compound and picks and tweezers to clean the board. It can be done cold. Dental picks and light hands. There are lots of SMD components there that can go MiA with a steel pick. Maybe depot just beneath the IGBTs. Even I, with 20+ years of experience in electronics, I broke a resistor that I had to scratch and measure under a microscope to identify it's value and replace it. These inverters shoot their IGBTs because they have crappy flyback diodes or none at all and surges from inductive loads toasts them. People use these inverters to power their fridges and vacuum cleaners or pressure washers. A few hiccups in the load and poof... Swap the IGBS's with bigger and sturdier ones. *Add flyback diodes* across E-C on every IGBT transistor in the H-bridge that can handle 600-1000V and a decent current, like 30-40A. Do not be shy when choosing the IGBTs. If the originals were like 750V 25A put in 35A or better. It's nice to have them in the same mounting size but putting to247 instead of to220 might worth the extra work. They are not too expensive. *No matter if one or two or three out of four IGBTs are blown, they all must be replaced with four new transistors.* The ones that measure fine and seem to work are surely damaged internally and will fail shortly, blowing the new ones along. I am 100% there are blown IGBT transistors in the H-bridge and you're feeding DC into the outlet and your light bulb but the AC motor in the space heater cannot turn on DC. I am sure the resistor heated up, tho... I've spent the equivalent of about 40 usd in parts to fix that inverter and the bundled 1.2kw generator. It is well worth the work. Also, the microcontroller that does all the PWM (the sine wave generator), protection, signaling and throttle control seems to be still fine. I saw the throttle is controlled. That microcontroller can eventually fry and then you realy have a dead inverter because no store will have a pre-programmed chip to sell you. Stop testing and stressing the inverter in the generator. Those power transistors can fail in various progressive manners. They have driving circuitry behind them and then there are the frail microcontroller pins. If one high-side IGBT shorts collector-to-grid... it puts 300+V into the totem driver which can die and short those volts in the microcontroller. I don't know you or your channel. YT randomly recommends :P I can recommend an EU store for looking up parts. Nothing elsewhere. If things above sound chinese... point the inverter to an electronics technician that is seasoned in power supplies, computers, automotive electronics and not a _mainboard replacer._

Too bad manufacturers don't sell at cost prices to support their products and customers, I hope you can find the inverter or get this one repaired. Love watching you tinker with your projects in my spear time.. really appreciate the work you put in to your videos thanks very much for sharing, looking forward to seeing you revisit this one..👍

Good to see you doing an Inverter video. Great dump find

Ciao James, io sono un tecnico elettronico con la passione per la meccanica; Motivo per il quale con i motori me la cavo bene; Ho avuto esperienza con i normali gruppi elettrogeni; Ma Questi inverter per come li ho visti mi incuriosiscono ancor di più e se mi capitasse l'occasione non mancherò di mettermi alla prova; Nel frattempo vedo tutti i tuoi video , uno, per uno belli, interessanti e coinvolgenti Grazie anche per i sottotitoli che tramite la traduzione automatica seguo in italiano la mia lingua! Grazie! James dopo 7 minuti di video azzardo l'ipotesi che il gruppo funziona in tutti i suoi componenti: il problema è che il carburante non arriva al carburatore il gruppo si ferma per esaurimento benzina nel carburatore! il problema è di ordine meccanico! O.k. Guarderò la fine de video per verificare tramite te la mia ipotesi!

This is the Achilles heel of inverter generators and is why I don't like them. I would do as others have suggested and cut the large caps off level with the potting compound or just above it. Then dig out what's left of the innards while being careful not to damage the leads. It might be worth soldering some wires to the leads and mounting the new caps externally, at least for testing. It's certainly worth a try!

Pretty sure it is those caps. Grind them off at the base with a Dremel. The solder the two wires to two new caps. 10 min job and a few bucks on caps. Worth a try?

Open the inverter up and check for bulging capacitors and corrosion. A lot of electronics from this era use substandard chinese capacitors that leak and corrode the circuit board.

Hi you may not remember me, I had a problem with a Honda EB1900X generator (GX140 engine) where the governor pin fell in the engine. I was testing it and it suddenly revved up like crazy so shut it off. I eventually got in to the engine and besides the sludge in the crank case, no damage. I recovered all the parts but for a good 20 minutes trying to fit the pin through casing with no luck. I checked back on one of your vids and the top part of the pin was slightly bent, so it must have hit something as I shut it off, now that was lucky, could have smashed everything in there. It's all fixed now including the seeping fuel issue, a worn rubber disc with 4 holes in pet tap. Really enjoy your videos, very informative and good instructions too.

You can remove the potting compounds and it might be something you want to try. Some types can be removed just by heating to a certain temperature.

Morning James just sent a fellow mechanic your way he needed to view your video on removing the armature non a portable generator

Really enjoy your Mr. Fixit videos. Picked up a Champion 2000 watt unit with a similar issue. It actually has power but won’t increase speed as the load increases. The unit is under warranty so the tech is sending out a governor stepper motor. If that doesn’t fix it, the control unit is next. I’ll be looking to see if you replace the bad caps.

And the very instant you take that machine to the dump……a new inverter module will pop up on line for $299.00….lol

Another great video, I have a Honda inverter generator with a bad inverter and it kills me. Runs like a champ.

this video helped me. I have a bad Powerhouse 3100 inverter and I am pretty sure it is the inverter board. I just bought a used unit that had a bad engine. With any luck, I can make one good unit out of the two. I posted an ad on the local buy / sell (kijiji) and offer 200 for a parts unit or I would sell mine for $200. If the other guy had a blown engine issue, he had a chance to recover some money or buy mine as a parts unit

The capacitor that you pointed our is a large mfd low voltage for standard P.C board, card and should be readily available! Older style P.C cards are repairable. Some newer multi layer boards are more difficult to work on. Hopefully parts are available even though Radio Shack is out of business. I am now retired 15 years and out of touch. My interest are different and I haven't kept up. I enjoy watching you diagnose and repair. I didn't know that Generators were that complex! Ron USA

Wow...a little bit of checking revealed Yamaha still makes this generator and it looks exactly like this one. That must say something. I hope we get to see round two!

Super pumped I found this channel! Got a sub

I hope this video helps someone, namely me! Thanks for your uploads buddy. Wish I could help but sadly just a tinker.

Y have repaired several of these, Its the 2 big caps. you can yank then out whit pliers, and solder two new caps on the resisting connectorleads that will pull out of the caps... its a bit off a fiddly job but it worked two times for me on two sets. (those where the eu versions of 230 volts. Dont think its different on the 120 volt sets..) had the same syndrome. also had one whit a broken wire...

Awesome James... iv been over run with generators here lately... you are the goto guy when I have questions... thanks a bunch...🐓👍

Alway very interesting I learn something every time thanks for sharing James 😀

Good luck on finding what you need good thing it’s a small unit easy to store.

Hi James, Love your videos mate👍 It's unfortunate these inverter modules are so expensive!! I ran into exactly the same problem. I have a 6300iSE that is now taking up space in my shed. I took it on as a job to fix for a customer that bought it used, unknown condition and engine would not start. After checking the enigine over, cleaning the carby etc, I managed to get the engine running. The only way it would start (and runs great) is once I unplugged the stator connectors. It uses a 6 wire stator, with 2 sets of Y connected 3 phase windings, divided into two halves 180° apart, and a pair of inverter boards (if that makes sense.) I tested all 6 stator windings and two legs tested bad. When I removed the stator, two sets of windings were melted/shorted. Not knowing the condition of the inverters, I gave the customer an estimate on rewinding the stator and trying it out, but could not guarantee him if the inverters were any good. The customer declined the risk, so I took a punt and the risk on myself. I bought the machine from him for spare parts or possible fix at a spare parts price. I decided to rewind the melted windings of the stator and see if it fixed the issue. Unfortunately, this didn't fix the original issue, it melted two of the windings again🤣 So it turns out one or both inverter boards are bad/shorted internally somehow. After rewinding the stator a second time but not game to re-live the previous experience again, I got a quote from a Yamaha agent on the 2 new inverters (only sold as a pair) and a new inverter interface/synchroniser module to cover all bases. The quote for these parts came to a little over $3000 Australian $$...hence it is now taking up space in my shed, with a difficult decision to make, if and when I can ever afford or justify going any further with it. You're welcome to check out the link below to a short video I posted on my channel, if you happen to have time one day. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-7_kEhS02GXU.html 🤣👍🇦🇺

A quick way to check if the capacitor is your problem would be to cut the capacitor case off and gut it out. Get down to the terminals and solder a replacement in with pigtails. It's a temporary fix of course. 😃

Good luck with this unit, like all Yamaha engines it sounds great even with the old oil, probably never been changed, and you're right someone might have what it needs

I just picked up a John Deere self propelled commercial push mower for $35, and $15 later, it runs and functions as it should. It had a bad plug, and had water in the fuel and carb. It was a nice scrap yard find.

I would like to get a gander at the capacitors and both sides of the board. You can buy hot knives that screw into a soldering iron. You can slowly melt and scrape the potting material off. Before multi layered boards came out we were trained on removing potting material to access the solder joints. Even if the board is multilayered, you can use a hot knife to loosen the bottom of the capacitors from the board.

Thank you for another great video. I hope you find a solution to the inverter issue .😀❤🇨🇦

Caps in inverters, converters, VFD's work very hard and subject to fail due to heat, need to be of the highest quality, but not always supplied. Pain in the ass to replace when when potted, but worth trying, considering the cost of a replacement inverter. Ive repaired VfD's and converters many with bad caps as they do have a finite life compared to most other components on the circuit board.

I was really hoping that it wasn't the inverter. Good idea to hang on to it and see what happens down the road. You might get lucky 👍. If anything else you'll have some parts on hand for another genny like it. Enjoy the nice weather we're having.💪💪💪🙂🙂🙂

Hi James, I have tried to remove the epoxy from an inverter module and I have finished destroying the module by breaking the board or pulling some small resistors with the epoxy. I would dig in the region of the big ripped capacitor cause he could be replaceable. If the issue is elsewhere (smaller capacitor or MOSFET), that could be an impossible task. Again, check the big capacitor and see if any sign of leak. If he is bad, try to get to the board by digging in the capacitor itself. You need to get to the board 2 contacts and weld to wires to a new capacitor.

I'd love to send you my EF600 to play with. Suitcase generators for the win!

I like these Yamahas! Despite the same MSRP and features as a Honda EU3000iS they typically don't sell for as much on the second hand market but still can fetch $1500 in nice shape.

Thanks for the video! Very helpful.

I have an inverter from a Honda EB 3000c plus the stator. The stator needs a good cleaning. Like your video, NWR.

Eagerly awaiting your next video on this generator, i am sure you will outdo yourself again!

Wished you lived closer to missouri... i have a hobart 4500watt gen welder that spit n sputtered and stopped charging, had a few guys look at it thay cant figured it out,,, your aweaome ive watched almost all of your vids. Keep up the good work.

You have nothing to lose James so try de-potting the module in boiling water, I did this with my granddaughters CDI unit on her 125cc Scooter. The potting compound comes out in lumps. There's a guy on RU-vid who de-potted a module for a computer if memory serves me right and he cleaned the whole board so he could work on it. Like I say you have nothing to lose and another video in the making. Good luck from England. Went and found the video for you. Depotting Electronics with Boiling Water - RU-vid

The fan in that heater did move. I saw it only about 5 inches, so I guess a go cart engine only. Not cost affective, some sparky could probably rebuild the invert? Do Like your vids, got me out of a scrape was almost pulling hair out on my head.

And this is why I tell people not to get inverter generators! It seems like an awesome idea until the inverter takes a crap and then the machine is junk whereas on a conventional generator there's far less to go wrong and the parts are much less expensive!

I am an electronic tech.. at one time I tested switch mode power supplies and repaired the broken ones....... The Generator puts out AC and then its rectified and changed to DC and then filtered with those big Caps that stick out... looked to me that the Inverter was working.. but failed with any load. ??.... that tells me that those big caps.. ( storage caps ) are bad... those caps store the energy between ac cycles so it can power the inverter not dependent on engine speed.. if you carefully cut out those caps and solder in replacements.. and epoxy them in place.. you can even just jumper ones in after you cut them out just to test it... I am 99% sure thats all it needs. .. I always watch your Channel....

Very informative, this is why I don't like inverters or inverter welders, you never know if it will work the next time you start it up. Inverter welders weld really nice but I would wrather have a transformer welder as they hardly ever fail. I have a Miller 200 dx inverter Tig and stick welder, it is a very reliable welder as far as inverter welders go. But when they go out its never less than about $1,500 dollars to fix it. It cost new about $4,300. New. And I only use it to weld ALUMINUM, I use my cheaper welders for steel. Great Video. Thanks

Might check to see if you are getting AC or DC coming from the output on the plugs. lights and the resistive heater will work on both ac or dc. The motor on the other hand will not due to it being a shaded pole motor. But i would bet that the inverter is putting DC to the plugs.

wow you sure know how to test those things. I have trouble testing a battery. Great job and I would keep it for a while as you never know what might pop up. Thanks for the video's.

Hi James great sitting in your class today it looks to good to scrap mate just keep it buy

Sure wish I had that inverter James . I would send it your way ! You can replace those Caps if you take them apart and get to the legs coming out of them . Hope you get it going ! ENJOYED..

I expect the inverter was potted for weather protection, but it is a shame that it means you cannot test the components. The capacitors do not look to have bulged, but they could still be bad and would be the first components to check. I love the sound of the engine as it makes the whistle sound when turned off. You did all you could to diagnose the issue. Sad that it was the inverter. Dave.

hope you get it fixed it's a nice quiet unit & still sold

I checked for potting compound removal solvents and one that was recommended, was EPOSOLVE 25036. This will soften and remove Epoxy and Urethane type potting compounds. That would allow you to check components on the board and replace them.

👍 Danke fürs Hochladen! 👍 Thanks for uploading! 👍 Very good and beautiful, thank you! 👍 Sehr gut und schön, danke!

James you must be a genius everything you do is fascinating I wish I understood more about electronics.. I have only the basic knowledge that it will bite you and yes I have been bitten by electricity before is electricity before. keep on making your videos as i really do enjoy them.

most failures in potted resin are simply small component failed but getting to it is a major effort to get at so is junked prob from a 5 cent resistor ect (very common ) these days

With that bad capacitor sticking up like that I would certainly replace both those capacitors potted or not. One could certainly dig down through both capacitors to get to their connections and easily solder in two new capacitors saving this expensive hummer.. couldn't hoit.

I have become quite hooked on your videos, and can't wait to get to working on my generator as soon as either the weather clears up or I buy and set up the tent I've been wanting to buy. That way I'll have a dry place with ample space.

Bravo, nice video 🙌👌😊🍀

Great video as always. If you can't find another low cost inverter, then maybe try cutting the capacitors off and replacing with a piece of wire in-between. Did you film replacing the hydraulic jacks on your RV? I haven't seen it yet, so was curious.

How in the world did I miss this video.

What an interesting generator. I'll call it, Blue Bubble. It's plausible to replace the two big capacitors on the inverter board without depotting the whole thing. In the computer world (my world) early 2000's were PLAGUED with bad quality capacitors......and it's a common failure anyway. Chopping them off at the surface level and scraping the guts out should give you leads to J-hook/solder to.

Try cutting the cap off near the bottom and grab the leads from the inside for a new one. Anytime you see visible physical damage to a capacitor, it is almost certainly bad.

I always steer my customers away from inverter generators. I understand their significance and why we have them however the inverter boards go bad quite often and it's more expensive to replace the board then just to buy a new generator. I've got four generators in my parts room right now that all have bad inverter boards. 1 Yamaha, 2 generac and a Ryobi

I’d give the electrolyte power capacitors a short. It went through 3x rpm/60 charge discharge cycles per seconds under elevated temperature degrades sooner. Just look for electrical equivalent of equal form factor replacement. Capacitors with low ESR last much longer than others not. The second most suspects are power handling electronic devices (transistors and diodes) found with/without mounted on heat skin surfaces. The initial problem is how to turn the frozen puffy to free the circuit board for close inspection.

Nice video thanks

The bad looking Capacitor would be my guess for the bad inverter board. That capacitor is swollen, a sign of a bad capacitor. Deporting is something I have never done.

Im in the same boat. I have a Eu1000 with a suspected bad inverter. Unfortunately its potted just like this and the value of the inverter is more then the generator is worth.

In the future if you ever come across this, this might save your butt... Since the top of that capacitor was clearly blown... and If it was just the capacitor, you might have just gotten lucky, I have done this many times, and you just cut the top off the capacitor-mid of the capacitor, yank the layers out(make sure to leave the leads and tabs connected. And soldered new ones right onto the board or even the capacitor leads that are then exposed, if you don't go too ape on it. Otherwise you could depot that easily enough, it's a little time consuming, but just Mill out what you know your safe to on a Bridgeport or something, and remove the rest by hand. Let me know if you want help? Doubt anyone will read this tbh.

I would have liked to see you check voltage at the plugs. With the heater, I could see the power light come on but no fan or heating coils. So I am assuming it was putting out some power, just not what it should have been. I am with you though in thinking its the inverter which, unfortunately is not an easy fix. Thanks for running through your troubleshooting steps with us though.

I believe there is a solvent that will dissolve the potting . Don’t know if that’s of any interest to you . Actually it’s boiled water not solvent .

Yeah I would definitely put my money on that blown capacitor the reason why that sticker is gone is because it popped. Even though the metal seal on the back isn't damaged it could have shot out the side, it could have just overheated but I'm more than willing to bet replacing that one capacitor would probably fix it. But with the with a good mini die grinder and a good digging bit you could probably cut that potting out desolder both of those caps and replace them. They only pot them so you can't fix them!!!

Doc., cant wait to see what will transpire.

If one of those capacitors is failed, it could cause the symptoms you are seeing. Likely the 3 phase output from the stator is rectified to DC and filtered by those capacitors. If one is dead, the average voltage output from the rectifier circuit would drop. Maybe low enough that the inverter would not come on. You can dissolve the potting.

I would have loved to find this in the dump! I have the exact one with a bad board from falling off a boat!! Haha

Shouldn't use the eco throttle when applying more than half load. This is what kills the inverter. Replaced a couple of inverters on these types of generator and wondering why it happened so spoke to an expert and he explained why. They need that rpm for the bigger loads. So using both of those heaters should have been off on the eco throttle or smart throttle as some call it.

Is there a setting for how tight a spark plug setting should be I’m always afraid of snapping the plug off while putting it in or out

I am sorry but based on the the evidence that the light was lit with some acceptable brightness and that it did not lost a lot of brightness when you switched the heater on suggests that the evaluation result that the genset cannot supply enough power to operate the heater is faulty. This proves that the output waveform is distorted to the point that the proper magnetic field cannot build up inside the fan motor to turn the blades. I think the fan motor most likely is a shaded pole induction motor that requires a AC supply with proper frequency and balance. A light bulb will operate happily with just DC supply as well as with AC and it does not care about the frequency and the balance as far as voltage with proper RMS value is provided. I think the output waveform would have worth a check with an oscilloscope.

Hi James and thanks for your nice videos, they are really easy to follow up. Have you ever dealt with a Yamaha EF1000is generator? I had a new one, which had a poor quality electricity coming out. All my battery chargers were making buzzing sound with it. The inverter board was replaced, but it still was the same. The distortion of the sinus wave was just too much. Br, Eeli

You should scope the output AC outlet and look at the voltage.

It's unfortunate about that inverter generator, at least you got it for free and didn't pay anything for it, hopefully someday a replacement inverter will pop up for sale.

Do a Google for potting compound removal. There are several methods. All are a bit messy but it's certainly do able

James, I've been watching your videos for quite a while now. And have gained a ton of knowledge from them. I'm not sure how to reach out to you for some generator advice. My generator is a 7000 watt unit Devilbliss GBV7000 At no load mine is at 61.4 Hz but only 112 V Under a modest load it's at 61 Hz and 118 V. So the volts went up under a load. Any idea what would cause this scenario? I really appreciate your knowledge with these machines.

I have seen people try all sorts of things when attempting to depot circuits with varying degrees of success. It is always time consuming. I had not seen the boiling water on glass approach that one of your correspondents linked to in this thread. The best success I have seen is with a hot air dryer giving out air below about 300 F.. This softens the material and then you can use a scalpel or a dental pick to carefully remove it. If you try this or something else I would advise working close to the large electrolytic capacitors you showed us. If you can free them and measure their capacitance values then and find them out of spec, or see more physical damage, then you may be able to replace them without depotting the rest of it.

Did you check both receptacles? Possibly the connections on the receptacles, voltages and load, both hot and neutrals, I had one with similar symptoms, found both bad breaker/ and burnt neutral feed to all receptacles, also check grounds.

I hope that you get it worked out.I hate the thought of the waste we all take for granted with this sort of thing.

Chasing dow electrical faults can be a time consuming and tedious endeavors, even with a schematic. Also, a lot of solid state components are in series and if one fails, they cascade into other failures. I know you know this.

Just like everybody says......IT MUST BE THE CAPACITORS! For 10 bones sure replace the caps. clean up the rusty ground connections and spray a bit of contact cleaner in and a bit of contact cleaner out and do the hokey pokey and turn yourself around. Maybe you could add a FLUX capacitor and hit 1.21 GigaWatts.

These things would make a great battery charger. stay with me on this. The engine and Coil/magnets are fine. The output on the 3 phase goes to a beefy 6 diode arrray to convert to dc. this dc you send into a solar charge controller. The rest is automatic. You can set custome rpm ranges to fit the application. What I would do is charge my Batterys with it. Think on it

Given the value of a functioning unit of that generator, I would definitely hold on to that one and see if you can find a parts machine, or another one that needs an engine. I would at least give it a few months and see if you come across something.

For safety I have a cheap box fan with a homemade cardboard funnel going to a dryer hose feeding outside. Position with muffler towards fan to blow out.

I think you are on the right track here with this one. That being said how long is too long? There are some channels that I watch that would put that motor to good use. Someone like #mustie1 would be a good candidate. He may put it on a bike!😬👍

Industrial Repairs can fix the inverter. Free for them to look at it also you just have to send it to them.

Just questions as your knowledge and abilities far exceed mine. 1) why does the inverter need to be the exact same part? To me power in and power out wouldn't care about the module part number. 2) if push came to shove and you couldn't find anyone to repair the module, since the capacitor is mostly external could you carefully mechanically tear it apart and get to the electrical leads. That in theory would allow you to hack a new one in place. Assuming the problem is in fact the capacitor.