Demonstration on how to rig up your Yamaha, Honda, or other small Generator/Power Inverter so it fools your Tesla into charging if you ever need to. Obviously you aren't going to do this unless you are in a pinch, because it is really slow (~3-4 MPH), but at least it can help you if you ever run out of charge, or find yourself without power due to a power outage...
This is going to be the same solution for:
-Honda EU2000i Generator
-Yamaha EF2000IS
Or other small generators with a floating ground.
WARNING: Charging the Model S with a generator as shown should ONLY be done in an emergency, since the technique bypasses the isolation of the neutral and ground wires. For maximum safety, the generator should be bonded by a wire running from the ground terminal to a cold water pipe or a main electrical panel ground bus.
Since most of these small generators/inverters uses a "floating neutral," the Model S charger will not work with this generator if connected normally. However, if you short the neutral and ground wires together in the SECOND outlet, using a homemade "pigtail" with the white and green wires connected to each other as shown, the Tesla charger appears to work OK.
Viewed full screen with the screen brightness at maximum, you can just see that the animated green "charging" LEDs on the Tesla charger are illuminating normally.
The instrument panel shows a 2 kW rate of charge, 121V at 12A. This is actually rounding because 120V X 12 AMPS = 1440 Watts (so to get 50% of a Model S 90D, would take 90,000 Watts * 50% = 45,000 / 1440 = 31.25 Hours. This would burn though about 6 tanks of gas in this little generator, so it is really impractical...But it works.
The Honda, Yamaha, Generac, and Predator generators are rated to consume about 1.1 gallons of gasoline when producing 13.3A, and to run for 4-6 hours at this rate without refueling. That means that you will get about 12-18 Miles per gallon of gas depending on your specific generator.
