Chainbreaker wrote:
I think that any curiosity with watching RPM's might get a bit boring after a while... it does a great job at maintaining RPM's if everything is up to snuff & adjusted properly & operated within its rated limits.
If RPM's do drop significantly... its typically because its being overloaded beyond its rated capabilities and you will audibly pick up on the engine pitch que's before you could grab a meter to verify what you are hearing. However, I understand the curiosity of a "new to you" machine.
Years ago, during our first extended outage with my new to me MEP-002a I was a nervous cat... running out to the generator every time I heard an engine pitch change... with well pump kicking on, freezer & fridge compressors coming on, etc. Soon I learned the governor was doing a good job of holding hertz as the engine grunted a bit as it was being loaded & fed more fuel. Just the sweet sounds of a working generator.
When we were in the field, I used to sleep on top of a gen set. We had them all in a central place, and I would wake up when ever a set, any running set, burped. Load change or dropping off line. You get so you can sleep just fine up there. And when one dropped off line, you were THERE to start deciding to repair, or move the output cable. Only another reason I wear two hearing aids and still can't hear. Besides, they also kept you warm!