take the new one off, find an old one and strip out the potted electronics then you have the necessary rubber boots, and a cover to seal up the brush and slip rings nicely, save the new regulator for a backup unit.
my business parnter connected on end to end direct drive onto a 6.5 hp honda clone it charges very well, but i have never checked its max output. end to end the fan turns the right way for proper cooling
btw, they make a bi directional fan for the 140amp units and below, sure to find one at a local rebuild shop
bob g[ Parent ]
i have spent the better part of 35 years modifying alternators for other purposes early on i spent a lot of time with delco alternators, because they were common as dirt and nearly as cheap to come by.
about 20 years ago i came across a motorola large frame alternator, which was bought by leece neville and now prestolite and has morphed over the years from around 90amps to 160amps
the differences between this unit and any delco alternator are stark, in just about every aspect the large frame 110-555 is much more suitable for modification for various duties.
its efficiency is significantly better than a delco and will make power at much lower speed.
many folks rain on using alternators for these projects because they don't work well, especially the windpower guys,, because they insist on using either the cheap and plentiful delco or similar small frame alternators that quite frankly aren't worth the effort to mess with at all for anything but what they were designed for.
point being, automotive alternators are not all equal, some show promise if applied properly in certain applications.
it just seems wrong to condemn all automotive alternators based on experience's with small frame units and the delco's especially.
just my opinion of course
One way around the internal regulator, which is what I have done, is to drill two small access holes into the brush holder and solder wires directly to the brush leads. After the wires are in place a dab of silicone will keep dirt out of the guts via these holes. Use these new wires to supply power to the field coil via the control method of your choice. I use the dashboard lights dimmer rheostat from an old Ford Ranger. This will leave the regulator intact and will have no effect on those electronics.
One way to get the air flow right in the absence of a reversed fan is to rig up a bracket so that the alternator sits the opposite way from its current arrangement. It's not as hard as it sounds. However a high volume external fan will work, but this is a parasitic power drain.
Good luck.Roger AS 9 Years off-grid & counting[ Parent ]
The other major downside is excitation power requirements - especially for wind. That isn't such a big deal when you're driving them intermittently with a fuel-driven motor (or contunuously, with good bearings, from a water powered turbine with enough drive to spare). For a "wild" prime mover like a wind turbine the excitation comes off both your total output and cutin speed - and excitation requirements are highest when speed is lowest, just when power is precious with a wind turbine.
Third downside is brush replacement requirements. But if you're willing to replace 'em every couple years you should be in fine shape.
A fourth is the high RPM requirement for both generation and cooling fan drive. Again not a big deal if you're running with a gas motor or a water turbine with a rpm boosting drive.[ Parent ]
one would need a large prop, a step up gear (not nearly as much so as for delco's)
and some decent wind speeds, someone with a prevailing wind and perhaps a ridge where the windspeed is accellerated as it goes over the top...
under those conditions one could get some really good numbers from the 555, certainly comparable with many homebuilt machines
where you lose is the excitation current requirments as alluded to, but the 555 has a relatively low excitation requirement for what it is capable of delivering.
as for brush replacement, there are few that are anywhere near as simple to access and replace than the 555 alternator, could be done in place on the tower very easily.
not sure i would go to the effort to fit one to a windmachine, but given the choice of having to use an automotive alternator, you betcha it would be the 555, at least there would be a fighting chance of making some good power.
Got one of the 110-555's but they substituted another model instead of the JHO, so I had to send it back. I have another one coming.
Anyway, a question about the brush/field terminals. Does it matter which one you tie to ground, or is one already tied to ground? I have dug through the forum archives and on the net but can't figger it out.
Thanks!
Jonathan[ Parent ]
