6v and 12v HT Generators?

Have you searched? A Google search for 'mini gen' at the top of the page yields plenty of results.

I don't know how your google works, but all I'm seeing is a bunch of posts about slant heads and other non-electrical stuff. But whatever, I just figured it'd be good to start a fresh conversation based around these add on generators. They look cool, and if they're half as awesome as they claim to be, I'd feel like a %#$bag if I didn't try and spread the word :geek:
 
i wanna know who has used one and if it really worked as its siposta before i go drop more money on lighting system then i did the whole motor kit
 
I don't know how your google works, but all I'm seeing is a bunch of posts about slant heads and other non-electrical stuff.

Odd, I got 4 pages of results, some related and some not.


But whatever, I just figured it'd be good to start a fresh conversation based around these add on generators. They look cool, and if they're half as awesome as they claim to be, I'd feel like a %#$bag if I didn't try and spread the word :geek:

Nothing wrong with that. I wound a similar coil about 6 months ago, but couldn't get more than about 2W output. I think the Mini-Gen produces about 3W.
Since I want really bright lights, I didn't pursue it further and went with a belt-driven generator.
 
I have both versions of the mini gen, 6v coil is currently on my bike it acutually put out about 10 watts of power, and the voltage changes with rpms, you can definately get it to 12 volts or higher.

The 12v one is still in the packaging it will go on my chopper when its complete.

Overall they work very well and it worth the money
 
The coil is spaced about the width of a business card away from the magnent when it is installed. the 10W claim is what the manufacturer claims, It is a larger and heavier guage coil than that ones built in with the 100+v /6v blue and white wire coil( builtin magneto), those are two coils wrapped into one.

The coil sits in the empty space on the opposite side of the magneto. I have yet to find a way to put a heavy enough load to kill the engine with it. And if you directly short it, it removed it self from the system which is nice. the additional load will mess with your idle.

Form the slight testing ii did do on my friends bike, and using the tiny tach, the RPM was around 2000 idle, i was getting about 6v ish. and i put a 3 watt resistor on it to create a load, and it didnt kill the engine, i will do more thorough testing now i have more proper equipment
 
The coil is spaced about the width of a business card away from the magnent when it is installed.

That's about the same distance from the magnet as my DIY coil. Although it works, it's nowhere near as efficient as having pole pieces close to the magnet, like the original ignition/kill winding.


the 10W claim is what the manufacturer claims, It is a larger and heavier guage coil than that ones built in with the 100+v /6v blue and white wire coil( builtin magneto), those are two coils wrapped into one.
The coil sits in the empty space on the opposite side of the magneto. I have yet to find a way to put a heavy enough load to kill the engine with it. And if you directly short it, it removed it self from the system which is nice. the additional load will mess with your idle.

Identical to my coil in that regard. I used 0.315mm enamelled copper wire for mine, but I can't remember how many turns I wound. Like the original ignition winding, I used a laminated iron core.
The biggest problem was that there isn't enough space on the RHS of the magnet for a decent coil.


Form the slight testing ii did do on my friends bike, and using the tiny tach, the RPM was around 2000 idle, i was getting about 6v ish.

The 2W that I measured from mine was at about 3500rpm, from memory. (6V, 330mA)


and i put a 3 watt resistor on it to create a load, and it didnt kill the engine, i will do more thorough testing now i have more proper equipment

No, there's no reason why it should kill the engine. The mini-gen winding is on a different core than the other original coil, so it doesn't load it down electrically. All it will do is steal the drawn power from the engine's power.
Incidentally, you said a 3W resistor but didn't mention the resistance. At 6V, 3W will be drawn by a 12 ohm resistor. ie. Connect a 12 ohm, 5W resistor, then measure the voltage across it. P=V²/R
To test for 10W at 6V, use a 3.6 ohm, 10W resistor. (A 3.9 ohm would be near enough, that's 9.2W)

Overall, after my testing, I'm skeptical that anything like 10W can be drawn from the mini-gen coil. The lighting system that they sell, to accompany the mini-gen, is 3W if I remember correctly. I reckon that if the mini-gen really produced 10W, they'd sell a 10W lighting system.

I've attached a pic of my home-made coil. With a bit more messing around, I could have boosted the output power a little, but not much, probably only to 3 or 4 watts. Going down to 0.25mm wire would help, but I wouldn't like to go thinner than that for those currents. (10W is 1.7A at 6V) Possibly a smaller core, too.That'd leave more room for extra turns.
 

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