Wiring a Rectifier/Regulator?

[AnvilBlockForge]

Found this in my collection of parts, turned out I needed one. But how do I wire this? It just has terminals for a pre-wired plug. What goes to the charger and what goes to the battery? Thanks!

 

[BigBlue]

Here you go:


Good Luck,

Chris
AKA: BigBlue

 

[AnvilBlockForge]

Wow, thanks for keepin it simple! Thanks!

 

[butterbean]

Im a little confused. I get the blue wire from generator and the red wire to battery, but what is the yellow wire for? Is it necessary? I just want to connect a generator output to a power distributor where my battery and lights are connected. The output wire would go from the R/R to the power distributor. There is no yellow wire in my setup.

 

[Stoltzee]

That is confusing me too, and maybe my voltage is not regulated. Might be why my head light goes bright and dim with the revs. I don't have a capacitor. My black ground represents the yellow. ??? Maybe a voltage regulator is different???? (Yes it's an Alternator!)

 

[butterbean]

You have the same generator as I do, stoltzee. For a simple charging circuit, capacitors and resistors shouldn't be necessary and can in fact have the effect of converting rectified current back to ac. I think you already know what a rectifier does (converts ac to dc). A regulator simply limits the output current from a power supply. There are two types of regulators, shunt and switching. A shunt regulator diverts excess voltage to ground or if used on a stator sometimes diverts the excess voltage to the stator windings. A switching regulator switches the current on and off very rapidly which by my educated guess creates resistance in the path, and since the current in a path is inversely proportional to the resistance in the path, the resistance created by the rapid switching is what limits the current. I was using a charger from wonderful creations, but its gotten fried somehow and they cost like $40. Since I dont have that kind of money, I ordered a 4 pin scooter regulator (also a rectifier, just commonly referred to as a regulator) on ebay for $8 with free shipping. I'm planning to follow bigblue's wiring diagram except for the yellow wire since I dont understand it. Once I have it connected, I'll test the circuit with my multimeter by disconnecting my positive and negative wires from my battery and connecting them to my leads on my meter and testing for dc voltage. If I get a correct reading, I'll report back here.

 

[Stoltzee]

Thanks butterbean! When I ran the ground (yellow) back to the bottle it seemed to increase the out put considerably. You saw how the head light fluctuated.
I never worked much with electronics, so I'm learning as I go, and budget controls things also.


Remember to check your bolts, and do safety checks.

 

[butterbean]

Yes, you would need a voltage regulator to prevent blowing up your lights. As long as they still turn on and shine normally when you first turn them on without revving the engine, then you haven't blown them up yet. I would install a regulator as soon as possible though. You can get them at radio shack for a couple bucks.

 

[Deleted member 12676]

Light bulbs with filaments can run on AC or DC.
LED lights need DC.
A rectifier and capacitor just changes AC to DC.
A regulator keeps the DC output voltage steady so that it doesn't increase with RPM.

If you are putting lighting on a bike by getting the voltage from the stator coil then you have to design it to not draw much current, otherwise the excessive load will lower the stator voltage and retard the ignition timing (on the Grubee at least that is true).

 

[butterbean]

We're using bottle dynamos and I'll be using a scooter regulator to rectify and control the current. Most of what you said has already been covered.