Scooterotica

cezeta wrote:its worth checking this out as i was under the impression that a generator is rated at its potential wattage rather than what is being generated all of the time. ie if no load is present then it is not putting any load on the engine but as soon as an electrical load is applied then the engine is put under load to provide the power.......something to do with apposing magnetic fields from the coils which only exist with a load present v the magnets on the flywheel...... ooh...distant memory, i could be wrong.

you can sometime hear this in your car when you flick the lights on or air con for that matter as the same applies. a mate of mine is trying the same thing, he is not a forum user so if he goes for the taffy kit i will report back. worth keeping on the back burner incase you are not happy with the outcome of what you are doing

sean brady scooters wrote:I,m no electrical expert by any means but surely ,all this extra electrical power you are all hoping and expecting for, produced by a small 60,s designed scooter is just not really going to happen is it...?
and if it was some how possible you would end up with a 250cc that produced less power than say a 175......
simply cos a big part of its power would be sapped to go to producing electrical power

firekdp wrote:Measure the voltage across the 2 yellows disconnected from the reg/rec and then measure whilst connected to it. The cap on monty's system is masking a problem on his set-up in the same way that the battery is on yours.

firekdp wrote:Your wiring, if like your diagram, is spot on and the lights would be running off the stator if the battery was flat but the reg/rec should be putting out around 13v+. Either the stator or the podtronics looks to be the problem, my money is on the latter. The one thing I would change is the position of the fuse as if you have a problem on one circuit the fuse will blow and leave you with no lights. Move it so that if it blows only the battery is disconnected leaving the reg/rec output still connected to the loom wires.

byron wrote: and good tip about the fuse, so putting it on the negative side of the battery would solve that one ?

firekdp wrote:

cezeta wrote:its worth checking this out as i was under the impression that a generator is rated at its potential wattage rather than what is being generated all of the time. ie if no load is present then it is not putting any load on the engine but as soon as an electrical load is applied then the engine is put under load to provide the power.......something to do with apposing magnetic fields from the coils which only exist with a load present v the magnets on the flywheel...... ooh...distant memory, i could be wrong.

you can sometime hear this in your car when you flick the lights on or air con for that matter as the same applies. a mate of mine is trying the same thing, he is not a forum user so if he goes for the taffy kit i will report back. worth keeping on the back burner incase you are not happy with the outcome of what you are doing

An alternator has an armature fed with current via slip rings to produce the magnetic field. The regulator on this system is a transistor which switches the current to the armature on and off. If the voltage rises above above 14v the the transistor will switch off the armature current and the field will collapse and so will the voltage. So the alternator will only produce power when needed.
Because a stator has permanent magnets the power will always be produced and the only way to keep the voltage stable is to dump the power not being used. So excess wattage must be used by the regulator and is why the reg has a wattage rating (the amount it can dump)