Electrical question

[Monkeypants]

In the instructions that come with the Alton it is recommended that the unit be kept under load to increase it's lifespan.
I like things that are happy when worked. I have a Ford(Navistar) Diesel truck that is the same. Drive it 3 miles a day at 30 miles per hour and it will soon give trouble,ie carbon plugged turbo. Drive it hard with big loads and it will go forever.


Glen

 

[redbloke1956]

In the instructions that come with the Alton it is recommended that the unit be kept under load to increase it's lifespan.
I like things that are happy when worked. I have a Ford(Navistar) Diesel truck that is the same. Drive it 3 miles a day at 30 miles per hour and it will soon give trouble,ie carbon plugged turbo. Drive it hard with big loads and it will go forever.


Glen

Hi Glen, don't quote me, but I think that Alton recommends it is run with battery connected, I am unfamiliar with the top secret Alton innards but, often electronic circuits need an external reference Voltage for a point of regulation, if the battery is missing this may? cause irregularities in the electronic regulator or Alternator FWIW.
Kevin

 

[Monkeypants]

Yes, battery connected and the headlight on to give constant load according to the instructions, tho it doesnt blow up if one forgets to turn the headlight on.
Glen

 

[Len Matthews]

Finally cracked it! I was using an electronic voltage regulator-I won't mention what make. The leaflet that came with it made no mention of changing the dynamo's (Lucas) internal connections. So, instead of one end of the field coil being earthed it was connected to the live brush terminal-and at last, the ammeter moves in the righr direction!!

 

[greg brillus]

I'm sure someone will correct me on this, but i think an Alton is a permanent magnet type alternator similar to a kubota one. Which explains why they have good "compression" when rotated over. We bench tested a Kubota alternator a couple of years back using different regulators to see which worked best. What we found was that because the alternator is a "constant output" device meaning that it's field strength cannot be altered due to it being a permanent magnet design, this means that it's output is far greater than what the bikes electrical systems including charging the battery can handle. So the regulator needs to be able to "absorb" this energy and trasfer it into heat. On the test bench some regulators could handle this very well, whereas others would suffer a near nuclear meltdown, only after 10 to 15 minutes on the test rig.....so you can see that not all modern reg's will be entirely suited to this kind of alternator....and as i have said before, remember to "Never" connect the possitive and negative wires on modern regulators around the wrong way, even for a split second....or else you will be out buying a new one..!!! cheers for now....Greg.

 

[bmetcalf]

I see that John McDougall supplies a Kobota regulator with his conversion. Apparently, they are larger than a Miller case, but so is the Podtronics for my Alton.

 

[greg brillus]

Just leave the original Miller reg box where it is (but empty) and mount the new larger reg under the battery tray....this will keep it out of view visually and the tray will act like a heat sink for the reg to dissipate heat to. Mount the reg under the tray using countersunk set screws, and this won't interfear with the battery. The smaller electronic regs are ok to fit inside the original Miller box because they are usually used with an original Miller or E3L Lucas generator which only puts out a max of 60 watts, and thus the extra output/ heat generated by the regulator is minimal...

 

[nkt267]

Just leave the original Miller reg box where it is (but empty) and mount the new larger reg under the battery tray

This is what I did on my Comet and it has been no trouble at all....touch wood..John