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6bg6ga

Checking that Solid State Regulator

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6bg6ga

Looking at the B43 I have sitting on a table in the garage waiting for the Sodium Hydroxide to work on the rod journal I started pondering what I could do next. Given the series of its not charging lately I thought maybe I should try to get ahead of the game. Armed with an engine not ready to run I wanted to check that regulator and see if it was good or if I should get one on its way to have when I did fire it up. Well, no engine to swap the regulator on to see if its going to work or not. Lets look around the garage and see if I have something. Sure enough I spotted a transformer with an output of about 40 volts AC. That will work fine or I can simply make up a harness to plug into my variac. Checked the voltage once again installed a simple light bulb in series with the hot leg of the transformer going to the wall outlet I plugged in the transformer. I now had 40 volts present at the AC terminals on the regulator and the light bulb didn't light so I have no shorts or problems on the input side of the regular. Now to check the DC output. Switched the meter over to DC volts put the red probe on the DC terminal on the regulator and the black lead on the regulator case it read about 13.6 volts. Yup its good. Now to test the one I have in my junk box and haven't tried yet. Hooked it up and no output on the DC  so its junk. So, this is a simple way to test those parts you have laying around instead of bolting them to the engine to test.

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W9JAB

"40 volts present at the AC terminals on the regulator "

That seems high, I believe about 22vac is normal on a stator.

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6bg6ga

Actually I chose a AC transformer that would put me in the middle so to speak. The stator puts out 29VAC @ 1800 RPM and 57VAC @ 3600 RPM so my choice of a 40 VAC transformer wasn't out of line and certainly not past the 57VAC that is possible if the regulator was actually mounted on the engine. My method was just a simple method to check the regular so one wouldn't have to bother taking off a working regulator in order to check one that was questionable. I should point out the regulator in question was one off a P216V Onan engine.

 

You did make a good point however. One should select a transformer in keeping with the stator's maximum output or use a variac if one has one. Caution however should be exercised if a variac is used as the output of the variac must be set low before turning it on and connection to the regulator is made.

Edited by 6bg6ga

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6bg6ga

Did a little testing and came up with this little fact. You need 17 VAC off the stator of the P216V Onan engine in order to charge a good battery at 14.6 VDC.  I switched from a standard transformer to a simple variac for testing simply because I could dial in a voltage I wanted and monitor the voltage and amperage from my variac's  monitor panel instead of bringing out a second meter just to monitor the AC voltage being supplied to the stator regulator. My finding surprised me because I had assumed I would need more engine RPM to charge a battery. The 17VAC is easily supplied as its less than 1800 engine RPM.

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bmsgaffer
On 4/28/2017 at 6:53 AM, 6bg6ga said:

Did a little testing and came up with this little fact. You need 17 VAC off the stator of the P216V Onan engine in order to charge a good battery at 14.6 VDC.  I switched from a standard transformer to a simple variac for testing simply because I could dial in a voltage I wanted and monitor the voltage and amperage from my variac's  monitor panel instead of bringing out a second meter just to monitor the AC voltage being supplied to the stator regulator. My finding surprised me because I had assumed I would need more engine RPM to charge a battery. The 17VAC is easily supplied as its less than 1800 engine RPM.

 

Did you put a load on it? That would be the real test. 

 

Also, the stator "ac" is not 60hz, it is far higher. How this affects the regulators output, I don't know. I havent checked the schematic, but it may be worth looking!

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6bg6ga

Your right the stator isn't 60hz. Think back to how a basic regulator works. I don't know if there is a regulator schematic available and If you find one please do post it. You need to remember that my test is nothing but a basic test to see if the regulator does in fact work. Myself I'm content with a $10 one off ebay but I've seen the Onan ones that must be gold plated. This is what prompted the test. I felt it was good enough to post and maybe keep someone from spending money needlessly. Once the regulator is checked it is easy to load it to see if it will put out 20A.

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bmsgaffer

I don't mind the ebay ones either. I usually get a few!

 

I think it was an excellent post, I had never thought to check it with a regular transformer. :handgestures-thumbupright:

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6bg6ga

One could easily check the regulator with several 1157 car lamps. The rating on a 1157 is 27 watts@12.8 volts. That would be about 2.1 A. Actually they will draw more than that at 14.5 volts when the regulator and stator are working right. 

 

A few of these would tell you quickly what shape the regulator is in. In testing....make sure you have a transformer that is capable of delivering enough current to the regulator. I have a tote full of transformers so that wasn't a problem for me. In my testing what I have seen is either the regulator works or it doesn't. The conditions I've seen are no voltage out or any draw causes it to loose regulation. I haven't tested to the full 20A capability of the regulator. I'm content to install the regulator back on the engine if it performs /puts out and doesn't loose under a light load. Full power testing could be done on the vehicle where the stator is driving the regulator directly in several easy ways. Load it with light bulbs or a load resistor and monitor the battery voltage.

 

 

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