I have a 10 hp outboard with two wires coming out from under the fly wheel, both the same colour which will run lights and even a halogen spot, I am led to believe it is A.C power, as you increase the revs the lights get a lot brighter. I wish to fit a motor cycle single phase rectifier regulator to tricle charge a battery at say 2-3 amps. If this is possible ???? which wire from under the fly wheel do i feed where as they are both the same colour. I do not understand any thing about A.C. flywheel chargers. Thanks Shane

 

Well, first you should find out if it is AC or DC output.

Here's a schematic of a tristate polarity indicator that uses a bicolor (red/green) LED:

If you don't have a bicolor LED, you can use one red and one green LED in parallel with each other connected back-to-back (cathodes to anodes and vice versa) with a single 1k Ohm resistor in series (like R1 is connected).

Don't worry about the extra resistor and diode; you just want to find out if it's DC or AC; and if it's DC, what polarity is it.

You will also want to know what the voltage is. For that, you will need a voltmeter. If you don't have one, you could pick up an inexpensive one at Harbor Freight Tools for under $7.

 

Nearly all the small outboards ive had any thing to do with, have whats called lighting coils under the flywheel. They are usualy AC, some supply a rectifier kit for charging batterys & are not voltage regulated. If you just use a rectifier the voltage at high RPMs will boil a battery, so it will need some sort of regulation. In your case if both wires are the same colour it will be AC.

 

Thanks for your reply, what i need to know is with two wires coming out from under the fly wheel and being the same colour which goes where on the rectifier regulator, I know two coming off the regulator rectfier go to the 12v battery. The reg/rec has four wires, two the same colour and two to go to the pos/neg on the battery, is it possible to get the two from the fly wheel and the two from the reg/rec the wrong way round or does it not mater. by the way i am told it is single phase........thanks

 

The two same-color wires on the regulator/rectifier go to the two same-colour wires coming out from under the fly wheel.

 

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The reg/rec has four wires, two the same colour and two to go to the pos/neg on the battery, is it possible to get the two from the fly wheel and the two from the reg/rec the wrong way round or does it not mater. by the way i am told it is single phase........thanks

The order of the AC wires from the battery make no difference. That is why they are the same color.

Two-wire AC must always be single-phase. Multi-phase power requires three or more wires.