When looking at a motorcycle power system (commonly referred to as charging system), the basic setup is to have a permanent magnet generator composed of magnets in the flywheel revolving around a stator, often 3 phase. This then feeds to a Reg/ReC (regulator & rectifier in one package) before powering the bike.
Here is diagram of the setup.
The simplistic understanding of what's happening here is that the stator produces the max power is can at a given revs, the load from the bike will hold the voltage level down, at some point the stator will start to output more than is used and the voltage peaks will start to get too high. This is when the regulator steps in and starts to fire the SCR's which short each phase of the stator to the other phases.
It's easy to assume that it is just grounding each phase and thus dumping the unwanted power back into itself, turning it into heat.
Another thought is that it is actually dumping back through the other 2 phases and thus using them a dump resistors..
I'm not sure either of these are correct.
I came across a post on a bike forum where it was suggested that shorting the stator back to itself has a magnetic effect, and that doing so actually prevents the stator from generating - thus no excess heat / wasted power.
My electronics understanding is ok but I'm not so good on magnetism & generators.
What do you think about this please?
Rich.
Here is diagram of the setup.
The simplistic understanding of what's happening here is that the stator produces the max power is can at a given revs, the load from the bike will hold the voltage level down, at some point the stator will start to output more than is used and the voltage peaks will start to get too high. This is when the regulator steps in and starts to fire the SCR's which short each phase of the stator to the other phases.
It's easy to assume that it is just grounding each phase and thus dumping the unwanted power back into itself, turning it into heat.
Another thought is that it is actually dumping back through the other 2 phases and thus using them a dump resistors..
I'm not sure either of these are correct.
I came across a post on a bike forum where it was suggested that shorting the stator back to itself has a magnetic effect, and that doing so actually prevents the stator from generating - thus no excess heat / wasted power.
My electronics understanding is ok but I'm not so good on magnetism & generators.
What do you think about this please?
Rich.