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Post by userix on Jan 25, 2015 22:23:29 GMT -5
I'm not 100% how the rectifier works, but I know it charges the battery in the scooter.
1)Is there a difference between A/C and D/C rectifier? I know my bike has an AC stator.
2) Now when the bike is idling, the voltage fluctuates, around 14V, but sometimes it dips below 12 for a split second, and sometimes it spikes to 15.8V for a split second. Is this normal for the rectifier to do that?
3) I currently have a LED headlight system wired directly to the battery with an inline switch and I get this random flickering of the LED lights. It doesn't happen all the time and is not readily reproducible. The wiring is solid with no loose connections and everything is insulated properly. For the sake of simplicity, let's just assume the wiring the the LED headlights is perfectly fine, and the scooter battery is in good condition, could the randomly dipping and spiking voltage coming from the battery caused by a faulty rectifier?
The battery charges fine on the scooter and I never have a weak start, even if I leave the bike alone for weeks.
4) If my rectifier is indeed working correctly, what I can do to get a stable 12V power line where there is no fluctuations in voltage? Something like a 12V voltage regulator?
Thanks
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Post by JerryScript on Jan 26, 2015 0:08:31 GMT -5
Need a bit more info about the LED headlights you are using. Do they have a built in resistor?
There is never going to be a smooth perfect 12v, at least not with some expensive extra equipment. It's a stator generating the power at various RPMs, so cheap circuits will not produce clean perfect current. You may be able to solve your issue with a stator upgrade, but we really need some more info about the mods you have already made (like the LED headlights).
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Post by rcq92130 on Jan 26, 2015 0:24:34 GMT -5
Same problem with the radio i have. Connection is directly to the battery via a relay which is energized by ignition switch "on". I thought drawing current right from the battery would minimize voltage spikes, but it's still a problem and the radio is intermittent.
Thinking about looking into a small rectifier chip. That would probably handle enough for my radio, but not sure about your headlight. Do you know what current it draws? Is it a CREE chip?
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Post by userix on Jan 26, 2015 12:30:12 GMT -5
My led headlights do come with a led resistor/driver. They draw about 40w max. 20w per bulb. I do notice on the multimeter, my voltage would sometimes dip below 12v, like to 11v. I know it's not going to be perfect stable voltage, but should it be varying this wildly? It spikes up to 15.8 v sometimes during revs and at idle it dips down to 11v.
As for the stator I have a 11-pole that was recently installed. So the stator is pretty new and working correctly
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Post by JerryScript on Jan 26, 2015 19:55:03 GMT -5
I would look into a slightly larger R/R since you upgraded your stator.
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Post by dmartin95 on Jan 26, 2015 21:02:09 GMT -5
It spikes up to 15.8 v sometimes during revs and at idle it dips down to 11v. As for the stator I have a 11-pole that was recently installed. So the stator is pretty new and working correctly I think Jerry is right. If you upgraded to an 11 pole, you must also upgrade the R/R if the existing one can not support the power output of your stator, How many wires does your R/R have? Also, do you know if the R/R is a full wave R/R? 15.8 ~ 11volts is too radical of a swing and you may burn up your components if they don't have good tolerances. These are the R/R's you will need for a 11 pole stator: 7 wire full wave: 6 wire full wave: |
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Post by alleyoop on Jan 26, 2015 23:10:21 GMT -5
Yes if it is putting out over 15volts it is overcharging and not regulating correctly.
The optimum output from a good system is 14.7 if it gets to 15 then it is not regulating the voltage.
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Post by userix on Jan 27, 2015 14:31:05 GMT -5
I have a 5 wire connection on my harness. It has the same style connector as the full wave 6 pin above, but minus one wire in the four pin connector. How can I tell if it is full wave? The link to the 6pin regulator doesn't say full wave. Would the six pin r/r above work with my 5 wire setup?
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Post by dmartin95 on Jan 27, 2015 15:17:09 GMT -5
I have a 5 wire connection on my harness. It has the same style connector as the full wave 6 pin above, but minus one wire in the four pin connector. How can I tell if it is full wave? The link to the 6pin regulator doesn't say full wave. Would the six pin r/r above work with my 5 wire setup? You can tell if your R/R is a full wave by the wire count of the AC coming in from your stator. If you have 3, yellow wires (AC from stator to R/R) on your R/R it's a full wave R/R. The six pin should be plug and play if you have the 11 pole stator. However, all these scooters are different and even though the connectors will mate up, you have to be careful and make sure your pins match. But the 7 pin is better. The additional Black wire works as a voltage sense and when your not needing the extra power your stator makes at high RPM's, it will shunt the excess energy away from your stator to prevent burning up your stator. The 6 PIN does this with internal circuitry which does not account for external variances. The white (sometimes pink) on these 6/7 wire R/R are A/C out put for lights and enricher.. *Note, this is not the case for 4 pin R/R's and 5 pin can be different as well. 4 pin R/R, white/pink (and maybe other color) will be A/C input, not an output.) Green is ground Yellow is A/C in from stator. Red is regulated power output. |
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Post by tvnacman on Jan 27, 2015 18:33:20 GMT -5
How many miles on this scooter ? What was the original stator ? Can we see the regulator (pic or link please) ?
John
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Post by dyoung1167 on Jan 29, 2015 14:20:24 GMT -5
as for the difference between ac and dc stators, they are actually referring to the set up of the scooter. if your scooter has a "DC" system (cdi, lights etc. ALL run on dc) then it would use a dc stator, which is a misnomer because it is still producing AC, it just doesn't have the dedicated coil for charging the cdi that AC cdi's need.
and it does sound as though you need a new r/r. they aren't perfect but should be giving a much steadier output.
i just replaced my r/r with a 5 wire set up that is doing an awesome job. new 11 pole stator and one 20w led headlight. after a 20 mile ride the r/r feels very cool to the touch where as the old 8 pole 4wire r/r set up the r/r pretty much stayed too hot to touch confortably, and that was with both stock 35w incandescent bulbs running, meaning they used most of the stators output so the r/r wouldn't need to shunt much unused output.
to clear up my last, the new 11 pole produces a lot more output than the old, i'm using less and the r/r is just yawning with boredom.
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Post by userix on Jan 31, 2015 4:14:56 GMT -5
as for the difference between ac and dc stators, they are actually referring to the set up of the scooter. if your scooter has a "DC" system (cdi, lights etc. ALL run on dc) then it would use a dc stator, which is a misnomer because it is still producing AC, it just doesn't have the dedicated coil for charging the cdi that AC cdi's need. and it does sound as though you need a new r/r. they aren't perfect but should be giving a much steadier output. i just replaced my r/r with a 5 wire set up that is doing an awesome job. new 11 pole stator and one 20w led headlight. after a 20 mile ride the r/r feels very cool to the touch where as the old 8 pole 4wire r/r set up the r/r pretty much stayed too hot to touch confortably, and that was with both stock 35w incandescent bulbs running, meaning they used most of the stators output so the r/r wouldn't need to shunt much unused output. to clear up my last, the new 11 pole produces a lot more output than the old, i'm using less and the r/r is just yawning with boredom. Oh, so there is a difference between an A/C stator an D/C stator. So if I installed a DC stator on my bike, it wouldn't run because it is lacking the coil to charge the CDI? Would an AC stator work in a DC scooter? I actually bought a "DC" stator from a shop that claims they are all the same and will work in either AC or DC scooters and compared it side-by-side with my AC stator and I couldn't tell the difference. They look identical. I'm not certain myself, but I didn't want to risk frying my electrical by testing it out. |
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Post by dmartin95 on Jan 31, 2015 8:19:44 GMT -5
Oh, so there is a difference between an A/C stator an D/C stator. So if I installed a DC stator on my bike, it wouldn't run because it is lacking the coil to charge the CDI? Would an AC stator work in a DC scooter? I actually bought a "DC" stator from a shop that claims they are all the same and will work in either AC or DC scooters and compared it side-by-side with my AC stator and I couldn't tell the difference. They look identical. I'm not certain myself, but I didn't want to risk frying my electrical by testing it out. It's easy to tell the difference between a DC and an AC stator. An AC stator will have one of the poles (coil) dedicated for your CDI. A scooter that is "DC" gets the power for the spark directly from the battery and only uses a low level pulse signal from your pickup coil. I will provide pics, this is an AC stator, notice how one coil is wrapped?  And this is a DC stator, notice all coils are bare:  ------------------- Now, in some instances you can mix and match and get it to work, but working and working right are two different things. |
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Post by userix on Jan 31, 2015 12:22:38 GMT -5
Thanks for clarifying that for me. The shop had both labeled Ac stator and DC stator looking the same and they both looked like the AC stator you posted. So I guess they really didn't have any DC stators. How come the DC stator has 12 poles? Do they pit out even more power than the 11-pole AC?
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Post by tvnacman on Jan 31, 2015 16:16:37 GMT -5
Thanks for clarifying that for me. The shop had both labeled Ac stator and DC stator looking the same and they both looked like the AC stator you posted. So I guess they really didn't have any DC stators. How come the DC stator has 12 poles? Do they pit out even more power than the 11-pole AC? All stators are ac not dc . I have not checked every single stator out there however there is one case that the 11 did better than the 12 . John |
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..BAD TO THE BONE..
