Re: POSITIVE and NEGATIVE VOLTAGE REGULATORS

Posted by Gerald J. on June 18, 2007 at 10:13:57 from (67.0.103.136):

In Reply to: Re: POSITIVE and NEGATIVE VOLTAGE REGULATORS posted by John T (lil help please) on June 18, 2007 at 09:12:19:

I think the prime difference between positive and negative relay type voltage regulators is in the contact materials. Those that are polarity sensitive have different materials on mating vibrating contacts that give a longer life for a lower manufacturing cost than if the contacts were made to be universal. That's like spark plugs in my F-150 V-8 engine. The factory originals (only rated for 75,000 to 100,000 miles) are different for the left and right banks. The difference is that each has platinum on only one side of the gap, arranged to match the polarity of the coil. Saves them something on the plug costs, but replacements are more costly because they have platinum on both sides and can work with either coil polarity. The coils fire two plugs at a time and do feed them different polarities.

Now when it comes to solid state regulators, they won't stand any reversed polarity. And many of the replacement regulators in the auto stores are no longer relay or magnetic but are all solid state but packaged to LOOK LIKE the original regulators. They are often made for alternators and I don't have any experience with them for generators. But I'd think they might demand generator flashing before connecting the new regulator to the circuit. I know when one I designed for a steam locomotive got reversed polarity it let all the smoke out and turned all the power parts to charcoal. I also know that had I anticipated they would apply AC to the regulator, I could have designed to to work at AC, because I designed one for an alternator once.

I also know that the parts books on the counter at the local car parts place won't say whether a particular regulator is solid state or magnetic/relay.

The last new magnetic/relay regulator that came into my possession required tweaking to charge properly. Its worked fine for the last 19 years, giving long battery life and accepting relatively heavy electrical loads running my electric field sprayer pump.

Gerald J.

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