Electricity. It is a brand new unit and I am powering it with a 1987 Chevy S10 engine. It did produce electricty yesterday when I was testing the unit, but today it does not produce any electricty. I believe that I must have overrevved the generator, but there was no load on the unit at the time that I overrevved it. I did not believe that this would hurt the generator, but it now will not produce any electricity. Did I damage the diodes, capacitor or some other part? Please advise.
Thank you, Langley McKinney
Specs do not mention a maximum safe rpm but the recommended shaft speed is 3600rpm. Even though it isn't a premium product I can't imagine the manufacturer would be so foolish as to design it so it breaks if that speed is exceeded by a reasonable amount for a short amount of time. The big question is what is a reasonable amount - I reckon a safety margin of 25% would be reasonable for a budget priced product and up to 40% for a premium product.
Over-revving is unlikely to do very much damage to the stator but the armature is at risk of damage and being brushless or self-energising, unless there is visible damage it is a difficult item to test without dedicated equipment.
I suggest you recheck all plugs, connections and cables and if no faults are found contact the manufacturer or dealer for advice, costs, etc...
SOURCE: I have a North Star Model 5500 belt driven generator. I am using
Hi there,
Yes it is very possible that you blew 1 or more diodes in the rotor when you overrevved the generator. You also likely shorted the MOV devices that go across the diodes as well. What happened is that the over speed of the rotor caused it to make a much higher voltage than it was designed for and something had to give. I'd suggest that you also look at the capacitor that connects to the stator windings (it's a little like a voltage regulator), you've probably exceeded its voltage rating.
This is pretty much why there are governor mechanisms on generators, much more than 20% or so overspeed makes nasty things happen.
Carl
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