Plane Power alternator

18 Nov 2017 Plane Power alternator

I received a plane power alternator with my Van’s FWF kit. Decided to test it in a similar way to my test of the ND that came with my Subaru engine. http://www.rv8.ch/eggenfellner-subaru-ultra-mini-alternator-2026/

It behaved the same in every way.  When I spin the alternator with the power to it off, it spins freely and generates no power.  When I turn on the alternator, it sucks power from the battery, and when turning the pulley you can feel it’s got a lot of magnetic resistance.  When bringing it up to the full RPM of the drill, the warning light goes off, and you can see the voltage rising, and of course you can feel that the drill is working.  While spinning at full drill RPM, when I turn off the power to the alternator red wire, the drill spins freely, the red light comes on, and the voltage drops.

One thing that PP claims is that they have a built in over-voltage protection (OVP), which is great.  I just need to decide if I trust it enough to use only that to protect the electric system in case of an over-voltage event.

Here I’ve got the alternator spinning with my 3000 RPM drill – I know it’s not fast enough to give full power, but it does increase the voltage.  When I turn off the Red wire, the alternator stops generating power, and the red warning light comes on, as you can see in the next image.

Let’s see if one day I have the courage to remove the Voltage Regulator and see how they do the Over Voltage Protection.  🙂