Alternators....Regulators... and here we go again...

[GMAs]

Look... copy this out and bookmark it ... so you can referance it again... and again...

Trick... some times the alternators have whine or ripple associated with them... how do we know.. we measure it with a AC volt meter...

What it does...

It can mess up your regulators ... regulation... yep... can make one seem out of adjustment.... when its not...

It can mess up your ADF, radios... VOR stuff... big time...

Part two coming up on how to do a simple test to see if your alternator is showing you something like its going to go out... smile...

[GMAs]

Hmmmm.... well first off we need to have a understanding of exactly what the alternator does... and how it works... this is going to take some electronics work... as we first have to have a grasp of the nature of electricity.... which most of you should have... ya I know take the two wires and touch them togeather... and you get sparks... no we are talking here about going a lot deeper into the area of the little thing that does the work.. the electron... that lonely little guy... with the negitave attitude... yep he behaves in strange ways... but, we are going to make him do some jumping around... kinda like kids out playing on a jump rope... he is going to wobble up and down... which is really like the jump rope... as it too appears that its going up and down when we look at it from the distance.. but, if we look at it from the end...its really going round and round... same here with our little alternator...and the electron... the shaft is going round and round... but, the appearance of the output is going up and down... Hmmmmmmm

Ok... we call that representation AC... or alternating current... but, wait you say... way in the back of the room... my plane says DC... whats the difference... ahhhhh.....

Well DC stand for direct current... why... I don't know... someone else came up with the words... but, what it means is that the source of the electrons... are contenious and in one direction... while AC goes in one direction ... Up... and then the other... Down.... and our little electron is going from one side to the other... or to put it another way.. he has two girlfriends... strange the same simbol is used for male... huh.... and he goes first to one and after a while ... he then gets attracted to the other and goes that direction... sort of thing...

Now DC is what we refer to as pure... while AC we refer to as alternating.....

So whats this got to do with our alternators.. how do we get from the alternating current to the direct current kinda thing... OH ya.. current... guess we need to talk about some basic understandings and words so we all are speaking the same language...that word... current is the flow of electricty... like in a stream you have current... and what makes current is the differance in potential... another big word... lets see how to make sence of this...

Lets take the stream... it a little 2 ft wide thing... and lets look at the stream bed sideways... about 100 ft up stream we measure the elevation... then we go down stream and measure the elevation... from these two.. we get the slope or elevation drop in the stream... follow so far... Ok.. this is the potential of the stream... if it were not for the difference in elevation the water would not flow... right... so in this case gravity is causing it to flow downhill... the measurements we took are potential... the differance... or the rate of change/drop between the two points we measured... same with electrons... we need something to make them flow too... so we have a potential... or voltage (difference from steady state) that make them flow in a wire... follow so far... Ok... now for the current....

Again lets take the stream... and its only 2 ft wide by a 1 deep... we call the flow of the stream current... by volume that flows in a given time...
Ok... so do we also measure the numbers of electrons that flow in a wire... its called current or amperage.... the bigger the wire/stream... the bigger the current can flow...for a given potential/change...Ok... so now lets have some fun...

my turn... to see if you have been paying attention...

Can you have current without any potential... or like our stream can you have a flow without a elevation change... Hmmmmmmm I will answer that question next time...

and for those of you who think you know it... here is extra credit... can you have potential without any current... i.e. can you have a large elevation change without and water flowing????.... back for part 3... GMAs...