Micro CoGen.

So I've done some more digging and maybe answered some of my own questions.

There are 80 slots, and 16 poles on the rotor, which gives this alternator a pole pitch of 5. Since there are 5 connections coming out, this seems to be a 5-phase alternator (!)

Each phase would then have eight coils (80 divided by five (phases) and then by two (sides to a coil)), and since each connection crimp has eight wires into it, it seems those eight coils for a phase are connected in Parallel, not in Series as seems more common. I've no idea why you would do this but it must put the emphasis on current not voltage ? And the more phases you have, the smoother the operation in motor mode, and possibly the more torque on startup ?

The fact that I find similar resistance between all pairs of connectors then suggests that this is a star-wound alternator and there is the mother of all star points (with 5*8 or 40 wires joining up) somewhere. Given that number, the star point could be more a star "ring" running around the other end of the stator. I will take the back (slip-ring end) of the casing off and look.

Still very interested in peoples' thoughts on the suitability of this for an inverter/generator setup. It looks well made and solid.

As part of building an inverter-generator setup I am looking into 48V alternators.

I realised that cars increasingly have such things built in to provide a "mini-eco" function. They effectively have an entirely separate 48V electrical system comprising a 48V starter/alternator, and a 48V battery. The alternator mode puts energy into the battery during braking, and the battery can use the "motor" mode of the device to both provide the stop/start function and also provide a bit of extra power when accelerating.

So, these are pretty interesting devices and available relatively cheaply on the 'used' market, and I figured I would see if I could use one as the basis of my generator. I bought a "salvaged but servicable" one from a Ford Focus (a 1-litre petrol car) which is a 48V 150A unit - it was cheap enough I reckoned if I broke it while dismantling, I would at least have learned something. I found a slightly strange setup and I'm wondering if people here can shed some light on it. Obviously things will be complicated by the Starter functionality, and it might even be possible to use that, but let's see.

First weird thing is the stator has 5, (yes five) connections. It's densely packed, 80 slots :

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The five leads come out onto the back and are labelled U, V, W, X, Y. There is no Z like I was expecting (well actually I was hoping for just 3, but you can't have everything). They do not seem to be isolated pairs, and there is about half an ohm between every combination / pair of terminals. Here's the backplate :

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The wires are led through fat copper tracks to spade-type terminals which are spot-welded onto tags from the electronics package, in the visible groups of 2, 2, 1. This is turns out is so they can be led into the regulator/manager in the right places. The regulator package is large! and heavily potted/sealed so was a devil to get apart. It looks like this :

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Forgive the fragments of plastic from my ham-fisted and exasperated attempts to open things up. There was a LOT of potting, spot-welding, and sharp-edged connectors and my pain levels got to a point where the red mist descended and the hammer and screwdriver came out. I was reflecting that I didn't really want the control package, just the main body of the device, so I wasn't concerned about re-using it.

You can see five small boards with golden components on them - this is where the five stator leads come in. The prominent gold components are precision resistors, so something is monitoring current very precisely. I can't see the rectifiers but I think they're potted-in up the top of the picture.

The rotor has a small magnet attached to the end, which I suspect is driving a hall-effect sensor in this package so the system knows where the rotor is, rotationally - it needs this for the Motor mode, I think ? Because it has to generate / synthesize a waveform to move the rotor around based on where it is relative to the stator coils. Some controllers do this by sensing the change in inductance as the rotor moves past stator coils, but this appears to use a sensor. I guess that gives it more control.

The control harness comes in at the top-right, it's a six-way connector but only four of them are used, you can just see four little loops of wire coming onto the central processor board.

So it is WAY more complex than I need, but if I could figure out the stator windings I could perhaps use it. The sliprings/rotor connections are very accessible. So I'm posting this (a) because people might like to see inside these things and (b) to ask if anyone knows what the five stator tags signify and whether it's possible to three-phase rectify this.

I might try tearing-down the manager a bit more to try and find the heavyweight rectifiers, and there must be some chunky switches in there (FETs or a relay maybe?) to switch between Motor and Alternator modes.

Thoughts appreciated !
Richard

Pictures please.

Hello fellow genheads!
  Well,  what else that is not degoratory do you want to be called?
Anyway I am the (proud?) owner of a Mindong single phase syncronous generator 8kw with an s1100 engine. From what I have seen so far it looks to be pretty low hours.
This thing is circa 1999 or so and it is brushless.
  So... does anyone have a manual or even a link to one for this thing? I am pretty much flying blind here. The guy that I bought it from said he would "probably" find the manual and he would mail it to me, but I am not holding my breath.

Thanks for the replies.  That's interesting about the AX belt setup needing less tension than the ribbed "serpentine" style.  I always thought it was the other way around but I guess I got mixed up. 

My flywheel looks the same as yours, keith.  I didn't mean that I'd run the belt directly on the actual flywheel itself, just that I was going to try to mount the pulley directly to the face of the flywheel rather than using a stub shaft or other means of coupling that would move the pulley away from the face of the flywheel.  I'd like to keep the pulley directly on the face to minimize the leverage effect and increased side load force. 

I'm glad to hear that a reasonable side load isn't an issue.  Your setup looks very similar to what I have planned. 

I been so busy with the Truck engine.

The details of the build is almost complete. Than it's gathering the rest of the parts to build it.

 I need to start checking in more often.  Yes you do..

That is a great generator there.. Like the belt pulleys. Next gen builds some great gen sets.

Would like to find a carrier reefer parts list using the Z482 or D722.. Any chance you have one kicking around Henry?

One more pic.. Cigarette not part of build..  Quit 7 years ago.. It fell out of a box of parts and i did not see it when I took the pic and posted it here.. Sorry bout that.