Rheostat equipped ST heads, anyone have one? Opinons

[playdiesel]

I see that Tom Osborne now has some ST heads that come with a rheostat (did I spell that right?)  and digital readouts for voltage. I need another ST head for a project.  The two ST heads I currently own, 5 and 15 KW, are both close enough for my needs running right at 122-125 Volts when the RPMs are set for 60 hertz. I am kinda into K.I.S.S. when it comes to such because I am  'lectric challanged. Anyone have one of these newer ST heads? Is the cause for concern reliability wise because of the added Rheostat? I have changed out the junk dog boxes and figgure that is still a concern on the newest versions.

[bearhawk]

I just got an ST 10 with the rheostat from Tom a couple of weeks ago.  I can't say enough good about working with Tom.  He also supplied me an 8 rib micro-v custom pulley.  Anyhow, I can get some photos of it if you want.  The doghouse is still flimsy as well as the brush guard and fan guard.

The only thing the rheostat does is put resistance in the field excitation ckt to drop the field voltage which in turn drops the output voltage.  It is placed on one side of the DC coming from the rectifier one side of the AC before going to the rectifier.  It's between the rectifier (DC side) and one set of brushes excitation coils and the rectifier.  If it fails, just remove the wires from the rheostat and place the brush wire directly onto the rectifier and it would be a standard ST.  It reminds me of the rheostat in airplanes for dimming the instrument lighting.  

I'm building (rebuilding what the Indians damaged in their test run) a new PS 6/1 listeroid and am making a couple of offset idler bolts.  I hope to run the engine this coming week then start building the base so I can mount the gen head and give it a whirl.  You can see my progress at http://listerenginegallery.com/main.php?g2_itemId=4911

I just went out to the garage and popped off the doghouse cover.  I'll post a few photos into a new album for the genhead.

[I tracked down the wires to the rectifier and made the changes above via strikeout.]

[bearhawk]

If you go to my listerenginegallery link above you will find my new album with photos of the gen head.

[playdiesel]

Thank you for the info