Alternators for Tcars

The Tcars' generator, called a dynamo, is starting to be joined by a brotherly product,  an alternator.  What's the difference?  Basically, the dynamo is a device that turns the rotational energy created by our engines into DC (Direct Current) that charges the car's battery and operates the car's electrical system. The alternator is a device that turns that same rotational energy into AC (Alternating Current), just like is found in the outlets in our homes, except it's at a 12 volt level.

But, it's not that simple.  It's not akin to the battle that went on between Thomas Edison's DC and Nicholas Tesla's AC at the beginning of the 20th century.   The dynamo creates the output DC directly (no pun intended) referenced to the car's ground/earth. It's easy to change the dynamo's polarity between negative ground and positive ground. The alternator is creating its voltage alternating between positive and negative wiring.  I'll just leave it at that for the moment.  The voltage created by the alternator has to be manipulated to become a simple positive or negative voltage.  The dynamo uses a fairly simple regulator to control the DC output voltage.  The alternator has to use a number of steering devices, called diodes (or rectifiers) to do this controlling along with a regulator to turn the output voltage into a controlled DC to operate the car's electrical system.

Alternators have been very common in automobiles for quite a few years now. However, the movement toward providing alternators for use in our cars has only recently begun. A significant drawback has been the fact that alternator packaging looks different from that of generators.  The casings tend to be shorter and have more holes in them for cooling air than do our generators.  This drawback has tended to cause thermal problems when suppliers tried packaging the alternator components into dynamo type housings. Another of the drawbacks has been our car's use of the tachometer drive gearbox on the back of the generator. 

 Only recently have alternators appeared on the market with such a mechanism on their output end.  One that seems to be most notable on the market seems to go by the name Dynamator, a clever cross between Dynamo and Alternator. At this time I see two sources selling Dynamators, Abingdon Spares in Connecticut and Accuspark in the UK. Two other names show up when one gets into some serious Googling, namely, Dynalites and Powerlite.  It appears that Dynalites have a wide spread and show up on eBay from the U.K. and from Knoxville.  Dynalites do quite a bit of bragging:

Another source is https://powerliteunits.com/en/product/lucas-c39c40-positive-earth-rac024/

Others will be added as I learn of them.

Now let's get on to learning about the Dynamator -- for more information about the Dynamator see/click on DynamatorWiring.