[T3] Voltage Regulator
Jim Adney
jadney at vwtype3.org
Fri Apr 11 22:41:51 PDT 2014
On 11 Apr 2014 at 19:53, Keith Park wrote:
> Ive got 2 years on a new one, holds the voltage VERY steady, no problems or
> issues but they DO run HOT. And the case is hot too (electrically) so make
> sure you don't short anything to the case.
Glad to hear that it's been working out well for you. Yes, I'd expect
the new design to be able to hold the output voltage very stable.
The OE style got hot, too. There was a larger resistor on the
underside which dissipated a fair amount of power. This led lots of
people to wonder if something was wrong when they installed a new VR
and then saw that it was smoking a bit. The smoke just came from the
manufacturing oils burning off during its first use.
The new style probably passes the output current thru a diode, giving
somewhere between 5 and 30 watts of power dissipation, depending on
the output current. If they were more clever, that could be reduced
to almost nothing, but that would require a more sophisticated output
circuit. The output current needs to pass thru something that will
keep current from the battery from flowing backwards thru the
generator when the engine is shut off.
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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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