I had a 7.5KW Metro genset from Sam that had a 12HP Petteroid direct driving a Indian genhead. I think all the Indian made genheads are series wound generators; all the load current flows through both the stator and rotor! The diode groups form a full wave rectifier to keep DC flowing through the rotor so that it has constant North and South poles; also the more current you try to pull through the generator the higher the output voltage goes, within some design limits of course. These generator heads are center tapped so you can have both 120 and 240, but I think you only get 1/2 the rated output at 120V ! They can't be rewired to get full output at 120V like a ST genhead as far as I know. Of course I don't know anything for certain since I haven't seen your unit in person. The genset I had worked very well, I could load it up very heavy and the output voltage just kept rising and it would start my compressor or swamp cooler even when overloaded but the Petteroid was blowing black smoke and the frequency dropped way down past where the Kill-o-Watt would give a reading. The weak spot in these style genheads is the diodes, that's why they give you extras with the generator (you did get extras with yours, right?); I was always afraid of blowing a diode when overloading my generator for a test so I only did it a few times for short periods. The diodes stayed cool to the touch as far as I could tell and they were in the airflow of the cooling fan. Still I wonder what would happen if a diode was to fail and be a short? Maybe this type diode never does fail into a short and just pops open? I didn't want to find out so when a guy needed a generator in a hurry I sold the unit to him; the direct injection Petteroid was way too noisy for me to use in my neighborhood. The Listeroid 6/1 is the least noisy diesel that I have ever heard so far ! Leland
Thanks for all the info, and I may just follow your lead on this... I have a feeling that this genset may just become available and a new one may very well be in my future.
I just love my Lister, I made an expansion chamber for the exhaust and it made it a lot quieter, all I hear now is the fuel system and a bit of machine noise... no biggie, I like that racket LOL
Have to list it somewhere and leave it hooked up as is so the new owner can see it run. It really does work great, on both legs and 220v but I'd really like to have all the power available in the 110v range... oh well, on the next one.
I built that permanent magnet alternator for wind power but it's 3 phase and I use those for battery charging but I do like the PM gen's/alts for simplicity.
I really do have too much fun...
Thanks a lot for the great reply, very informative
Thanks to everyone, I just hope as time goes on I can share also.
behoof