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« on: November 02, 2017, 08:55:28 AM »
Hi there guys. I know there are lots of you guys who are very savvy about generators and related (Starfire, you're a candidate for starters)
I recently bought a little generator unit. It is a four-cylinder flathead Waukesha petrol engine with a four a-section belt drive to a (nominally) 28V generator head which also has a starter winding. I would guess it was made early in the 1950s, or if it is built later, is of an old design that was kept in production.
I just bought it to use the generator head as it is an open-drive design - I can picture it hanging of one of the CSs doing a sterling job charging a 24V battery bank
The little Waukesha looks to be maybe 600 or 800cc? I sold it to someone who likes to play with things like that.
These little units were widely used in aviation, I am told, and this one was on a NZ air base keeping helicopter starter batteries topped up, so the son of the original owner told me. If I was going to guess I would think the little motor might have worked at around 1500 RPM - maybe a bit more?
The generator drive is geared about 1:2 or maybe 1:1.8, so maybe the generator head is designed to spin around 3000 RPM?
The generator is a solid unit, it'd be 30 Kgs, probably.
I don't know what is the relationship between RPM and output for a generator (as opposed to an alternator) and I'd be interested in any thoughts on what the common wisdom is on this, and on how fast or slow a generator of such an old design should be run
I'd appreciate any thoughts
Cheers, Mike