light bulbs flicker solution.

[sanchez]

Hi,

recently with my new listeroid I had som light flicking problems, the radical solution was to replace the ST brushed generator with a brushless one by the brand YANAN made in china too, I took the generator from other plant that I own. The YANAN generator have an electronic voltage regulator with stability adjust, first I setted the stability with full loas until stop flikking, them, whet retired the load was necesary to do some fine adjust with no load (testing with an incandescent lamp), the flikking lights was resolved.

My suggestion is to choose an electronically regulated generator, prefferable a brushless one.

[JMW]

Sanchez,

Thank you for this info.

Can anyone tell me which type of light bulb is best to use if you're not very tolerant to light flicker?

Also, are there any gadgets that can be put between the alternator and load (lights) that will reduce the flicker?

Mark

[rzrbax]

They also save a lot of electricity, so they are ideal for use with a generator.................Bill

[hotater]

rzrbax--

Could you give me a make and model of bulb that doesn't flicker with a Lister.  I've only tried one and it was TERRIBLE.

[gpkull]

its not the bulb   you can "smooth" the flow with caps.

[Tom]

Any good compact florescent won't flicker. Saves fuel too.

[mike90045]

incandescent bulbs are less prone to flicker, and possibly the very lightweight electronic ballast CFL's.  The heavy (iron core transformer) CFL's will likely have the WORST flicker.

[gpkull]

if you want to get rid of your brush type head cause it makes your lights flikerr please advise. watt size is the head? two pole 3600  or possibly 4 pole 1800.  if voltage and freq are fair i dont care about flicker. you want to sell hook me up

[hotater]

They also save a lot of electricity, so they are ideal for use with a generator.................Bill

Energy savings is NOT neccesarily a bonus for those of us that run a generator for power.  To get the best life from the fuel and the engine it needs to be loaded up some.  I leave 700 watts of lights on all the time to balance the load between legs.

[sanchez]

hi guys,

you can install with your existing ST brushed heads, the kubota lowboy AVR, the kubotas are brush type too, they have volt and stability adjustments. another advantage is that you can forget the voltage drop when a heavy load start, even the frecuency drcrease 2 or 3 HZ, the tension keep the setting value. I had that same experience with a Yanmar TF140 equiped with a brush type head.

sanchez.

[gpkull]

sanchez the drop in hz is drop of the rpms . the prime mover is overloaded or cant maintain a changing or steady load

[rzrbax]

In regards to some of the discussion on flicker.  All of my incandescent bulbs flicker.  None of the WalMart variety screw in fluorescents or larger fluorescents flicker......12/2 GTC w/ 7.5 kw ST head.....................Bill

[BruceM]

Incandescents do flicker on the Lister to many peoples eyes,  and will do so a whole lot less if you have a good external regulator on your ST head or use another head with a  good regulator.  This will minimize the voltage variation.  I know, I've done it, and measured it.  It will be better with heavier flywheels or a faster engine rpm, also.  Flicker is also reduced slightly by higher wattage incandescents.

Adding a capacitor the the AC output won't affect the engine power stroke speed variation caused voltage variation of the stock ST genhead one bit.  This speed variation is only happening at 5.5 Hz and if you tried to filter that via passive filtering you'd have no 60Hz AC left. Go good thought, but not for this slow AC phenomina.  The external regulators CAN respond fast enough to reduce most of this, as Sanchez has reported, and I have also measured on my ST w/ external regulator.   

For people who are very flicker senstive, even an external regulator may not be enough, as there is still some AC frequency variation with the variation of engine rpm from the power stroke.  It's not enough for me (I have epilepsy).

In this case, you need to find compact fluorescent bulbs that regulate the output voltage to the compact flourescent light. These best-for-no-flicker designs take the incoming AC, rectify it to make high voltage bulk DC, and then generate a high frequency AC waveform of regulated voltage from the bulk DC. This takes a bit more circuitry but will solve your flicker problem, as it's like having a little inverter right there in the CF.  Some of the newer CFs will do this, and some designs won't.

 A listing of some specific CF bulbs that seem to work well (for people bothered by flicker of incandescents on the Lister) woud be helpful for folks or their family members bothered by flicker. I don't tolerate CF light quality or their RF/EMI so can't help with that.  Maybe RZRBAX can help by providing some specific brand and models.

Good tips, Sanches, on the Yanmar head and also on the Kubota regulator for the ST.  A model/part number on the Kubota regulator would be very helpful to others, if you can find it.  Most guys aren't up for building a DIY regulator as I did. 

Bruce M

[gpkull]

flicker may be on and off many times per second.when you do without for many days posibly weeks the flicker becomes better than none at alll. the st is crude the purchase of said head is to get the basics up and running. why people need all the computers and alll the other fancy electronic gagets going during a hurricane gets me. in daytona bch your grabbin your ass to see watts left after you rise from the dark. if you see flicker you see more than the rest. total darkness is not uncomen and days of such aint either. not the sqeecky wheel gets the grease here just puttin in my .02  fla dont have mayor ray running the pumps but we have been in a pinch more than once. a flickerin gen set is a good thing in  total darkness

[sanchez]

hi again,

I'll find the regulator part number, I know a guy that distribute to a very reasonable price, this regulators replica, it works fine and are very cheap less than 150.00 and solve the flicking problem forever, let me gather the information and post it.