what now ??

[willie]

A of J ,The other half picked it out when I was gone at work--if I tryed to get rid of it she would run me over with her wheel chair .The pelton was ordered last week from italy. The generator is a delco 160 amp new take off from a 18 wheeler low cut in, low speed 1600 rpm max. Pipe is all pvc 4"--PD is .53psi or 76.08 lbw./ sq.ft. More ? on the alternator after supper.I know people are thinking why 6 power packs, I got them from the US Embassy  for $50.00us each as take outs--They were new.  Willie

[willie]

OK people smarter than me, I have a 160amp delco alt.low cut in low speed(1600rpm max). I keep reading take out the recitifier and run wild ac on smaller wire up to your bat. bank (for me 200 ft.) then bank into the recitifier. Ok what do you do with the voltage reg. what about watts-volts-amps-ac-dc- for the stator ?? I could-maybe sit down-spend afew days looking at it then try something, then put the fire out-order a pma with next months food money--but whats the fun in that??! Yes i've looked youtube all I came up with was how to make a pma--maybe afther I get it up & running first.  Help  Willie

[Watt]

OK people smarter than me, I have a 160amp delco alt.low cut in low speed(1600rpm max). I keep reading take out the recitifier and run wild ac on smaller wire up to your bat. bank (for me 200 ft.) then bank into the recitifier. Ok what do you do with the voltage reg. what about watts-volts-amps-ac-dc- for the stator ?? I could-maybe sit down-spend afew days looking at it then try something, then put the fire out-order a pma with next months food money--but whats the fun in that??! Yes i've looked youtube all I came up with was how to make a pma--maybe afther I get it up & running first.  Help  Willie

Get rid of the regulator and use a load controller to regulate the voltage at the battery bank.  But, what would you use to excite the field winding? 

What kind of alternator is it?  Do you have a picture of is broken down? 

I imagine the utube vids are referring to getting rid of the field coils and using magnets to build the field.  Ie. removing the regulator and bridge and running the a/c to the controller house. 

[A of J]

On the point of the alternator, if your hydro yielded 400W then you are looking at around 30 amps for a 12V system, not that an auto alternator is at all suitable as others have mentioned.

Perhaps a small 110VAC generator fed to a switch-mode power supply (SMPS) at the battery shed, HZ could be matched reasonably well but is not critical and most SMPS cover a wide range of voltages. Small China built gen-sets abound, just find one that the motor has died on, take the piston out and drive through the motor shaft.

Allan