Question on regulator/rectifier operation By mikerwk (Read 1,653 times)

[mikerwk]

Hello I purchased a 4-pin GY6 regulator/rectifier to convert the ac voltage on my snowmobile to dc for a water temperature gauge I will be adding and was wondering can I feed the reg/rec the already regulated 12vac to get 12v dc for my gauge or will I have to bypass the factory regulator to get the correct voltage?

[jct842]

You already have dc unless you have a pull start from 40 years ago. If you have an electric start you have dc. Don't go messing up the wiring with some thing that does not belong on there.

[mikerwk]

I don't have dc a lot of sleds even now a days use ac.Any sled that doesn't have electric start uses ac I have confirmed this with the service manual.

[jct842]

OK have at it. in our library here there are wiring diagrams, and tutorials relating to stator checking and replacement. They tell how to check out a stator and you could use those checks to see if yours is similar. There are some variations in the amount coils that make for differences in how they check and work so you would need to see that yours matchs up with the parts you bought.

Can't believe they still sell snowmobiles without an electric starter today! Even the better push lawnmowers have a push button start!

[Bashan]

Interesting......the standard GY6 4 pin is designed for a white wire of about 40 volts and a yellow of about 20. I'm assuming your stator has two yellows running to your R/R? These two yellows would be of equal voltage. I would say that you would probably get 12v DC off of the red R/R wire if you hooked your AC feeds from your sled R/R to the white and yellow pins of the GY6 R/R. But this is outside of the design parameters and I think it would be a little risky. I ran a GY6 R/R just using the red wire for DC power and it survived but it got hot. How about a bridge rectifier from radio shack? You're already regulated to 12v AC. Just a thought.

[mikerwk]

Mar 20, 2015 13:57:24 GMT -6 Bashan said:

Interesting......the standard GY6 4 pin is designed for a white wire of about 40 volts and a yellow of about 20. I'm assuming your stator has two yellows running to your R/R? These two yellows would be of equal voltage. I would say that you would probably get 12v DC off of the red R/R wire if you hooked your AC feeds from your sled R/R to the white and yellow pins of the GY6 R/R. But this is outside of the design parameters and I think it would be a little risky. I ran a GY6 R/R just using the red wire for DC power and it survived but it got hot. How about a bridge rectifier from radio shack? You're already regulated to 12v AC. Just a thought.

I'm not sure what the unregulated voltage from my sled is but I will find out.What were you running off your r/r? The gauge I want to run will only use .3A. I seen the bridge rectifiers on ebay and I will try one of those if this doesnt work.

[mikerwk]

My sled doesn't have a rectifier but it has a one wire regulator with the regulator grounded to frame.The unregulated voltage goes from 15-45vac.

[Bashan]

I was using it to run a DC system on a 150cc scooter. The red wire supplied the battery and everything hooked onto the battery.

I got to thinking about this, you'll be grounding a DC component to a pure AC system. You may be asking for trouble. If you want to try it I'd hook the two ends of the regulated lighting coil to the GY6 R/R. This would be your yellow and brown off of the sled regulator. You will hook to the white and yellow pins and you'll need to ground the GY6 R/R. Your red off of the GY6 R/R will be 12v DC for the instrument and you'll need to ground it also. This will be experimental and I take no responsibility for what happens. I would use a bridge rectifier off of the sled regulator which would give you two inputs and two outputs.....easy peasy. I have no experience with sleds so you may want to consult with a forum of your peers. Scooters are single cylinder mixed AC DC systems and grounding DC to AC is not a problem. I'm not sure on your vehicle.

[rks]

I think you might better go to a "snowmobile forum" with this. I just searched those two words....found at least 8 different forums, on the first page of the search. You are probably not the first one to want to put a water temp gauge on the type of equipment you have.

You could go to a mechanical gauge, but it might take some fabricating to get the sensor installed. Then you wouldn't need any electric, except for lighting, but if you wear one of the little LED strap on headlamps, you'd be good to go.... electric free..


You didn't say who made your toy, or when it was made....But it does seem odd to me, that they thought it necessary to build it with a radiator, and hoses, a thermostat, water pump, fan, and a temp sensor along with the wiring.......but when it came to a starting system, all they came up with was a piece of rope.

[mikerwk]

Mar 20, 2015 18:45:48 GMT -6 rks said:

I think you might better go to a "snowmobile forum" with this. I just searched those two words....found at least 8 different forums, on the first page of the search. You are probably not the first one to want to put a water temp gauge on the type of equipment you have.

You could go to a mechanical gauge, but it might take some fabricating to get the sensor installed. Then you wouldn't need any electric, except for lighting, but if you wear one of the little LED strap on headlamps, you'd be good to go.... electric free..


You didn't say who made your toy, or when it was made....But it does seem odd to me, that they thought it necessary to build it with a radiator, and hoses, a thermostat, water pump, fan, and a temp sensor along with the wiring.......but when it came to a starting system, all they came up with was a piece of rope.

The sled is a 1996 Polaris XCR 600 SP.I'm a member of a few snowmobile forums and most guys use a 'KOSO ac/dc converter' which seems to be an overpriced regulator/rectifier.As for the sled being pull start only this is the norm for sleds and even on 2015 models electric start is optional.Most guys dont want the extra 30lbs of a starting system (ring gear,starter,starter bracket,battery,cables).A good running sled is no problem to pull start anyways and mine is a 3-cylinder it's not that hard.

Here's the KOSO converter and its instructions, seems an awful lot similar to the gy6 r/r to me.




The install instructions make it sound like a regulator but it isn't.Just google "KOSO ac dc converter"

[Bashan]

It is not the same! That Koso unit has two grounds, an input from the key, and a DC output. The GY6 R/R has two inputs, one ground, and one output. On the GY6 the yellow is an input but it is simply regulated and splits off. On your sled you'd have to get the two GY6 R/R inputs off of the regulator. The Koso has just one input off of the key. Hey, that Koso unit is only $35.00 and it is perfect for what you want to do. It would be risky with the GY6, I wouldn't do it.

[mikerwk]

Mar 22, 2015 16:29:47 GMT -6 Bashan said:

It is not the same! That Koso unit has two grounds, an input from the key, and a DC output. The GY6 R/R has two inputs, one ground, and one output. On the GY6 the yellow is an input but it is simply regulated and splits off. On your sled you'd have to get the two GY6 R/R inputs off of the regulator. The Koso has just one input off of the key. Hey, that Koso unit is only $35.00 and it is perfect for what you want to do. It would be risky with the GY6, I wouldn't do it.

I can get the 2 inputs off the regulator since there are 2 wires in my dash with bullet connectors as an "accessory" connection.I could connect a heated helmet shield to it for example, they are ac wires.I will run my gy6 r/r off that.I'm just wondering if the 12v ac will get regulated again making the output less than 12v dc, if so I can bypass the sleds regulator easily.

[Bashan]

It will regulate close to 12v.....that's it. It doesn't multiply one regulator to the next. They read what's coming in and adjust to it. If it's 12, they do nothing. Please let us know what happens. This is a very interesting, and potentially expensive, experiment.

[mikerwk]

Mar 24, 2015 13:10:53 GMT -6 Bashan said:

It will regulate close to 12v.....that's it. It doesn't multiply one regulator to the next. They read what's coming in and adjust to it. If it's 12, they do nothing. Please let us know what happens. This is a very interesting, and potentially expensive, experiment.

Well sorry to disappoint but I wont be doing it.The engine in the sled is toast the crank is out of phase/index and the pistons are all scuffed from the base filling with fuel.I will be installing another engine from a different sled that already has a temp gauge that runs off ac.The only problem I could see was 2 regulators dumping voltage into the chassis ground which is separate from the engine ground in most sleds.Is it possible for one regulator to fry the other from them using the same ground (the chassis)?

[jct842]

Looks like you have 9 months or so to make it work! Unless you have a working knowledge of electronics you best stick with what is known to work. Just because two units look the same does not mean they are even remotely similar inside. (and you can't just look in there as they are potted with epoxy)