MTFCA Forum

Anyone out there have on of these I can purchase.
I don't need to be trainied up on what it is, who made it and that it is no longer made.
Just need one.
Ron Patterson

You know this crowd too well, Ron!

Unfortunately, I don't have one for you.

Ron, I made this one thanks to John Regan !!!! Toon

Ron,
It appears to be simple to make one. I suspect a diode and a light bulb. Perhaps a mag headlight bulb is needed.

To be most effective the half wave that doesn't go to the coils would be used for charging the battery. For this to work, the magnets have to be oriented in a certain way.

I plan to determine the wave orientation with an oscilloscope or possibly with a diode. Six years ago I believe the coils were positioned on the flywheel to fire when the north poles are adjacent to the magneto coils.

Art Mirtes

Ron, how much are they worth now?

Any one review patents for a magneto battery trickle charger?

Appears that one was filed for in the 1980s.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US4417195A/en

Looks like the most important component is the diode and we have no specifications for that item.

I have a 15 in the shop at the moment, it is fitted with a diode # 70HF60, and no light globe, it's been on the car for years. When I get it up and running I'll check out what it is doing.

I sought out this particular item becasue of the elegance of the phycical design and its mounting.
Typical John Regan.
I found one. Just what I needed for my new (to me) 1915 Runabout.
Thanks Guys.
Ron Patterson

The diode that is sold for the generator cutout should work just fine for this application. However I will check one for max voltage.

Art Mirtes

Art M,
Which half wave doesn't go to the coils ?,
As the voltage/current alternates in a Ford Magneto of which it does 16 times per revolution (8 pos and 8neg) then the diode charger receives 8 pos charges and 8 neg charges, Your diode charger decides which cycle it uses by its design specification. ....n

Popple. Both waves go to the coils; however there is only one that is necessary. My thought is that the wave that is not needed by the coils should go to the battery. If the coils and the battery use the same wave, the voltage going to the coils would be reduced.

My thought is to use the negative wave for the coils and the positive wave to charge the battery. A negative wave would not charge the battery.

Keep in mind that the mag will not provide very much amperage. It should be enough to keep the battery charged during country driving during daylight
using turn signals and stop lights and maybe LED headlights.

Art Mirtes

Ron needed a charger and asked specifically not to be educated in the fine points of "T" electrical systems, but to please point him in the direction to purchasing one.

Ron found what he needed

mission accomplished

Everything else is just another bone to pick and end up pushing someone else's post on another subject, with real questions further down the pike, and is not helping Ron in any way

HaHa, The mouth has spoken again, Poor Art is climbing up the wrong tree so maybe someone else with a bit of electrical knowledge will be able help him, Come on RON P and everyone will be educated....n

Everything else is just another bone to pick and end up pushing someone else's post on another subject, with real questions further down the pike, and is not helping Ron in any way

Every subject on the Form is open to TMI. And by the additional information we may learn something. Education is based on more than you need to know,

How often has the subject of charging battery from magneto has been presented? And how often has there been a response as to how one or a variation is made or located?

No question is a dumb question. No response is a dumb response.

Unless only your response is the one that counts.

OK, A simple solution to the half wave.

The Magneto Alternating Current produces a rough Sine Wave that is positive for half the time and negative for the other half of the time.

The diode is like a traffic cop on a busy one-way street and it will pass the wave during one half of the sine wave and block the current flow during the other half of the sine wave.

There is a small symbol on the diode with an arrow point and a short flat block line.

The problem is that some diodes allow electricity to flow with that arrow and others block the flow with the arrow directions.

Which diode you are using may require a test run for success.

I learned this the hard way, as some of the Diode Cutouts I made worked fine on Model A Fords that were + ground and other diodes worked fine for Model T cutouts with negative ground.

A simple continuity test will confirm the direction of electrical flow in the diode.

Guys,

I have to say that, suprisingly to some perhaps, I'm with Scott on this. Having read some of Ron's papers it's abundantly clear to me that he doesn't need educating on the finer points of a diode + light bulb, and he even made that clear in his original post. All he wanted was one of these PCB's.

That said I also quite understand, and applaud, the desire to learn more. Maybe one way to achieve that and not clog up the intent of the OP's thread would be to started another thread about magneto charging? Or possibly use the forum search facility to view some of the existing data? One recent example that seems to cover the questions raised here is this thread: https://www.mtfca.com/phpBB3/viewtopic. ... ng#p221280

Finally, to put it in a layperson's nutshell; the diode ensures the correct polarity or half cycle is applied to the load, and the bulb acts as a crude but effective limiter. Any diode of say >5A and >200V rating should do and almost any automotive light bulb would be fine, although I'd probably keep the rating between say 6W - 21W.

Luke.