I\'m having troubles connecting the WS500 harness (positive) to this alternator. Any help would be greatly appreciated. The system is 24V with a battery of 840Ah. The alternator is 100A 24V.
I removed the regulator from the alternator (Model 8RL3024 = 105-396) and have 4 pins exposed, which line up to color coded wires from the regulator. See also the images in attachment.
I connected the field wire from the WS500 to the orange connector (Field +). The green connector (Field -) I connected to Battery -. There is some voltage the field + (7,5V) but the alternator has no output. The led of the WS500 is blinking green rapidly (= ramping up). But nothing happens. I left the system on during my crossing the UK (30hrs), but there was never any output.
The alternator did work with the old regulator, but since I\'ve switched to LiFePO4 batteries, I want the WS500 to regulate the output.
At the moment I don\'t have a working alternator, which keeps me stuck in the UK as I need to cross the bay of Biscay to get to Spain. So any help would be appreciated!
Rick, thank you in advance. I noticed I connected to yellow wire incorrectly to D+ 5 (R terminal). After changing it to the AC-taps and running the engine idle, I only measure 0.25V on the blue wire (Field). When increasing the rpms a bit on the engine, the voltage measured on F+ also had a small increased to 0,35V. The earlier measurement of 7,5V was incorrect.
It seems the WS500 is not outputting any field, although the green led is blinking rapidly . Maybe the rpm\'s are too low for the WS500 to kick in? The engine was doing 800 rpm idle, with a pulley ratio of 12/7 to the alternator. I measured 160 hz on the AC taps.
As I don\'t have an exact type number on the alternator, I suspect it to be an 8SC based on the images of Prestolite. I\'m not sure the tri diodes are present. If they are, it could be another problem as they will feed the field, rendering the field output of the WS500 unusable and even possible overloading the output on the WS500. I have no idea there is a diode in the WS500 to prevent it from damage. I also don\'t know whether I can remove the tri diodes to remove the internal feedback loop.
Hello Jan,
What I see on your picture, are probably the original wires from the internal regulator. Maybe your alternator is not for external regulation. If so it can be modified for external regulation. (I search on the number you give, and it looks like the internal regulator instead off the alternator parts number)
You can not connect the Field wire from WS500 to this wires!! Either not to D+ or W!!!
You can damage the WS500 if you connect it the wrong way, like every electronic device.
You need to disconnect completely the internal regulator, and bring the 2 brush wires to the outside. One brush will be connected to the Blue field. The other brush goes to negative. Probably the best is to have this done by some alternator shop or someone that knows what he is doing.
To test your WS500:
Connect it according the manual.
As a test, disconnect the blue field wire. Connect a 12/24V light bulb between the blue field wire and negative. After startup time the light start glowing slowly brighter and brighter.
Thanks Ben, you beat me by a few minutes :)
Jan, to add to Bens reply, this alternator contains additional items within its housing and the back mounted regulator can not just be swapped out as the correct termination points for an external regulator are not available.
I chatted with Al and Rick at WS just to confirm and this model can be converted to either positive or negative excitation but there is a bit of work involved to access the correct termination points. Rick at WS also did some research and found that the brush wires are accessible from a back plate and you could possibly ground one side and bring the second one out to your WS500 field output.
I am attaching a copy of the picture showing the brush wire connection points.
A shout out to Ben and Rick at WS for your assistance!
@wakespeed-offshore@benv
Ben, Rick,
I had the original regulator disconnected and used the connection points of this regulator on the back. The blue wire of the WS500 is connected where the orange wire was connected from the regulator (F+), the connection point of the green wire (F-) I connected to B- with a new wire. The yellow wire of the WS500 is connected to the AC tap, which gives AC voltage (on the image I disconnected the yellow wire, but it was on the right most bolt. The 3 bolts give stator AC for each winding).
I also have the direct field wires available (see also on the image), so you suggest I rather connect the field wire of the WS500 to one of these, and the other to B-? This avoids the internal diode trio completely and should work, I\'ll test this.
Just an update: everything is working!
There was a secondary issue: my fuse in the alternator positive line was blown. Because of this, no voltage was applied on the F+ line and only an induced voltage was measured. After replacing the fuse and bypassing the internals of the alternator by wiring the WS500 directly to the brushes of the rotor, everything works :-)
I still need to make some adjustments to the cap, to bring out the contacts, but for future reference see image:
A big thanks to everyone for helping me out!
Hello Jan,
This pictures explains a lot.
I have seen many alternators, but not this particular model.
I dont know where you connect the black(neagtive) and blue(field) as in picture, OR these connections goes straight to the 2 brush.
You could do a continuity test on this.
Other suggestion: Disconnect, the 2 wires from the 2 brushes. connect the field and negative(alt-) staight the the brushes.
Many alternators, the brush closed to back bearing is negative.
If not working do the test with the lightbulb as I discribe in previous email.
Ben
Nice Jan, You got it working.
One comment on your last picture.
The cable connected to P looks very thin.
I can be wrong, because the picture. With a big alternator as this, depend on the length off the cable, suggestion is to use 35mm2 upto 50mm2, some times even thicker.
Hi Jan, hope you are still monitoring this and thank you so much.
I have exactly the same alternator and have my shiny new WS500 to connect to it.
I found the brush connections a fiddle, had to cut down the connector to get it fit under the cover but done now.
My question was why did you use the R terminal for the heat sensor? I guess it works but wonder why you didn\'t use a case bolt like one where the factory regulator was fitted?
Just wondering
Thanks again
Jamieson
Nice Jan, You got it working.
One comment on your last picture.
The cable connected to P looks very thin.
I can be wrong, because the picture. With a big alternator as this, depend on the length off the cable, suggestion is to use 35mm2 upto 50mm2, some times even thicker.
Ben, the cables are 90mm2 as it\'s an 100A alternator.
Quote from Jamieson Ide on February 8, 2022, 12:30 pm
My question was why did you use the R terminal for the heat sensor? I guess it works but wonder why you didn\'t use a case bolt like one where the factory regulator was fitted?
Jamieson, I don\'t think there was a previous heat sensor, so I just fitted it somewhere to the metal part. Can you take a picture on where you would attach it? I run the alternator at about 75% of max capacity to avoid any overheating issues.
Hi Jan.
I was thinking that on the R terminal there seems to be an insulator which means that it is only picking up the heat transmitted through the stud which has a lot of surface area for heat dissipation. On your photo above there are the four holes left be removing the factory regulator, I have put a stud in one of the two to the right of the yellow wire (you could also cut down the supplied bolts but they are pretty hard) and will put the sensor on that.
A quick look on the internet came up with this:
What is the R terminal on alternator?
A key to identifying your alternator terminals
Terminal
Definition
Notes
R
Relay
Output to charge relays, etc
I really appreciate you putting up what you did, it has saved me a huge amount of time! i am just waiting for some fuse holders which should arrive Saturday then hopefully I can test my installation.
Cheers
Jamieson
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I connected the field wire from the WS500 to the orange connector (Field +). The green connector (Field -) I connected to Battery -. There is some voltage the field + (7,5V) but the alternator has no output. The led of the WS500 is blinking green rapidly (= ramping up). But nothing happens. I left the system on during my crossing the UK (30hrs), but there was never any output.
The alternator did work with the old regulator, but since I\'ve switched to LiFePO4 batteries, I want the WS500 to regulate the output.
At the moment I don\'t have a working alternator, which keeps me stuck in the UK as I need to cross the bay of Biscay to get to Spain. So any help would be appreciated!
