Alternator drain

[Sandy]

Alternators need a battery, where as the generator does not, so if you have
a totally dead battery, the alternator will not have voltage in the field
coils to start charging. The Generator, has magnets, so, it needs no field
excitation to get it going.

Sandy

At 01:27 PM 4/1/97 -0600, you wrote:
>Fred, 'splain this me ..... sssslowly
>
>>My Humvee has two alternators, well, actually and alternator and a generator
>>attached to the engine block, the alternator runs the vehicle normally, and
>>the generator provides a seperate feed to all the lights, stereo, and
>>anything that's not "mission critical" to the operation of the vehicle.
>>
>>Fred
>
>lessee .... both provide pulsating DC.  One just uses rectifiers
>and the other doesn't.  Both have regulated outputs (both current
>and voltage, I assume).  So why not use both the same type???
>
>Tom Cloud <cloud at peaches.ph.utexas.edu>
>
>