Alternator drain

[Tom Cloud]

>
>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 .... respectfully disagree -- in both the alternator and
the generator, the "field" magnetism comes from battery voltage.
Now I'm into the *fuzzy* memory part, but seems that in the
generator (this part is right) the field is the stator and
the high current comes from the rotor/commutator, whereas
(I think) the alternator is the opposite: the *field* magnetism
is produced in the spinning rotor and the output cometh from
the stator (???).

At any rate, 'tis not true that either have permanent magnets.

Tom Cloud <cloud at peaches.ph.utexas.edu>