Fun Projects regulator

eagle

eagle

Well-known member
I put a new tractor 6V battery from Fleet Farm and a Fun Projects voltage regulator 14 years ago last spring. Both are still going strong. I know they had quit building the FP regulator, I haven't kept up, are they back on the market yet? I don't use a battery maintainer, just jump in and start it in the spring, shut it off for the last time in the fall. Store my A in an unheated shed. So, I consider that to be a true testament to the FP regulator and Fleet Farm batteries.
 
Mike Hill's EVR is currently available for both long generators and Powerhouses. I've installed about a dozen of them, including in my own cars. They work perfectly.

Steve
 

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You will not find any generators with third brush regulation on any cars made after the Model A. (Maybe one or two.) The voltage regulator will make the battery last a long time. Back in the day we would get a voltage regulator from a more modern Ford and adopt it to our Model A's.

Henry's aversion to any electrical mechanisms may have been why the Model A had a generator with third brush regulation. It may also be why the Model T had such an antique ignition system up until the very end.
 
I was talking to rackops recently about the potential for a really cool accessory. It would be a battery housed in a replica original case, but instead of lead-acid it would be LiFePO4 cells. These have much higher energy density than lead-acid, so the cells would take up less than half the case. Then in the rest of the case you could put a circuit board that would intelligently charge the cells, including a voltage regulator. That way you could just use a stock generator.

It would also be user-serviceable, so if the cells wear out you could swap in new ones. And it would only weigh about 20 lbs.

Six 38120S cells configured as 2s3p would get you 6.4V with 30Ah capacity and 300 cranking amps, with the ability to absorb the full 20A output of the generator.
 
If you have a 12 volt car you can buy a Li-ion battery on Amazon starting at about $140. These batteries have amazing cold cranking amperage. I think there are 6 volt Li-ion batteries too.
 
nkaminar said:
If you have a 12 volt car you can buy a Li-ion battery on Amazon starting at about $140. These batteries have amazing cold cranking amperage. I think there are 6 volt Li-ion batteries too.
Click to expand...

There are 6V LiFePO4 batteries but they're built to run golf carts, they don't have the cranking amps a Model A would need.
 
There are a couple of challenges with the cutout style EVR:

* the recommended third brush setting is 5 Amps which limits the generator output
* the cutout style EVR is highly susceptible to damage if there is a high reverse current put through it (eg. polarizing the generator)

The "Tom Wesenberg (TW) Style EVR", similar to mine, does not have these limitations. Further, if the generator is disconnected from the battery, this EVR will protect the generator. The TW style regulates the current to the field coils to vary output voltage to 7.1V similar to the early Ford electromechanical voltage regulator (steady car ammeter reading). The Cutout style "shorts" the excess current to ground once the generator output exceeds 7.1V thereby cycling the battery charge rate (varying car ammeter reading).

My understanding is that Jeff Stevenson (modeltstarters.com) is no longer pursuing a cutout style voltage regulator for the Model A. ...according to a mutual friend that was testing one.
 
I set my generator output to 16 amps at fast idle with the stock cutout, which was nearly max on my generator. Then installed the regulator-in-the-cutout. It charges +1 amp with lights on low, -2 amps with lights on high. Std bulbs. After starting, the current jumps to 10 or 12 amps, then tapers off as the battery rises. Been flawless for 14 years, battery still cranks well. The directions I got with mine said to set at 16 amps. It came from Mac's. The nice thing about the cutout regulator is the simplicity. Not sure what the advantage of a lithium or AGM battery would be, if you take care of a tractor battery they will last many years, and they're cheap... relatively. Getting close to $100

30Tudor said:
There are a couple of challenges with the cutout style EVR:

* the recommended third brush setting is 5 Amps which limits the generator output
* the cutout style EVR is highly susceptible to damage if there is a high reverse current put through it (eg. polarizing the generator)

The "Tom Wesenberg (TW) Style EVR", similar to mine, does not have these limitations. Further, if the generator is disconnected from the battery, this EVR will protect the generator. The TW style regulates the current to the field coils to vary output voltage to 7.1V similar to the early Ford electromechanical voltage regulator (steady car ammeter reading). The Cutout style "shorts" the excess current to ground once the generator output exceeds 7.1V thereby cycling the battery charge rate (varying car ammeter reading).

My understanding is that Jeff Stevenson (modeltstarters.com) is no longer pursuing a cutout style voltage regulator for the Model A. ...according to a mutual friend that was testing one.
Click to expand...
 
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