Self-starting genset

A guy I talked to about a generator told me that it's a wisconsin engine connected to a generator head and that the engine has no starter motor. Instead, the generator starts the engine. How? How would this work where there is no power available to start with? My understanding is that the genset was removed from a hospital.

Reply to
N7RX
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The alternator has a separate set of 12 or 24 volt windings and a commutator built into it, or in other words, the exciter is back-fed with DC for starting. BTW, I hate that Wisconsin air-cooled V-4 engine. Too damn noisy.

Reply to
Paul

I agree with you. If there is no starter how could an alternator start an engine of multiple cylinders? The fiction from the alternator to the belt to the crank,,,, well it would just spin. Just because it was removed from an horsepistol is no indication of what the use was. Me thinks the "guy" does not know of what he speaks.

Reply to
SQLit

Easy - it wouldn't.

I know. Maybe they had the exercise machines up in the Physical Therapy wing belt connected and geared to the engine. When they lost power they just herded a bunch of patients into PT, force-fed them a few dozen Hershey bars, and piped 'em up to a Methedrine IV. Presto - electricity!

Perion

Reply to
Perion

Although I don't think this applies here, I thought I would share a system I was told about in Scotland.

The generator was used as a motor to keep a flywheel up to speed - the flywheel being used to start an engine in the event of power failure. Unfortunately the flywheel, a U-section welded to the spokes of the wheel, wasn't up to the job. So an "engineer" there had the brainwave of welding in some baffles into the U-section and then topping up the flywheel with water, once it had got to operational speed, to increase the rotational mass.

Not sure if the story is true or another "engineer's myths" - but I was told that that was why the on-site emergency backup wasn't working and why the generator room had water marks on the ceiling and walls. Mind you, it was in the days when I was an apprentice and quite likely to toddle off to the stores in search of red oil for the warning lamps. They even got me with the bucket of water and the broom trick...

Reply to
Palindr☻me

I have seen a similar generator built by Kohler at an antique engine show. They were built mostly for farm use in the days before utility power reached rural areas. This one was rated for 1000 watts at 110 volts dc and started on 24 volt battery power. If you turned on a load, battery power caused a current relay to close and put 24 volts to the ignition and starter windings. Once the engine was up to speed, another relay switched the load to 110 volts while the start windings generated voltage to charge the battery. When all of the load was turned off, the current relay dropped out and stopped the engine.

On a side note, I know of a county office building that has three old backup generators. They're so old and undersized that there's not enough power to run the computers during a utility outage. In face, the engine on one of them is a Ford flathead V-8!

Mike

Reply to
inetnews.worldnet.att.net

Energy from a battery feeds the generator. Any other way and it's a perpetual motion machine.

Dwayne

Reply to
Dwayne

The guy who has it says its a model S-140. I can't find any info on it ...

Reply to
N7RX

Mind

those villains!

i heard about some guys that sent the owners son out for a gallon of striped paint.

Reply to
TimPerry

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