No. Dont have the Charger apart. Flew her some yesterday. Gotta keep the condensation out of the oil, you know. :)) I`m building another of my own design which is an enclosed high wing STOL. Got tired of freezing my butt in the wintertime sitting in that open `pit.
Regards, Warren
In the old 6v VWs, replacing the 6v starter motor with a 12v one was more work than it was worth. The diameter of the starter motor shaft was different, meaning you had to replace the bearing in the transaxle (transmission) case. Besides, the 6v starters ran fine (meaning
*fast* ) on 12v! I did run a 12v coil, though.The windshield wiper motor was a bit of a pain. The 6v and 12v wipers parked on opposite sides of the car, so a simple swap wouldn't work. Most people went with the dropping resistor, although I managed to mate a 12v motor to a 6v wiper gearbox. This, along with replacing the wiper switch (and running one more wire), gave you the 2 wiper speeds!
The turn signal relay was worse. Running a 6v relay on 12v produced a faster 'blink rate' (until the relay welded itself). DAHMKIT! It didn't help that VW changed the flasher wiring (and relay) almost every year (often combining too many things into the same 'relay' ).
The 6v horn worked fine on 12v. The fuel guage was still mechanical (no sending unit to worry about). The radio needed to be changed, but then again, who wanted to listen to the stock AM radio?
Ok, let's see. What else .. Ok, all the light bulbs (headlights, taillights, turn signals, brake lights, parking lights, dash lights, dome lights, idiot lights, etc.). You *know* you're going to forget at least *one* of them.
Ok, other than the headlight switch and the headlight/highbeam relay, I think that's it.
Ah, memories .....
A zener diode and a voltage regulator are not the same. If you had a zener diode rated at 6 volts for the avalanche point, then it is guaranteed to have a voltage drop of 6 volts from lead to lead, if you hook it up properly. Because of this when you hook it up in series like the other guy described, 12-6 =6
The voltage regulator is the much more sophisticated way of doing it. If you use one of those, the voltage will always be 6 volts no matter what.
The trouble with both parts is getting one big enough to handle the current.
-Jonathan
Johnathan - may I humbly suggest that you are mistaken. Consider either approach that provides a 6V feed to the hobbs meter. Put a 30 mdf capacitor across the meter terminals. when the contacts close to energize the wind solenoid (that's how the mechanism works on the one I'm familar with), the current is provided predominantly by the capacitor. The 7806 (or the more common 7805) will supply 3 amps, which is probably enough by itself, but the capacitor will give it an added surge capability.
As much as I enjoy seeing what sort of suicide devices people will cobble together and bolt to an aircraft... I feel almost obligated to mention that you can find brand new 12v Hobbs hourmeters on E-bay for about $20.
Jonathan, this is pretty close, but could some clarification...
A zener diode IS a primitive voltage regulator. Normally, zener diodes are wired in parallel with the load, and shunt excess current in order to "clamp" the input voltage at the zener rating. The power supply voltage must be greater than the zener diode's breakdown rating, and have a current-limiting resistor wired in series with the zener diode and the load to drop the power supply voltage to the zener's value. It's this shunted current, (oddly) called the "zener current" that determines the wattage of the diode. So if you're using the zener to clamp the voltage at 6V, the device draws 3 amps, and the anticipated zener current is 0.5 amps, you'd need a zener diode rated for at least 3 watts. (6V X 0.5A = 3W) Note too that a zener diode can't work if the current through the limiting resistor causes the voltage at the top of the zener diode to drop below its rated reverse-bias breakdown value. If this happens, the zener current drops to 0 and whatever the voltage is at the limiting resistor's junction with the zener diode is the voltage applied to the load.
On the other hand a voltage regulator, for all practical purposes, IS the power supply to the load, and its power rating is determined solely by the load current. So if we have a 6V device that draws 3 amps, our 7806 voltage regulator must be rated for at least 18 watts. You are correct in stating that the voltage applied to the load device will always be 6V, regardless of the current drawn by the load. (Ironically, the 78-series voltage regulator chips use zener diode networks internally to provide their reference voltages.)
This link provides an excellent explanation of zener diodes and has schematics of what I've tried to explain above:
Respectfully, Scotty
*** And now, we return to our regularly-scheduled program... ***"J>> solid state semiconductor regulator chip, in this case it
|| As much as I enjoy seeing what sort of suicide devices people will ||cobble together and bolt to an aircraft... I feel almost obligated to ||mention that you can find brand new 12v Hobbs hourmeters on E-bay for about ||$20. ||
Texas Parts Guy
Well, I never knew hourmeters were some sort of "suicide device". I will watch this "device" very closely and if it shows any sign of committing Hari-Kari, out it goes!
Yep, the new 12 volt meters are all state-of-of-the-art plastic and have the clock works you have in the wall clock in the garage. The ancient meter I have is all metal, has a wind up clock mechanism and a familiar face from my younger days. I would not trade it for 10 of the new , "quartz" jobs.
BTW, last I heard, I still have the right to "cobble together" anything I please and bolt it onto an experimental aircraft, auto, boat or kite and "experiment " to my hearts content. And if you are entertained by this, we both win.:))
Warren
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