REFLECTOR: Bus, Battery & Electrical Instrumentation

[Jim Sower]

<... measure the output voltage ... with ... digital meter set to AC 
volts ...>
That's a neat idea.  Am I safe in assuming that the aberrations in the 
ripple caused by shorted/open diodes will be sort of "damped out" and 
make for less of a departure from the AC voltage than would be the case 
if one were looking at the trace on a scope?  I am further assuming that 
brush noise won't be strong enough to register at all.

That's a lot of assumptions :o) ... Jim S.

Wayne wrote:

>> Does anyone know of a simple way to detect out of bounds Alt ripple? 
>> ... Jim S.
>>
> Now that you have reminded me  I used this technique for a quick and 
> dirty power supply check on the equipment I used to troubleshoot.
>
> measure the output voltage of the alternator with a decent digital 
> meter set to AC volts. The ripple should be  fairly low. The DC 
> component will be ignored by the meter due to the AC coupling to the 
> meter.
>
> Record in your logbook the value when your system was new and in good 
> operating order under various load conditions. You should have a good 
> clue because the ripple will jump up several hundred millivolts  (for 
> a 12 volt system)  when a diode craps out.
>
> Wayne
>
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