Looking for contact to have a voltage regulator rebuilt

ELYNN4

I had to replace the voltage regulator on a 6kw Mecc Alte alternator.  At $700 a pop I’m hoping to find someone who can troubleshoot and possibly rebuild the old voltage regulator.  Anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks in advance!

Dave Angelini

How about a picture or link? Is it internal regulation or external?   

Stuff like that might get some hits.

I know a guy who can fix about any analog circuitry but would charge a fortune to learn an internal regulator to an Alternator. He mainly does Marine electronics for big Diesel power applications.

ELYNN4

It’s an external regulator, but flooded with epoxy.  Not sure how rebuild able it might be.

Dave Angelini

Buy it !  He would charge that just to look. Good Luck.

ELYNN4

Thanks Dave, already did.  Just curious what it might cost to repair and have a spare one on hand…

BB.

Electronics are a huge nightmare for anyone that wants to fix and keep "something" running for years/decades...

I have designed and worked on equipment (telephone gear, networking, ship board, etc.) that--If it works well--A person would like to keep running for a decade or two...

Have an F150 Ford Pickup from 1998 or so, and some of the "switches" were not working correctly (wipers would not work, electric windows, odometer, etc... All intermittent issues). Turns out it is a nice board with custom(?) IC with I/O connections just under the fuse box. Ford (after 10+ years?) "disowns" any parts or support for their vehicles it seems (I remember the old Ford F150 Ads that made a big deal about their decades old P/U would keep running while other brands would be scrapped at a higher rate).

Now--Best you can do is buy a used (from a wrecking yard/parts vehicle?) device and cross your fingers (first replacement would set off the alarm after a week, then every 30 minutes)--Got a replacement (no charge)--And nobody wanted the old parts (no debugging or repairs). $250 a pop (lifetime part guarantee--I guess if they can still find a parts vehicle).

Once we went beyond simple gate/discrete transistor level design, there just is not a "market" for keeping older products running.

My own two cents... First five years, decent customer support (parts available, technicians that know how to debug and repair (and had test gear setup to do the work). 5-10 years, maybe you will find some old stock or somebody that buys old products and debugs/sells the boards... 10+ years, unless you are very lucky, generally you should plan on buying a new/replacement system.

-Bill

JRHill

Fixing a board that is filled/covered with epoxy is kind of a non-start.

BB.

Conformal coatings are always a difficult choice. Manufactures and consumers get moisture and vibration protection, but repairs are very difficult (to near impossible).

-Bill

NANOcontrol

A long time ago I had a Toyota Supra.  The ignition module went out and went to the dealer for a new one. I asked the price and without looking he said $200.  That was back when that was real money.  I said to myself, Who won the war.   So, I opened it up and it was buried in this sticky stupid mess. It was a thick film circuit on a ceramic base.  It wasn't easy but I managed to solder some wires to it.  I didn't have the right part so I created a Darlington transistor arrangement with four transistors.  I drove it for another 40K and sold it to someone else who at least got another 20K.  Form follows function. There are lots of cheap voltage regulators available that would probably work with modification.  I've never seen those heatsinks with built in spring.

ELYNN4

Thanks for all the input.  Looks like I’m left with an interesting looking paperweight at best…

JRHill

Worst would be putting a bunch of time into it and get nowhere.

Dave Angelini

A better use of time would be to try and analyze why it failed ?    Soft starts and soft stops ?

ELYNN4

The generator’s VR worked flawlessly for five years with a Magnum  PAE 2024.  Six months ago intermittent high voltage events that kicked it off line started to appear.  The VR finally gave up the ghost full time, so it was replaced.  Can’t point to anything that could have caused the problem.  Intermittent failures are a challenge to diagnose…

Dave Angelini

My point is what could be possible done to make it last more than X years?

Example  I had a 200A alternator on my old sailboat that had an option for a variable field rheostat.
The field circuit is what controls the output current to the load. This option allows one to soft start the 
alternator output and soft shutdown the current. It also made the dual fan belts last 3 times longer. The other thing that was done was adding surge protection. Semiconductors can only take a finite number of high voltage events and then they breakdown. All of this was done to make the system last a long time as without a spare it was a plane flight from some island or 3rd world country back for parts.

XW charger soft starts as you know but it's transfer relays are killed by disconnects under load. Something that is often caused by the user. Not always though. One can remove large loads before shut-down or even disable the the charger in the user menu before shut-down of the genset.

Magnum is DOA these days, very sorry to say that.

ELYNN4

Good points Dave - thanks.  I’ll look for ways to reduce the inrush and disconnect loads etc.  yes, it’s time to upgrade to a 48volt system…