A short introduction ...

[ducwiz]

... of a new member:

JimF just registered me for this interesting forum, and I'm glad for the possibility to contribute here.
My name is Hansjoerg, I live in Germany, working as an engineer for technical physics, specialized in electronics. My DUCATI is a 350 MarkIIID, built as a 250 in 1973. I bought it around 1979, upgraded and refurbished it in 1981, and rode it for ~30000 km in the following years. Since ~20 years it sleeps in my garage due to lack of time (and an ultra-reliable and comfortable Guzzi V1000G5), but recently I decided to reactivate it.
While the performance on the road was a lot of joy, I was always annoyed by it's nasty 6V electrics. The 6V headlight bulbs grew more and more expensive, while failing frequently, sometimes already after 300 km in service. Also the light was yellowish and dim, so a night ride through the woods became a real adventure. After studying the alternator and regulatorc system, I finally found a way to convert the DUCATI regulator for 12 V output, while retaining the alternator unchanged. As a present for my debut I have uploaded informations about the project to a filehoster in the cloud:
http://minus.com/m1pfYbm8J/1g
Forum members skilled in lectronic DIY work should feel free to download the files and copy the circuit. I'm very interested in questions and comments.

Best regards Hans(joerg)

[wcorey]

Hello Hans,

And welcome to the site.
Your documentation is well presented and organized, very nice, would've been good to have had you around in some of the previous discussions on this subject.

Have you tested the system to come up with the 90w output figure or is that theoretical?
At how many rpm is that number achieved?
Do you have any numbers as to what it puts out at lower rpm?

Regards,
Bill

[ducwiz]

Hi Bill,

thanks for the warm welcome.

My bike is equipped with the DUCATI elettronica CD ignition, so only 5 of the 6 alternator coils feed power to the charging system. The ignition has an independant HV coil, thus the engine runs without battery, similar to a magneto.
I measured 4.5 - 5.5 Amp/13.5 Volts @ ~5000 rpm, and about 1 A @ ~2000 rpm, back in ca. 1990, using different bulbs (H4, rear and brake) as load resistors.
I assume having modified about 80 regulators (= no. of obsolete steel lids still lying around in a corner of my shop) during ~25 years, and never had to bear any complaints.

H.