GreasyJonny wrote on 05/12/17 at 08:04:51:Dave wrote on 05/12/17 at 07:23:09:The system has a rectifier/regulator under the seat, it is bolted to the back fender. The concern was not that it isn't regulated - the concern is that the regulator works by dumping the left over energy into a resistor and it creates heat. When you take a 40 watt headlight out of the system and install a 20 watt LED.....those 20 watts are "excess" if you don't use them somewhere else - so the rectifier/regulators just adds those 20 watts to the energy that is is going to "dump" as heat.
Ok yeah this is exactly how I understood it, but I was mixing that understanding with someone else's comment mentioning that the rectifier couldn't regulate current, and that's why it had to dump the 30w in heat instead of actually running cooler with less load (which was the electrical engineers initial assumption).
So back to my idea. What does everyone think of adding a resistor in series to make up the difference?
In series with the bulb? That drops the available voltage to the bulb giving you a dimmer light.
You mean in parallel, but that's what the zeners do.
Open circuit, the generator puts out over a 100v each phase.
Closed circuit IDK, but it's over 14v.
So, depending on resistance, circuit load (lights, vest, cell phone, etc.) and battery charge, voltage and current will vary up unto the zener rating.
Yes, you can add more load and take it off the zener... but, that's what they do.
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