Uses for 400hz generator?

[FireFighterHill]

What are some uses for 400hz generators? Can they be used to recharge a deep cell battery bank? Say for someone who lives off the grid?

Can 400hz be rectified down to 60hz? Is rectified even the correct terminology?

So besides incandescent bulbs what else are some possible uses?

 

[twright]

Run Aircraft Elec system whe they are siting on the ground.

 

[FireFighterHill]

Im looking more for useful everyday uses that the average joe could adapt a 400hz generator to fulfill.

 

[stampy]

Everything I have read says you will spend more $ and have more headaches trying to work around the cycles.

 

[uscgmatt]

It depends on how much money you want to spend. Cause it will take alot to convert. Your better off getting a 60hz head.

 

[uscgmatt]

I have to learn to type quicker. Stampy you posted twice for my once.

 

[The PIG Smith]

Well, if you have a FADAC (Field Artillery Digital Automatic Computer) you would want a genset that produced 400hz.
But, in today's environment, the only use of a FADAC would be a door stop for a very large barn or an anchor for a yacht.

 

[stampy]

I'm fast man! PS as a single engine pilot I love your comment at the bottom!

 

[KsM715]

Incandescent lighting, big boat anchor, donar engine for a 5kw genset with a blown motor.....Yes I have (2) 400 hz. Oh and for those who plan to bid on *********in ** realize they are 28v dc...

I know some guys dont like to hear it, But you could have just posted a reminder to all that when it comes to gen. sets to make sure they are bidding on what they think they are bidding on.

 

[FireFighterHill]

Does something like a battery charger care what hertz it is receiving? Im think say you wanna live off grid with solar panels and a battery bank. Maybe a 400 generator could be used to top off the battery bank in bad weather.

 

[stampy]

Sorry if I upset anyone just a friendly note and there are many gov websites... and I figured it was OK since I never linked to it so you would still have to look for yourself.

 

[KsM715]

Auction Postings: Please abide by the following rules concerning the posting of auction information in the forums:
• Do NOT post about future or current GL/GSA auctions. You may post about any auction after the auction is closed.
• Do not post links to auction photos. GL/GSA links quit working after a short period of time so save the image to your PC and then attach it to your post.

I know what you mean but its still a rule.
They (SS owners/Mods) dont want links to GL photos because after a certain amount of time the links go dead.

The rule of thumb is like this: if you personally wanted to bid on a certain item, would you post about it? Lots of guys buy gen. sets for many different reasons, no matter what the output/hz is.

 

[NDT]

Would this work? Assume the gen is 120 V 400Hz, hook the output to a rectifier and change to DC, then be able to charge 10 ea 12V batteries in series?

 

[m38inmaine]

I live off the power grid and use an inverter to run my system. I currently use a 8kw Isuzu diesel generator to charge my battery bank through the inverter. The charger in the inverter is rated at 70 amps and according to the Trace manual the charger uses the top of the wave form and thus requires a powerfull generator to get full amperage from the charger. This leads me to believe that the chargers are Hz specific and you would have to find a 400Hz charger, perhaps from a surplus aircraft parts company. 400Hz equipment is a specialized field and trying to convert it is cost prohibitive. Your best bet is to part out the set or replace the head with a commercial unit. Another thing you might consider and often overlooked are 28VDC gensets, they make great off grid battery chargers for a 24v system.

 

[dk8019]

I believe M38 nailed it, most electronics, battery chargers especially will have issues taking a higher freq. waveform. You could consult the mfg, and I'm sure you could build a battery charger from scratch, after all the basics aren't too complex, take an AC source, use a transformer to get the voltage down or up to get the RMS value of the AC form near to the DC voltage, use a bridge rectifier to get a DC form of sorts, run it through a regulator and then have have a DC output. In that way, building one might not be too hard.

 

[Isaac-1]

I am not an expert on this subject, however I think this is something that can't be addressed in simple terms like "battery charger" without understanding the types of battery chargers and how they work. Looking into battery chargers a while back I came across this http://www.efficientproducts.org/re...eryChargerTechincalPrimer_FINAL_29Sep2006.pdf and while the main topic of the article is not all that important to our topic, it does give a good overview of the major families of battery chargers. So to sum it up:

1, Heavy traditional Ferroresonant chargers are right out, as they are highly frequency sensitive to the point of not liking most generators

2, SCR chargers are probably a bad idea too as they are known to cause stator heating and wreak havoc with generator voltage regulation particularly when they are a majority of the load due to their inductive loading. For reference see Kohler technical publication TP-5400 section B-4 (available as a pdf download online)

3, Out of the major families of large chargers this leaves switched mode chargers, given the first thing they tend to do is rectify the power to DC this one shows hope. You might need to upgrade the component in the initial rectifier bridge for faster switching, etc. but that should be relatively easy, of course the downside is these are the most expensive and complex of the common type of large battery chargers.

Ike

 

[ROB L3]

i have done a little research on this also and found there is a way to reduce the hz to 60.there is a device called a (vfi} or variable frequency inverter that would do the job.the only problem is the cost of it unless you could find a used one somewhere. i got this info from an electritian who is pretty up to speed on this stuf,so if this is not correct blame him.

 

[southdave]

Maybe an upgrade for a Priuis or similar? lol

 

[Avn-Tech]

Group,

Probably the best thing to use a 400 HZ generator for is parts. All MEP series generators have 60 HZ equals. Buy a 60 HZ one, with a bad engine, and a 400 HZ with a good engine. Scrap the parts that do not interchange to recoup a part of you original investment.

I even checked into useing a 400 HZ motor generator (60 HZ in, 400 HZ out), and running it backwards to generate 60 HZ. All the experts siad it was not worth doing. My original plan was to purchase a 400 HZ generator to run the motor generator, to get the 60 HZ at the back end (old input).

If you are interested in Generators, check out:

Military MEP and Aircraft Gen-Sets - SmokStak

This site is dedicated to generator collectors/operaors (the SS of generators).

Laterrrrrrrr
Avn-Tech

 

[pctrans]

I suggest use it as a boat anchor..............