silly question ac 2 dc and cheap entertainment

[tri again]

I was trying to help out a neighbor with no wires to follow. Complete parts mutant trike.

I told him a wire or 2 come out of the flywheel hopefully generating ac voltage that somehow transforms to dc for the coil, which is triggered by the points to fire the plug.

In my infinite wisdom, I realize that I know less than I thought, or forget more than I ever knew.

Anyway, flywheel / stator generates (alternates) ac voltage that should go to some rectifier thing to send DC to the coil, right?

Or can a coil feed on AC?

my atc 90 diagram shows no rectifier, just alternator to coil AND lights (points etc)

how does it control bulb blowout without controlling voltage?

No battery / powersoak imitation voltage regulator like some of the 'other' hondas (ct90)

is it possible that the points condenser soaks up the ac pulses and lets them drool out as proper feed for the coil?

or maybe the alternator puts out pulsating dc as opposed to a true alternating polarity ac. and just pulses at the right time that the points need juice.

[riverrat]

The bulbs are 12v, so there is a rectifier somewhere on there. Might be called something different in the manual.

[Grizzlypeg]

Has to be rectified if it feeds an ignition coil. On my 200x, that job is done by the CDI unit. Its the falling voltage caused by the opening points that causes the coil's field to collapse and it release its high voltage energy. If you fed it AC, the field is constantly reversing and it wouldn't work.

As for over voltage, I'm sure the engineers designed the stator that drives the lighting circuit to only deliver so much voltage at max rpm. All this ac vs dc is speculation as we don't know much about your neighbors bike.

is it possible that the points condenser soaks up the ac pulses and lets them drool out as proper feed for the coil? No, its connected across the points, and is therefore eliminated from the circuit when the points are closed. Its just there to quench spark at the points and prolong their life.

As I stated on a previous thread, an 84 200x has no rectifier for the lighting circuit, nor does it need one. 12v bulbs don't care whether you feed them ac or dc. They just work on resistance inthe filament to build incandescent heat and light.

[jeswinehart]

What exactly are you working on Joe, what kind of machine ?

[Grizzlypeg]

On my bike there are two stators, one for ignition and one for lighting. The ignition one feeds into the CDI which takes care of the whole issue wrt the coil. The other coil just runs to the light switch and feeds the bulbs. This is probably common on bikes that don't have a battery to charge.