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Alternator Analysis with Scope

Help, Advice and DIY Tutorials on Volvo's P80 platform cars -- Volvo's 1990s "bread and butter" cars -- powered by the ubiquitous and durable Volvo inline 5-cylinder engine.

1992 - 1997 850, including 850 R, 850 T-5R, 850 T-5, 850 GLT
1997 - 2000 S70, S70 AWD
1997 - 2000 V70, V70 AWD
1997 - 2000 V70-XC
1997 - 2004 C70

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MrAl
Posts: 1700
Joined: 8 April 2015
Year and Model: v70, 1998
Location: New Jersey
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Alternator Analysis with Scope

Post by MrAl »

Hello there,

I am having a little trouble figuring out if this alternator pattern is right for this car (1998 v70).
I looked around on the web and found that when one diode is open there is always a 'missing' phase portion which is not too hard to spot and this scope shot does not show that, but the 2 hump regularity bothers me because i have not been able to reproduce that wave in electrical theory by opening a diode or shorting a diode or really any other problem i introduce into a perfectly operating three phase rectifier system.

So the question is, can anybody tell if this is normal for this car? (see pic)

Also, most alternators seem to use three phase wye connected coils but take the output from those coils as a delta system (to take advantage of the higher voltage i presume) and then rectify that. Does anyone know if that is the case for this kind of car too?

Thanks for any info or ideas you can offer.

The engine speed for this pic was about 1500rpm. Another thing i dont know is the ratio of the engine speed to the alternator shaft speed. I dont want to use the scope pics to try to figure that out, i would rather know before hand and then look at the pics and see if it looks right. I only post one pic here because the other is about the same but at lower idle speed. There is also very light load on the electrical system (no lights, no heater, etc.).
The zero line in the pic is green, and AC coupling.
Note: Please ignore the very tiny squigglies on the waveform as that's an artifact of using a digital scope.
Attachments
ScopeAlternator_1500rpm-1.jpg
ScopeAlternator_1500rpm-1.jpg (65.38 KiB) Viewed 458 times
I’ve been driving a Volvo long before anyone ever paid me to drive one.
That's probably because I've been driving one since 2015 and nobody has offered to pay me yet.
1998 v70, non turbo, FWD, base model, on the road from April 2nd, 2015 to July 26, 2023.

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