[Gompers]

Originally Posted by ol'George

Never thought about doing both, but the output is dependent on load up to the rating of the Alt. so I think they do both.
We used to build alternators but not install the rect. and build a 110V.AC output.
Some Lincoln's had a 110V rear window defogger, so they actually had 2 alternators mounted on the engine.
I don't remember if they went into production but we built a run of prototypes.
They had to somehow control the voltage, as it is linear to rpm's.

Mechanical ones control the dynamo fields based on both voltage and current, which is why they have 3 coils (cut out, voltage and current) but i thought alternators just do it based on voltage, increasing or decreasing field current flow until the voltage reaches the designed level. Obviously the current influences the voltage at a given rpm, so I guess it sort of does both, but it just indirectly has control over the current up to the rated load of the alternator.