You correct on both counts. There is no such thing as AC or DC capacitors and yes, a capacitor acts as an open circuit to DC. You get an A+.

 

Well, as luck would have it I am an expert. A capacitor does not increase voltage; if you put in 12 volts you get out 12 volts. A capacitor stores current. A capacitor blocks DC when in a series circuit, passes AC in a series circuit. When in a parallel circuit a capacitor will smooth out pulsating DC by removing and remove the AC ripple. A stator will put out high voltage and that's why. like I said before, everything electrical is regulated. You are correct the AC voltage in your house has peak voltage of 120 * 1.4 = 168 VAC peak. Nobody uses that though.

You have the basics ideas correct, some wrong, but in the ballpark. But need a little more education before you can argue with a trained engineer who has been in this feild for a long time.

 

wyorider, I challange you to put a 3000uf capacitor and rectifier on your yammi, and we will settle this once and for all. Any good electrical person loves to test his knowledge so I don,t see you passing this challenge up. I think you find your ac voltage regulator doesn't clip the voltage as good as we would like. My 250r will only put out 11.5 volts no matter if at idle or 3000(never checked at a higher rpm). But I can charge a capacitor up 40volts. My theory is the capacitor will charge until the highest value of the rippled dc. I know that a capacitor does not step up voltage but in a dc circuit it will charge to the highest value. You can say I have a bad voltage regulator, which might be true but I have tried others with the same results. And explain how when I add a soild state dc 12v regulator(in parallel) after the rectifier(with 12vac on it) and then I put a 3000uf capacitor I can still charge the capacitor to 20-24volts. how can this be when I have now gone through two voltage regulators. I love to constuctivly argue no matter how out gunned I may be, I like to think it will make me smarter in the end. I am not trying to come off as a know it all. I just know what I have done and what the results were.
I am sure you have forgot more than I know when it comes to electronics but that doesn't explain my results.

 

wyorider, I challange you to put a 3000uf capacitor and rectifier on your yammi, and we will settle this once and for all. Any good electrical person loves to test his knowledge so I don,t see you passing this challenge up. I think you find your ac voltage regulator doesn't clip the voltage as good as we would like. My 250r will only put out 11.5 volts no matter if at idle or 3000(never checked at a higher rpm). But I can charge a capacitor up 40volts. My theory is the capacitor will charge until the highest value of the rippled dc. I know that a capacitor does not step up voltage but in a dc circuit it will charge to the highest value. You can say I have a bad voltage regulator, which might be true but I have tried others with the same results. And explain how when I add a soild state dc 12v regulator(in parallel) after the rectifier(with 12vac on it) and then I put a 3000uf capacitor I can still charge the capacitor to 20-24volts. how can this be when I have now gone through two voltage regulators. I love to constuctivly argue no matter how out gunned I may be, I like to think it will make me smarter in the end. I am not trying to come off as a know it all. I just know what I have done and what the results were.
I am sure you have forgot more than I know when it comes to electronics but that doesn't explain my results.

 

wyorider, I would like to challange you to hook up a rectifier and a 3000uf elecroltic capacitor that is polarized(meaning it will only work in a dc circuit)and put it across the negative and positive termenals of the full wave rectifier and measure the voltage. In my experince this will show 20 plus volts. I know that capacitors do not step up voltages but they will store up to the highest voltage in the circuit. I have checked the voltage on the ac side of the rectifier and it will average 11.5vac and have then checked the rectified side with a capacitor hooked in parallel to the dc load and found 20-40volts depending on engine rpm. I thought I would be smart and add a 12vdc soild state regulator after the rectifier then I hooked the capacitor in parallel with the dc load off the second regulator. Guess what, it helped but now I still get 18-24volts. I think the factory voltage regulators do not clip the voltage at a true 12vac at all frequencys, remember these are use to control voltage for incandescent bulbs or to charge a battery when a rectifier is added. On that note I have removed the voltage regulator from my one year old zr600 snowmobile and had the same 11.5vac when using it, now if I want to have a battery on my sled all I have to do is add a rectifier but if the sled is only producing 11.5 volts how will it be charging a 12.6volt battery. I will admit I have not checked the output of my sled but if its regulator is keeping my voltage down to 11.5volts on my bike I would think it would be safe to say it would be the same. Now the only thing that I can see that would be causing me my higher voltages would be if I would need another factory ac regulator in parallel because I do not have any lights on the bike. All I have is a timer-relay for clutchless shifting and a 8 volt regulator to charge the MSD 7.2 battery. Maybe the regulator is letting spikes past it but it never shows on my fluke meter when checking it,always 11.5 or less.I love to constructivly argue, even when I am outgunned, I don't back away from something because someones creditials are better than mine, not that I don't respect other peoples acheivments I just need to be shown where I am going wrong not just told. I am by far no expert but every thing I have wrote is truthful and is what I have experienced.

 

Well I picked up the new 6V dc horn for my XR600 this morning. Installed it right away to test it out and was very pleased. It's significantly louder than the 12V dc except at idle. This horn is a little different. It's about 4" diameter instead of 3" and of course weighs a little more. Anyhow, I'm pleased with the end product and don't plan on any other modifications. Already have the license plate mounted and am ready to go whereever I want again. Thanks again for the help. Max