directly hook an automotive Inverter to the Alternator?

An automotive alternator is 3-phase rectified, thus will have a fair amount of ripple. Whether your inverter can cope will require a "smoke" test ;-)

...Jim Thompson

-- | James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | | | E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat | |

| 1962 | America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

Have you ever looked at the output of an unloaded alkternator on a scope?

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Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

I thought the alternator is already connected to the 12V battery.

Or did you mean, REMOVE the 12V battery?

Michael

Also most alternator regulators are designed to 'charge' a batter, and expect that a battery is attached to the alternator. You may find regulation is poor, especially at light loads with no battery.

What are you spinning the alternator with? Also, with no batery, you need a self exciting (single wire) alternator and IIRC these require a minimum RPM to activate, and that minimum speed is on the order of

2500 RPM.

For the ripple problem, I'd think a reasonable capacitor would help. Since inverters are basically SMPS I don't think they expect totally clean input voltage. but as Jim says: you can give it a test!