I am an Electrical Engineer, and have learned a trick for voltage reduction that is pretty cool and works very well. If you know that a 'power' diode has a 'forward' voltage drop of ~1.5 - 1.6 volts, which is pretty constant with amps, you can put several in series to produce about a 7V drop- let's see, that would be about 5 of them. They need to be rated for more amps than you are drawing so they won't burn up, but they will provide a stable reduction in voltage with not too much loss. I don't know how much amperage the thing draws, but these diodes have gotten cheap, and if you can measure the amp draw, I can find a part number. The cool thing is that they are cheaper than resistors and the forward voltage drop is not dependent on the amp draw to any great degree. So go measure the amps (shouldn't be to hard) or find the nameplate watts or amps, and we're good.
glenh :<) Chuck Kuecker wrote: > He will need to get a voltage reducer for it, either one or more > resistors or a 6V power supply, or he will need to swap out the motors > and other electrical parts like ignition coils and heating elements with > 12V parts. To calculate resistors, you need to measure the current draw > on 6V, and use Ohm's Law: resistance = volts / amps. For a 12V system, > you would use 6.3 V for the volts you need to drop across the resistor. > The wattage rating of the resistor would be amps squared times the > resistance times two, to give a safety margin. You use the same fuse amp > rating as for 6V. > > Digi-Key http://www.digikey.com/ or Mouser http://www.mouser.com/ are > good places to buy resistors, if the local Radio Shack does not have > what you need. > > I wonder how much of a market there is for 12V to 6V converters? The > design is pretty simple, and I am an electrical engineer... :) > > Chuck Kuecker > > On 6/28/2011 11:32 AM, Timothy Osburn wrote: >> I have a friend who is converting from 6 to 12 volts. He specifically wanted >> to know about his Southland gas heater. Anybody have suggestions? Thanks! >> >> >> Tim Osburn, Head Mechanic, Ralph Spoilsport Motors. >> Home of Fine, Old Volkswagens and....Grand Canyon Nut. >> _______________________________________________ >> vintagvw site list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.sjsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vintagvw >> > > _______________________________________________ > vintagvw site list > [email protected] > http://lists.sjsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vintagvw > > > > _______________________________________________ vintagvw site list [email protected] http://lists.sjsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vintagvw
