How Generators Work, And How To Fix Them. 

Generators are fascinating in how they work, but there are so many different variations and ways of doing things it's hard to do a comprehensive overview in a single video. They will certainly keep you on your toes! I hope you guys enjoy the video, and have an absolutely excellent weekend folks!!

Perhaps James Condon can learn something from this video about explaining to his viewers what generator windings do instead of just showing them the testing.

I'm an electrical engineer covering generator controls along with other stuff for an offshore drilling company. Your explanation and troubleshooting for that stand-by gen were spot-on; same approach our guys use troubleshooting the big diesels offshore. =) The cool thing was seeing all the same principles duplicated in miniature. The 15kW stand-by wasn't that much different from one of our 7,000kW gens, except we pull exciter power from a PMG.

Career mechanic, you gave the best explanation, schematic, and diagrams I’ve ever seen. You should have called this episode “ come learn ac systems, dc systems, engine diagnosis, and plumbing in under an hour” . Big fan!

Nice save and great video. Fantastic job with the illustrations and explaining how a brushed and brushless generator works.

I've worked on generators for years and your explanations are correct. Your troubleshooting is very good. Farmers fix it all.

Everybody needs a friend like you John. That’s the reason I like your channel so much. I really enjoy the logic in your work. You might not exactly know how something works, but with persistence you’ll work it out. I wish you were my neighbour!

Your trying very hard enjoy

Your teaching ability is simply amazing. Videos like this are what truly makes the internet great.

The bridge rectifier simply keeps the alternating waveform always positive, but it is still alternating from zero to max voltage. The regulator will add a low pass filter to turn it into an actual DC level which can then be adjusted from zero to a max voltage. The low pass filter parameters are adjusted based on the frequency of the ac signal which is set by the speed of the spinning motor.

I’ll never have to do the things you are doing on your farm, but every video you make is so fascinating to watch because of your editing and voice overs. Thanks for all the effort you put into these!

We have used the

I have to give you props for mentioning other youtubers that are more specialized in certain areas. I have watched James Condon mentioned here and I also watch Jesse Muller mentioned in the telescoping lift video. Nothing wrong with giving someone credit for learning something from them. Thanks for all your videos they are appreciated.

I never get tired of watching Farmcraft101. It doesnt matter how long the videos are. Keep doing the great Job you are doing John. Thank you

I learned more today than in the previous hours of watching others work on their generators.

Very well done, and a fitting addition to James Condon’s remarkable videos each week. Your diagrams and explanations helped me better understand things I thought I already knew. Your video editing and voiceovers are second to none, and the pace of your work keeps me very interested in every video you post. Great job!

You've really improved your drawing skills. Maybe the wife will put on refrigerator!

Just an excellent tutorial on how generators work in principle & how you went about troubleshooting & repairing. Great job!

This in-depth explanation of generator design and function was a nice throwback to a series of elective classes I took in 9th and 10th grade called "Energy, Power And Transportation I/II/III"... some of my favorite classes in high school. And the teacher was just really good at explaining seemingly complex processes with clear examples of simple principles. Much the way you do, John. For folks who learn the way I do, you make a very good teacher/instructor.

That explanation was spot on, just like my teacher explained it back when I trained to be a TV repair engineer, we touched into a lot of different aspects of power generating and usage. We even did a full montage of a fusebox in a house, with all connections and a shitload of wires to connect. The teacher would come up with different malfunction that we was supposed to find and rectify, and at the end we could almost find any problem with any TV or radio set they dumped on us. This was back when TV's was huge and bulky and the flatscreen had not been introduced yet. Nowadays nobody repairs anything anymore, and just pay to get a new item. Thousands of perfectly good electronic devices gets just dumped each year. Like a modern flatscreen tv has to be OLED or it is not good enough, and of course curved screen is a must. It's just so silly.