Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

I was wondering if anyone uses Buck Converters with any of their generators? My PM Research generator is a bulb destroyer, especially when starting the engine and purging the condensate. When the engine first starts to run it usually smokes the bulb before I can get it settled down. I bought a Buck Converter about a year or so ago and finally started playing with it this morning. It’s really cool and you can set the output voltage to pretty much whatever you want. I like it a lot. The PMR generator puts out a lot of voltage by the time you get it running fast enough to eliminate the flickering of the bulb. This pretty much solves all the issues and I can spin the generator as fast as I want and the bulb lights up stays the same.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00SY37S00?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

This is what I have. Amazon has a ton of them. They are also inexpensive.

Hi Jim,

This is strictly the experimental stage right now. I don’t know if I want to put it in a base with a lamp post or in the gauge cluster that I want to make. I’m a little bit limited on my woodworking equipment.

I didn’t think about it before, but this also would eliminate the need for resistors if you’re using LEDs.

I'm  following along to see how this goes John. Good luck.

Me too....very interesting.