Empac Generator Voltage Regulator

[felizcortez]

My friend has an Empac generator on his boat and the voltage regulator is bad. He experiences no output from the genset, but when I remove the regulator and put 12V on the field windings the genset outputs 110V.

The voltage regulator is the RST-55-1. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find anything about this part online. My friend called the company and they said the unit is old and obsolete. They sent him some regulators they had at the shop, but they don't know about the state of them. Most are labeled N/G which we assume means Not Good.

A few questions:
1. Are voltage regulators interchangeable? Can you purchase another unit/brand and it will be able to plug into the system? (Similar to alternator regulators)
2. If we can't get an exact replacement and the regulators are interchangeable, is there a good regulator you would recommend?

This is the info I have on the regulator.

[Sailmonkey]

There are literally dozens of universal automatic voltage regulators available. Prices range from less than $20 to several hundred dollars. I’ve used several of the various mid priced units, normally whatever brand could be gotten quickly and they’ve been all unremarkable (which is good).

Edit…I’ve just read your notes again. You’ll likely need to re-wire the ignition if it’s flashing the field with every start.

[felizcortez]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

There are literally dozens of universal automatic voltage regulators available. Prices range from less than $20 to several hundred dollars. I’ve used several of the various mid priced units, normally whatever brand could be gotten quickly and they’ve been all unremarkable (which is good).

Edit…I’ve just read your notes again. You’ll likely need to re-wire the ignition if it’s flashing the field with every start.

Thanks for the response. Do you have a recommendation of things to look for in a regulator? Most of the ones. Seeing have 6 wires. 4 in one connector then two output wires. This is a single phase generator 120V genset and I believe it's an alternator style, but I don't know if it's brushed or brushless. I'm assuming that the 4 wires would be if you were doing 220V 2 phase vs just using half of them for 120V single phase.

[Sailmonkey]

Here’s a link to the manual of one that I think I’ve used before.

https://www.partsfortechs.com/asapca...F%20Manual.pdf

If you look closely you’ll see that it can be attached as a four wire regulator. Power and sense combined (two wires) and then field current to the excitor is two wires.

[felizcortez]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

Here’s a link to the manual of one that I think I’ve used before.

https://www.partsfortechs.com/asapca...F%20Manual.pdf

If you look closely you’ll see that it can be attached as a four wire regulator. Power and sense combined (two wires) and then field current to the excitor is two wires.

My friend is still having issues with his generator apparently and hasn't replaced the regulator. I wanted to check whether this one would be a good fit and if it should be wired like this.

Is the external VR that it shows in the diagram necessary?