Four pictures to follow:
I picked this up some years ago because it seemed like a good idea at the time and it promptly went into the back of the workshop. Well it's just come out into the light of day again.

The plates say it's a 500W charging control board, the question I have is:

How old is it (no date on any of the plates)?
Who made it and where?
Was it vehicle or bench mounted?

The finish seems to be DTB

Over to you guys

Thanks

Pete

Pete,

This is a British issue Switchboard for a Charging Set. The engine / generator part is normally in a tubular frame with wooden carrying handles slid through, This board is connected to the dynamo by a long screened lead. They are for charging banks of batteries. Not really vehicle mounted equipment. I have a larger Charging Set, a 1260 watt No.3, which is powered by a Petter single cyl. engine, the switchboard is practically the same cabinet and appearance.

The 550 watt sets were powered predominantly by Norman, JAP or Villiers engines.

Charging set
 

Richard

many thanks for the info,

any idea of a date ?

regards

Pete

Re: Charging set
 

Pete,

Anywhere between 1939 and 1945. I would guess they were not made after 45 because of the huge stocks of this sort of equipment. We were still using a lot of these type of sets in the army during the 70/80's and some parts were still stocked.

Richard

Date
 

Hello, with a bit of luck is there a date or a year on the ammeters or the Voltmeter, mine are dated 1942 and 1943

Green Greetings Hendrik :cool:

Thanks
 

Hendrik

Thanks for the suggestion I never thought to look,………… just dug it out of the shed and each ammeter and voltmeter is marked 1943

Richard

Thanks again for the input

Pete
:cheers:

I am looking for one of these boards if anyone in the UK has one for sale.

Charging board
 

Neil

send me a private message with requirements

Pete

Still looking for one of these boards and associated cable.

My strange interest in war-time Generators has now lead to me aquiring a very rare Villiers 550watt Generator used with the Control Panel which is the subject of this thread (see attached photograh's).

The 550watt range judging by their rarity seem to have been the predecessor's of the 1260watt range which were used throughout the army and also for many years post-war.

I am looking for a manual for this set or any of the other 550watt or 1260watt range.

generator
 

hello Neil,

since you are in to generators,
would you be interested in a Morris generator?
I have a acquaintance who wants to sel this working generator.
It even has a fully loaded spares box with it.

If you want any further info on it I can get you in contact with him.

here are some pics of it, they are not great because it is in a shed filled with interesting stuff.

All the best

Leon Hassing
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...PICT0022-1.jpg

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...7/PICT0023.jpg

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...7/PICT0036.jpg

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...7/PICT0039.jpg

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u...7/PICT0025.jpg

Leon

Thanks for the offer but a little bit too big for me without what it originally went into. I am can however post these pictures on another Forum if you are happy.

If indeed Military I assume it came out of a workshop truck or similar but without knowing the voltage I cannot comment further. I assume we are looking at a Alternator with seperate excitor unit.

Unfortunately although this may be the only one of this model in existance, they do not attract much interest or value and there is probably already someone on this forum thinking can I break it to use the engine for my truck or LRC.

At the other end of the scale were little 80W units such as this one http://www.oldengines.org.uk/page6.html

(And one for sale http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CHARGING-S...item3f11f0f132)

They go even smaller than this such as the steam operated generators but these and the 80 watt were designed for specialist purposes and were not widely issued.

The 300 watt followed by the 550 and 1260 watt sets were the models manufactured by the thousand for army use. Its surprising the Living History Guys have not caught on to Battery Charging as part of their displays because every radio set not using dry batteries would have required a charger.

I am still looking for one of the 550 watt Charging Boards to go with this set.

Apparently they were used in some vehicle setups as seen here in this Morris wireless van with No.9 set at: 07:10:56

https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C189873