# Adding Lights to My Toro PowerShift 824



## tpenfield (Feb 24, 2015)

I got my Toro PS 824 last year and noticed that it had the 'wire' coming out from under the cowl for a lighting system. I wanted to make use of this to add a headlamp of some sort to the machine. In checking the output of the stator, I was getting a 30 volt p-p AC wave. So, looking back to my efforts rigging lights to my Briggs 305cc engine last year and the problems I had, I came up with a circuit design that would use an isolating transformer to provide better power output on the DC side.


Here is the schematic that I came up with . . .

















I took an old transformer and applied new windings to get a 175:175 ratio. Then put it all together in a small electronics box


















I ordered a 10 watt utility lamp from Optronics and mounted it on the engine flange near the starter motor. I found a place for the electronics box near the pulley cover.




















the light is really bright and barely flickers at low RPM. Seems to work great. The only problem is that the height of the light is a bit low, so the bucket casts a long shadow. I may raise the light up a bit with a bracket of some sort.










:smile2:


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## barney (Nov 21, 2017)

Man, all you guys are so handy on this forum. I can barely hammer a nail in straight.


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## cranman (Jan 23, 2016)

Great job Ted....you are my new electronics Guru....


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## tpenfield (Feb 24, 2015)

I found a better location for the light. I think this will work out better and not cast as much of a shadow as before.


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## paulm12 (May 22, 2015)

nicely done, thanks for posting.


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## RedOctobyr (Mar 2, 2014)

Wow, very cool, thanks for the write up! I'm not an EE, but am trying to understand your setup a little better.

What is the isolating transformer for? With a matching number of windings on both sides, I don't think it's changing your voltage, so I'm trying to understand its function. How is it different than just using the alternator's output directly?

The FW rectifier converts the AC to DC, the capacitor helps smooth out voltage ripples, to avoid flicker, and the 10k resistor does.... something, but I'm not sure what  It would put a very small constant load on the output, but I don't know enough to understand why that's needed.

Oh, and your new light location is basically where mine is located, it seems to work pretty well. The chute still blocks it some for me, but it covers pretty well. I've seen people mount them on top of the bucket, which would avoid being blocked by the chute, but then the lights getting wet becomes more of an issue.


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## tpenfield (Feb 24, 2015)

The transformer is known as an isolating transformer in order to get one side to float. The stator is tied to ground and I tried with another machine to get a similar setup to do a full wave rectification with no luck.

So, I tried an isolating transformer to get one side to float and get a full wave. This seems to work and I got a nice smooth DC voltage out off an 18 watt system.


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