Alternator needs battery power to generate power?

[dom14]

Hi Guys,

I've been wondering(again).

I'm onto a little garage project of combining an old mower motor with an alternator to make a simple generator.

It is that i'm bit confused with the idea in the heading of this thread.

1)Do I need to connect a 12V battery to the alternator exciter(or field wire/trigger wire) OR

2)Can I simply join the field/trigger wire to the B+ and that should do the job?!!

3)How do I use the sense wire? Do I need to join that to the B+ as well(when there's no load present)?

Thanx in advance for any advice/tips/explanations.