I'm familiar with magnetos from aircraft engines, and alternators from car engines. I'm learning more about motorcycle systems now, and studying stator and rotor systems. This article has helped me.
My question is if these two systems are equivalent:
A magneto system like in a lawnmower, with a permanent magnet on a flywheel passing an induction coil and transformer, connected to the spark plug.
A stator with several sets of windings on it, and a flywheel rotor with permanent magnets on it, connected to the spark plug through a coil.
I know we then attach regulator and rectifier packs to then create useful DC power, but to just run the engine, that's not required, correct? That is to say I could start the engine with no battery at all, like a magneto?
I understand there's another form of stator and rotor, where power from the battery is passed through a coil to create an electromagnet, which then takes the role of the permanent magnet rotor in my previous example. Why would I do this? Is it so I don't need a regulator, because I can modulate the strength of the electromagnetic field? I would still need a rectifier in that system though, is that right?
Please feel free to point me to a good article covering this, I've failed to find one! Thank you.