James Sweet writes:

If the armature has windings, you need to connect to them. The only
alternator that wouldn't require any brushes nor slip rings would be one
that had just a permenant magnet on the armature.

So this one I'm looking at then doesn't exist? It clearly says
"Brushless Alternator" and there are clearly no brushes or slip rings,
just as there clearly *are* windings rather than permanent magnets on
the rotor. It's starting to sound like a magic trick.

You've pretty much described it. The two pole armature gets current
induced in it by rotating inside the stator and that is made to be DC
by the diode or more likely, diodes. That then acts like the permanent
magnet rotating inside a stationary magnetic field. There doesn't need
to be a smoothing cap inside to make it pure DC. I'm not going to claim
any knowledge of the details but the scheme certainly seems plausible and
with care in designing the magnetic components seems like it should work
quite well.

--- sam | Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/
Repair | Main Table of Contents: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/
+Lasers | Sam's Laser FAQ: http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
| Mirror Sites: http://www.repairfaq.org/REPAIR/F_mirror.html

Important: Anything sent to the email address in the message header above is
ignored unless my full name AND either lasers or electronics is included in the
subject line. Or, you can contact me via the Feedback Form in the FAQs.