Car alternator as R/C engine dyno?

Sounds good ta me !!

You sure can, though you'd have to factor in the low efficiency of the alternator, should be possible to calibrate it with a known electric motor and power supply. If you were in Perth, I'd give you a hand and use a HP6813A as power source ;)

No reason why an alternator wouldn't work if the revs and power outputs match... and provided you don't mind the error due to efficiency losses.

Since the power involved presumably isn't very great it's probably also relatively easy to cobble up a dinkum Prony Brake. Only needs a flat pulley, a lever actuated brake band and a spring balance.

The efficiency of the alternator would introduce some error. It would be OK for comparing engines at a fixed RPM value, since more current from the alternator would always require more torque from the engine, but it would not be so useful for any kind of quantitative measurements, nor for questions line "can I get more power at 4000rpm or 4500rpm", since there is no guarantee that the efficiency of the alternator will be the same at different RPM.

You can make a surprisingly effective adjustable brake by passing some DC through one of the windings of an old induction motor (single phase or three phase, they all work and you don't need many volts). You could mount the induction motor casing in some large ball race bearings coaxial with the motor shaft, and make an arm of known radius attached to the motor casing, with a spring balance or load cell hooked to the end of it. This would allow you to measure the torque accurately. The RPM could be counted using an optical sensor and a microcontroller or frequency counter. If you use a load cell instead of spring balance, then you could hook the lot up to a PC and plot all sorts of curves to find the optimal gear ratios etc.

Chris

as an engine dyno?

ISTM that the model engine maay run too fast for a direct connection. check that out first.

I guess the rotor could be replaced with a solid lump of aluminium and a regulated current applied to the output windings, might need new bearings too.

Would a geared down auto cabin fan (permanent magnet) motor connected to a variable DC load using a couple of '3055's or whatever be more useful perhaps.

Depending on the gearing you use the alternator might have too much inertia.

gearing down reduces innertia. I never heard of a motor that ran worse with a large flywheel.

personally I'd go for a perforated disc in a tank and adjkust the water level in the tank to get the load I wanted, output would be measured by measuring the torqe on the engine mount and the RPM.

Bye. Jasen

I once read an article that said the plastic/metal construction of the R/C cars is so efficient that you can just measure the cars acceleration and wheel rotation with a P.E beam across spokes etc. and get extremely accurate value anyway. Would be a lot of work trying to get rpm and power with an alternator.