Car Alternator as Human Powered Generator

------------ Oh, so it is ported just like a 2-stroke motorcycle engine? Wow, how do you get it to diesel with so much leakage??

-Steve

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-Steve Walz  rstevew@armory.com   ftp://ftp.armory.com/pub/user/rstevew
Electronics Site!! 1000's of Files and Dirs!!  With Schematics Galore!!
http://www.armory.com/~rstevew or http://www.armory.com/~rstevew/Public

If the Ale is served in "Pints" and drawn from a Hogs head, any measure will do!

[something about stepper motors]

I've been poking around google, with both windmill and alternator in mind. I'm pretty much convinced that if/when I build a windmill, it'll be that "Savonius" type:

is only one example.

But I've done a complete flip-flop as to my recommendation to use a car alternator. I'm now convinced a car alternator is definitely not the way to go, other than maybe proof-of-concept. They're terribly inefficient (60%). About the only thing going for them is cheap. But if I had no choice but to pump a bicycle (or equiv) to, say, surf the net, I'd pay a little extra for the best efficiency I could get. And I'd get the kind where you kick back. "Recumbent," I think is the word. And add some kind of flywheel, so you could catch your breath every now and then.

And yes, I think permanent magnets might almost be a no-brainer there. :-)

Cheers! Rich

which

Ah-hA! Gotcha! It's just under an eighth. (see my other post)

:-)

Cheers! Rich

"R. Steve Walz" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@armory.com:

What leakage?

If you are referring to blowby, there isn't a lot else it wouldn't run very well, if at all.

How many rings can you count in this picture?

the text to go with the picture is revealing as well.

Allegedly the most powerful engine in the world....and it is a 2 cycle engine as well.

I wonder what they use to torque the heads down with given the size of the head studs.

How many rings does each piston have? Looks like 5 to me.

r

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Nothing beats the bandwidth of a station wagon filled with DLT tapes.

Well, the presence of a blower would make it a little hard to run it backwards, wouldn't it? It'd make it a sucker, as it were.

Cheers! Rich

is

supercharger

If it were a crank driven supercharger it would but if it were a turbo charger it wouldn't I've never seen one of these "American" engines so I don't know what they have.

"Rich Grise" wrote in news:I0Uuc.24965$ snipped-for-privacy@nwrddc02.gnilink.net:

Suck or blow, it is all the same as it is just a matter of perspective. As far as the engine is concerned, as long as the exhaust gases leave the cylinder, it will happily run.

r

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Nothing beats the bandwidth of a station wagon filled with DLT tapes.

"Mjolinor" wrote in news:CjZuc.51$oj.50@newsfe2-win:

Found this website.

"Davoe asked for information on can a diesal start in reverse? The question On the w/end I went to go up a short steep rock formation without enough momentum (high range as well) and the old girl started choking I waited for it to stall but I was to slow on the brakes and it rolled back a couple of chugs which surprised me as usually the compression holds it. Any way I braked and clutched and the motor was firing and not sounding right high rpm and generally sounding different so I turned it off and restarted and made the obsticle ok. I didnt think modern motors (2h modern?) would start in reverse is it possible?

Reply 1 of 7 posted 13 Apr 2004

Member -Bob & Lex (Sydney) replied to the question

Yes it's possible or you could'nt do a hill start in reverse as I was show'n at driver training. FollowUp 1 of 3 posted 13 Apr 2004 Goran posted this followup You are kidding, right? When you do a hill start your motor is still running in the same direction forward or reverse. You transmision decides the rest. Bloke above is saying his motor fired up bacwards( wrong direction). I don't know if it is possible with modern motors. FollowUp 2 of 3 posted 13 Apr 2004 Wayne (NSW) posted this followup Bob, The way I read the question is, Will a diesel start and run in the opposite direction . The motor can sometimes run backwards, exhaust out the snorkel and air up the exhaust. Wayne FollowUp 3 of 3 posted 13 Apr

2004 Member -Bob & Lex (Sydney) posted this followup looks like I read the question wrong. Reply 2 of 7 posted 13 Apr 2004

Wayne (NSW) replied to the question

Davoe, Yes they can start and run in reverse. Black smoke comes out of the snorkel and air is sucked up the exhaust pipe. If the motor does not run for long than I don't think any damage was done. It happened to a mate of mine a long time ago doing the same type of rock climbing. I don't know if you would call a 2H a motor, but it is almost bullet proof. Wayne Reply 3 of 7 posted 13 Apr 2004

Willem replied to the question

A long time ago on a construction site we were running one of those Euclid Scraper Machines. I could be wrong but I think that they were two stroke diesels. Stalled the machine on a steep slope and released the clutch as it ran backwards and it fired up in reverse. Then we had 6 gears in reverse and one forward. Quite funny. Had to crawl up to the top of the incline and then shut everything down and start again. FollowUp 1 of 1 posted 13 Apr 2004 Truckster (Vic) posted this followup Yup 2 strokes were very famous for it back in the 70's and early 80s...

r

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Nothing beats the bandwidth of a station wagon filled with DLT tapes.

I think pints and hogsheads as well as ,hands, firkins etc, fit welll in the SFF system. In any case a pint of ale sounds a lot better than 568ml (550 in the US -even worse and weaker) -- Don Kelly snipped-for-privacy@peeshaw.ca remove the urine to answer

Don't forget "cold"

Many thanks to all for the input, let me respond to a few of the suggestions:

- Solar/Wind Power: Is great, we have a wind generator but every summer there is a period of about three months of solid rain/fog when there is no wind or sun.

- Methane/dung: This would be great not only for electricity but cooking, light, etc. I have heard it is not possible to do this at altitudes over 3000m, but if you know a way please tell me.

I think I am going to look into something a bit smaller than a generator. If anyone knows a good motor or generator available on line could you send me a link.

Thanks again, Robin

nope, it is 4 valves/cylinder, with roller tappet cam followers. The airflow will be backwards, and the Roots blower will become an exhaust extractor, instead of an intake blower. Pretty hard on all the components. Maybe the worst is the engine sucking years of crud from the exhaust system into the cylinders.

Leaf valves would be pretty amazing on a Diesel engine! I can't imagine how you could make those survive Diesel-cycle pressures and temperatures.

Jon

Nothing wrong with "cubic meters" - but there's no such thing as a "square acre" because they're already defined as an area unit. I suppose a "square acre" would be a volume unit.

If you put a little slice of hard iron in there, it will retain a little magnetism. Then the alternator can "bootstrap" itself instead of requiring a battery.

For the battery-charging trick, the output voltage of the alternator isn't very important (so long as it's greater than the battery). The battery itself is a "load" too, which holds down the voltage. So, it would NOT be safe to run the electronics directly from the alternator unless there's a significant load of some kind in-between, lest your 12-volt equipment have to endure a 50-volt supply.

Of course, the NEW alternators are something like 48 volts or more ... though most will have a seperate 12-volt plug to power the usual equipment. Higher- voltage means less copper wire and smaller starter motors. Might be better for 'hybrids' too.

As for powering the aforementioned radio equipment, an ox would be OK. It is also possible to fabricate a cheapo steam engine from a dead 4-cycle motorcycle or 'lawnmower' engine and then use dried manure to power it. Windmills can work - IF you're in a place with fairly constant wind - and they're cheap and simple to build. If there's a stream nearby, some kind of water-wheel might power an alternator.

In any event, if you're out in the boondocks of a 2nd or 3rd world country, the "Keep it simple" and "Use what you've got" principle is very important.

The GM alternator has a mildly magnetized rotor.

An alternator is a CURRENT SOURCE.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing ;-)

...Jim Thompson

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|  James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
|  Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
|  Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
|  Phoenix, Arizona            Voice:(480)460-2350  |             |
|  E-mail Address at Website     Fax:(480)460-2142  |  Brass Rat  |
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I love to cook with wine.      Sometimes I even put it in the food.

A tad large I suspect. I would like 0.00000000001 square acres of gloss please to paint my windowsill.

: > >That one went over my head : >

: > Nothing wrong with "cubic meters" - but : > there's no such thing as a "square acre" : > because they're already defined as an : > area unit. I suppose a "square acre" : > would be a volume unit. : >

: : A tad large I suspect. I would like 0.00000000001 square acres of gloss : please to paint my windowsill. : Problem solved, A Nanoacre is a standard measure in semiconductor real-estate. One billionth the size!

Water wheels on the rain gutters. The higher your funnel, the more work you can get out of it. :-)

I'd think for this you'd need a substantial capital investment in cesspits and collection systems and stuff. _I_ wouldn't put money into it!

Good Luck! Rich