RC airplane gasoline engine as an electrical generator

runcyclexcski · 2008-02-18T06:57:59+00:00

I've never posted on this group, and I am apologize for rushing rightit with a specific question.I have an idea of building a tiny generator for an electric R/C toywhich is supposed to output ~300W of electrical power, with a capacityof, say, 5 Amp-hrs. Is it too crazy of an idea? A portable batterypack of that power/capacity weighs about 20-30 lbs, and I would liketo reduce the weight as much as I can. It appears that R/C airplanegasoline engines fall into my desired power/weight category, so I wasthinking to hook up such an engine to a generator. I tried to googlewattage ratings of RC gasoline engines and did not have much luck.Oh, and a relatively quiet operation would be a plus (say, not morenoise than from a scooter/moped).I am not an RC person, so I apologize in advance for my ignorance.

Feb 18, 2008 22 Replies

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Boo 18 years ago

Actually 5Ah at 300W weighs less than 1 lb. However there are systems that do what you want. See eg or .

Hth,

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baddestdudeintown 18 years ago

Hi! New to the group. I just wanted to share my opinion on this.

I think that when you add up the heat from the engine, the increased number of moving parts, and the flamability of glow fuel, you get a combination far more dangerous than a LiPo battery. Not to mention you'll have to have a separate starter for it too, which i suppose could be a little dangerous too if used improperly. I fly electric park flyers all the time, and a friend of mine uses LiPo batteries all the time with no problem. They've come a long way, i think.

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