Well, we've been busy settling into our new digs, but I managed to recover a movie we shot the first of the year, and a picture showing the massive generator mounted to the MOEPED #3, the chain drive and chain ring, the inverter (which is barely visible), and the 24 watts of Christmas lights that the generator drove through the inverter. The AVI files, shot during the day, show me riding the MOEPED around the corners, giving voice to my enthusiasm.
Cool.. Hey, I like that bike- how's it ride? Stable on a long hill where you can really get some speed? It looks like riding it would feel like flying.
What kind of AC motor are you using as a generator? I remember a site where a guy was using capacitors to use a squirrel cage motor as a generator. He was getting good results too.
Yes. Wilson Blvd nearby builds up to like 30 plus mph.
Sort of a magic carpet ride, eh? It's mostly about not craning your neck, not getting "wedged" and not stressing your wrists.
It's a surpluscenter.com 10-1134 ceiling fan motor. It's the only motor I could find that was only 3 inches long. Because of this, the motor drops down between identical chain rings left and right, and the chain line is short and tight. The chain to the rear generator gives trouble; it's too long and derails on bumps, trashing the chain ring and the chain.
Yeah, that's what I am trying but it's an impedance protected motor and will probably have to be rewound or at least reworked somehow to make it generate. There's a lot of resistance in series with the inductance, damping the generated excitation current.
I am planning on buying two 10-1134 motors (cheap) and screwing them together at the end bell hanger threads with a close nipple, adding a spring pin or maybe just a dowel, then driving one with the other and trying a cap sub box (expensive) or parallel caps (cheap) to demonstrate that the more cap you add, the higher the voltage output, up to around 50 V, the cap rating. That might predict the right cap to use as a generator. The alternative is measuring the inductance, and computing the resonant cap at 60 Hz, but I don't know if this is supposed to be a resonant circuit.
One web source says poor results can be expected with less than 1/6 HP single phase, and this is a 1/12 HP motor.
Theoretically, it's a large inductance, and adding a capacitive (capacitative?) load brings the power factor closer to unity, while adding a motor, which is an inductive load, moves the power factor away from unity. Did I get that right?
That sounds pretty much like what I imagine a magic carpet ride to be like;-) I'd like to try a bike like that though..
Spring-loaded idler sprocket?
What about rewinding the stator and adding some neodymium (however it's spelled) magnets to the rotor? I've seen where those are available very small, about 1/8" round and 1/16" thick IIRC. Do away with the caps entirely.
Another thought I've had; mount a slug of the mega-magnets on the rim (you'd lose the brake on that wheel, but I suppose that's the price of progress;-) and a coil on each side. If you wanted to get fancy, you could vary the airgap to regulate voltage.. Might be easier to make a stationary unit with a very true-running wheel?
Sounds right, but I think you're past me on that..
Yes, I have a derailer arm on a shoulder screw on the motor, but it's too far from the chain ring to guide the chain. Adding one on the chain stay would be quite a bit of work. The arm I have needs a bushing to keep it straight. Right now, I'm very limited in what I can fabricate. Everything's been condesned in the new place. It's cramped.
I want to see the self-exciting induction generator work. Adding magnets defeats that purpose. I guess I'm obsessed with it.
I've had that thought, too, or something similar. I figured I could put fairly large magnets on the spokes and keep the rim brake.
I'm just parroting what I have read, mostly. I understand a little of it.
I recognize the obsession, having had it my share of times.. I haven't built an induction generator yet either, got a little Deutz diesel out back and a *big* old 7&1/2 HP 3ph. motor that looks just right to mate with it.. we'll get another blackout and I'll be out there in the dark wondering how to pull it off.
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