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Author Topic: Bicycle Wheel Alternator  (Read 16979 times)

z.monkey

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Bicycle Wheel Alternator
« on: February 20, 2008, 02:53:16 AM »
Howdy Y'all,
This is a strange contraption that I constructed.  It's a Bicycle Wheel Alternator in transition to become a Motornator.  Huh?  Motornator?  Well, that's a new kinda thing.  You might have heard about automobiles moving to 42 Volt electrical systems.  Well, part of the industry wide plan is to integrate the starter motor and the alternator to make a motornator, specifically a 42 volt motornator.  This is all top secret at the automotive manufacturers.  But if you are industrious enough you can ferret out the details by reading industry magazines like Automotive Engineering Magazine.

Originally, the device was going to be a Searle Disk.  But, with a 20 inch BMX wheel, chain drive, and a 1/3 horsepower motor, I didn't have the balance, power, or sophistication to make this thing a Searle Disk.  So, reeling to find something to do with this thing I made, I decided to make an permanent magnet alternator with it.  It worked relatively good despite it's inefficiencies.  I was using rectangular magnets on the rim of the wheel.  This limited the clearance between the magnets and the coils.  There are 14 coils on the device, and when connected in series it produced 180VAC open circuit voltage.  But when I put a load on the device the voltage came down fast.  Thus meaning the dimensional clearances in my mechanical construct resulted in almost no current output.  It was, however, enough to shock the bejesus out of me when I tried to hookup a load with the stator spinning.

Now it is in transition to being a motornator.  The drive coil and collector coils will be one in the same.  Each coil will have a drive circuit and a collector circuit which are switchable.  The motornator has two modes.  When in motor mode the collector circuits are switched out of the circuit.  A microprocessor system energizes the coils in an alternating fashion to spin the stator up.  This is the starter function.  The magnets around the periphery of the wheel act in a flywheel effect to store energy. Then when the  engine is started the motornator switches to collector mode and each coil has an individual rectifier and regulator assembly.  The collected and converted current are fed back to the storage battery for use later.

This project was literally built from a bicycle wheel, PVC tubing from the hardware store, a motor from Grainger, and a Basic Stamp with it's carrier board.    The motornator will be using a Microchip Digital Signal Processor.  I have considerable mechanical challenges ahead of me with this one...

I am putting this project on Overunity.com because I think there is potential for a Overunity device here.  NASA originally invented this device, I believe.  The rationale was that it is difficult to store energy in space with batteries.  They developed a system where the solar cells on the spacecraft would spin up a heavy flywheel, that had most of the weight around the periphery of the flywheel.  Then, when the spacecraft is on the dark side of the astronomical body, the collector function kicks in and the stored energy is extracted to operate the spacecraft. 

Hopefully you all will have fun with this one...

z.monkey

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Re: Bicycle Wheel Alternator
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2008, 02:54:51 AM »
Nuther Picture...

z.monkey

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Re: Bicycle Wheel Alternator
« Reply #2 on: February 20, 2008, 02:56:03 AM »
Chain Drive Mechanism.

Had to have a bicycle sprocket specially modified to do this, that cost $20...

z.monkey

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Re: Bicycle Wheel Alternator
« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2008, 02:57:13 AM »
Here you see the motor and storage battery.
Also my custom plywood deck, that's a party!

z.monkey

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Re: Bicycle Wheel Alternator
« Reply #4 on: February 20, 2008, 02:58:20 AM »
Here is the motor mount, that part is 1/8 inch oak panels, and lots of 1/4 inch machine screws...

z.monkey

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Re: Bicycle Wheel Alternator
« Reply #5 on: February 20, 2008, 02:59:55 AM »
This is the Basic Stamp which I was going to use for the motor control.

This has changed now and the DSP is in progress...

Reformator

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Re: Bicycle Wheel Alternator
« Reply #6 on: September 23, 2008, 10:56:32 PM »
It's the first time that NASA has done something useful  :)

infringer

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Re: Bicycle Wheel Alternator
« Reply #7 on: September 24, 2008, 03:31:52 AM »
Beautiful post Z. Monkey thank you for sharing...

I am curious if anyone has tried axial flux on a bicycle before?

z.monkey

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Re: Bicycle Wheel Alternator
« Reply #8 on: September 24, 2008, 01:06:21 PM »
Howdy Y'all,

By Axial flux you mean where the coils are mounted vertically around the periphery of the wheel rather than radially like this configuration?  If you notice the date on this post it has been here a long time.  It is one of the first projects that I posted on overunity.com.

I would like to get some semicircular neodymium magnets for the wheel and build better coils that fit the radius of the wheel so that I can get better clearances, which mean better magnetization and better current output.  I also need to increase the mass of the wheel so that it produces more flywheel effect.  Long term plans for this one include developing a magnetic bearing system to eliminate the friction of the hub.  Then also using a DSP and MOSFET bank to drive the output coils to spin up the device.  Then use the same coils to extract the energy out again.  This eliminates the DC motor and drive chain system.  It is not really intended to be an overunity device.  It is just a platform to experiment with brushless motor concepts and flywheel storage of energy concepts.  Basically a cool physicists toy...

Blessed Be...

Sprocket

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Re: Bicycle Wheel Alternator
« Reply #9 on: September 24, 2008, 04:05:12 PM »
Wow, it's hard to believe that this gem didn't generate a single response when you first posted it!  Your ability to build stuff this elaborate leaves me very envious - well done!  I remember that http://www.theverylastpageoftheinternet.com/ used to link to a site where someone went to great lengths to try something similar using the Newman motor principle, with the intention of powering his home, so no expense was spared - unfortunately I have just discovered that "theverylastpage..." site is no more, which is a pity!  Anyone know what became of it?  Anyway, the elaborate Newmann build ended up only working 'sort-of'.  Not an easy nut to crack it seems...

z.monkey

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Re: Bicycle Wheel Alternator
« Reply #10 on: September 24, 2008, 04:10:13 PM »
Howdy Sprocket,

I built this critter with simple hand tools from the hardware store.  Imagine what I can build when I get some "professional" tools.  I have a mill now, I use it cut plastic enclosures mainly.  When I get some serious machine tools I am going to make some really cool stuff...

Thanks for the praise...

Blessed Be...
« Last Edit: September 24, 2008, 04:38:04 PM by z.monkey »

Yucca

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Re: Bicycle Wheel Alternator
« Reply #11 on: September 24, 2008, 05:57:37 PM »
Nice build Z.Monkey! :) Very creative use of pipe pieces. Can't wait to see what you'll be producing when you get your pro tools...

z.monkey

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Re: Bicycle Wheel Alternator
« Reply #12 on: September 24, 2008, 06:17:25 PM »
Howdy Yucca,

Thanks, this goes to show that you don't need sophisticated materials to build the ideas that come into your mind.  You can use scrapyard ingenuity to build whatever you want, and you don't need to spend a fortune on it.  I would like to refine this model a bit more and use it for an art piece.  But the next one will have to be more sophisticated to be useful instead of just interesting...

Blessed Be...