Onboard rcvr btry charger.

[olds97_lss]

Has anyone thought about building an on-board alternator/generator to keep the Rx batterypack charged?

I'm way rusty with my electronics way of thinking. I have an electronics engineering degree that is 8 yrs old. Since i graduated, i haven't had a job that used my discrete component frame of mind. I build software now instead. I sure do miss the electronic side of things.

Just curious. I was sitting at my work table thinking about epoxying small magnets to the back of the flywheel and setting up coiled copper a mm or so away and running it to a capacitor, just to see. It would be nice and fairly simple to do. At least in theory.

I wouldn't see any need to make a mechanical connection (like a belt or rubbing wheel). With this in mind, there wouldn't be any parts to wear out or eat hp.

 

[lykan]

You know for the cost pof abtteries, and the fact that I myself only bash. And my X-C goes 55mph (way too fast to control). I can't see why a guy couldn't turna motor from one of the tiny micro rc's into a generator.

Instead of a sprocket you could use a rubber washer or peice of fuel tubing over the shaft, and a tiny rubber band to apply pressure you could let it rub against anything rotating on the car/truck. I would definetaly buy one and some rechargables to go with it. Hell, as long as you were moving, your battery's wouldnt even need to be in the car!

The only thing that is tough for me (no electronic backround) would be regulating the current to a set amount of volts so I didn't over or under fry my batteries killer idea! engineer us a spur gear with some magnets!!

Even if you didnt use it to charge your battery, you could run your lights off of it!

 

[olds97_lss]

I had first thought about it to run an on-board fan for cooling at lower MPH when i had the 2.5 engine that would never stay below 300degrees. The 2.5 story is a long annoying one that resulted in tearing it off the truck and throwing it in a box in the closet and never looking at it again.

I have since converted to a 21 conversion. For winter running, as we all know, cold eats batteries for breakfast regardless of what kind they are (NiMH, NiCad, Alkaline). So, this thought popped up again to me. Currently i carry 4 homade NiMH 5 cell receiver packs with RCA plug ends to use in the truck. I only get about an hour out of each of the packs at best in the cold (< 30degrees). I run high torque servos for both steering and throttle/brake which is good for performance, but bad for battery life.

This was just a thought for those of us who are currently in the electronic field and/or industry that could maybe slap some schematics together or something for those of us who are forgetful.

I'm real good with run-on sentences.

 

[bashmaster]

man this could really go somewhere

who ever said to put the magnets on the spur gear is got a good idea, but in the 2.5 case, insteadof a one-way-bearing, a no-way-bearing so that the motor starts the enine and the engine turns the ezstart motor to charge batteries/run lights.

 

[olds97_lss]

I was thinking more on the flywheel. Spur gears come and go, flywheels typically don't. So any manufacturing you do will last as long as the flywheel. Plus, on the flywheel, if the engine is running, it's charging. If it's on the spur gear, it's not always rotating, so it's not always charging.

 

[bashmaster]

yea thats a good point, but you may have some heat issues from the engine if its on the spurgear/ ez start, I'm sure somone
maybe if you had extra crankshaft (you know how ur sopposed to cut it , dont) and put a pulley w/ a rubber band or similar to the electric motor to charge batteries or whatever. that way its all away from the heat of the motor and there is plenty of space to rig up the electtronics.

 

[olds97_lss]

Think about all the electronics on a normal car. In my thought, all you need is a few magnets glued/epoxied to the back of the flywheel and some copper winding (like in a 110 house fan) coiled up and mounted close to these magnets. The magnets themselves wouldn't need to be very big, due to the speed of the engine itself. The engines only get put to 200-250 degress (if tuned right). I don't think this is to much heat for something of this nature.

I know this is stupid, but i remember a kid making something like this in my high school science fair to show the possibility of wind generated power. He had made the generator by hand so you could see the parts and simpistic components of a generator. This was 10 years ago, but it stayed in my head for some reason.