My Scooter Wheel Energizer

[SkyWatcher]

Hi carroll, thanks for the kind and informative reply.
Yes I noticed the wheel bearing seemed to like the vertical position, so that is how it will be built.
I also think the spokes are a nonmagnetic steel.
Once assembled, i will see if the bearings need to be cleaned and a thinner oil used, by the one minute test.
Thanks again.
By the way, the other small charge cycle with the scooter wheel did not do so well, it seems with that setup, the charge was a little fluffy or it needed to be tuned for more efficient charging.
peace love light
tyson

[SkyWatcher]

Hi folks, here is the wheel mounted and ready to affix magnets to wheel.
I tested the free wheeling duration and even without the magnets mounted and a fairly light spin, it rotated one minute without touching the bearings yet.
Your comments as always are welcome.


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peace love light
tyson

[tachyoncatcher]

Coil Strands

hi SkyWatcher,
I have tested a lot of different coil geometries with my ssg. It has a 175mm rotor. Made from an old hard drive platter/ bearing assembly and a couple hunks of wood for mass. I have tried bifilar, trifilar, quadfilar and pentfilar. Litzed and unlitzed. I always have a separate strand for my trigger. I have connect all power strands together in parallel to one transistor and tried connecting each separate strand to a transistor(this is best for me) and uses less power. I tried connecting a trifilar in series once (blew transistor).
I have had coils that were 30mm in diameter up to 100mm. Its been said that coils size should be up to the magnet size. I found little difference if the coils was larger than the magnets. The larger the core, the more torque it produced. Since I was after power to my batteries and not torque, I ended up with 10mm cores atm. Takes a little time to spin up, but those transistors are snappy . I am currently using 3 coils on my SSG. The primary(with trigger) is litzed to preserve the trigger signal. The other coils are unlitzed and use the trigger from the primary. Since my SSG is horizontal, I can adjust the timing of each secondary coil by moving it around the rotor. I do this for the initial setup only. I use the gow bulb to keep the secondary coils in time. I have found the closer my coils are to the spinning rotor, the more efficient it is.
I too, believe in sharing. If we all shared our experiences, successes, failures, we would spend less time on the same things and have more time for real creativity. Good luck with your build.
Randy

[wrtner]

I also think the spokes are a nonmagnetic steel

Probably stainless steel.

So long as the rim is aluminium, all should be well. And don't
forget that the north poles should be facing out.

[SkyWatcher]

Hi tachyoncatcher, thanks for the reply, I'm sure all that good information will come in handy, thanks.
I'm glad you believe in sharing as well, as who would really be here without it.
Hi wrtner, thanks for the reply.
Yep, probably stainless steel and i have a small magnet with north and south marked, so no problem with magnet polarity, thanks.
Had to get some more super glue, it takes awhile to get the magnet set properly and then i have to let each one dry before starting next magnet placement, so this is gonna take a few days.
Then I'll wrap them with one layer of duct tape as i have a full roll already on hand.
Then I will drill a 1" hole in coil wood base to bury the slightly protruding core rods and that way, I'll have a flat core surface, even with the end of coil.
peace love light
tyson

[SkyWatcher]

Hi folks, I finished gluing the magnets on the wheel and drilled a hole for the core, just have to duct tape the magnets now.
I tested the spin time without coil core and initially with the standard heavy grease that comes with the wheel, I was able to get 1 minute 5 seconds with a brisk spin.
Then i took apart the bearings and cleaned all the individual ball bearings, as they are all separate, and used a 3-1 type oil in the bearings and i was then able to get 10 minute spin time.
Will be testing it out soon.


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peace love light
tyson

[citfta]

Good spin time

Hi tyson,

That is very good spin time. It sounds like you are getting close to trying that new wheel out. Do you know how to tune for the best output? If you don't let me know and I'll try to explain it. Good luck.

Later,
Carroll

[SkyWatcher]

Hi carroll, i guess i forgot to post the pic, there it is, in the other post.
Yes, all i have to do is apply the tape around the wheel and hook up the coil and off she goes.
Yes, any help in tuning would be appreciated, thanks.
peace love light
tyson

[citfta]

Tuning

Hi again,

Ok the first thing you have to have is some way to measure the rpm. I have one of those cheap laser tachs you can get on Ebay for about 15 to 20 dollars or so. It works fine with a piece of reflective tape on the wheel. The tape came with my tach. I put it on 2 of the spokes so the bright rim would not affect the reading. When you get the system running you want to tune for the maximum rpm per milliamps of current. This will probably NOT be the highest speed you can get from the wheel. Also any change you make like a different charge battery or a fully charged compared to an almost dead battery will change the setting for the most efficient output. This all sounds complicated but it isn't so bad once you get a feel for it.

When you get it running and charging your battery you measure the input current. I like to use a simple analogue panel meter. On the input side you can leave the meter in the circuit all the time. Next measure the rpms. Divide the rpms by the input current and write down the answer. Now adjust the pot a little and wait a few minutes for the system to stabilize. Again take the readings and do the calculations. You will want to do this several times with different settings of the pot. There will probably be some places where a small change in the pot will cause a large change in the speed of the wheel. This is one of the sweet spots you are looking for. There will be one of those sweet spots that will give you the best charging and least amount of current draw. There may be 2 or 3 of the sweet spots but one will be better than the others. Remember you are looking for the highest rpm for the least current draw. As I said earlier it will take some patience to get it right the first few times but after that you will begin to get a feel for about where you need to set the pot and it will get easier to tune. A small grain of wheat type bulb in the trigger circuit will help to keep it in tune as it charges the battery. Good luck and have fun.

Later,
Carroll

[wrtner]

Yes, any help in tuning would be appreciated, thanks.
peace love light
tyson

The link in post 9 is the gold standard.

Paul-R

[citfta]

Hi Paul,

Yes you are correct. I had forgotten you posted that. Thanks for that link. My old hard drive crashed and I had lost that info. So now I have it again. I belonged to the old BM3 group but I understand that has now been changed to a new group which I have not joined yet.

Later,
Carroll

[SkyWatcher]

Hi folks, thanks for the replies.
Hi carroll, for now, i am counting a sticker on the wheel, rotations per 10 seconds then i know roughly rpm, i am getting around 150 rpm when rotating counter clockwise and almost 200 rpm when rotating clockwise.
The lower rpm is charging better, though with a little more current draw, around 300 milliamps at 14 volts, psu.
I have a grain of wheat bulb from a mini mag lite, though it doesn't seem to change anything and does not light up, not sure if it is supposed to light up.
Other than that, I am rejuvenating all my 12 volt-7AH batteries and I will be writing down the run times to 12 volt discharge and charge times.
It seems as others have said, that it works very well for desulphating, which my batteries are in need of at this time.
Later, when these batteries are in better condition, then i will see how the COP on them works out.
peace love light
tyson

[citfta]

Hi Tyson,

My grain of wheat bulb glow was just barely visible when I was in the sweet spot. My wheel is smaller. My best one is 18 inches. It was only better because it ran truer. My other wheel had a wobble and didn't charge as well. Your's my be fine even though you don't see any glow. Glad you got it working.

Later,
Carroll

[SkyWatcher]

Hi carroll, thanks for the reply.
I'm not sure if you meant to just use the grain of wheat bulb only, because i am using 333 ohms base resistance and the grain of wheat in series with that.
Is that what you meant, or maybe i should have lower resistance in series with that grain of wheat, thanks.
Otherwise, it still seems pretty good, though i do notice the charging seems affected by the distance from the core.
Seems like if the magnet is further, the charging is better, though i can't say for sure yet, it just appears that way.
Because the voltage on the battery seems to rise quicker, though that might not mean it's charging better, could be fluffier.
Load tests will be more conclusive.
peace love light
tyson

edit: just wanted to make a correction, i thought for whatever reason, that my wheel was 27", it is actually 22" in diameter.
edit 2: also wanted to mention, i made the 1 ohm resistor output test and it showed around 275 millivolts.
So that means only around 76 milliwatts is what is charging these batteries, if only we can reproduce this charging with something like double or triple that wattage on the input side, that would be great, anyone think about that much.

[citfta]

Hi again tyson,

Yes I use the grain of wheat bulb in series with my 1 k pot. I can then adjust my pot for best efficiency and charging. I am a little confused by your comment you are only getting 76 milliwatts of charging to the charge battery. That sounds about right for a single coil SSG. To get more charging for larger batteries you can add more coils or make a much larger coil with several power windings and use separate transistors for each power winding and fire each of them from a single trigger winding. And yes you may get better charging with the wheel a little farther from coil. Remember we are not charging with the magnets we are charging with the kickback from the coil. So getting the right spot for triggering the transistor is the secret.

Later,
Carroll