Caps for ped gen ?

[Norm]

Ped gen is still working great alto I'm not sure how many watts I'm generating
because just steady pedaling the amp meter jumps between 1.3-1.9-1.5 etc.
when I'm charging 2-12volt....2.6 amp/hr. Ni-Cads in series and the voltage is
reading about 27.2 ....can I use a cap. to average out the flow....and how
would I hook it up ?

[hiker]

hello norm.
ive used caps on my ac pedgen to even out the output.....
but it does add a extra load..on mine i just hooked directly to the output leads ..parelle..
it did even out the currant output--but i really didnt care for the extra load..
so i just tryed to pedal at a more even rate..........good luck......

[willib]

Hi Norm , with caps ya dont want to exceed the voltage stamped on them.

With my two 1Farad 14V caps , i would charge them up to battery voltage with the Exergen , then connect them to the battery , else they would spark like mad if the voltage difference was too great.

You will find that using caps does indeed even out the power going to the batteries. The more Farads that you have , the more voltage they will store till the batteries can absorb it.

Caps in parallel add like resistors in series , below is a link ya may find informative

http://www.tpub.com/neets/book2/3e.htm

My two single farad caps hooked in parallel added up to Two Farads total.

[Norm]

Hi Hiker, When you talk about extra load, that must be significant.
I've seen some of your videos and you being in a lot better shape
than I am....and I noticed that you were out of breath at the end
of some of your sessions.....this is why I charge 2-12 volt batteries
in series, I spin the Ametec motor at 14x60 crank pedal RPM and
on a 12 volt battery it cuts in too soon....and it's like pedaling a typical
one-speed up a 3% ?? grade or IMI enough to tire me out in a
couple of minutes.
Charging 24 volt batteries is a whole different story...like pedaling a one
speed on a level stretch....the cut in is a lot higher and I think the
amperage is close to 1.75 on average.....maybe your caps are too large
for what I have in mind???

So willib ....hiker....I'd be happy just to be able to figure out the average
just hooking it up temporarily....I've got a cap about the size of a "C"
size battery  that might work.??
Thanks for the help guys !

[hiker]

hello norm..
thanks for the comments--i have been kind of lax this summer --rainy days and all...
guess i got out of breath because i had to do the vid 2 or 3 times over to get it right  :}
and yes some of those caps were large--big drag...[didnt use any in the vids]
im working on a 3hp conversion..looks good so far..powers up three 50watt 12v headlites at a real slow speed..
using a electric hand drill...cant wait to try it on on my pedgen..should be able to lite up the 400watt 28v side of my
aircraft lite...ile try to get a vid on that....
well good luck on your projects--get any use out of that treadmill motor yet?  :}

[willib]

hi Norm That cap is/may be in the microFarad Range.
Which means that when connected to your battery it may hold the voltage above battery voltage for a second or so.
Some older PC power supplies had some fairly large caps in them in a range of 50V or so.
I bought those 1 farad caps off of ebay , they were used to even out the power to large sound systems for automotive applications.
they were each a bit larger than two soda cans stacked on top of each other.
your power from the figures you posted  is about 41 Watts (1.5 times 27.2 )
It may help to put two meters on your generator one to read Voltage and one to read Current.

[Norm]

Hi Hiker,
   Hey I just noticied you replied back July 25....how time flies....
got a 95MFD 350VDC cap. hooked it up but nothing spectacular
except a neat spark (POP ! ) when you short it with a screwdriver
(yes...I'M very careful about not touching the terminals !
( I didn't get near 80 by being careless...LOL ! )
Yes I got some use out of it 48 volts makes some torque and
speed going to try it as a helper motor on my bike.

I guess once I know about how many watts I'm making at a certain
speed all I need to know is how many turns I've made.... x number of turns=watt/hrs.
what I need to log in on Virtual Green Gym....

Sorry about not replying right off....

I'll have to show you a pic of my disk brake rotor sandwiched between 2 pulleys on a
1/2 inch shaft on a conversion.....it's fantastic how well it fits on those 2 pulleys !
you couldn't get a more precision fit if you delibertly machined it to fit ...just what
people like me without a big metal lathe need !

[Norm]

Hey Willib,
Finally realized that you replied almost couple of weeks...thanks for
the link
my reply to Hiker is for you also
thinking about things like this when I pedal the pedgen and the
time goes by a lot faster....thanks for the correspondence!
and help !