Small electric generator, driven by a small engine shaft

idarab

Hello all, I'm new on the forum and will be spending a lot of time here i'm sure, as I am starting a senior design project for my electrical engineering degree.

I was wondering if anyone was familiar with a small electric generator, that can be powered by a small RC engine, similar to this..


I basically need to get a voltage out of a generator, but only have gasoline as my source of power (the gas engine.)

Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated!
-Abe

Averagesupernova

This is what I get when I click your link:

Danger

Ditto that.
I don't know what size of engine you mean. There are definitely small generators out there, but I don't know if they're suitable for running from something like that. I'm thinking specifically of the type that we used to have on our bicycles that was driven by a friction wheel on the tire and used to power a headlight and taillight. I think that they put out about 6 volts.

brewnog

Linky no worky.


What does your project actually entail? There are hundreds of small, gasoline powered electricity generators available currently. What does your project require you to design?

ray b

most DC motors will work as a generator
as long as it has magnets and brushes
gear/pullys to get right volts at a given rpm

The_Rear_Admiral

don't know what hp. motor you have.
any Electrical Motor AC can be used as a generator. any motor from small fan motors and up (don't need to be brush type )
if the motor has a ating of 120 volt @ .10 amp turn the motor at the motor rated rpm. it will genertor 120 volt @ .10 amp.
if the load is to large, the output will just drop to zero volts
just a note
if you have a 5hp gas motor it will drive a 3 hp elec motor single phase or three phase
hope this helped

moo

Actually a brushless motor would make an AC alternator, whereas a brush type motor would make a DC generator. No idea whether that matters for this application or not (rectification may even be part of the project?).

An AC motor would also have to meet one of these criteria to produce electricity:
- Be a permanent magnet motor.
- Retain sufficient residual magnetism.
- Be connected to current to establish magnetism (or at least long enough to re-establish residual magnetism).

moo
__________________
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banerjeerupak

Well IC engines start off from the size of .022 cc which is run on nitro methane. 1cc onwards engines are available for the petrol version. You can use anything bigger than this. but we need to know your design requirements to tell you any more stuff. YOu can also get very small generators. But why not use dynamos. They come in even smaller variants.

vince086

Hello,I'm new on the forum.
I have a similar question as idarab.I was wondering if you knew of a small dynamo(around the sise of a fist) that could produce the same amount of power as a 1500 mAh,7.2V DC 6-cell NiCd battery when hooked up to a small RC engine ( similar to this...http://www.lookthru.com/index.php?q=...%3D&hl=3ed )
I want to convert my rc car(super clod buster kit) to run on a gasoline powered generator as the battery runs out too fast.
All suggestions are appreciated.

vince086

vadslram

Kind of over engineering but...connect the nitro engine to a propulsion electric then wire it to the motor in the truck. Dumas makes a good 12v boat motor that should generate a few volts.

But why not just switch it to direct glow fuel ....... or is this a "I wonder if I can" project?

russ_watters

That link doesn't work either.....

I don't know how small you mean for a "small" RC engine, but I'd be surprised if there were any out there that would put out less than what you get from a 1500mAh NiCd pack in 10 minutes or so (typical for an rc car).

The numbers you gave equate to 10.8 w-h or 64.8 watts for 10 min.

Gas (nitromethane) rc engines don't get much smaller than 1/4 horsepower, which is 186 watts. And that's output, whereas the battery is input power.

http://www.mountaintrains.com/rc_engines.php

FredGarvin

I don't know what the HP rating for one would be, but Cox's old .049 has to be less than a 1/4 HP. I'll have to do some looking around.

EDIT: I actually found a set of power curves for the .049s. They maxed out at about 60 W: