Need some electronic add-on ideas for my new project (Stirling engine)

[audioguru2]

Hi Alun,
Yeah, I know. I've changed my profile's clock settings from Greek time to Californian time and now to my own time each time our server is moved.

Did you change your clock to Australian time so that you could post your crummy looking PNG?
Nya, Nya! My GIF looks much better and uses fewer bits too. ;D ;D

 

[ante1]

Hi Dazza,

You need a well balanced lightweight flywheel with some small magnets evenly attached around it. Then make and fit some fixed coils close to the sides of the flywheel, put some load on the coils and you will soon find out how much load it can carry before it stops dead in its tracks. ;D ;D

 

[Alun]

Did you change your clock to Australian time so that you could post your crummy looking PNG?

PNGs are better they're 16 million colours while with gifs you're restricted to 256 and they take up less space too.

Nya, Nya! My GIF looks much better and uses fewer bits too. ;D ;D

Click on the paper clip next to the image to get a better view or if you're cool and use FireFox right click and go to view image. ;D

 

[audioguru2]

Hi Alun,
You are absolutely correct! My GIF looks like it has the measles. ;D

View attachment 37051

 

[ante1]

Hi Guys,

It looks like PNG cannot hold as many colors as GIF, is this right?

Sorry to ask here (totally of topic) but since you are already at it! ;D

 

[Alun]

In fact PNG comes in two flavours, PNG-8 which is limited to 256 colours like a GIF, and PNG-24 which can store up to 224 (16.7 million colours). In general PNGs are smaller than GIFs but the only disadvantage is they can'r be animated but there's shockwave media flash for this so the GIF really is obsolete in my opinion.

Here are some links on image formats:
http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2002/JPG_GIF_PNG.asp
http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/images/fileformats.html
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/gif-jpg-png-whats-difference
http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid26_gci214307,00.html

Here's and anti-gif site: http://burnallgifs.org/

 

[Dazza]

Hi all, and thank you for your replies ,

I posted a video clip of my Stirling engine as well as some information here(http://www.electronics-lab.com/forum/index.php?topic=3353.0).

Ok audioguru, my clock displays the right time now, I just thought I might wait for the next server change to fix it.

Sure audioguru , I do understand I will need to use some kind of gearing to drive the generator to a suitable RPM ;D, and I can add more candles for more talk, but I must also avoid increasing the RPM to much, which can be done to a certain degree by adjusting the led wait on the handle, I don't want the poor little thing flying to pieces after all it's made of balloons fishing line and wire ;D, and as I mentioned in my other post for the construction side of things, I found some reliability problems so I may not end up connecting a generator and a electronic device to this one just yet , it still early days for this project, I thought I was ready to take this project to the next step, but those bugs are still popping their heads up, I may have to knock up, another larger Stirling engine with a little more strength 8).

Thanks audioguru, that's a couple of good project ideas that you mentioned in your earlier post.

View attachment 37055

 

[Dazza]

I'm sorry to post of topic now ;D ;D,

Ante,  I was thinking of going that way about it, but I was thinking the low RPM may be a problem, depending on what I wanted to power from it.


Thank you to everyone who has posted, you have been very helpful 8), and any more ideas or suggestions will be very much appreciated .

 

[audioguru2]

Hi Dazza,
It is great that it works. Nice video. ;D

I have heard that a steam engine has torque like you wouldn't believe!
How about condensing and re-cycling its steam? ???

View attachment 37056

 

[audioguru2]

OOOps!

View attachment 37057

 

[Dazza]

Hi audioguru,

Yes I would like to make a model steam engine eventually , and it would be interesting to see how much energy can be recycled using the two, but the steam engine will have to wait until I have made my metal turning lathe, I don't think I would get away with making a steam engine out of timber wire and balloons ;D, precision and strength is important for a steam engine, considering the high pressures involved,  I've already got plenty of opportunities to blow myself up with my hydrogen experiments ;D ;D.

 

[ante1]

Hi Dazza,

I think gearing it up will be very hard with the low torque you get at the crank. Another way might be lots of small magnets along the periphery of the flywheel. The flywheel could be a CD Rom disk (I have seen all sorts of things made from these lately) ;D  with the small magnets glued equally spaced and close together for many pulses per revolution. Add to this multiple coils and you have you dynamo. It will at the same time prevent the motor from jerky movement. However, this is just theory and you have to make some tests of curse!  8)

More videos and pictures please!