pedal power

[Magluvin]

Imade some more progress on my pedal power machine today, I pretty much put all the parts together( except a seat) and did a few tests to see what kind of out put I was getting from the altenator. I was able to light a 12V car headlight,  A 12V dc motor ( from a cordless drill) and slightly charge a 12V battery all at the same time. If I keep the flywheel at about 60 RPM , I get about 15.7 Volts. I am having trouble measuring the amps, and I need some help to see if I am hooking up my meter properly? anyway here are some more pics

Hey Doc  ;]

Most meters, in order to measure amps, you will have to switch the + lead from the right to the far left of the holes at the bottom of the meter face. Then you connect your leads in series with the circuit, so that all current in the circuit flows 'through' the meter. Also, most meters are good for 10amp capability, some up to 20amps, unless you have a shunt for your particular meter to measure higher currents.

'WattsuP' is a device that can be connected permanently and is good for up to 50 amps continuous 100amp peak. It gives voltage, amp hours, watt hours also. Check it out. About $50.  It will tell you what you need to know. It runs on 4.5v up to 60v. Also you can apply ghost power to the meter and then the meter will work with lower voltages. ;]


If you have tried to measure 'amps' with the meter by putting the leads 'across' the gen or battery, you may have blown the internal fuse in the meter. Some meters have a spare inside. ;] But if you didnt switch the + lead from right to far left when trying to measure amps, the fuse is ok because the + lead needs to be in the proper hole on the meter for voltage or amps. For measuring voltage, the meter should be high resistance at the leads, so it doesnt affect a working circuit while doing measurements, but when you switch the leads to the proper port/hole for amps measurement, then there is a very low ohm shunt across the leads 'in the meter'. So putting the leads across a battery or voltage source will essentially short out the source/circuit. And if the source/circuit can provide 10amps or more, the meters internal fuse should blow. Typically a fast blow fuse for replacement.

Mags

[Magluvin]

And, thats a big flywheel!!   


That 15v output. Is that from pedaling? Also, is it heavy pedaling, if pedaling, to hold that 15v+?

Nice work.   

Mags

[Dr]

Magluvin: Thank you for the heads up on amp meter hookup, Its an analog with a needle?!! I tried hooking it between + at rectifier and positine at battery it reads to 50 but if I  even slowly turn the altenator it pegs to 50. is my meter broken?  Once I get the flywheel up to speed (20) seconds and under full output load ? it is very easy to maintain that speed, even easier than riding that bike on a flat surface flat out here is a picture of the gauge

[Magluvin]

Ok, I see now. I thought you were using a multimeter.    

This meter should work fine for what you are doing.

Put it in series with one of the leads 'between' your alternator and battery, so that the current flowing from the gen to the battery flows through the meter. If it pegged 50amps, then you must have connected it across the battery(parallel, not series) Unless your pedal powered gen produces more than 50amps at 15v.    Hopefully the meter is ok.  No fuses in that one I would say.

Mags

[Dr]

Well Magluvin I believe that meter is shot   I guess that is what I get for shopping at the surplus store. I ordered a new one. I am not very happy with the output of my alternator so I am designing a new one with bigger magnets and heavier magnet wire probably 15 ga. (since I already have it)   And I need to fine tune a few other things as well, Like my drive chains are too loose. But overall I am pretty happy with it