Alternator Generator (just a biginners effort) from Pakistan

numberonebikeslover

numberonebikeslover

1 kW
Joined
Feb 19, 2008
Messages
418
Location
Peshawar, Pakistan
Hello Everybody;
Due to huge power breakdown in my city my electric bike was lying useless. This compelled me to make some thing to charge the batteries. So, I come up with this alternator project which I left due to lake of resources long time ago. Last time, it was meant to be inside the wheel of a bicycle to put some of the inertial force as energy back into batteries.

I am running tests with hand made coils and summing up things.

here is a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFxVWAP-dkk

I'll keep every body posted about the work through videos and pics.

Yours Respectfully
Naeem
 
No electric is a pain in the arse, any help this forum can give you will be forthcoming I am sure. It is inspiring seeing you so passionate about this technology.
 
Hello every one;

An electric bike builder better knows how to play with bicycle parts, so I come up with this idea of using bicycle wheel as my alternator rotor. Here is a quick video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ9mxuMnnu4

I have hooked an empty rim onto a bicycle wheel which is a miniature one of only 8.5 inch diameter which suits my need.

I have 12 hard drive magnets that I have been using them for testing lately and getting good results (only 6 of them during testing phase).

I have noticed that during testing I stuck the magnets onto a metal plate which yielded good result while sticking them onto the rim it is not so, therefore, I’m intending to make a plate of the same diameter size and put the magnets on the plate.

There is one more thing I would add here; Arial coils don’t yield much until provided with a metallic core dramatically increase voltage. So I got to do something about it.

After doing the math I came up with this:

Total coils = 18 means, per phase coils = 6
One coil has to produce 2.5 volts or more for desired goal of about 22 – 24 volt
One coil volt = 2.5, for six coils in a phase = 2.5 x 6 = 15.
Having a star winding end volt of 3 phases = per phase voltage x 1.732
So, 15 x 1.732 = 25.98

The wire I have used is 24 swg it is thin but I don’t want that much and it can slowly charge my batteries while there is a major power break down. Moreover, I must mention that hard drive magnets have a misplaced North and South poles therefore, not sufficient power can be achieved using these magnets. I am getting a little so I have to live with it for having no sources for better neo magnets.

Any feed back, (constructive criticism) is more than welcome.

Respectfully
Naeem
 
Another video; It is working a lot better with having a metal plate behind the magnets. The voltage are a lot more stable and with such a low rpm the meter shows voltage. Amazing feeling with the success. Here is the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-6pQU9WtI0
 
That's pretty slick.. I like the toe shot's as well..

I don't have much help to offer , but I did enjoy the video's. When you get it working is this something you plan
on pedaling with a stationary bike to charge your batteries ? Put those kids to work ;0)
 
ohzee said:
That's pretty slick.. I like the toe shot's as well..

I don't have much help to offer , but I did enjoy the video's. When you get it working is this something you plan
on pedaling with a stationary bike to charge your batteries ? Put those kids to work ;0)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback!
I plan to run it with a small engine, let us say a 50 cc bike engine which will run on methane quite readily available in our homes and pretty cheap.
 
Hi everybody;

I have fixed one phase on stator pertained to five coils already for testing and came accross a problem!

For an axial flux alternator each coil must pass through either north or south pole of the magnet spontaneously or else at points the voltage produced by one coil will cancel the voltage produced by other coil.

In my case of having 12 magnets infront of 5 coils, Identical poles of the Magnets do not pass through all five coils spontaneously resulting with a flip-flop kind of power which is not really steady. I have to figure out a way to make the symmetry correct.

P.S. I couldn't fix 18 coils as coils are fat and my diameter is limited and thus doesn't allow for 18 but only for 15 only. The means 5 coils per phase. so each coil producing 3 volt the calculation goes like this:
3 x 5 = 15 x 1.732 = 25.98

Here is another video to make things more clear: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkFnHdLfgrk
 
Couldn't sleep with having this failure in my credit. At last figured it out. I had 12 magnets, removed two from them, leaving 10 only can be aliened in front of coils such that each pole (north or south) passes through every coil at exact same time. Here is a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwlqdDtduq8
 
Great job my friend!

I always love your work. :)
 
numberonebikeslover said:
I plan to run it with a small engine, let us say a 50 cc bike engine which will run on methane quite readily available in our homes and pretty cheap.
Click to expand...

Depending on how big your load draw is (or battery/bank charging current is), when you run your creation off an engine, try to monitor the temps of your coils (and rectifier if you plan to use one). I've gone through what you are going through when I was building different variations of my axial flux wind generators. Testing them off a moving pickup is one thing (where there is a nice airflow around the plates/windings keep everything cool) but when I thought it was easier to use a gas engine, things quickly got overdriven and there were some heat related failures in both the axial flux and the rectifiers. Good luck!
~CrazyJerry
 
http://www.reuk.co.uk/Hard-Disk-Drive-Magnets-For-Wind-Turbines.htm
hard-drive-magnet-polarity.jpg


I do not know the best way to make a generator out of hard-drive magnets, but if you have access to many of them for very cheap, it would be great for you you make these. Even if they only make a small amount of watts, they can still be useful for the local market, and perhaps a source of income for you, so you can continue to buy supplies for various future experiments and projects.
 
Every body Thank you very much for the feedback;

liveforphysics, it is indeed an honour for me to be with the forum everybody is inspiration of some body here. To me it is way more enjoyable to see some one building something and the same goes for people like us. All I did was took the time to share the moments of happiness with all members. Looking forward for your support.

www.recumbents.com, I know sir, these magnets have wrongly placed poles but hey, it works. "its alive its alive its alive" he he he he.

CrazyJerry, Ya, heat would be an issue but I have in mind to put a fan blade kind of thing on the rotter pointing towards the coils. so as the rotter moves it provides wind to the coils.

spinningmagnets, I saw this link about 2 - 3 years back when I was making the same sort of inside bicycle wheel kind of alternator but then my hard drive magnets got stolen. Only this time they were a bit expensive (Rs. 100 per magnet while at that I time I got each for 40). A big thanks goes to the forum members who sent me donations for my work I was so handicapped without funds.

Yours Respectfully
Naeem
 
Hello every body;
What I have gathered from the internet and my experiments is that symmetry of Magnets and coils is an essential for the efficiency of an axial flux alternator, therefore I break the magnets in half and put 20 of them at equal intervals. I think my video can explain a lot more than my words:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctT4PLI4_wI

Naeem
 
Hello every body;

I have been so busy lately in office work, could lift my head off. Finally found some time to find an answer to a question revolving in my mind. "What pole of a magnet passes through which coil and so on and so forth?" So I made a model of stator and coils on pieces of papers and rotated them accordingly. the paper representing coils had holes while magnetic stator showed the position of magnets. Please see the following video for detail.:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhIHWMbRJD8

Yours Respectfully
Naeem
 
Hi Naaem

I don't know if you have seen this website. They are pretty much the go to place for the Axial Flux Alternator Build for Wind Turbines, at low RPM's. They are very helpful, same as the folks on E-S Forum.

http://www.fieldlines.com
 
Hello every body;

My work has slowed down due to lot of work in the office (management / administrative type job nature)

here is a video of some of my work now about the alternator. It is one week late as youtube videos upload was giving me such a pain in the neck and looking out for a substitute. any way, it worked at last:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GY4xtR9CjU

Naeem
 
Harold in CR said:
Hi Naaem

I don't know if you have seen this website. They are pretty much the go to place for the Axial Flux Alternator Build for Wind Turbines, at low RPM's. They are very helpful, same as the folks on E-S Forum.

http://www.fieldlines.com
Click to expand...

Oh thanks brother I have been there about 2 - 3 years back and also paid a visit again but same situation about registering my self in the forum; It wouldn't allow it for My country I guess. Any way I would love to share my work with them.

thanks man.

Naeem
 
Hello everybody;

Electric power cuts are at its worst these days reaching to a 12 hours of power breakdown daily. I want to speed up my work to benefit from it but my back is still not completely healed I wish it gets well soon.

Any way here is some more work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIj4gruD6L4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruCf3E6G3Kg&feature=email&email=comment_received
 
Dear All;

My lower back pain has reduced my activities so much that I spend most of my time in bed in front of my laptop. Doctors say that it will take time to heal and I have to seriously take rest and quit any bike rides for a month.

I just came across an idea and wanted to share with those who have experience with building custom brushless DC motors (sensored / Sensorless). My Axial flux alternator could easily be converted to a motor I guess. with slight changes I think I can built it inside the wheel of a bike. Hows that?

Sincerely
Naeem
 
Hello guys;

While browsing the youtube for home made BLDC motors I came across this monster:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j53FIHP3bPw

I am sure my alternator can be converted to a BLDC motor Now I need some useful links to study and reach the point where I could start making a controller my self. There is one more option that a Controller is not a heavy object to import from abroad than the motor itself.

Is it essential for such a BLDC motor controller to have a certain number of coils? Because mine have 5 coils per phase, and a total of 15 coils. One thing is for sure that It must have a 3 phase configuration.

I would definitely need the guidance of my ES family for this.

Really looking forward for useful feedback.

Yours Sincerely
Naeem
 
I enjoyed that video and the one following in the series very much. It gives clear insight how to build an AF stator. Definitely a good starting point for DIY. Thanks for sharing 8)

Cheers, KF
 
The number of coils is not really a limiting factor. If it works as a generator, it can work as a motor. I've seen motors that use a single turn.
Building a BLDC controller from scratch is very challenging. It would depend a lot on what materials you have available. It would be much easier to modify an existing controller or simply find one that will work with your motor. Most modern controllers use a microprocessor to handle all the signal processing.

One possibility is to use hall or optical sensors to commutate the windings such that you can use a standard brush type PWM controller to feed it. This takes a few more parts and increases losses slightly, but may be easier to build if you already have a PWM controller.

Is it possible to get a controller from a chinese scooter or ebike?
 
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