I'm also looking at creating a simple payout winch for HG and PG for my club in Western Australia. I've been thinking of using an electric motorbike wheel motor and a controller that supports regen with proportional braking.
My plan is to make something self contained with just enough battery to wind the line back in and operate itself. It should be possible to use the energy generated during the tow to charge the battery and put any excess into a dump load.
I know it should be possible to estimate the tow force from the power generated, however as I am planning to use a narrow drum so that the line will arrange itself when winding back in it would require a way of factoring in the diameter based on the amount of rope currently on the drum.
I think this should be pretty straightforward as the drum should be able to count it's rotations to track this. The rotations needs to be counted anyway so that when winding the rope back in at high speed it knows when to stop.
I'm interested in electronics, but not an expert by any means.
I am a software developer and have written software for embedded devices before.
I think it should be possible to create a simple device with a built in web server that could be connected to with any wireless device for configuration and monitoring (rope length, drum size etc).
I would make it fit onto a car tow hitch.
Then a wireless controller would just need:
A start/stop button that would switch between free wheeling and tension control.
A dial for setting the tension weight to be maintained. (as a weight in Kilos)
A rewind button.
I know there are already a couple of e-winch devices out there, but they are designed primarily to be used as static winches that are remote controlled by the pilot. As a result they are expensive ($8000) and also have huge battery packs and motors. I calculate a 2kw motor would be enough for regen braking and rewind.
Is anyone else working on a similar project or interested in helping me with this one?
My plan is to make something self contained with just enough battery to wind the line back in and operate itself. It should be possible to use the energy generated during the tow to charge the battery and put any excess into a dump load.
I know it should be possible to estimate the tow force from the power generated, however as I am planning to use a narrow drum so that the line will arrange itself when winding back in it would require a way of factoring in the diameter based on the amount of rope currently on the drum.
I think this should be pretty straightforward as the drum should be able to count it's rotations to track this. The rotations needs to be counted anyway so that when winding the rope back in at high speed it knows when to stop.
I'm interested in electronics, but not an expert by any means.
I am a software developer and have written software for embedded devices before.
I think it should be possible to create a simple device with a built in web server that could be connected to with any wireless device for configuration and monitoring (rope length, drum size etc).
I would make it fit onto a car tow hitch.
Then a wireless controller would just need:
A start/stop button that would switch between free wheeling and tension control.
A dial for setting the tension weight to be maintained. (as a weight in Kilos)
A rewind button.
I know there are already a couple of e-winch devices out there, but they are designed primarily to be used as static winches that are remote controlled by the pilot. As a result they are expensive ($8000) and also have huge battery packs and motors. I calculate a 2kw motor would be enough for regen braking and rewind.
Is anyone else working on a similar project or interested in helping me with this one?