Can I use a GENERATOR to power an Electric car directly?

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by Nerys

yeah well this is NJ not some sane portion of the country. if a NJ cop see's me going buy on an electric hybrid bike doing 45-50mph with an aeroshell he is going to pull me over and the ticket/fight is harsh in NJ.

Around here if you encounter that you just go over their head to the state DOT, get a handbook and register your 25+ year old car as a hobbiest vehicle. Cop gives issues explain ignore and go to court if need be.

Problem solved.
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As for genset
Slow-Turning 5 kW Yanmar Diesel Generator

Get that jobber in a 48v head, it looks quite promising.

I ran through the calculations, my system voltage under load varies from 46-52v in NORMAL circumstances, if the DC head would be wound to operate in the 50-90% load in that region (thus offsetting more than enough at lower speeds or 90+% of my usage at max speed)
(my batteries will output 10 amps for 21hours so I doubt I would run out of juice)

My MPG would be about 90-94mpg steady state.

My example vehicle is a 2005 Miles ZX40 that weighs in at 2400lbs (without Me and cargo) It draws about 65amps (with me, two others and cargo) if my top speed reaches 28mph (it usually is better), and about 95amps with field reduction once it reaches 35mph. I occasionally do better, if my batteries are freshly charged I reach 36/37mph and draw 90 amps or 30mph @ 55amps w/out field reduction.

Running through the math for the real world fuel usage of the genset and the real world amp usage of my car I end up in the 90mpg plus area at steady state.

I am not saying that I couldn't do this if my car were to come as a diesel from factory with hypermiling but I believe if I wanted to make due that isn't bad plus it is probably easier.

A good thing to remember is that when accelerating I try to draw 50amps as long as possible moving up to a max of 125amps if I am in more of a hurry.
So I don't think I would overtax or drain my batteries easily.

I think anyone who already owns an EV and knows its energy usage at different speeds, can get an info sheet for a genset that lists its fuel consumption at different wattage levels. This can give a fairly good real world estimation because besides the wire losses a decent DC rewind would only output exactly what you need so the battery loss would be minimized and the genset load levels are shown on the fac sheet.

But even if the genset were to only be charging batteries my EV would still get at least 45mpg (however) my batteries are low resistance gel type that have a very high charge efficiency for lead and at low SOC charge at about 80-90% EFF depending on charge rate according to the data sheet. The charge eff drops to about 75% at about 80% SOC.

My guess is smaller cars that aren't real aero will probably look decent FE wise at the low speeds on a decent diesel genset, the bigger cars at higher speeds will probably look rather lackluster but we would only know if you have the amp draw and wattage needed to drive a speed and compare to a genset like the one I linked that provides its fuel econsumption at a given wattage. The trouble would be finding DC genset heads.

Cheers
Ryan

[cleanspeed1]

I just ordered the plans for the Mother Earth Hybrid today. Should be here in the next 7-10 days.

I gotta admit I am excited!

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by cleanspeed1

I just ordered the plans for the Mother Earth Hybrid today. Should be here in the next 7-10 days.

I gotta admit I am excited!

I think we all are, I am hoping you get the expected results from your paticular car choice and don't end up with a dud combination, a good source of diesel gensets like I said earlier is govliquidation, especially if you live in Hawaii (because no one bids there)

I am mainly curious what year and platform car was converted to see what weight, I am also interested in seeing what genset brand/type was used.

As for the $25 SCR I am wondering if it was a fixed output pull from some other purpose. AKA you would only get a couple speeds.

I think the reason for the motor generator (aircraft starter) was for regen, not sure how well they compare to a modern motor eff wise though. I guess DC motor efficiency has been understood well for at least 70 years, not sure if they cared as much back then but I was reading a 1950's article stating that AC motor efficiency can no longer be ignored because of rising costs, maybe they did?

Good Luck
Ryan

[cleanspeed1]

I guess that is going to be part of the adventure. Once I get the plans and study them, make some calculations, with everyone's input, I firmly believe that we can make whatever buggy do the job so others can do the same.

We have some of the best and brightest minds here so I am looking forward to doing this.

[denver]

just some things to think of. 120 and 240 are probably volts. the amps will depend on motor draw. find out what type of pwr your motor is using might be
dc battery type voltage. If this is the case(most likely) then your generator has to be converted to dc. aircraft generators are the most efficient but mar need to be turned at a very high speed. house current is at 60 hertz. house generators are at 60 hertz. aircraft generators are three phase at 400 hertz.
more pwr for a given size of generator but you may need to turn it faster.
also the more power drawn from a generator the more powerful the engine has to be to turn the generator. in other words a heavy draw from the electric motor may tax a very small engine they need to be ballanced for the heavest draw your electric motor could demand puting some batteries in the system could help when a large demand is needed. also by charging batteries
converting ac to dc is a smother dc current to supply your motors. just some things to think about. you can let me know your thoughts

[Grant-53]

Adding some ultracapacitors could help with some of the draw when starting and recover some energy when stopping.
If your legs are particularly long, raise the front of the seat slightly and try adding support under the calf as in a reclining chair. This may get you closer to the 90/90 angles at the hips and knees.
Aero drag reduction can be good for up to a 50% improvement in FE. This applies to a human powered vehicle so 30 mph for two hours has been done.
In PA a bicycle can be registered with a gas motor. It is allowed to go up to 25 mph if it has an 'automatic transmission'.

[raszpel]

Hi all I have been a big fan of this site for many years. Especially since it is Paul M's home base for his open source stuff. I am working on building a low cost range extender charger Gen Set for my little 60 volt 1980 Commuta Car. I have a 300 amp IRAGGI HO auto alternator with a bad regulator. I will build a single wheel trailer that attaches to the rear of my vehicle with a two point hitch, runs on a single swivel wheel to keep the weight down. I have a couple of different horizontal shaft motors to play with to start with. One is 6 hp the other is 10 but heavier. If anyone could help me design ( with the concept always will be open source info) a regulator that could be built to give my a charging/ extending voltage of 75Volts/64volts. I would really appreciate it. I know others have done some thing similar but I can not find the schematic and info on any of them. After that if possible a simple arduino programmed to control the regulator and motor rpm and on/off. This would make it a stand along charging station where there are none.

I am a full time returning college student it is 7 miles to one campus and 16.5 to the other each way, along with several steep hills. This serial configuration could be used to make taking my Commuta a reality to both campuses. I should be able to make it to the farther campus on pack alone but there are no places to charge at all. Plus I do not have the 8 hours there to charge. I attend both campus's 5 days a week. My hope for the regulator is one that could be easily modified by referencing a chart included with the schematic. That would allow our community to use it on any alternator. I understand all the losses and the HP conversions, I am expecting to get 3,600 to 4,200 watts of available energy from my HO alternator. After rectification and voltage selection that would bring me down to around 45 to 65 amps at 75 volts, dependent on rpm.

This would be one heck of a great/fast charge, 100 portable. The charger would be awesome for those where the power grid goes down a lot from mother nature a lot. I know other have done something similar even on here. But I can not find any technical stuff like schematics: such at Open Revolt type stuff. Using the one wheel trailer design would allow our pure electric vehicles to stay that way, but allow us to be hybrid EV's when needed. I think this design can be put together for really cheap. I found my HO alt on Ebay for $145.00 delivered. My motors are used both cost me $25.00. I can build and weld an aluminum frame for this.

If anyone has knowledge of any location with schematics and such that would work for me please let me know. I will be making an Instructable, and YouTube video of my build to help other. I also plan on putting up a very simple web page to guide others to the info. But Ecomodder will be the primary place I keep updates and mods posted.

Thanks in Advance, and Paul M. you are a true giving spirit to our world and cause.

Steve P
Novato, Ca

[madmike8]

Maybe not the cheapest route, but maybe you could use the open-source EMW SmartCharge-10000 charger. Feed the output from your generator into the charger? It's capable of outputting 60a, and you can get it as a kit or just the PCB's.

Electric Motor Werks!

I'm interested in a range extension trailer myself, so keep us updated on your progress.

[raszpel]

Thank you madmike8 for the idea of using an opensource charger. I know we have several that have been developed here by members here. Maybe one of them also can take in DC at a higher voltage than the charging pack. I will have to check that out in the next week.