DIY suspension generator / regenerator

[theunchosen]

Originally Posted by stevet47

Yea, your right, that makes sense. And turning a motor with a load is definitely harder than turning a motor without a load. I've never experienced this in a linear sense though... I guess the things I have used just are not robust enough for me to really sense the dampening.

On that note, in order to dampen a car, wouldn't you need some serious power coming out of this thing?

^_^ yes.

In my Tech physics 2 course we had access to a .5 gauss magnet( 1 gauss is the same electro-magnetic pull as the Earth's core) and a couple of coils. We of course had to empty our pockets of debit cards and electronics or it would ruin them. But the coil was a little shorter than extended suspension springs and you could definitely feel the EMF fighting back when you pushed it around(was a u shaped coil). You could also feel it stinging your fingers finding the path of least resistance.

I think the standard equipment running in a car would be enough to do proper dampening, but i'm not sure. IF it produces juice in an easy layout it would be worth it to get a deep cell, or another small wet-lead acid and let it bleed down to about 85% for the deep and let the constant rocking charge it up. You'd need to reset a battery charger not to kick on until 85% charge of the deep cell so you could ensure you had enough place to. . .power sink?(heat sink?)

Hopefully it would discharge to power the ignition and things while on smoother surfaces and then run everything independently and recharge the deep cell for the next smooth section.

[FastPlastic]

Originally Posted by theunchosen

We of course had to empty our pockets of debit cards and electronics or it would ruin them.

This could lead to some interesting problems... Make sure you take out your wallet when you go to work on your car.

Besides that I think this idea has great potential.

[stevet47]

Originally Posted by theunchosen

^_^ yes.

In my Tech physics 2 course we had access to a .5 gauss magnet( 1 gauss is the same electro-magnetic pull as the Earth's core) and a couple of coils. We of course had to empty our pockets of debit cards and electronics or it would ruin them........

Are you sure about that .5 number? I have little button-sized neo magnets that are rated at 3400 surface guass.
K&J Magnetics - Products

[theunchosen]

I might have the wrong scale. There are two. . .one is the Si convenient unit which is something in the form of kN of force, and the other is the one for practical everyday use(because its alot smaller, think like farads everything is really small compared to one farad.)

Obviously you wouldn't want to use a magnet that powerful, but the field drops off exponentially anyway. that magnet(it was the old magnet from a NMR scope) would only destroy your things if you were within arms reach. So even using one that powerful you would be fine so long as you don't change your tires or pressurize them. I'd recommend either somegood sized neodyns or a big block of those cheap ceramics and pack them close to the spring itself.

edit: the term I wanted was Tesla, The gauss is what physicists invented to get their labs to buy big ones("I want a 1 Tesla magnet and it costs 500K", president of college, "500K for 1 tesla. . .no" attempt 2 "I want a 3.5 million gauss magnet for 500K," "oh! 3.5 million gauss for 500K, thats a steal.")

Thats how the joke goes anyway.

[Daox]

I did a bit more searching. IMO the best way to go here is hydraulic like I said before. I ran to the local farm supply store and took a look at their prices on cylinders. It looks like for a 2" cylinder with ~8" of throw, you're looking at $70 each. Compare this to the price of a strut and you're actually coming in fairly cheap. Now, you just have to find yourself a hydraulic motor off ebay. They go for less than $50 from what I've seen. Add a few rubber lines, some hard lines, and a bunch of check valves and you're almost done. If your car needed new shocks, I don't see any reason not to try it.

[Kaoru]

thinking on those KERS (XD) suspensions... I think that for using them you need to couple with some kind of battery, like the capacitor in the flashlight.
You charge the capacitor applying a shake for some seconds, charging the capacitor.

LED that doesn't consume so much, so a capacitor is ok because is relatively fast to charge and slow to discarge.

In a car, it's difficult to use them because you need to apply a continous energy to the batteries to charge them (ironic - > like shaking for 1 hour the suspensions) to use it for something really mileage-increaser.

That's my opinion, I have yet to study EMF >.<"

[Clev]

Originally Posted by Daox

I did a bit more searching. IMO the best way to go here is hydraulic like I said before. I ran to the local farm supply store and took a look at their prices on cylinders. It looks like for a 2" cylinder with ~8" of throw, you're looking at $70 each. Compare this to the price of a strut and you're actually coming in fairly cheap. Now, you just have to find yourself a hydraulic motor off ebay. They go for less than $50 from what I've seen. Add a few rubber lines, some hard lines, and a bunch of check valves and you're almost done. If your car needed new shocks, I don't see any reason not to try it.

Now combine that with some 65 psi truck tires and adjust the damping to compensate and you have even more production capacity. :-)

[dutchboy]

If you went the easy way (wrapping the springs with wire and mounting a strong magnet on the shock absorber, from what I understand from this thread), about how much would materials cost to do all 4 wheels?

I would assume you would want some thinly insulated copper wire, to prevent the elements from causing corrosion?

This sounds like the most promising area for energy production, although it depends on road conditions. California has some pretty crappy roads so...

Combine this with a thermoelectric generator on the exhaust/catalytic converter and you'll really have something going.

[NeilBlanchard]

Hi,

I'm wondering if a hydraulic system wouldn't be a better way to go? Then, there would only be one generator, if all the shock absorbers feed a central generator. Shocks are already hydraulic, so the dampening control would come from the pressure to spin the generator. There could be a small pressure bladder that would absorb the "excess" and then the generator could use it to charge over some slightly longer time.

With this system, you could also get ride leveling, and height adjustment, too. Both are important for good aerodynamics.

And I'll add again that if the tires/wheels were engineered for minimum rolling resistance, the suspension would do (almost) all the dampening (as opposed to the inflated tires that do about half of the suspension now!) would be done by the hydraulics, and this means more power could be gained! (Rather than wasting it as heat in the tires.)

[Christ]

I rather like this idea... if I ever get around to building an electric car, I might try it out.

In fact, I might try it with air shocks in my Taco... As you hit bumps, the pressure in the shocks goes up... Tee off the inlet valve (where you pump them up) and put a small turbine in one line, with a check valve, into a bladder, then loop it back to the shock with another one-way flow check valve... as the pressure in the shock increases, it can expand out through the turbine line, into the bladder. Once the pressure decreases (shock rebound) the pressure in the bladder exceeds the shock, so it will equalize again, blowing back into the air shock.

Similarly, one could use hydraulic pistons with turbines, and vary the load on the turbines to adjust the suspension's stiffness and response. Imagine sports-car like handling from your old Volvo Wagon?