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Maker Pro

simple stirling hot air engine made at home with simple tools ,2 cans a baloon

  • Thread starter Malcom \Mal\ Reynolds
  • Start date
N

News

Jim Wilkins said:
"Possible" isn't the same as "practical".

The point is they worked. One senile fool here keeps spouting the compressed
air car did not work. It did.

No one said it was new. It has been used mines for about 100 years or more.
Learn some engineering and thermodynamics so you can tell a good idea from
a bad one.

I was about to suggest that to others. Compressed air is deal for kinetic
braking.
 
N

News

harry said:
The question is not whether one was ever built. The claim you made is
that it is being built TODAY.

I did not claim that at all.
The only one that actually hit the road
was a piss poor imitation

A number of them were made with dedicated bodies.
of what the pie-in-the-sky asinine claims
for it were. Limited range led the list.

It was meant to be a city vehicle, not cruise highways. Duh!

You are senile.
 
N

News

Vaughn said:
On 2/17/2012 11:02 AM, News wrote:

Then surely you can point us to at least one independent road test
article from a mainstream auto magazine?

Again......
"many journos, from respected papers and mags, have ridden in the car."

Normal people can understand that.
 
J

Jim Wilkins

News said:
I was about to suggest that to others. Compressed air is deal for kinetic
braking.

Computer-controlled electric regenerative braking is much more flexible and
responsive for other than straight dry road conditions. I worked in R&D for
both antilock braking in the 1970's and the Segway so I've seen the limits
of both up close (and can't reveal details of either of them).

This discusses the subtleties of substituting controlled regeneration for
part or all of the friction brake.
http://green.autoblog.com/2011/04/19/countdown-to-earth-day-regenerative-braking-102/
The pounding you feel when you trigger your ABS shows what happens when
solenoid valves modulate brake fluid pressure.

Notice that regenerative braking can become a serious hazard on icy roads,
and to a lesser extent wet corners. There are times when only pushing in the
clutch to let the wheels roll freely allows you to regain control. BTDT a
lot, in parking lots and frozen lakes. The computer can't detect an icy
patch ahead, and sometimes even the driver can't.

"As soon as you hit an area like that when using coasting regen, your wheels
are going to lock because you have a lot of force, and then you render our
ABS system useless because the ABS can't go anything when the wheels are
locked."

You are too stubbornly narrow-minded to see the flaws in the magic tech you
have become so pathologically attached to.

jsw
 
V

Vaughn

Again......
"many journos, from respected papers and mags, have ridden in the car."

And yet again, you can't produce a single example to support your
(obviously false) point.

Vaughn
 
N

News

Vaughn said:
And yet again, you can't produce a single example to support your
(obviously false) point.

Fool, do a google. Learn how to use computers.
 
C

Curbie

Trying to understand why things do and do not work takes real effort,
as does posting proof; posting opinions takes neither effort nor
proof.

I don't know what is more damaging about promoting "Magic" tech, the
people that are snookered in to believing the magic is not an
illusion, or the overall notion that we can all just sit on our hands
and do nothing, and wait for someone else to fix the huge energy
problems we have.

Curbie
 
J

Jim Wilkins

Curbie said:
I don't know what is more damaging about promoting "Magic" tech, ...
...or the overall notion that we can all just sit on our hands
and do nothing, and wait for someone else to fix the huge energy
problems we have.

Curbie

The inactive majority probably doesn't matter.

The tiny pro-active percentage capable and willing to innovate, and those
who invest in them, probably would continue with or without mass support.

It's the reactives that puzzle me, those who actively attack our current
energy sources but offer no credible alternatives.

jsw
 
C

Curbie

Oh, I agree, nothing can be evaluated on solely on its negatives; it's
always, if not one energy source… than what? I don't think the
inactive majority reads here, and for the pro-active percentage that
does, "magic" tech seems of poor option.
 
N

News

Jim Wilkins said:
Computer-controlled electric regenerative braking is much more flexible
and responsive for other than straight dry road conditions. I worked in
R&D for both antilock braking in the 1970's and the Segway so I've seen
the limits of both up close (and can't reveal details of either of them).

This discusses the subtleties of substituting controlled regeneration for
part or all of the friction brake.
http://green.autoblog.com/2011/04/19/countdown-to-earth-day-regenerative-braking-102/
The pounding you feel when you trigger your ABS shows what happens when
solenoid valves modulate brake fluid pressure.

Notice that regenerative braking can become a serious hazard on icy roads,
and to a lesser extent wet corners. There are times when only pushing in
the clutch to let the wheels roll freely allows you to regain control.
BTDT a lot, in parking lots and frozen lakes. The computer can't detect an
icy patch ahead, and sometimes even the driver can't.

"As soon as you hit an area like that when using coasting regen, your
wheels are going to lock because you have a lot of force, and then you
render our ABS system useless because the ABS can't go anything when the
wheels are locked."

You are too stubbornly narrow-minded to see the flaws in the magic tech
you have become so pathologically attached to.

You can't see the simple, cheap, advantages of using air to claw-back
kinetic energy and use it for acceleration.
 
N

News

Jim Wilkins said:
The inactive majority probably doesn't matter.

The tiny pro-active percentage capable and willing to innovate, and those
who invest in them, probably would continue with or without mass support.

It's the reactives that puzzle me, those who actively attack our current
energy sources but offer no credible alternatives.

Air is free.
 
N

News

Trying to understand why things do and do not work takes real effort,
as does posting proof; posting opinions takes neither effort nor
proof.

I don't know what is more damaging about promoting "Magic" tech, the
people that are snookered in to believing the magic is not an
illusion, or the overall notion that we can all just sit on our hands
and do nothing, and wait for someone else to fix the huge energy
problems we have.

The problem is that people are too narrow minded and easy swayed by big
corps. The biggest example of this is the piston IC engine. It is a
Victorian dog that only uses 20% of the energy in the tank. It is totally
unacceptable. Many great idea can come about to replace it. Many in
concept, and simulation, are much superior. When pros and cons are assessed
they are still vastly superior. Yet the big corps do nothing.

Then the "sit on our hands and do nothing", crew retort to, "if it was any
good the big auto companies would have made them by now". The vast majority
of cars in the world are made by a handful of companies and most trend to
look the same - as if in league with each other. The big corps have openly
stated they will not adopt new technology unless there existing plant can
make it - most of the same parts bin.

In the essential engine, only the Russians with their proposed "rotary vane
engine" incorporated in a hybrid also using supercapacitors, offer any
advancement - Even the body is advanced composites. See thread on that for
info. That appears to be a very serious project with the Russian president
driving a prototype for promotional reasons - he would not be used a stooge
for lost cause.

Apart from this Russian initiate, only Toyota looked ahead and did
something, setting the current scene in hybrids, which is getting better and
better.

To "sit on our hands and do nothing" is not an option. To dance to the tune
of the corporations is not an option.
 
J

Jim Wilkins

News said:
You can't see the simple, cheap, advantages of using air to claw-back
kinetic energy and use it for acceleration.

One of my uncles rigged up an old air conditioning compressor to pump up an
air tank in his truck, to refill the tires after reducing their pressure for
off-roading.

The electric clutch makes them easy to control, to increase the inherent
engine braking of a manual transmission or add their torque as an air motor
when accelerating, so I played around with the idea. When you work out the
math the possible gain is very slight, not close to worth the added initial
and maintenance cost unless the equipment is free. I found a good 12V
compressor for $30 to pump up the tires.

This is what Diesel trucks do instead, and they already HAVE compressed air
systems.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exhaust_brake

At $4 a gallon the worst-case difference between driving my Honda around
town at a steady speed when traffic is light, and stop-and go at rush hour,
is less than $0.04 per mile. That's the most to be gained from a perfectly
efficient regenerative system, compressed air without an expensive and bulky
heat recovery system isn't even close. Now go check the price for an air
compressor of 5-10 HP, which is only a small fraction of car engine power.

At the power and pressure levels I've experimented with, roughly half the
input power is lost as heat when compressing the air, and half of what's
left when it expands and cools in the motor. The numbers depend on how much
the air heats and cools. For a practical example a 500W electric angle
grinder cleans up welds about as fast as an air grinder that requires a 2HP
compressor.

A mine or factory air-powered locomotive charged from an external compressor
can ignore the compression loss, but a self-contained vehicle has to suffer
both it and the expansion loss.

jsw
 
J

Jim Wilkins

News said:
To "sit on our hands and do nothing" is not an option. To dance to the
tune of the corporations is not an option.
Learning the science to design a new power source and and buying hobby-sized
machine tools to build it yourself is VERY MUCH an option. I have my
[mumble] projects, what's holding YOU back??

This is an excellent size of lathe for an inventor's basement shop, small
enough to manhandle down the stairs and large enough to turn a Diesel truck
piston. I have the equivalent South Bend.
http://nh.craigslist.org/tls/2823672021.html

If you'd rather buy a new machine of lower Chinese quality but no (less?)
risk of unpleasant hidden surprises:
http://www.grizzly.com/products/category.aspx?key=460000|700000

These store in a desk drawer and take up no more temporary space than a
laptop computer:
http://www.sherline.com/
They are adequate to make an aluminum or brass proof-of-concept model, but
not powerful enough to cut much steel.

jsw
 
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