Building a Hybrid electric-charcoal

This unit I have bought is ,so new that they have not even printed off a manual for it !! so broken English emails going back and forth can be a bit frustrating when needing to find out how to set value’s of charging rates and engine speeds ect , although it is automatic I would like more control over it to do what I want it to do .
David , Vibration is next to nothing on this unit , I took the gas tank off it to look at the engine and all the electronics are in a separate compartment and so sealed off from the engine , as for the heat …welllllll did you see those fans on the side ? there are fans on both sides of this unit and boy do they suck and blow and they keep going after the unit shuts down till its down to a safe temp and then it just goes to sleep ,.
I am going to be real cheeky and ask them if they will sell me another one at the same price as I may need spares :smirk: Dave

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Is that a tri-fuel carb?
I’d like to buy that too…

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Hi Wallace , yes it is indeed a tri fuel carb , ,when I first decided I would like one of these units I asked if it would come with gas a regulator and fittings and they said no , so I was pleased when I opened up the door to find it did , mind you the gas inlet fitting on the bottom is a 90deg bend brass fitting with a barb on the end , don’t think I will use that to connect gas pipe too though !

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Ya I don’t see that as being TSSA approved lol.

Getting parts is a big problem these days because of TSSA.

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Found this on Ebay.

Looks like the right unit to hack for a conversion.
I would prefer to see a 2000 watt unit though so it could be mated to a modified clone.

Here’s the reasoning.

If you run a generator at less than its rated power you pay a penalty of higher fixed losses as compared to a properly matched machine.
But there are trade offs here too.
The smaller the machine lower its efficiency.

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Hi Wallace , yes that’s the first one I saw when I decided to wait for the price to come down , then about 4 months later they started advertising the one I ended up with , not a lot of difference I don’t think apart from my one has solar and a 5000W LF inverter built into it .
Dave

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That unit in question is the generator only.
Its part of a system.

Unless I am mistaken…

I just want the generator end.
In fact I just want the bolt on section so I can build an engine around.

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Wallace you are correct it is only the generator, its designed as a range extender just for keeping the batteries topped up on electric trikes ect ,and is also perfect for off grid uses where the sun don’t shine as much as it should .
What is the bolt on section you mentioned that you want ? nearly all these bits are available on line .
Dave

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Dave the part I would like to buy is the PM alternator unit only.
I suspect the crank shaft used is the same as the regular generator units based on a single picture.
The one and only good application for these PM alternators is to charge batteries ( or DC capacitor link for an inverter )and we have the perfect application for it.

Since there is no field control the only way to increase alternator output is to increase RPM with load.
This is why inverter generators all increase and decrease speed in response to load changes.
This is a handy feature for a wood gas powered engine for a couple of reasons.
If the load exceeds the prime movers ability to increase power then engine slows down, but it will not stall our stop.

See here from a previous post, this is all I really need to work from.
But It would be nice to know for sure what crank shaft they use ( I have lots of cranks for clones but a limited number of the most likely type they used generator taper, threaded pump and 20mm metric )

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Hi Wallace ,
I came across someone on Ali express selling just the pm alternators off these range extenders , just last week for $77 plus shipping ,and thought at the time it would cost more to get it here (Australia ) than the price of the alternator , but still heaps cheaper than the one in the link you put up that is no longer available .
Just went to have a look for the link to show you and I am damned if I can find it now , but will post it if I come across it again .
Dave

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My eventual goal was to make something like that… I bought this 3 years ago… then had child number 2 :joy: Some day…

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Just to be sure I follow you.

PM for permanent magnet alternator?

Thierry

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If you are looking at the picture I think you are seeing P/N which stands for Part Number

Thierry, In wallace’s comment “pm” stands for permanent magnet.

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Video’s from the trike… up and running… its alive…
Now starting with the ienuning

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How many amps is the alternator?
Looks like a normal automotive unit I guess around 60 amp peak?

How much load can the engine carry on wood gas?

I see a GX200.

Koen:
I see the governor arm is still intact.
This leads me to think non of the internal parts to the governor were removed.
IF this arm moves the wrong way it will come in contact with the crank shaft.
There is a high probability that parts of the governor are now in the bottom of the engine.

You will need to remove these pieces.

Drive out the governor gear with a punch from the flywheel side.
The arm will be removed pulling it down through the crank case.

Buy 2 short American AN type 1/4 inch 20 TPI screws and force them to thread in the holes.
No tapping is required they will make their own threads ( Whitworth will also work but use hard ones not cheap Indian crap. I have no idea what you have for bolts other than metric )

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Hi Wallace,
Its an 80 amps 24V truck alternator, choosen for the low rpm and the static rotor windings (only the cage turns) Also has no brushes.
I added about 14 vid’s on youtube having this running. You might see more detail on them as well.
Good hint for the arm to remove, will first have the springs back on it before i open this one… ( 2 brand new )
I adjust the load with a pwm, able to connect it with a arduino later on, for throttle and load control.
This was the first test on woodgas driving it.
The alternator is now without its own regulator, so i can boost the voltage as i want or as far i can :grin:
Step by step working it up to a multi tool …
The batt pack is 60 Volts, but the batteries are down… old solar gell batteries, need budget for new ones…
i want to be able to pull 3 Kwh with an inverter, meaning 2 kwh from the running alternator and 1 Kwh from the batteries
This as max value ofcourse and continiuous.

Back to the governor, i was thinking to build a “servo” control with that arm, to adjust the load/rpm, a poti to the arm and a servo on a butterfly valve. Maybe you have some idea how to ?

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Koen:

If you used a good spring like from a scale and used a 5 K pot connected to the shaft you could create an input for the Arduino that gives an analog signal approximately for the engine speed.
I though about this to do the same thing you are doing.

But after a while I came to the conclusion it would be better to leave the governor intact and add some springs and a pair of solenoid to increase and decrease RPM to match the load.
I have not worked out exactly how to sense the load other than a shunt resistor on the alternator output. ( that would give 4 steps of speed control not bad I think )

80 amp 24 volt that’s a very big unit that I expect will exceed the ability of a GX200 on gasoline to start ( full load dead battery and starting the unit ).
Running would be OK though ( but it is a heavy load for charcoal )
I have a 75 amp 12 dc volt unit for my project ( that I suspect is the limit the charcoal can carry )

I am alarmed about that governor arm being left like that.
I think you had better stop now and remove the parts or do something about this.
I am 99%v sure you have loose parts flying around in that engine ( plastic pieces but still potentially a problem )

If that crank hits the arm while its loose at the right time and place its game over for the engine.
Here is a video that shows what i am talking about with the punch and hammer.
if you notice the minibike its an MB165 and I race those!
I have one that will go 100 kph with ease

Ok I do not race anymore, my back is bad, but I still like to ride now and then and see how fast I can go.
Not too many people want kart engines based on the Honda any more.
But I still build them flat track racing.

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Hi Wallace,

It all depends how much power you “ask” from your engine…
24V @ 80 amps is just below 2 kwh
but since i removed the regulator and replaced it with a PWM, i can “pull” 80 Amps at 120 V, but don’t have the engine power to do so :grin:
My estimates are 2 Kwh for the GX200 engine, but still putting stuff together to do the testing…
I want to put resistive loads, working on finding suitables… otherwise its going to be waterpump choking on pressure…

will do with the governor arms at once…

edit:
It is a hard pull to get this one started, due to the belt tension.
but the load only comes on when i switch it on… no automated regulator. No load started now…

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