Hi Craig
On (22 Aug 97) Craig Healy wrote to Alec Cameron...
-> Ahah. The sweet sound of reason. Cancel the engine option and move ho
-> hot water from your furnace in the usual proven way!!
 CH> But that's the fun/point of this particular exercise! 
Agree, Boys Just Gotta Have Fun!
 CH> The people I'm referring to are racing camshaft designers.  They have
 CH> all the expertise and equipment to do the job.
Would you hire a SST aero designer to make a cropduster or stunt biplane?
 CH> I am planning on running at a constant power/load.  Let the power
 CH> grid supply or absorb the difference.  It becomes the infinite
 CH> "flywheel".
Ahah! And how do you achieve constant power? I guess you might clamp the
throttle bar and have a speed limiter to protect your machine if the line 
oes
dead on you [breaker or fuse opening at your end]
If you clamp the throttle then due to line impedance your engine power will
rise and fall with local area voltage variations. An induction motor has no
excitation control [a synch gen does] so the only influence you can have on
the local voltage, is to bring it downwards. I am inclined to think you will
need vac advance not just a maggie.
 CH> But even an electric motor runs at a near-synchronous rate.  Close
 CH> enough for "fuzzy logic" anyhow.  The same push against the 60Hz
 CH> rate ends up with essentially the same effect.
In power terms, yes. But amperes and line voltage can produce embarrassing
surprises when fuzzy engineering gets into its stride.
                                                      
A regular ac motor used as a generator, could be driven by your engine in the
range of [say] 3600 to 3700rpm. As the speed rises from 3600 the delivered
power will rise from zero to something like engine power. If the engine runs
out of gas it will not stop, but keep right on rolling at about 3500 rpm. 
ave
some clean spark plugs on hand!
BUT if you use a synch motor as a generator then you may use an AVR to hold
your local volts very close to 220v [or whatever] and the engine will run at
one speed and one speed only, no matter what you do with the throttle. Have
fun!
 CH> In this part of the US, the substations cover a fairly large amount
 CH> of town.  I doubt they'd even notice my peanut whistle operation
 CH> The "flywheel" here is pretty big...  Hundreds of houses.
Your neighbour who is serious about TV picture quality might surprise you!
Cheers...ALEC
... Wunce i coodn even spll ingineer. Now i are wun!!
--- PPoint 1.92
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