Author Topic: Ultracapacitors in place of battery...  (Read 6992 times)

CROSSBOLT

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Re: Ultracapacitors in place of battery...
« Reply #30 on: April 30, 2014, 02:07:02 PM »
Modmaster, the batteries that come in our Kymco's are AGM. Cheap ones at that!

Karl
Karl

Three motorcycles 1960-1977 (restored a 1955 BSA)
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CROSSBOLT

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Re: Ultracapacitors in place of battery...
« Reply #31 on: November 17, 2014, 04:28:34 PM »
OK, Yager! What happened to this fascinating project?

Karl
Karl

Three motorcycles 1960-1977 (restored a 1955 BSA)
Agility 50
Yager 200i
Downtown 300i
Navy tech, Ships Engineer, pilot and aircraft mechanic

zombie

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Re: Ultracapacitors in place of battery...
« Reply #32 on: November 17, 2014, 07:35:21 PM »
Shorted out!
"They have nothing in their whole imperial arsenal that can break the spirit of one Irishman who doesn't want to be broken."   Bobby Sands...

Yager200i

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Re: Ultracapacitors in place of battery...
« Reply #33 on: November 24, 2014, 12:36:11 AM »
No, still working on it. It's in the pipeline.

My electric coolant pump microcontroller is almost finished, we got the new PCBs delivered and my electronics guy is busy soldering components in place, he's already tested a bench model of it, and the software and hardware is working, as is the USB computer interface for changing the settings and the dashboard display. We also found a manufacturer who is willing to mass-produce these if I decide to go the route of manufacturing entire aftermarket retrofit kits. You can't believe how complicated it gets to make pumps smart enough to not only monitor but protect an engine from overheat of the coolant, cylinder head or exhaust. Most of the time went into programming the various operating modes of the microcontroller.

After that my electronics guy's second project will be creating a new type of ignition system... then the ultra-cap battery project. But right now I'm sourcing parts and pieces of the ultracap battery.

The new ignition is called a nano-pulsed corona discharge system. Essentially, you use a regular Iridium spark plug, but you cut off the J-curve ground electrode. The center post is hit with a high voltage that is turned on and off so quickly for each spark event (on the order of nanoseconds) that high voltage "feelers" emanate from the center post, but they never have enough time to transition into the lower-voltage, high-amperage arc phase. Thus, free radicals (electrons) are distributed throughout the entire combustion chamber, forcing the fuel:air mixture to ignite all at once. Remember that combustion is a free radical cascade reaction between fuel and an oxidant, so we're using this same principle to initiate combustion.

The advantages to this are:
1) Ignition and combustion are much faster. This allows you to retard spark timing to TDC or slightly after, so the engine is mechanically more efficient, since it doesn't have to do work against that ~20 degrees BTDC of a conventional ignition system where the fuel:air mix is ignited and expanding as the piston is still moving up in the cylinder. I think our scooters advance spark timing something like a maximum of 21 degrees.

2) No flame front. Bulk ignition means there's no flame front, thus no chance of knock due to colliding flame fronts.

3) Lean burn. You can dramatically lean your fuel:air mixture and still reliably ignite it.

4) Lower power consumption. Because the spark is never allowed to enter that lower-voltage high-current arc phase, current draw is less. It uses the power more efficiently in igniting the fuel:air mix.

Siemens is doing something similar and should have their products for cars on the market sometime soon, but since they'll never make one that'd fit on a scooter, I've got to have it built.

zombie

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Re: Ultracapacitors in place of battery...
« Reply #34 on: November 24, 2014, 02:01:28 AM »
This sound very cool but... it will not work. The combustion chamber is actually based on the insulator of the spark plug. The time it takes for the flame to travel through the cylinder is calculated into the timing/compression ratio.

Unless you redesign the piston/cylinder head/spark plug, what you will have is a case of force pre detonation. That system will create too much pressure, and slow the travel of the pistonm wear the crank shaft/con rod bearings, and cause piston failure.

I have messed w/ similar systems years ago. The only partial solution was to install the spark plug in the side of the cylinder just before TDC (approx 20-25*, and install a perfectly machined head to match the piston dome. A 4mm squish in most cases maintained a 10:1 compression ratio.

There are a few other things like "leaner mixture"... More air= higher temp...

Don't get discouraged. Keep at it. Your best bet is re designing the cylinder head to run gap-less plugs, and 45-50k volt coils. Your nano spark idea can work if the combustion chamber is designed for it. It ONLY engine I know of that will run that sort of Tech. is the Mercury Marine outboard engine. They are designed to work with a different shape flame front. Models from 90-300HP. Perhaps you could pick up a long block cheaply to experiment with or a junker so you can inspect the combustion chamber in the heads
"They have nothing in their whole imperial arsenal that can break the spirit of one Irishman who doesn't want to be broken."   Bobby Sands...

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