Flame Licker Running a Generator and lighting an LED bulb

[JimDobson]

Flame Licker Running a Generator and lighting an LED bulb. These small engines interest me a lot and they are capable of doing some work, a little different from my main hobby of toy steam and model steam engines.

 

[kuhncw]

Well done, Jim. Are you using a stepper motor for the generator?

Chuck

 

[JimDobson]

Well done, Jim. Are you using a stepper motor for the generator?

Chuck

G'day Chuck, yes it's a small stepper motor (from a printer I think).

 

[Steamchick]

These "external combustion atmospheric engines" were the stepping-stone to the Internal combustion engine: They originally used to drive blowers for Smelting furnaces - by using the hot exhaust gases from the furnaces instead of actual flames.
Perhaps this application was the earliest version of mechanically "supercharging" a combustion process from exhaust energy - AKA Turbo charging of ICE engines? Though not the earliest way to force the fire from exhaust energy. (That was the tall chimney, superceded on locos by the exhaust blower).
K2

 

[Bentwings]

ive got three steam turbines and thre three matching generators . My plan is to have a turbine mechanically drive one generator that In turn will power another generator as a motor then power LED LIGHTS I just got the light and holders with bulbs I have a pair of 20x20 extrusions and a handful of tees lot nuts to fasten things together Once I get the universal wires made I’ll assemble it
Flame Licker Running a Generator and lighting an LED bulb. These small engines interest me a lot and they are capable of doing some work, a little different from my main hobby of toy steam and model steam engines.

 

[JimDobson]

ive got three steam turbines and thre three matching generators . My plan is to have a turbine mechanically drive one generator that In turn will power another generator as a motor then power LED LIGHTS I just got the light and holders with bulbs I have a pair of 20x20 extrusions and a handful of tees lot nuts to fasten things together Once I get the universal wires made I’ll assemble it

Please show me some pictures or a vid when you get it setup, I would be super interested.
Thanks!

 

[Bentwings]

ill try and come up with something I was actually going to try this with my little steam engine on compressed air but I keep having small issues with it the turbines take a lot of air for their size so I may have to get an air tank as I don’t think my compressor can keep up with them they need to run another 30 k rpm minimum to have enough torque ive got belt reductions for them so I may have to make some adjustments I suspect the gear belts won’t hold up to the load and rpm The motor generators have to run about 5400 rpm to be reasonably efficient but once I get one set up I’ll be able to experiment . It’s interesting as I designed a similar system for a series of high speed wire drawing machines using 40 hp electric motors they were r gear belt driven with no trouble . Those old motors hd U.S Navy stenciled on them so that’s where my idea came from
Please show me some pictures or a vid when you get it setup, I would be super interested.
Thanks!

 

[JimDobson]

Thanks Bentwings.

 

[kuhncw]

Jim, what kind of circuit are you using to rectify the stepper output to DC for the LED?

Chuck

 

[JimDobson]

Jim, what kind of circuit are you using to rectify the stepper output to DC for the LED?

Chuck

Chuck this is a pretty good video -

 

[Bentwings]

i searched this quite a lot . Most use a bridge rectifier . I have a bag of them and parts to solder together I also have a smal bread board that I’ll try things out on I even got a new soldering iron an helping hands with mag glass also got s bag of terminal ends to fit my motor generators I’ll add these to the stepper motors too when I get to them I don’t know how much power these will take so I may invest in a small power supply I got a few battery boxes one tie . They are in the electrical stuff box the femal motor connectors are very hard to assemble but I found that there is a small indent that causes this by carefully squishingvthiscwith side cutter they can be made to fit much better I’m not much on electrics so I depend on internet videos . Most are pretty good for neophytes
Jim, what kind of circuit are you using to rectify the stepper output to DC for the LED?

Chuck

 

[kuhncw]

Jim, thanks for the video link.

Chuck

 

[Bentwings]

ive got his video stored in y notes somewhere it’s where got the whole idea of a motor driving generato to do some additional work . Remains to be seen how much input gives how much output , nothing is free so you have to keep this n mind LED don’t take much power per light . I plan on making a street light arrangement. I tried to find scale rail rod ones but they all just don’t fit in my mind I have some 1/2” copper tube I thought I’d bend in an arch then slice a bit out and flatten it for a reflector of sorts I got a couple automotive dome light. Holders so I’ll use them I think after testing the holders were not very expensive nor were the bulbs I also hav a rotary variable resistor so I can vary the resistance as needed I suppose a small battery charger could be made too but that’s down the road always I may arrange the bread board so I can easily plug my multimeter in to measure as needed . I just wish I could get the steamer to work properly on compressed air
Chuck this is a pretty good video -

 

[bluejets]

Like this one......