Dynamo Characteristics

[fzn10]

Hi, im connecting a dynamo to a turbine which is going to a PIC chip, im interested in measuring the voltage into the PIC chip and then converting that to power. My question is the voltage proportional to the power?

 

[Dan East]

Power (wattage) is amperage times voltage.

W=A*V

Dan East

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

The voltage and power from a dynamo are directly proportional to it's speed, so the faster it spins the more voltage and more power you get out. Obviously this is limited by the capability of the dynamo, and if it's loaded too highly it will fail.

Conversely, for a motor (which is almost identical to a dynamo), the more voltage you feed it the faster it will go, and the more power it can supply - taking more current as the load increases.

 

[Peepsalot]

Hi, im connecting a dynamo to a turbine which is going to a PIC chip, im interested in measuring the voltage into the PIC chip and then converting that to power. My question is the voltage proportional to the power?

You can't really measure the power output of a dynamo by itself, it doesn't make sense. It depends on the load being placed on it. You could hook up and little LED and resistor to the dynamo and it would only put out as much power as those components will take(less than a watt). Or you could hook up a 60W bulb and it would put out much more, up to it's limit. But you can't measure the limit without the load being there. Also, the more load you put on it, the more physical resistance to movement there will be in the dynamo(like changing the gears on a bike to high gear) and the turbine may spin slower from this, which would produce a lower voltage.