hamster power

[Dr_Doggy]

i was told i was crazy, but ....

 

[gophert]

My wife suggested they make the cages from aluminum or copper and bolt them together to use them as buss bars to transfer power to the end of the building.

 

[sagor1]

Reminds me of "The Matrix"...
If this is so successful, why not use humans?

 

[kubeek]

I would like to see the maitenance guy who spends his days oiling the bearings on the little spinning cages

 

[ronsimpson]

maitenance guy

My job title; "pooper scooper"

 

[alec_t]

If this is so successful, why not use humans?

Ideal exercise for prisoners, while providing a community service and being eco-friendly.

 

[Ylli]

Assuming there is a minute amount of seriousness to this... What about the cost and eco impact of the inputs to the little energy producers? And how are the emissions processed?

 

[dknguyen]

Ideal exercise for prisoners, while providing a community service and being eco-friendly.

Honestly, most of us would benefit from doing this for an hour a day to get more fit and contribute to power production. Treadmills that USE power to run is one of the most backward things I've seen. Those unpowered curved treadmills are so much quieter and nicer to use (inherent speed adjustment too!) but they're like patented or something so cost a buttload even though they are simpler.

 

[Dr_Doggy]

Cons: The food cost's the company a bit.
there is a rough equation out there on google that mentions conversion from food intake to kwh basically 1000 cal is 1kwha avg human consumption is 2000 cal so 2 kwh = 30cents

some random google stats & slopy math:
345 cal/cup dog food
5.7cup required
1cup=120g dog food
684g required
$0.16/100g cost of dog food

cost to feed: $1.10 ....
eout = $0.30
eout = <684g of compost

so its a good idea when you dont need to feed ... as mentioned, a gym , where ppl feed them selves then in fact pay to use equipment would spring profit mostly cos of the eco fad then the actual generation .... in fact i think it already exists

more to the point ... i want to put a 2lbs cat in one ...
i am shopping for exercise wheels now , when i find it i will know my radius and mass....
but then how do i find good generator motor? ... which type of motor is best BLDC?

how do i use gear ratio to match the motor... example pls?
ideally i would like direct couple to the center rod that spins with the wheel (after i solder it on)

 

[dknguyen]

You want as big a wheel as possible to not screw up your cat's back.

 

[Dr_Doggy]

cats too huh?
may hafta reinvent the wheel!?

/....... actually i meant Rat! those are the 2lbs ers...

 

[dknguyen]

cats too huh?
may hafta reinvent the wheel!?

/....... actually i meant Rat! those are the 2lbs ers...

There are running dishes/saucers as well as wheels which don't have that problem. I thought 2lbs was small for a cat.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Presumably you all know about human powered wheels?, most of the worlds cathedrals and churches were built using them, there's one on display at Chesterfield Museum that was used to build St. Marys Church, the one with the famous crooked spire. When the church was built the human powered winch/crane was left in situ, and was removed a few years ago for display in the museum.

 

[gophert]

cats too huh?
may hafta reinvent the wheel!?

/....... actually i meant Rat! those are the 2lbs ers...

Remember, a two-pound rat runs faster when chased by a 15-pound cat.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Remember, a two-pound rat runs faster when chased by a 15-pound cat.

At least one of my daughter's pet rats does side kicks, obviously trained by Splinter!

 

[alec_t]

Not sure if the donkey wheel at Carisbrooke Castle is still in use.

 

[gophert]

Not sure if the donkey wheel at Carisbrooke Castle is still in use.

That is a lot of machinery for the donkey to move for a small bucket of water. The frictional losses may be huge. To answer your question about it still being in use?, I would guess, maybe, if PETA has not seen the video. And No, if PETA has seen the video.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

A more common use was with horses, but walking round in a circle turning a 'roundabout', providing power for winching out of mines, grinding corn, anything really - where water or wind power wasn't availble (prior to steam of course).

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

That is a lot of machinery for the donkey to move for a small bucket of water.

The human powered one I showed was EXTREMELY effective, and the donkey powered ones probably even more so (a donkey is heavier and stronger).

There was a TV series on in the UK a couple of years ago, where they were given simple drawings (often very vague and very old drawings), and had to try and build a working replica, improving it if they could. One was a medieval multi barrel cannon (which worked really well) and another was a human powered crane.

They made space for two people in the 'hamster' wheel, and improved the design by having two gears, and a swinging jib - they easily picked up a car with it, and swung it round to drop it elsewhere.

You tend to think that losses would be huge, but such devices work, and work well, as do old water wheels and windmills. When you look at the size and weight of them it's incredible that they can be moved at all, never mind provide power from a relatively small source.

 

[Tony Stewart]

The ideal motor has lossless bearings and a flywheel with an MPPT converter to keep the RPM at 72 to 82% ( 76% avg) of no-load max RPM. Thus we model the engines as current sources of torque so that the power = Torque* (76% max RPM) or Current * (76% max Voc) is regulated over a range to feel light and responsive initially to get up to some inertial speed with some torque with load current such that the speed does not drop out from frustration due to excessive hard starting. The MPPT algorithm must consider the psychology of the mood of the "power source" as well as it's capacity to make it more fun. This takes impedance matching and a PID mood matching negative feedback and some fuzzy logic thrown in, to learn and adapt to changes in mood, energy level and thus dynamic source impedance. But for me, stationary exercise machines are a boring waste of time. It needs to have an immediate reward or productive work accomplished..
Although some sources of power have a broad RPM torque curve, this is not generally the case with animals or humans. Unless you are a decathalon warrior.