The New Scientist edition of 25 March has an article about a new development of self charging batteries. The device uses bar magnets with the ends covered by an almost frictionless magnetic goo, sliding in a tube. About the centre of the tube is a generator coil. The tube is rocked from side-to-side, and as the magnets slide past the coil enough electricity is generated to charge a capacitor. It?s early days yet, but the first applications are to power navigation buoys at sea, rocked by the waves. Then there is a device proposed to keep mobile telephones charged up, rocked as the owner moves about.
What does more rocking and lurching about than a car ? Cars are getting more power hungry with every new model. As the technology develops will we see devices to recharge the battery as you move without additional drain on the engine.
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This is a very old idea.
Many years ago I did some work with T&N Technology at Cawston, near Rugby (AE R&D labs, as was). We were designing instrumentation for use inside engines. A standard way of powering the instrumentation was a tube with a slug of neodynium-cobalt magnet supported by a spring each side. Wrapped around it was a coil of wire. As the pistons reciprocated the magnet bounced up and down and a current was induced in the coil, subsequently this was rectified and regulated to power the electronics. There were many many technical papers showing similar devices for all manner of applications where movement was involved.
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Not exactly self charging. There has to be movement and the movement needs power.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Automatic watches have worked on the same principle for many years....
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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The mass of a magnet to charge a car battery would cause severe problems with going round corners.
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Much better to use the unwanted kinetic energy, i.e. the energy that is wasted when the brakes are applied, F1 teams were working on a system a few years that would harness some of the energy wasted under braking and use it to offer a few more bhp coming out of the corner, the FIA banned the principal on cost grounds.
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>>I did some work with T&N Technology at Cawston, near Rugby (AE R&D labs, as was.
All gone sadly; now a retirement village....
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Was Charles {P} but someone c o p i e d my name with spaces.
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I would have thought there would be much more 'free' energy avaialable by utilising all that wasted heat from internal combustion engines.
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it would be much easier to mount some peltier devices on the hot parts of the engine to generate enough power to charge the battery.
I can see the moving magnet method working well to power a bike dynamo to keeps its light battereis charged.
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I read often, only post occasionally
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No such thing as free energy, don't forget it will take some of the car's momentum to set the magnet swinging.
Been able to get this technology for years in those torches you shake to charge a capacitor. Not sure what New Scientist is on about.
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"No such thing as free energy, don't forget it will take some of the car's momentum to set the magnet swinging.
Been able to get this technology for years in those torches you shake to charge a capacitor. Not sure what New Scientist is on about."
The idea is not new by any means, but the execution is very different. Some of the original shaken devices using moving magnets (e.g., torches) slide up and down with attendant friction losses, or work against springs and thus are quite inefficient. The thing about this new device is that there is almost no friction and thus vastly increased efficiency. It also uses a super-capacitor, which is relatively new.
And the car is going to swing whether you use the waste power or not.
I can't imagine that it will generate enough power to give the the battery enough charge to start the car, but it would recover some of the energy lost.
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