Quote:
Originally Posted by stj_1533
By "current capability" I meant how much current the fuel cell will provide. No worries.
Judging by the website you provided, it looks like the fuel cell will provide up to half an amp at 2 Volts (depending on hydrogen flow, I imagine) and will electrolyze water into H2 and O2 when you apply 4 Volts, and draws about half an amp while doing so. Charging up the caps to 2 Volts and stacking them will put 4V on the fuel cell - no more than that. I'm not familiar with the cell, but it sounds like if you stack the caps the stored energy might to into hydrolyzing the water that built up while you were generating the electricity in the first place. Whether you wind up hydrolyzing more water or not, the motor will be running off the stored energy in the caps and not the fuel cell.
Since I don't know what the spirit of this competition is supposed to be, or what the rules are (particularly on stored energy), I don't know if what you're proposing is going to be legal.
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Based on that explanation, it sounds like the capacitors when in discharge mode will both charge the fuel cell and run the motor. Not really disastrous in a distance competition, but I'm in a speed competition. I'm expecting the caps to discharge themselves completely at the 4-5meter mark. I could use the momentum to finish the race, but I don't want to take that risk.
The rules define the fuel cell as the source of energy. Source is defined by the organizer as something that converts energy from one form to another. A capacitor doesn't do that so it's legal. In real life, I'd imagine that this method could be used in cars to help with acceleration.
Al,
What I did last year was run the capacitor in series with the fuel cell. It worked, until the semi-finals when the cap wasn't charged fully, so I ran the championship race in parallel.
This year I guess what I'm trying to do is get two separate sources of electricity powering the motor at separate times. The capacitor's job is to get the car up to speed. The fuel cell's job is to maintain the speed.
I remember reading something about the TRIMET which would use the solar panel to charge a set of capacitors, and when the capacitors reached a certain voltage, discharge them. Perhaps a similar system could be applied?
TRIMET