Bicycle Computer

[Andre Blanchard]

This may have been mentioned here before but.

I picked up a Schwinn bicycle computer, has a magnet that is intended to clamp onto a wheel spoke and a sensor on the frame.  Cost was about $14.00 and looks to be reasonably rugged as electronics go.  It is calibrated by imputing the circumference of the wheel in millimeters.  The display can be set for miles or kilometers but that makes no difference to our use.
If you calibrate it at a circumference of 2682mm then 100rpm will display as 10.0mph, it will display up to 99.9mph or in our case 999rpm.  There is also an odometer that reads up to 9999.9 miles before rollover.
If you take the number off the odometer and multiply it by 600 you get the number of revolutions the wheel has made, so it will count up and rollover at 6000000 revolutions.  At 650rpm this would be 153.8 hours which if you average 4 hours of runtime per day would be 38 days.  If the odometer reading is multiplied by 0.0154 you will directly get hours of runtime.  If you keep a log book, and once a week or so (depending on your daily runtime) write down the odometer reading so that you can track the rollovers you will have a good idea of the total hours on the engine.
Maybe an inexpensive alternative for RPM and hour meters.  Other functions are average speed, and indicator of if the current speed is above of below the average, and indictor of if you are currently speeding up or slowing down, a trip meter time and distance 10 hours and 1000 miles max, also a max speed memory.  The max speed be of some use.
___________
Andre' B.

[kyradawg]

Peace&Love , Darren

[Andre Blanchard]

Andre,

Are you the same Andre with the turbochargerd 6/1?

Peace&Love , Darren

No.
At least not yet.
__________
Andre' B.

[dwkdnvr]

If you spend a bit more, you can go one better.  More advanced bike computers have two inputs - one for speed/distance, and the other for 'cadence' (cadence is actually really important to endurance cyclists). The cadence sensor will give you RPM directly, and is typically measured to 0.1 rpm. (not idea whether it's actually that accurate, though)

Your idea of using mileage to monitor hours is a good one though. With the additional cadence sensor you would have more freedom to calibrate the speed sensor to give you longer times between rollover.

[Andre Blanchard]

This one was just what they had on the shelf.
But if you spend much more you may as well just get an actual tach and hour meter.
_____________
Andre' B.

[kyradawg]

Peace&Love , Darren

[Reno Speedster]

I particularly like the big orange sticker thet says "cadence not included"...maybe a little conversation with the seller is needed.

Morgan

[kyradawg]

Peace&Love , Darren

[BruceM]

I bought an engine vibration- hours meter from McMaster.
Part # 8678 T64  (Thanks to Cranelift/Steve for this much appreciated tip.)  I think it was $23.

Perfect for my use since I'll just be running the air compressor for my shop sometimes. 

I use an RC model airplane optical tachometer set to three blade mode for a tach, and point it through the flywheel spokes.  RPM is half the indicated value. 

[Gregmm]

With all the talk about a Bike computer and how cheap they are does anyone have any idea if there is something like that out there that has some sort of interface to a basic stamp. It could be used for auto shut down for a number of things. Such as heat, too many rpm lose of rpm, lose of voltage exc., a basic stamp is $15.00 and a basic program for it to do some of this stuff would not be a big deal to program in. Any Ideas

[Mr Lister]

List

Good to hear that my idea of using a bicycle computer as a rev-counter has finally re-surfaced.

Interfacing to a PIC is relatively straight forward, you just need an inductive pick-up or even a magnetic reed switch to be tripped by a button magnet on the flywheel.

If you are using a toothed belt drive, or have a starter ring gear, you can always use the inductive sensor to count the teeth and determine rpm.

There are a lot of other housekeeping duties that the humble PIC can do, and could even be developed into a full sysyem controler.

Some people however like the pure simplicity of the Listeroid, in that you just need diesel in the tank, and the starting handle in your hand, and you will be making electricity within 30 seconds! 

I would be interested in corresponding with any other PIC programmers who are thinking of using them on the Listeroid or generator set up.



Ken

[kyradawg]

Peace&Love , Darren

[BruceM]

Ken,
I'm thinking of using a PIC or other micro for auto start/shutdown/failure shutdown.
I'd like to correspond on this.  Please drop me a line, my email address isn't blocked, just click on my user name.
 
Bruce M

[Mr Lister]

Darren & List,

Adding electronics to the Listeroid will add complexity, and anything you do add must not interfere with manual operation.

At the end of the day, the beauty of the Lister is that you can start it by hand, and it doesn't need a battery or an engine management system to make it run.

Some areas for considering adding electronics might be:

Auto start, auto shutdown particularly when used with a battery and inverter system
Safety interlocks
Automatic speed regulation to maintain 60Hz

The bike computer is the simplest and cheapest way to ensure that you are running your engine at the right rpm. It also makes a good way of determining the hour of run-time.

From then on "the sky is the limit", but I would suggest that an overspeed shut down, and an overheat and low oil shutdown are the main priorities.

If we assume that the best way to shut down a Listeroid is to insert a "pin" under the exhaust valve lifter using a 12V solenoid, and then once the engine is stopped (simple time switch??) turn off the power to the solenoid, so as not to drain the battery.

I will give this topic some thought, and reply to the list when I believe i have some practical solutions.


Ken

[GerryH]

I love when you guys talk dirty.
Finally, some sense!! no more bright ideas like a fire hose down the intake!!
George B has an article on his site about using a Stamp to make his genset an autostart. It's already been done successfully, and he probably would share the schematic if asked.
Oh No! a non British Start-OMatic