A small reflector around the back of the bulb would have both increased captured heat energy while blocking some of the wind that was taking away the heat.
cool setup to make usage of the sun for a sterling engine. but right, i was thinking something similar. i would consider a few optimisation in terms of energyloss. Moreover Energy is not equal to voltage. the interesting part is "how much power does it produce?".
Geologysts used umbrella and broken mirror pieces to make "giant spherical mirror" sun collector for cooking without fire. Solar power from 1 square meter is near 1kW, it was effective to boil water.
+1 Read my mind; was thinking literally the exact same thing the whole time I was watching this. MythBusters did one exactly the same way when they did the roman death ray myth. It didn't work for them, but I always thought it would work great with some fine tuning. On a side note, rear projection TVs have biblical sized Fresnel lenses in them.
Using a decade resistor, you can determine the maximum power point(useful watts at various loads). Then you can change gear ratio's or even motor/generators and maybe eventually get it to do something useful, like power a radio or charge a battery. You really want solar tracking on that bad boy or you would have to re-adjust the lens way to often. Also, using carbon black to coat the inside of the tube would likely be more effective. Great job by the way.
You cant paint the inside of the tube, or put anything in it. The displacer, which is like a piston, but loose fitting, or with holes in it to allow the working gas to pass through/around, is located in that tube and uses it as its cylinder. Painting the inside would create too much friction. also, you couldnt do anything with the empty space at the end of the tube because a stirling engine needs the displacer to not go all the way to either end of the cylinder.
I like all the work you did. I am a machinist as well. Recommendation: Make a larger bracket for the lens that mounts to the extruded aluminum frame rather than the engine.
I liked, very nice. I think that will be a lot more efficient if the solar collector (glass part) will be painted in the inside instead of the outside. That way the hottest surface of the glass will be inside instead outside... more heat to your machine and less heat lost to the outside air.
thanks for posting. excellent work. some thoughts for you and your subs. it is convenient to load a stirling engine, by using a STEP-UP mechanism to drive a small motor. in order to achieve highest output efficiency from a low-torque engine, the engine MUST have a mechanical advantage, over the load. in other words, reduction gearing; NOT step-up gearing. note that, even where output torque is high (motorcycle or car engine), the system is designed so that the engine ALWAYS has mechanical advantage over the load; via sprocket and chain or the reduction gearing, within a differential. thanks, for demonstrating a way to retrofit a desk-top engine; making it suitable for quality, output power experimentation. with the the inclusion of reduction gearing in the system, the final component needed is a suitable, purpose-made, pma. the optimum load that the engine should experience, is determined, in part, by the need for loaded speed of the engine to be 85 percent of its un-loaded speed; 85 is a guesstimate. resistance can be varied, in the coil circuit, as a simple way to match the load to the engine, initially. one aspect, of an efficient pma design, is that the generating coils MUST be correctly made. in general, a generating coil should consist of thirty to thirty-five turns, of 14 - 16awg magnet wire. (a generating coil can be made using smaller wire, by winding multiple strands 'in hand', into a single conductor of correct gauge.) if a greater length of smaller wire is used to make a generating coil, the internal resistance significantly limits output current (amps). power equals WATTS. watts equals volts TIMES amps. cheers
The great thing about this video is that it shows that anyone with minimal skills can build this with just the basic tools, parts, equipment, and materials lying around the shop. My 12 YO son and I built this very same model and it only cost us 50 man hours and $300 in tools and materials to prove that a $50 Stirling engine made in China, and bought on Amazon, can be powered by a solar lens.
$500 in materials, $800 in Shop Labor an $3000 worth of tools to build a machine that can almost power a single LED. That sounds like something I would do too.
You nailed it! I have no idea why anyone would build a Sterling engine. It's as if practical science is no longer available for purchase and you have to build a shed with Covid price-gouged lumber and you're proud to say you don't even have a yard or tools.
@@shinigamilee5915 Swedish Gotland class submarines are equipped with additional Stirling motors drive. In this configuration, the period of residence underwater was increased to many weeks. Science? Yes..
@@shinigamilee5915 cuz some people enjoy it. it's like watching youtube when you could be out working and earning money or w/e. sometimes it's nice to just do stuff because you enjoy it, not because it's practical :P
There is a great community on this thread. I see a lot of comments about the efficiency and stating it would be better to just use a solar panel. In this case yes it would be, but that was not the point of this project. Nice work on what this engine is and thanks for the video. If people want better efficiency, then an engine that is designed for the purpose would need to be used. This engine is basically a toy or demonstration tool. It is not designed for efficiency. It is not designed to run continuously for a long time (it would wear out relativity quickly due to poor lubrication and bearing design). A better engine would cost more than PV panels though so there would need to be other reasons to bother. The main reason I see to create solar stirling is the ability to store thermal energy and use that energy after the sun is down. We don't have a good low cost electric energy storage medium (though batteries have improved significantly). There could be a small total efficiency gain as well, but the cost of such an engine wouldn't be justified over competing technologies.
Ok, so considering the square footage of collection and the lens, head, mechanical, and generator losses you probably have a max of 3-3.5w to play with. If you can spin the gen head faster you can essentially better match the impedance of the system and alongside a shroud around the Stirling head you could very well get your output power to the level where a boost converter could charge a phone. I personally would replace the generator head with a 12v DC motor that has strong cogging. Anyway, with a few tweaks you just might be able to pull 10w out of that rig.
@@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017 I mean it in the sense that when you try to turn the shaft by hand you can feel that it doesn't want to leave it's current position, but once you get it to move it jumps to the next position. This means that the either the rotor or stator is an arrangement of strong permanent magnets. Being 3 years ago, I dont remember why I used that terminology instead of just saying "permanent magnet 12vDC motor", but it may be that the channel owner was using a salvaged motor and might only be able to identify the permanent magnet type the the feel of manually turning the shaft.
You had something that worked .... And then to change one bit meant there was no going back. Its cool how you kept going to get the final result... Fantastic
Would you think that building a sort of solar collector, where you use mirrors to focus higher amounts of sunlight at a specific point, would allow for a design that might produce a bit more torque? Are there pretty low limits as far as what can be accomplished with this kind of engine?
If a focal lense where to be used it could produce a much more efficient output and could potentially be used in circuit with others. Using a fractal prism and focus lenses could possibly produce enough focused solar radiation to operate several at once. In theory of course.
I dont really know english terminology of engines, but that thing you painted black (hot side?) ideally should be handled diffirently. In order to increase performance of sunlight, you must project light onto absolute black body that is hidden in absolute white body. That way heat will go away less quickly due to the fact that white body radiate less "radiant energy" (as we call it in my contry) and more "radiant energy" is absorbed by absolute black body. Long story short, paint place that lit by sunlight black, shadow side must be painted white, and in order to create model of absolutely black body you must place the surface a little bit lover that other "hot side's" surface in order to catch radiation reflected by surface by walls of said surface difference. Model of absolute black body presented in wikipedia's page named "black body"
Whether useful or not, I really enjoyed watching the energy of the sun turned into mechanical movement and electricity. Solar panels convert solar energy to electricity more efficiently, but as a teacher, it gives me joy and inspiration to see the process with moving parts. Well done!
I have commented on using a Fresnel lens as well. After a few robotics and programming classes I was thinking about having the Fresnel lens track the sun, and also adjust the focus. I don't know how hot too hot is, but I've seen Fresnel lenses produce 3000 degrees F. They actually melted glass, metal, rock, etc.Granted they were huge lenses, but still. I had one that melted lead, and torched a 2x4 instantly, after putting it under the concentrated beam. If the Stirling engine was big enough, it could be geared down to perform some sort of work.
Im high right now and the first thing that popped up in my mind is how this looks like a sweet glass vaporizer. This moment is a dream come true. I'm actually observing something cool that works.
Excellent video! I wonder if you'd achieve greater heat absorption with the paint layer on the inside of the reciever? Or maybe even a non-painted section on the front of the tube for collection and the rest covered in aluminum foil to reflect all focused light for higher absorption ? Overall a beautiful experiment and look forward to more!
SLF496x go to an local engineering school They will probably do it for you for free I know we did when i were in school And it was free btw because they looked at jobs like that as learning
Johnny!! Forgive me, I don't wanna be "that guy".. but seriously no gloves while working with spinney things. I'm lucky I still have a hand. It happens quicker than you'd ever imagine. Brilliant work per usual!
Good work. Have you thought about flipping the cold side away from the heat source and adding a divider to keep the heat away? This would increase the differential temp and efficiency.
Great video really, but i got a tip for you the technic for any hand saws is to use the full length of the blade, less moves, less energy, quicker cut. ;)
و مَن يقوم بتغيير وضع العدسة مع تغير مكان نقطة تجمع حرارة الشمس..؟. كما إننا سننحرم من توليد الكهرباء في الليل و داخل المنازل.. فالإختراعات و تطويرها و تحويرها لتسهيل حياة الناس و ليس لتعقيدها.. فالتصميم الإول في الصندوق هو الأفضل و الأسهل. و لكن خبرتك الفنية و عددك و أدواتك تستحق الإعجاب و التقدير 👍👌👏.. فإستخدمها بإتجاه التسهيل و ليس التعقيد..
Not 1... BUT 2 VIDEOS!?!! HELL YES Edit: anyone who is better at the math then I am, willing to try and take a stab at seeing what efficiency that is getting?
We need to know the current as well as the voltage. Power in watts equals Voltage times Current --> P=VI, also the area of the Fresnel lens is needed. Some assumptions need to be made. A general agreed upon number of watts per square meter on earth is about 1000 W/m^2. Also if we assume that the lens is perfectly focused on the Stirling engine then its just a matter of dividing the output of the engine by the input from the area of the Fresnel lens.
Andrew Malaty would you also need to figure the type and amount of fuel used to heat the lens? Than subtract that from the total out put of the generator? On the first video Sterling engine. Im not a electrical engineer. Just a mechanic.
I'm not sure what you mean by "heat the lens". If you are looking for efficiency of the system with solar power as the input then all you need is output/input. In fact the power from the sun is much higher than 1000 W/m^2 but a lot of energy is lost in the atmosphere. at the surface of the earth its close to 1000 W/m^2 on a sunny day. if we know the input which is the amount of power hitting the Fresnel lens, and the output which is the voltage times the current, we don't care about whats happening in between (as long as no more energy is being inserted into the system). Edit: Also not a electrical engineer, just a mechanical engineering student in final year.
Andrew Malaty in the first video, the Sterling Engine has a lens tube on the head of the engine. There is a fire the heats the collector to heat the air to run the engine. There has to be a fuel that is used to create the flame. The cost of the fuel, the amount of fuel burned and the wick burn rate expended to maintain the flame are all part of the energy expended to create the voltage or current to power the LED. All that information is needed to figure out the coefficiencie of the system. Is the energy expended to power the generator for the light greater or less than the amount of power the LED uses to light up?
I was discussing how to calculate efficiency of the system he built here in this video not the one in the previous video. For a flame powered system you would need to know the energy that is released from the chemical reaction of the fuel burning and compare that to the energy that the system produces. It would be interesting to see how the efficiency of these two systems compare.
Great video. I noticed you painted your little test-tube-thingy black on the outside - but it's not likely to be a good conductor of heat. I think it'd work better with an unpainted tube, with something black-metal inside.
a couple suggestions- replace the glass hot end with one made of copper. You can then oxidize that copper with liver of sulfur to get a rather decent selective solar absorber- it will dramatically improve your efficiency as copper's high thermal conductivity will make heat transfer into the working fluid more efficient. You could also try tweaking the moment of inertia of the flywheel, and if you really want to get fancy you can impedance match your load.
@@giovannicesaramorim9adigan961 SO didn't ask about cost, but the solar panel is much cheaper than this elaborate fabrication. To correctly answer the question, a panel same size as the Fresnel lens would produce about 10 watts at a modest 15% efficiency, whereas the theoretical efficiency of a Stirling engine is 40%, but then subtract the frictional losses, the lens and focus/heat transfer. I would be surprised if the Stirling engine shown can generate more than 1 watt of power.
@@ellayararwhyaych4711 Stirling engines have 40% efficiency, accounted with friction, and thermal losses are not even close to being the largest loss, as boilers can go up to 90% efficiency.
How much load can it take before it stalls? You have to draw power from the generator for it to offer mechanical resistance, multimeters are designed so that they have as little influence on the circuit as possible while taking a reading. Put a variable resistor and current meter across the generator and dial up the resistance until the engine is at the edge of stalling, note the current, then disconnect the resistor and measure that value. I^2R = power.
I've always wondered weather or not charging a typical USB device would stall a small Stirling Engine out, and if so, how big would it need to be/how much fuel it would need to make charging a device actually practical.
nice, ordinarily stirling engines are powered by something burnt. if that burnt item has a gas component ie wood/wood gas then the potential for energy extraction is inefficient on a stirling. but the only use of solar other than a few specific wavelengths being usable in current photovoltaic cells is for the heat value of it. this is exactly what a sterling engine does best, use heat/cold temperature differential.
Just a suggestion: the stirling engine is mainly driven with the temperature. Higher temperature on hot side and take more heat in cold side. Maybe make a set of mirror to gain more sun energy instead of using lense. And make a better heat sink on cold side
With a 1.5v to 12v transformer you could theoretically make usable power. You could also use a capacitor of some sort. Not saying the amperage would be very high, but given enough time it could charge a 12v battery and whatnot
This. We need a small sample load, and current measured at the same time as voltage. Voltage alone is pretty well meaningless. Still, it's probably the most interesting Sterling I've seen on TH-cam.
Use the giant lens from a projector tv. See how much power you can make with that. Maybe go further by adding water cooling to the cylinders so it can operate at a better temperature differential.
Now connect that to an electric jet engine and strap it to your back ... Human flight achieved 😸 Johnny your a great machinist ! I enjoy watching you make stuff ! Thankyou
Change your magnification material to a lens with greater quality, you’ll get better results and more efficiency but the power on that system is finite means the physic structure is limited power flow. Overall I loved that work
Well, I expect this won't make any reasonable amounts of power considering the heat energy it gets. But 1.45 V is absolutely meaningless anyway, since the energy (watts) is the voltage times the current, which you didn't measure, I guess we can assume it makes around10 mA for the LED at an unknown forward voltage of the LED. But 1.45V * 0.01A would be 0.0145 watts, which is relatively useless unless you only want to power a single LED, a clock or whatever... But it's nowhere near the 5V * 0.5A (2.5 Watts) a regular smartphone would need for slow charging for example. So I would suggest using a solar panel, it uses less space and probably gives you at least 20 Watts for the same surface area, which would be over 1000 times as much power. ;-)
Also, this is concept. It can be scaled up. I’ve also seen a steam engine generator using a fresnel lens. It’s a good illustration of skills for budding engineers. 😀
Better yet, layer the systems. Transparent solar panel in front of the lens takes the uv part of the spectrum for electricity directly, but lets the rest pass through for conversion to heat and subsequently to electricity. Scale up for useability, of course. Or screw converting light to heat/electricity, instead convert it to calories; feed plants with it, particularly the kind of plants that can feed you right back.
Guys if you interested, these are the materials that I used: -Stirling Engine Model: goo.gl/2dobPN (8% OFF Coupon: 6d7da4) -2020 T-Slot Aluminum Extrusion: goo.gl/C6eqDV (15% OFF Coupon: MC15) -Full Page PVC Fresnel Lens Magnifier: goo.gl/aH5VVc (10% OFF Coupon: elec) -Brass Hinge: goo.gl/rmuz6k -Motorcycle Telescopic Pole Flagpole: goo.gl/7c7zP4 (12% OFF Coupon: BgAuMotor)
johnny, it's nice to finally see people using the cheap Fresnel Lens/diy aqua lens , now you are loosing a lot of heat to the convection of the open air, make a generic concave mirror to attach to the back of the glass heat tube so as to shield the localised wind and also help concentrate the light better and you will get better dissipation, also replacing the painted glass tube with a *dark ceramic tube will increase the average internal heat even more, especially if you direct the light/heat to the inside of the tube and place the stopper inside the tube rather than the end. oc throwing away that crummy thing called a generator as supplied with the unit and replacing it with even a generic 12v DC stepper motor running in generator mode will also make more power as even this tiny alpha-type stirling should be able to drive much better slow speed generator/turbines. OC a better suited beta-type with magnetic coupled drive would work better here. * something as simple as a Dairyshop Fish Ceramics Tube Hiding Cave, Shrimp Crab Live Plant Shelter Breeding for Aquarium Fish Tank Ornament Decor tube £2.49, ゅ Material: Ceramic. Size: app.4.8cmx1.5cm/1.89''x0.59'' ゅ Ideal for furnishing fresh water aquariums should work fine...
Hi JohnnyQ90 I was wondering where you get your aluminum and brass round stock for making parts on your lathe. I have a foundry that I use to melt down aluminum into cylinders which works but sometimes the stock will have very tiny gas bubbles that formed when it was cooling making the surface full of very tiny pot holes even after they are machined into a perfect cylinder. Thank you, Chris
try adding oxygen scavengers (materials which capture oxygen and precipitate out to the surface, forming slag), and flux to your ladle during melting to remove other dissolved impurities, as they don't 'burn off' in the heat, enough will dissolve into the melt to cause lots of problems down the road. and as lock picker said, a controlled cool will solve a lot of internal porosity problems. your flux and oxygen scavengers should handle the rest of the problems. best of luck with future ladles of aluminum.
I wonder what the power output is on this, compared to a solar panel the same size as the lense? Be interesting to know if the loses are more or less when converting solar energy this way?
1man1van loses would be obviously more. You are converting radiation energy to mechanical. After that you convert it to electrical. For such a small system it is not at all economical
Hrushikesh Naik yes, but solar panels don't use every part of the light spectrum. This way of generating could potentially make use of more energy thus making the system more efficient.
1man1van quick amazon search yielded this result solar panel 1m x 0.5m rated at 18V and 5.1 Amps. That is 91.8 watts. Although radiation energy available on earth surface is 1000w/m². We are able to effectively convert only (91.8 x 2 = 183.6 W/m².
Very nice. There is by design friction induced by the gear coupling method use mount the generator. That friction is an efficiency that can be eliminated if desired by incorporating the magnets into the mass of the flywheel. Then mounting coils close to the flywheel would eliminate that friction loss. Perhaps you would enjoy incorporating that upgrade and demonstraning the improvement in higher electrical output after the upgrade. Very nice as it is all the same. Cheers
A solar powered stirling engine that used solar power to start up in the morning then ran on its own through the night with a cool down cycle two hours before sun rise for maintenance would be a cool new way to generate electricity. 😊
What a beautiful piece of machinery! The conclusion was that the lens was not large enough to produce useful energy, but intuitively it seems like the lens is not the limitation. If there’s enough energy to immediately start a wood fire, that’s surely more than 1.5 volts. The loss of energy must be somewhere else in the system. Right? Question: the salient factors are mass of the hot side vs mass of the cold side and temperature differential? How much of a factor does piston length and flywheel weight play into the efficiency of the system? Appreciation to anyone who’s willing to explain some of those details. I’m not an engineer but I really like talking to them. And these engines are really fascinating.
With concentrated solar like that you have to constantly adjust it to keep it aligned with the sun but if you made a bigger engine and used a solar water heater the solar collector would not have to move to produce power all day.
Modifications that may this design needs: -Replace the generator for a step motor, will produce more power. -Wide surface to get hot and use cheap cristal lens, 3 or more. -Use arduino for follow the sun. With these changes you will get some good energy for recharge power banks and use some inverters to power some home devices ;)
Some youtuber's craftsmanship is so awesome that they don't need commentary and you're *best* among them
The process is more fascinating to me than the ultimate product.
Lol u see Description?
Lol face palm
High moments
I dont think he made this bro
Ive seen them on other channels
A small reflector around the back of the bulb would have both increased captured heat energy while blocking some of the wind that was taking away the heat.
Exactly! There's no way a fresnel lens on a good day wouldn't put out more energy than that. Cool set up tho
cool setup to make usage of the sun for a sterling engine. but right, i was thinking something similar. i would consider a few optimisation in terms of energyloss.
Moreover Energy is not equal to voltage. the interesting part is "how much power does it produce?".
The 1k odd people who disliked this probably worked on the hubble space telescope.
Geologysts used umbrella and broken mirror pieces to make "giant spherical mirror" sun collector for cooking without fire. Solar power from 1 square meter is near 1kW, it was effective to boil water.
maybe cooling the other side would help, too
You inspire me to go out into my freezing work shop rather than just keeping warm watching TH-cam
Your thinking (as demonstrated through your work here) exhibits extraordinary levels of creativity and precision.
Instead of Fresnel Lenses I suggest you use a parabolic mirror, you can do it with a plate satellite dish and little mirrors
+1 Read my mind; was thinking literally the exact same thing the whole time I was watching this. MythBusters did one exactly the same way when they did the roman death ray myth. It didn't work for them, but I always thought it would work great with some fine tuning.
On a side note, rear projection TVs have biblical sized Fresnel lenses in them.
tornadotyphoon it's been researched as an alternative to solar cells in NASA
Search for "space blanket parabolic" on TH-cam.
You mean like this?
www.redrok.com/electron.htm#mrea2001
redrok
redrok.com
tornadotyphoon ni
Using a decade resistor, you can determine the maximum power point(useful watts at various loads). Then you can change gear ratio's or even motor/generators and maybe eventually get it to do something useful, like power a radio or charge a battery. You really want solar tracking on that bad boy or you would have to re-adjust the lens way to often. Also, using carbon black to coat the inside of the tube would likely be more effective. Great job by the way.
th-cam.com/video/VK1Zr9rHPAA/w-d-xo.html
You cant paint the inside of the tube, or put anything in it. The displacer, which is like a piston, but loose fitting, or with holes in it to allow the working gas to pass through/around, is located in that tube and uses it as its cylinder. Painting the inside would create too much friction. also, you couldnt do anything with the empty space at the end of the tube because a stirling engine needs the displacer to not go all the way to either end of the cylinder.
Assuming a 0.2x0.3m Fresnel Lens and 20% efficiency, the max output would be 17 Watt.
Ahhh yess.. Another brilliant TH-cam Scientist with his notions on things he truly does not even understand the system of.
Wonderful!
I like all the work you did. I am a machinist as well. Recommendation: Make a larger bracket for the lens that mounts to the extruded aluminum frame rather than the engine.
The unit is so impressive, and watching your craftsmanship blew my mind. I’d buy a scaled model from you for my yacht 👍
Man, lathes are so freaking cool.
they will get you fucked up pretty bad if used improperly though
thetaai same with any powerful tools.
Love to see how far this could be scaled up as the Sun is an almost infinite energy supply
already done and is available. But you need helium to fill inside and it escapes.
Legend build mate, all your projects are engineering at it’s finest. Well done
I liked, very nice.
I think that will be a lot more efficient if the solar collector (glass part) will be painted in the inside instead of the outside.
That way the hottest surface of the glass will be inside instead outside... more heat to your machine and less heat lost to the outside air.
You can't do that because the piston would rip all of the paint off when the machine is in motion if it is painted on the inside.
@@joshuawhite3411 if done proper the piston should never touch the walls of the glass bulb.
I'd rather mention the fact that the glass would reflect a good amount of the light had it been painted on the inside.
thanks for posting. excellent work. some thoughts for you and your subs. it is convenient to load a stirling engine, by using a STEP-UP mechanism to drive a small motor. in order to achieve highest output efficiency from a low-torque engine, the engine MUST have a mechanical advantage, over the load. in other words, reduction gearing; NOT step-up gearing. note that, even where output torque is high (motorcycle or car engine), the system is designed so that the engine ALWAYS has mechanical advantage over the load; via sprocket and chain or the reduction gearing, within a differential. thanks, for demonstrating a way to retrofit a desk-top engine; making it suitable for quality, output power experimentation. with the the inclusion of reduction gearing in the system, the final component needed is a suitable, purpose-made, pma. the optimum load that the engine should experience, is determined, in part, by the need for loaded speed of the engine to be 85 percent of its un-loaded speed; 85 is a guesstimate. resistance can be varied, in the coil circuit, as a simple way to match the load to the engine, initially. one aspect, of an efficient pma design, is that the generating coils MUST be correctly made. in general, a generating coil should consist of thirty to thirty-five turns, of 14 - 16awg magnet wire. (a generating coil can be made using smaller wire, by winding multiple strands 'in hand', into a single conductor of correct gauge.) if a greater length of smaller wire is used to make a generating coil, the internal resistance significantly limits output current (amps). power equals WATTS. watts equals volts TIMES amps. cheers
The great thing about this video is that it shows that anyone with minimal skills can build this with just the basic tools, parts, equipment, and materials lying around the shop. My 12 YO son and I built this very same model and it only cost us 50 man hours and $300 in tools and materials to prove that a $50 Stirling engine made in China, and bought on Amazon, can be powered by a solar lens.
$500 in materials, $800 in Shop Labor an $3000 worth of tools to build a machine that can almost power a single LED. That sounds like something I would do too.
You nailed it! I have no idea why anyone would build a Sterling engine. It's as if practical science is no longer available for purchase and you have to build a shed with Covid price-gouged lumber and you're proud to say you don't even have a yard or tools.
@@shinigamilee5915 Swedish Gotland class submarines are equipped with additional Stirling motors drive. In this configuration, the period of residence underwater was increased to many weeks. Science? Yes..
Covid lockdown fever!!!!
@@shinigamilee5915 cuz some people enjoy it. it's like watching youtube when you could be out working and earning money or w/e. sometimes it's nice to just do stuff because you enjoy it, not because it's practical :P
Then don’t built it dumbass
There is a great community on this thread. I see a lot of comments about the efficiency and stating it would be better to just use a solar panel. In this case yes it would be, but that was not the point of this project. Nice work on what this engine is and thanks for the video.
If people want better efficiency, then an engine that is designed for the purpose would need to be used. This engine is basically a toy or demonstration tool. It is not designed for efficiency. It is not designed to run continuously for a long time (it would wear out relativity quickly due to poor lubrication and bearing design). A better engine would cost more than PV panels though so there would need to be other reasons to bother.
The main reason I see to create solar stirling is the ability to store thermal energy and use that energy after the sun is down. We don't have a good low cost electric energy storage medium (though batteries have improved significantly). There could be a small total efficiency gain as well, but the cost of such an engine wouldn't be justified over competing technologies.
Ok, so considering the square footage of collection and the lens, head, mechanical, and generator losses you probably have a max of 3-3.5w to play with. If you can spin the gen head faster you can essentially better match the impedance of the system and alongside a shroud around the Stirling head you could very well get your output power to the level where a boost converter could charge a phone. I personally would replace the generator head with a 12v DC motor that has strong cogging. Anyway, with a few tweaks you just might be able to pull 10w out of that rig.
What is strong cogging? You mean the gears are metal?
@@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017 I mean it in the sense that when you try to turn the shaft by hand you can feel that it doesn't want to leave it's current position, but once you get it to move it jumps to the next position. This means that the either the rotor or stator is an arrangement of strong permanent magnets. Being 3 years ago, I dont remember why I used that terminology instead of just saying "permanent magnet 12vDC motor", but it may be that the channel owner was using a salvaged motor and might only be able to identify the permanent magnet type the the feel of manually turning the shaft.
You had something that worked .... And then to change one bit meant there was no going back. Its cool how you kept going to get the final result... Fantastic
Would you think that building a sort of solar collector, where you use mirrors to focus higher amounts of sunlight at a specific point, would allow for a design that might produce a bit more torque? Are there pretty low limits as far as what can be accomplished with this kind of engine?
If a focal lense where to be used it could produce a much more efficient output and could potentially be used in circuit with others. Using a fractal prism and focus lenses could possibly produce enough focused solar radiation to operate several at once. In theory of course.
Ohne Zweifel weit mehr als ein Handwerker - ein zauberhafter Universal-Künstler 🍀🙏🏼 Danke!! 🙋🏻
I dont really know english terminology of engines, but that thing you painted black (hot side?) ideally should be handled diffirently. In order to increase performance of sunlight, you must project light onto absolute black body that is hidden in absolute white body. That way heat will go away less quickly due to the fact that white body radiate less "radiant energy" (as we call it in my contry) and more "radiant energy" is absorbed by absolute black body. Long story short, paint place that lit by sunlight black, shadow side must be painted white, and in order to create model of absolutely black body you must place the surface a little bit lover that other "hot side's" surface in order to catch radiation reflected by surface by walls of said surface difference.
Model of absolute black body presented in wikipedia's page named "black body"
Whether useful or not, I really enjoyed watching the energy of the sun turned into mechanical movement and electricity. Solar panels convert solar energy to electricity more efficiently, but as a teacher, it gives me joy and inspiration to see the process with moving parts.
Well done!
I’d love to have your skills to do this kind of thing, it’s an art form in itself.
If the generator can give good power, and just the voltage is not high enough, it is not a big deal. You can increase the voltage with some circuitry.
Heard of the Joule Thief ? Good circuit to get the most out of batteries, might work here ....
"I need a power hacksaw"...
Sounds like you just decided on your next project: NITRO HACKSAW!
Haha this one must be reliable, so not an option. What I'm planning though is a micro nitro chainsaw ;)
Perhaps just get a bandsaw instead?
JohnnyQ90 αεροτουρμπινα
Bosch Nanoblade has the bar and chain for you.
Thanks
I have commented on using a Fresnel lens as well. After a few robotics and programming classes I was thinking about having the Fresnel lens track the sun, and also adjust the focus. I don't know how hot too hot is, but I've seen Fresnel lenses produce 3000 degrees F. They actually melted glass, metal, rock, etc.Granted they were huge lenses, but still. I had one that melted lead, and torched a 2x4 instantly, after putting it under the concentrated beam. If the Stirling engine was big enough, it could be geared down to perform some sort of work.
Im high right now and the first thing that popped up in my mind is how this looks like a sweet glass vaporizer. This moment is a dream come true. I'm actually observing something cool that works.
Excellent video! I wonder if you'd achieve greater heat absorption with the paint layer on the inside of the reciever? Or maybe even a non-painted section on the front of the tube for collection and the rest covered in aluminum foil to reflect all focused light for higher absorption ? Overall a beautiful experiment and look forward to more!
The machinist always wins.... I wish I knew one to make an eccentric shaft for my 3 rotor
SLF496x go to an local engineering school
They will probably do it for you for free
I know we did when i were in school
And it was free btw because they looked at jobs like that as learning
What's an eccentric shaft? And by 3 rotor, do you mean rotary car engine or what? Just curious
Magnus Frederiksen an eccentric shaft is the rotary engine equivalent to a crankshaft
SLF496x i thought so. Thx
I was born with an eccentric shaft. 😏🤷♂️
You are not an engineer, you are an ARTIST man ! That is a piece of Art !! Contact some museum or auction house.
Johnny!! Forgive me, I don't wanna be "that guy".. but seriously no gloves while working with spinney things. I'm lucky I still have a hand. It happens quicker than you'd ever imagine.
Brilliant work per usual!
@Newbie Failmaster yeah this is part of day one training. No gloves, no jewelery, no long sleeves.
Good work. Have you thought about flipping the cold side away from the heat source and adding a divider to keep the heat away? This would increase the differential temp and efficiency.
Super Hero! Your super powers: the details.
:D
glaz main?
angrydragonslayer DETAILS
Great video really, but i got a tip for you the technic for any hand saws is to use the full length of the blade, less moves, less energy, quicker cut. ;)
Another work of detailed art! Thank you Johnny. Has anyone made usable from these mini engines? Keep up the good works mate. Greatest new year.
و مَن يقوم بتغيير وضع العدسة مع تغير مكان نقطة تجمع حرارة الشمس..؟. كما إننا سننحرم من توليد الكهرباء في الليل و داخل المنازل..
فالإختراعات و تطويرها و تحويرها لتسهيل حياة الناس و ليس لتعقيدها..
فالتصميم الإول في الصندوق هو الأفضل و الأسهل.
و لكن خبرتك الفنية و عددك و أدواتك تستحق الإعجاب و التقدير 👍👌👏.. فإستخدمها بإتجاه التسهيل و ليس التعقيد..
Not 1... BUT 2 VIDEOS!?!! HELL YES
Edit: anyone who is better at the math then I am, willing to try and take a stab at seeing what efficiency that is getting?
We need to know the current as well as the voltage. Power in watts equals Voltage times Current --> P=VI, also the area of the Fresnel lens is needed. Some assumptions need to be made. A general agreed upon number of watts per square meter on earth is about 1000 W/m^2. Also if we assume that the lens is perfectly focused on the Stirling engine then its just a matter of dividing the output of the engine by the input from the area of the Fresnel lens.
Andrew Malaty would you also need to figure the type and amount of fuel used to heat the lens? Than subtract that from the total out put of the generator? On the first video Sterling engine. Im not a electrical engineer. Just a mechanic.
I'm not sure what you mean by "heat the lens". If you are looking for efficiency of the system with solar power as the input then all you need is output/input. In fact the power from the sun is much higher than 1000 W/m^2 but a lot of energy is lost in the atmosphere. at the surface of the earth its close to 1000 W/m^2 on a sunny day. if we know the input which is the amount of power hitting the Fresnel lens, and the output which is the voltage times the current, we don't care about whats happening in between (as long as no more energy is being inserted into the system).
Edit: Also not a electrical engineer, just a mechanical engineering student in final year.
Andrew Malaty in the first video, the Sterling Engine has a lens tube on the head of the engine. There is a fire the heats the collector to heat the air to run the engine. There has to be a fuel that is used to create the flame. The cost of the fuel, the amount of fuel burned and the wick burn rate expended to maintain the flame are all part of the energy expended to create the voltage or current to power the LED. All that information is needed to figure out the coefficiencie of the system. Is the energy expended to power the generator for the light greater or less than the amount of power the LED uses to light up?
I was discussing how to calculate efficiency of the system he built here in this video not the one in the previous video. For a flame powered system you would need to know the energy that is released from the chemical reaction of the fuel burning and compare that to the energy that the system produces. It would be interesting to see how the efficiency of these two systems compare.
That thing that spins the metal is so satisfying
Are you referring to the lathe?
Great video. I noticed you painted your little test-tube-thingy black on the outside - but it's not likely to be a good conductor of heat. I think it'd work better with an unpainted tube, with something black-metal inside.
Except the test tube is the displacer cylinder so there is no room to put something in. It needs the bit of empty space at the end to even function.
Glass is a poor conductor for heat. My sugestion is to replace the glass tube with a metal one, copper if possible, for maximum heat transfer.
I love the way you make things elegant and more elaborate than they need to be.
Это первый Стирлинг, от которого я вижу пользу). Минск приветствует вас!
that little tap at 4:08
a couple suggestions- replace the glass hot end with one made of copper. You can then oxidize that copper with liver of sulfur to get a rather decent selective solar absorber- it will dramatically improve your efficiency as copper's high thermal conductivity will make heat transfer into the working fluid more efficient. You could also try tweaking the moment of inertia of the flywheel, and if you really want to get fancy you can impedance match your load.
Dang. You are so good at everything...
steelavocado even doing nothing?
This concept needs to be refined and upscaled! Great work!
I wonder how comparable the efficiency of a solar panel is to this as far as size to power output
This is way cheaper than any solar cell.
@@giovannicesaramorim9adigan961 SO didn't ask about cost, but the solar panel is much cheaper than this elaborate fabrication. To correctly answer the question, a panel same size as the Fresnel lens would produce about 10 watts at a modest 15% efficiency, whereas the theoretical efficiency of a Stirling engine is 40%, but then subtract the frictional losses, the lens and focus/heat transfer. I would be surprised if the Stirling engine shown can generate more than 1 watt of power.
@@ellayararwhyaych4711 Stirling engines have 40% efficiency, accounted with friction, and thermal losses are not even close to being the largest loss, as boilers can go up to 90% efficiency.
The craftsmanship is outstanding! Satisfying to watch and you should be proud of yourself, it amazing.
How much load can it take before it stalls? You have to draw power from the generator for it to offer mechanical resistance, multimeters are designed so that they have as little influence on the circuit as possible while taking a reading. Put a variable resistor and current meter across the generator and dial up the resistance until the engine is at the edge of stalling, note the current, then disconnect the resistor and measure that value. I^2R = power.
I've always wondered weather or not charging a typical USB device would stall a small Stirling Engine out, and if so, how big would it need to be/how much fuel it would need to make charging a device actually practical.
Blocking light from reaching the cold reservoir could help efficiency a little, although maybe not a lot since the surface is already very reflective.
The dude just likes lathhing and milling.
Lathhing lmao! u mean turning?
I’d take this over any solar panel any day! This wouldn’t lose efficiency a decade later.
coat the outside of an airship in heat collector panels and use stirling engines to generate electricity
Quando eu tinha 12 ano eu brincava de queimar papel com uma lente. esse ainda não vi de perto. muito bom trabalho
Brilliant work, just incredibly creative design and awesome engineering skills. Great stuff :)
ये exact वो ही चीज है जो मैं कई दिनों से मन में बना रहा था❤❤❤
Amigo, o seu projeto ficou fantástico e com um excelente desenho. Parabéns! Rio RJ Brasil
nice, ordinarily stirling engines are powered by something burnt. if that burnt item has a gas component ie wood/wood gas then the potential for energy extraction is inefficient on a stirling. but the only use of solar other than a few specific wavelengths being usable in current photovoltaic cells is for the heat value of it. this is exactly what a sterling engine does best, use heat/cold temperature differential.
We need more of this improve it by
Bigger generator
Bigger wheels
Bigger Lens
Just a suggestion: the stirling engine is mainly driven with the temperature. Higher temperature on hot side and take more heat in cold side.
Maybe make a set of mirror to gain more sun energy instead of using lense. And make a better heat sink on cold side
With a 1.5v to 12v transformer you could theoretically make usable power. You could also use a capacitor of some sort. Not saying the amperage would be very high, but given enough time it could charge a 12v battery and whatnot
I wonder how much energy a design like this could capture on a bigger scale
You make Wonderful things, that is so fantastic absolutly amazing!!! You are a Genius!!
You can use a crystal sphere to concentrate the light at one point and to gather the rays from several directions.
10/10
What about amperes amount?
This. We need a small sample load, and current measured at the same time as voltage. Voltage alone is pretty well meaningless. Still, it's probably the most interesting Sterling I've seen on TH-cam.
its not only dependend on the heating, but, perhaps even more, on cooling also. try to cool down with flowing or evaporating water.
Maybe next time consider using a parabola/dish so that the sun always reflects onto the same focal point.
David Riley look the Z10 but don't use Stirling engine
Amazing Lathe skills! This concept is genius and more efficient than conventional solar panels
Beautiful work, but how do you track the sun?
That's what I was wondering.
A computer?
Extremely high quality build! Fantastic craftsmanship, really!
hey man, your work is an art!
You need a mill more than you need a power hacksaw. That whole project was cubic clever. I liked all of it.
Tudo feito com uma grande dedicação ;)
Use the giant lens from a projector tv. See how much power you can make with that.
Maybe go further by adding water cooling to the cylinders so it can operate at a better temperature differential.
any possibility of a sterling engine powered bicycle?
edit: 1.5 volts, hmm probably not.
but what is the amperage.
Now connect that to an electric jet engine and strap it to your back ... Human flight achieved 😸
Johnny your a great machinist ! I enjoy watching you make stuff ! Thankyou
All of that work for 1.5 Volts, looks like you need to do it all over again and make a larger version so it can actually do some work.
Besides that, we need to see the current with some sample load. the voltage says basically nothing, by itself, regarding the energy this produces.
still, it ain't gonna be much?!
snaprollinpitts indeed.
Because multimeter had set DC voltage aganist AC voltage.
Or buy a solar panel and install it on the lens frame :D
A nice bit of blue sky engineering there, well done, well executed and many things learned in the process.
I think the cost to large.. And need to monitor angle of sunlight.. The best choice is using solar panel..
The cost to get 1 mW from Solarr stirling engine is too expensive, I agree you . But we have knowledge
Change your magnification material to a lens with greater quality, you’ll get better results and more efficiency but the power on that system is finite means the physic structure is limited power flow. Overall I loved that work
Well, I expect this won't make any reasonable amounts of power considering the heat energy it gets. But 1.45 V is absolutely meaningless anyway, since the energy (watts) is the voltage times the current, which you didn't measure, I guess we can assume it makes around10 mA for the LED at an unknown forward voltage of the LED. But 1.45V * 0.01A would be 0.0145 watts, which is relatively useless unless you only want to power a single LED, a clock or whatever... But it's nowhere near the 5V * 0.5A (2.5 Watts) a regular smartphone would need for slow charging for example. So I would suggest using a solar panel, it uses less space and probably gives you at least 20 Watts for the same surface area, which would be over 1000 times as much power. ;-)
Or buy for the same money a 100w panel xD
But that's not as fun as making an engine!
Also, this is concept. It can be scaled up. I’ve also seen a steam engine generator using a fresnel lens. It’s a good illustration of skills for budding engineers. 😀
Better yet, layer the systems. Transparent solar panel in front of the lens takes the uv part of the spectrum for electricity directly, but lets the rest pass through for conversion to heat and subsequently to electricity. Scale up for useability, of course. Or screw converting light to heat/electricity, instead convert it to calories; feed plants with it, particularly the kind of plants that can feed you right back.
solar panels are still relatively weak compared to panels-that-just-absorb-the-solar-rays-as-heat.
That person is a better designer than a builder.
Guys if you interested, these are the materials that I used:
-Stirling Engine Model: goo.gl/2dobPN (8% OFF Coupon: 6d7da4)
-2020 T-Slot Aluminum Extrusion: goo.gl/C6eqDV (15% OFF Coupon: MC15)
-Full Page PVC Fresnel Lens Magnifier: goo.gl/aH5VVc (10% OFF Coupon: elec)
-Brass Hinge: goo.gl/rmuz6k
-Motorcycle Telescopic Pole Flagpole: goo.gl/7c7zP4 (12% OFF Coupon: BgAuMotor)
Thanks for this. Does anyone have any videos about, or recommendations for a good hobby lathe for a beginner?
I like the idea of using a Fresnel Lens, although this is a very inefficient solar motor.
JohnnyQ90 can you give that to one of your subscribers(me)
JohnnyQ90 you better make videos like these for therest of your life, i look forward to each new video and always love them
super video inspirational in so many ways
johnny, it's nice to finally see people using the cheap Fresnel Lens/diy aqua lens , now you are loosing a lot of heat to the convection of the open air, make a generic concave mirror to attach to the back of the glass heat tube so as to shield the localised wind and also help concentrate the light better and you will get better dissipation, also replacing the painted glass tube with a *dark ceramic tube will increase the average internal heat even more, especially if you direct the light/heat to the inside of the tube and place the stopper inside the tube rather than the end.
oc throwing away that crummy thing called a generator as supplied with the unit and replacing it with even a generic 12v DC stepper motor running in generator mode will also make more power as even this tiny alpha-type stirling should be able to drive much better slow speed generator/turbines.
OC a better suited beta-type with magnetic coupled drive would work better here.
* something as simple as a Dairyshop Fish Ceramics Tube Hiding Cave, Shrimp Crab Live Plant Shelter Breeding for Aquarium Fish Tank Ornament Decor tube
£2.49, ゅ Material: Ceramic. Size: app.4.8cmx1.5cm/1.89''x0.59''
ゅ Ideal for furnishing fresh water aquariums should work fine...
Hi JohnnyQ90 I was wondering where you get your aluminum and brass round stock for making parts on your lathe. I have a foundry that I use to melt down aluminum into cylinders which works but sometimes the stock will have very tiny gas bubbles that formed when it was cooling making the surface full of very tiny pot holes even after they are machined into a perfect cylinder.
Thank you,
Chris
zombiecorp101 if you cool it down slower and vibrate it a little it will get the gas bubbles out
Thanks :)
try adding oxygen scavengers (materials which capture oxygen and precipitate out to the surface, forming slag), and flux to your ladle during melting to remove other dissolved impurities, as they don't 'burn off' in the heat, enough will dissolve into the melt to cause lots of problems down the road.
and as lock picker said, a controlled cool will solve a lot of internal porosity problems. your flux and oxygen scavengers should handle the rest of the problems. best of luck with future ladles of aluminum.
A table saw with a non-ferrous metal blade is the bomb for cutting t-slot extrusions. Much more accurate than a power hacksaw or a bandsaw.
Gravity Band Saw is BEST.
i wanna be like you one day
Adrian G.Skillz I am envious of him but also inspired!
Damn wow I bow to the patience you have
I wonder what the power output is on this, compared to a solar panel the same size as the lense? Be interesting to know if the loses are more or less when converting solar energy this way?
1man1van loses would be obviously more. You are converting radiation energy to mechanical. After that you convert it to electrical. For such a small system it is not at all economical
Hrushikesh Naik yes, but solar panels don't use every part of the light spectrum. This way of generating could potentially make use of more energy thus making the system more efficient.
Hrushikesh Naik you try boiling some water with a solar panel compared to boiling it using the rays from a Fresnel lense, see my point?
1man1van quick amazon search yielded this result
solar panel 1m x 0.5m rated at 18V and 5.1 Amps. That is 91.8 watts.
Although radiation energy available on earth surface is 1000w/m². We are able to effectively convert only (91.8 x 2 = 183.6 W/m².
1man1van now for fresnel lens. The heat absorbed in water is a topic to be researched
Very nice. There is by design friction induced by the gear coupling method use mount the generator. That friction is an efficiency that can be eliminated if desired by incorporating the magnets into the mass of the flywheel. Then mounting coils close to the flywheel would eliminate that friction loss. Perhaps you would enjoy incorporating that upgrade and demonstraning the improvement in higher electrical output after the upgrade. Very nice as it is all the same. Cheers
Hi, I have designed a gyroscope 4 school, can you make it for us? I can send drawings made w/Fusion 360. By the way Fantastic yr work.
This is a piece of Art..!! Well done Sir...!!!
awesome!
A solar powered stirling engine that used solar power to start up in the morning then ran on its own through the night with a cool down cycle two hours before sun rise for maintenance would be a cool new way to generate electricity. 😊
Man, your a champ on that lathe.
What a beautiful piece of machinery!
The conclusion was that the lens was not large enough to produce useful energy, but intuitively it seems like the lens is not the limitation. If there’s enough energy to immediately start a wood fire, that’s surely more than 1.5 volts. The loss of energy must be somewhere else in the system. Right?
Question: the salient factors are mass of the hot side vs mass of the cold side and temperature differential? How much of a factor does piston length and flywheel weight play into the efficiency of the system?
Appreciation to anyone who’s willing to explain some of those details. I’m not an engineer but I really like talking to them. And these engines are really fascinating.
For increase in power output try cooling the second cylinder with water dripping from a tank.
With concentrated solar like that you have to constantly adjust it to keep it aligned with the sun but if you made a bigger engine and used a solar water heater the solar collector would not have to move to produce power all day.
Awesome, The first time I saw a Stirling engine, I wondered what could be done with a solar reflector to generate the heat input.
Of course you did
Modifications that may this design needs:
-Replace the generator for a step motor, will produce more power.
-Wide surface to get hot and use cheap cristal lens, 3 or more.
-Use arduino for follow the sun.
With these changes you will get some good energy for recharge power banks and use some inverters to power some home devices ;)