Hello Forum

[Squark]

Hi there forum folks.
I have built myself a bicycle wheel, four strand SSG. It spins, it has brought back from the dead a string of 13 NiCd cells. They held no charge at all when I started, now they will sit at 18v. The labels on them say 1.2v each so theoretically thats 15.6v total. They improve in capacity with each charge. I have a cordless drill from years ago, the batts died, its been in a cupboard. I will bring them back to life soon, which is good, it means the machine paid for its self.
I am also working on a car batt. It is charging slowly but I guess the capacity is a bit much for the SSG.

Anyway, thats my intro made.
Have fun you all!

[BobZilla]

Hi Squark,
Welcome to the forum. I started much as you have with the NiCd cells from old drills. It is exciting isn't it ;-)

Most people here will not talk much about them and are more concentrated to the prescribed garden tractor battery, but yes you can charge many different cells with this technology. A word of advice when working on the drill batteries, very often times they will get way out of balance with respect to each others voltage because they are in series. If you are trying to bring them back to life I suggest you do some charge /discharges on each cell individually. Just be careful not to cook them. I don't know your machines capability so I say use cation and perhaps run at low speeds for these tiny cells. You do not have to deconstruct the battery to do it but you do need to open it up. Hook your leads to individual cells.

[Squark]

Thanks BobZilla.
I checked out each cell in my string and they are all individually at about 1.36v. Beginners luck. I will remember to keep an eye on them.
My car batt is up to 13v. Ready for a discharge. I like the idea of reconditioning batts for a fee. I used to live on a boat. Deep cycle leisure batteries are not cheep and people have to replace them every now and then. I'm thinking I can save folks a bit and make a bit myself. Mind you its taken a good week to charge this one.

I'm wondering how to make the wheel run slower? I just spent a lot of effort getting it to run fast!

[BobZilla]

I do not know how you have constructed your machine but I am assuming you did not put a pot on it. If you follow your circuit from the base of the transistors back you will have base resistors, then possibly a light bulb, and another resistor leading to the trigger. Many people put a pot resistor in place of the fixed resistor for adjustments. Better yet is to put a throw switch so you can run a fixed resistor OR an adjustable one with the throw of a switch.

You will have a lot of experimenting to do so have fun with it. Getting the wheel to go as fast as you can is not always going to be the best way to run. You want to find a balance of speed vs required current to achieve that speed. Each machine will behave a little differently so I cannot tell you to set it to "X" and it's good. You need to experiment with it and find out how YOUR machine likes to run best.

Try putting the pot on your circuit and hook a current meter in series with your primary. Make adjustments slowly and watch your current closely. You will find a spot where you are getting the same speed for much less input, commonly referred to as the "sweet spot". Another neat thing to observe is if you put your finger on the wheel to introduce a little drag your input will drop, that's right the machine uses less input to do MORE work.

There is quite a bit to learn just from a basic monopole so have fun and experiment with it, observation is key. Many people get it to run and think the job is complete but there is much more to be learned.