Where would you find a gas turbine?

Yeah, Ultracaps will be the way of the future. I did some math on it once. Lessee, 45 minute drive each way, 90 minutes total, say averaging 20 HP, 30 HP hours = 22KWH = 79,200,000 Watt Seconds = 79,200,000 amp * 1 second * 1 volts = ~79 MegaFarads at 1V, if I did that right. Any gEEks out there?

I believe that the total output of at least the US ultra cap manufacturing base is going into weapon systems, as I've stated before. The navy was building an electric weaponized ship. I forget it it was one of those hockey puck throwers or some type of charged plasma thing. Last I heard, I think they mothballed that build. They also built a hockey puck thrower thing out in the NM desert as part of a missle defense system experiment. Both those systems take huge capacitor banks to dump that much energy at once. I figger that once the military has every capacitor they think they will possibly need, then we will start seeing them in the consumer market. There was an ultra cap plant being built in Austin. Never heard anything about it again. Private financing, if I recall, and headed by two ex IBM engineers. Remember that IBM keeps the good stuff locked away until someone else is just about to release a similar product, then out it comes and they can beat them to market. So, in other words, IBM's engineering is way ahead of what's on the market and that's where these guys came from.

Theres that company Eestor thats making their eesu, basically a jacked up super cap that can charge in 5 mins and take an electric car 500 miles, very very secretive company (ive been reading up on this topic since yesterday ) cool stuff though.

I just like the idea of having no batteries at all, and using the caps for a kick. I cant imagine it would be cheap to get enough to power the whole car.

Dr. Hess wrote: ...I believe that the total output of at least the US ultra cap manufacturing base is going into weapon systems, as I've stated before. The navy was building an electric weaponized ship. I forget it it was one of those hockey puck throwers or some type of charged plasma thing... Both those systems take huge capacitor banks to dump that much energy at once.

Yup,

Tetzuoe wrote: Theres that company Eestor thats making their eesu, basically a jacked up super cap that can charge in 5 mins and take an electric car 500 miles, very very secretive company...

No, no, no. This sort of stuff is exactly why electric vehicle are such a letdown. It isn't that they can't do it, it simply isn't practical.

Using the Doctor's math, 500 miles will take about 10 hours of driving, figuring maybe 20 hp to overcome drag.

That's "200 hp-hrs" or about 166 KWH, figuring in 90% efficiency. BUT, you want to cram that into the car in 5 minutes, or 300 seconds, which works out to moving 9.96 MW during that time... good luck with that. The cables would be many inches thick, and unless the charging station has capacitors of its own, the shear amount of energy required will cause blackouts. Really.

Somewhat related... where's all this energy coming from? California has serious problems making enough power to simply get by each summer.

Can one of you explain that picture to me?

railgun link

You could look for an APU for a private jet. They are small, and have been around long enough where you might be able to find one cheap, possibly even with a generator. The hard part will be finding models of private-sized jets with APU's they are pretty rare.

Also keep in mind APU's arent made to run at variable speeds. They are all either computer of FCU controlled and either run at 100% N1 (main turbine) speed, or economy- 99% N1. Haha. The generators dont have any controllers, so they must be spun at a set speed or the Hz wont be what they are rated for.

Tetzuoe wrote: Theres that company Eestor thats making their eesu, basically a jacked up super cap that can charge in 5 mins and take an electric car 500 miles, very very secretive company (ive been reading up on this topic since yesterday ) cool stuff though. I just like the idea of having no batteries at all, and using the caps for a kick. I cant imagine it would be cheap to get enough to power the whole car.

Eestor is pretty much considered vaporware.

kb58 wrote: railgun link

Ok, so I'm a nerd. My roommate and I were just discussing the article. That would be approximately a 7.4 pound slug fired at a touch under Mach 8. But, you just have to love a projectile that leaves a plasma trail behind it.

Edit: Yes, we pulled down the physics text and did the math.

In reply to MrJoshua:

yeah, I never though to run the 'gas station' side of the equations. Had fun researching it all though.

Tetzuoe wrote: In reply to MrJoshua: yeah, I never though to run the 'gas station' side of the equations. Had fun researching it all though.

The vaporware aspect of Eestor is that they keep making promises to deliver a product miles ahead of everyone elses, and never produce. The gas station side is pretty interesting if you back off of the 500 miles charge in 5 seconds or whatever it is they claim. You can get pretty close to a fast charge with current energy supplies if you drop to 200 miles of charge in 20 minutes. It doesn't work with our pump n go mentality, but it does work with a quick lunch break.

right, All ive been able to find is fanboi forums dredging patents up about ceramics, one of the more interesting criticisms involves the battery becoming damaged and shorting in an accident, its bad enough you smacked that tree, now you have an arc welding plasma throwing nightmare in the back seat.

griffin729 wrote:

kb58 wrote: railgun link

Ok, so I'm a nerd. My roommate and I were just discussing the article. That would be approximately a 7.4 pound slug fired at a touch under Mach 8. But, you just have to love a projectile that leaves a plasma trail behind it. Edit: Yes, we pulled down the physics text and did the math.

Yeah I looked at that last night for about 3 min before my wife ran out the door to work with the laptop, from the hip now, 2500mps should equate to about 8500ish fps, when I think back to the Barret .50 cal rifle I was shooting last summer, IF I remember correctly without looking at exact stats a 650 GRAIN projectile at 3800ish fps. the boom outta that rifle was incredible, when we hit an old oak tree with that round, the damage was insane. Now a 7.4 POUND projectile moving at more than TWICE that speed......hehehe can I watch? better yet can I listen.....

MrJoshua wrote:

Tetzuoe wrote: In reply to MrJoshua: yeah, I never though to run the 'gas station' side of the equations. Had fun researching it all though.

The vaporware aspect of Eestor is that they keep making promises to deliver a product miles ahead of everyone elses, and never produce. The gas station side is pretty interesting if you back off of the 500 miles charge in 5 seconds or whatever it is they claim. You can get pretty close to a fast charge with current energy supplies if you drop to 200 miles of charge in 20 minutes. It doesn't work with our pump n go mentality, but it does work with a quick lunch break.

or you could simply build them to facilitate a quick change. swap your discharged unit for a charged-up one, and off you go.

So how bad an idea is it to put a turbine engine into a Midget? I have two sitting at my house. I guess the best place to find a turbine engine would be plane scrap yard.

96DXCivic wrote: So how bad an idea is it to put a turbine engine into a Midget? I have two sitting at my house. I guess the best place to find a turbine engine would be plane scrap yard.

It's a terrible idea. That means you have to do it.

...Now a 7.4 POUND projectile moving at more than TWICE that speed......hehehe can I watch? better yet can I listen.....

And since the energy is mass*velocity^2, that's some serious punch. With that much kinetic energy, who needs an exploding warhead?

96DXCivic wrote: So how bad an idea is it to put a turbine engine into a Midget? I have two sitting at my house. I guess the best place to find a turbine engine would be plane scrap yard.

If you find said yard I wanna know about it, I would love to crawl in and around some old planes. They are just to cool.

kb58 wrote:

...Now a 7.4 POUND projectile moving at more than TWICE that speed......hehehe can I watch? better yet can I listen.....

And since the energy is mass*velocity^2, that's some serious punch. With that much kinetic energy, who needs an exploding warhead?

If you could harness said gun to fire 1lb slugs at a high rate of fire at similar speeds ala It wouldn't just be for missile's anymore. If I did the math right, should be about 1558000 jules worth of energy in a projectile, if you can fire 2-3 a second, jeez um. Being worried about missing wouldn't be that much of a concern, as long as you can line it up, shot lead wouldn't be that much at those velocities, add projectile speed to target rate of closure.... You prob wouldn't even need 1lb projectiles.

Ever since I first heard the concept of a rail gun, I've thought the ultimate infantry fire support weapon would be a Humvee or other mounted rail, firing slivers of 1 inch steel thread at a high rate of fire. yeah ammo can/belts would be a thing of the past, instead they would be carrying spools of 20 gauge wire.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/features/article6717728.ece

Came across this article earlier today about a guy in Philly who built a jet powered ATV. The article didn't state what driveline he was using though for some reason i think it might be just thrust though

There is a military surplus shop across route 1 from Dover Downs. The owner sells parking when the roundy round guys are in town. He had drums of surplus copter motors a few years ago. I don't have a name or number, sorry, but you might be able to google the place.