Home brew Exhaust gas temperature sensor

[billswan]

Lloyd

Man you come up with the darnedest stuff

After reading about the cyclone engine I am sold, wounder how much they cost?

Says it can run on WMO, wow.

I will take 2 please.

Billswan

[AdeV]

As a side question, does anyone know what sort of exhaust gas temperature one can expect from a single cyl Lister? I'm thinking of fiddling up a thermocouple based temperature sensor circuit which will plug into my fledgling Arduino-based ECU, and since the 1000^oC sensors are ~£12.00, I'm wondering if I can get away with a lower temperature probe...

[elnav]

Unless  exact temperatures   are necessary  so as to prevent overlooking the engine  the hand held IR thermometers are usually sufficient.  I have used mine to detect  faulty injectors  by noting which exhaust port ran cooler from a misfiring cylinder.  Reading a manifold  may not be quite exact as reading the actual gas stream but it comes close.
Burning diesel under normal full loading  tend to burn at around 750F   

[AdeV]

Unless  exact temperatures   are necessary  so as to prevent overlooking the engine  the hand held IR thermometers are usually sufficient.  I have used mine to detect  faulty injectors  by noting which exhaust port ran cooler from a misfiring cylinder.  Reading a manifold  may not be quite exact as reading the actual gas stream but it comes close.
Burning diesel under normal full loading  tend to burn at around 750F   

The purpose behind reading the exhaust temperature is three-fold:

1) It's an interesting data feed for the data logger
2) It will give some indication if there's a problem (overtemp)
3) It's an amusing technical challenge for someone, like me, who is just getting into "proper" electronics design.

I don't anticipate this having any commercial use or value whatsoever, but I'd like to capture (to the nearest 10 degrees C, say) the exhaust temp from my Lister. Who knows, by having 2 sensors, one either side of a heatX, I may be able to tune the heatX to extract exactly the right amount of heat, in real time...

[Lloyd]

Lloyd

Man you come up with the darnedest stuff

After reading about the cyclone engine I am sold, wounder how much they cost?

Says it can run on WMO, wow.

I will take 2 please.

Billswan

I just find the darnedest stuff...here's their stockholder brief for end of year 09 http://www.cyclonepower.com/PDF/Letter_Shareholders_2009_Annual_Report.pdf It looks like this technology, has spawned some other techs, and is in full swing to becoming reality.

It certainly hold promise for co-gen applications...now if it can hold promise for micro-co-gen...will depend on price...but the tech..sure implies that it could be adapted.

Lloyd

Jens, they use the thermo-couples to control the fuel burn, the elec. developed elsewhere in the system.

[Lloyd]

http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/POWER/thermoelectric/thermoelectric.htm

circ 1840  ...it's a therompile

[rcavictim]

http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/POWER/thermoelectric/thermoelectric.htm

circ 1840  ...it's a therompile

They sure had a nack for making those tabletop machines pretty with polished brass and artsy hardwood bases. That's a very nice model.  Good luck getting an electric spark to jump between those two brass balls though!  A Wimshurst machine it ain't.    The pile cylinders are remotely reminicsent of Leiden Jars though.  I've toyed with the idea of scratch building a large Wimshurst machine to dispay in my living room.  Just don't have the time to do it all.