KERS system for karts?

Justin Martin · Joined: 27 Mar 2012 Posts: 328

PS, KTM used it in their 125cc GP bike in 2008 before F1. They go an extra 3BHP. However they were on a much tighter weight constraint. Our system could easily weigh twice as much and offer much more power. Meanwhile it really it would take place of lead weight on "most" Karter's set up

Dan Schultz · Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 8:35 pm Post subject:

Kers would be cool, but I think you could get more bang for your buck with a cvt transmission.

joseph hollinger · Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 8:39 pm Post subject:

Dan Schultz · Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 8:56 pm Post subject:

joseph hollinger · Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 9:02 pm Post subject:

Then use a bigger motor. CVT's are the opposite of motorsport.
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Justin Martin · Joined: 27 Mar 2012 Posts: 328

I wouldn't necessarily agree with a CVT.

The reason I love the KERS Idea is that it will add that little bit extra strategy. It can be like a super tag class.

I think using it for starts, defending, and passing it could grow in popularity. It sort of would fill that gap between shifter and tag.

Currently I have decided that Capacitors might be the way to go, however they have an undesirable discharge, requiring a converter. I am still looking for some storage system that is relatively small, light-ish and able to put out the required current. Now that isn't necessarily to difficult, owever the charge rate is!

Ray Lovestead · Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 4:11 pm Post subject:

Glad this old thread is still out there.

I run shifter. But come to think of it, you'd only really be able to run the motor/generator on the rear axle. So front braking would need to be removed in order to maximize the energy transfer to the batteries. So yes, non-shifter, rear brake systems would benefit most from it.

There is a lot going on in the high performance motor world. I imagine a small system could be had.. for a price.. hehe..

I daydream about making a 4 (electric) motor kart. One at each wheel. So you could develop a very good traction control system. You could use 4x10hp electric motors and be extremely fast. A 4 wheel system like that would be faster than anything ever driven on a kart track.
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Justin Martin · Joined: 27 Mar 2012 Posts: 328

Ray, the computer systems to achieve what you are asking are very, very reasonable....

If you look up "quad copters" they are a form of RC helicopter. A cheap $20 control board regulates voltage between 4 electric motors controlling thrust on all 4 corners of the craft. Very similarly to traction control. the system is able to hold a gps position, hold an altitude even when there is added weight, or wind! Pretty awesome truthfully!

I think there are many TaG guy out there that dont want to race shifter, but are looking for something slightly "more" than TaG

Ray Lovestead · Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2013 10:26 am Post subject:

Another possibility that would be less complex (less electronics to worry about) is a flywheel attached to a clutch. In most applications of regen your plan is to reduce mpg. But in racing you could care less.

So you could spin up a flywheel when you "brake". In other words, you never pull off the accelerator. Just divert the engine energy to a flywheel. That way going into a corner you still use the brakes, but also divert the energy into a flywheel. Then coming out of the corner you release the brake and now are putting the stored energy of the flywheel back into the system.

Mechanically complicated vs. electrically complicated.

I'm currently looking into the cost of a electric regen system. I'll get back to you when I learn more.

Ray
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Justin Martin · Joined: 27 Mar 2012 Posts: 328

many have attempted the flywheel design.

I personally am not fond of it. You can't use it "anywhere" like you could with electrically stored energy. The other problem is the high gyroscopic effect the flywheel will cause.

Aircraft are built with automatic locking brake when the wheels retract, simply because the spinning tire would throw off flight characteristics in critical takeoff/ landing instances.

An electric system as I described really is not complicated at all. There is no need for fancy batteries, or converting power. The parts are next to bullet proof in the world of electronics.

3 Phase bridge rectifiers are used in many systems from your computer, to Monitors, cd drives, etc. However all the items I just mentioned have the added complexity of converting AC to DC....

None of the parts in the system are what one would call complicated electronics. You should see the kinda stuff that is in the aircraft I work on daily (I am an aircraft electrician). These things fly thousands of hours a year with very minimal problems from the power generation side of things.

Ray Lovestead · Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 8:30 pm Post subject:

http://web.mit.edu/first/kart/

These MIT boffins have created an electric kart that uses a capacitor to store energy when braking.

Lot of good info in here.

Ray
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Austin Newman · Joined: 07 Dec 2012 Posts: 3

Here's our completed system

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4kBA1ydMRs

Justin Martin · Joined: 27 Mar 2012 Posts: 328

See! How bad@$$ would that be in TaG? It would open up so many passing opportunities, just as Kers does in F1