Props motors or small alternator to recharge batteries.

[Zelnando]

hey guys,

I am not an engineer but I think like one at times. I was thinking that it would be a great idea if someone design drones to have some kind of alternators that work off the wind or the motors to recharge the intelligent battery.

Say if there is a port in front of the drone like the grill on the car that allows wind to flow in, which in turns turns the fan that attaches to the small alternator to recharge the battery. With a 20 -25 minute flight time, that’s enough energy to prolong the battery for 3-5 minutes if not more.

Also, i was thinking the extra weight might be an issue, but imagine if each prop motors can recycle some of that energy back to the battery in an hybrid method.

What do you all think? Am I being dumb or just food for thought. Again I am not an engineer but I think that’s possible innovative ideas.

 

[bad karma]

"With a 20 -25 minute flight time, that’s enough energy to prolong the battery for 3-5 minutes if not more."

That's a pretty bold statement, an improvement that would net 12-20% of battery time is a lot when you're talking about such a small amount of energy expenditure. Consider what a leap it was (In the eyes of DJI and they're marketing team at least) when the Mavic Platinum offered that much additional run time.

I'm not an engineer either but my son is and we're pretty close, I'm paraphrasing here but there's an old saying in Engineering... "there's no free lunch." Yes, the additional weight of your charging system (or more like a regenerative braking system) would require more energy expenditure, also any time you convert energy there is a loss of energy. Given the very small energy expenditures and likely recovery from such a system it's probably not worth putting a lot of thought into it.
In my laymans opinion I think drone mfg's are more likely to consider advancing prop design, motor design, battery advances, aerodynamic properties possibly and more advanced lightweight materials when improving flight times, among other things.

It's good to think outside the box. Keep doing that.

 

[Zelnando]

"With a 20 -25 minute flight time, that’s enough energy to prolong the battery for 3-5 minutes if not more."

That's a pretty bold statement, an improvement that would net 12-20% of battery time is a lot when you're talking about such a small amount of energy expenditure. Consider what a leap it was (In the eyes of DJI and they're marketing team at least) when the Mavic Platinum offered that much additional run time.

I'm not an engineer either but my son is and we're pretty close, I'm paraphrasing here but there's an old saying in Engineering... "there's no free lunch." Yes, the additional weight of your charging system (or more like a regenerative braking system) would require more energy expenditure, also any time you convert energy there is a loss of energy. Given the very small energy expenditures and likely recovery from such a system it's probably not worth putting a lot of thought into it.
In my laymans opinion I think drone mfg's are more likely to consider advancing prop design, motor design, battery advances, aerodynamic properties possibly and more advanced lightweight materials when improving flight times, among other things.

It's good to think outside the box. Keep doing that.

I was just hoping it’s doable, but you did make a valid statement and your reasoning/logical approach is on point.

 

[Kilrah]

You already have 4 "kind of alternators that work off the wind" on a quad, but they're busy doing the other job of keeping it up in the air and make it move.

I hope you will understand that any movement of the quad that could power your thing "that allows wind to flow in, which in turns turns the fan that attaches to the small alternator to recharge the battery" would be powered by the battery i the first place.

I.e. you'd have to make the motors work harder in order for your thing to recover only a fraction of what you just wasted.

 

[Zelnando]

You already have 4 "kind of alternators that work off the wind" on a quad, but they're busy doing the other job of keeping it up in the air and make it move.

I hope you will understand that any movement of the quad that could power your thing "that allows wind to flow in, which in turns turns the fan that attaches to the small alternator to recharge the battery" would be powered by the battery i the first place.

I.e. you'd have to make the motors work harder in order for your thing to recover only a fraction of what you just wasted.

Hello Kilrah,

I was thinking more like a windmill method, using wind speed to regenerate power as the aircraft is moving. I know it would be impossible to spin the alternator enough while it’s stationary. Maybe i am just thinking too much out of my derrière, but it’s just ideas.

 

[mnoutdoors]

What would work, is a small gas RC motor powering a small generator but would need to be light.
They do produce a hydrogen fuel cell drone, but it has a ways to evolve yet.

 

[Kilrah]

I was thinking more like a windmill method, using wind speed to regenerate power as the aircraft is moving. I know it would be impossible to spin the alternator enough while it’s stationary. Maybe i am just thinking too much out of my derrière, but it’s just ideas.

Yeah I know. But it still maikes no sense at all since the only reason the aircraft is moving is thanks to its power source and motors, so the power to spin your windmill would come from that. So instead of recovering a fraction of the energy from movement, you're much better off simply not using it in the first place.

Completely pointless like those scammy "cell phone energy recovery" things that existed for a while.

 

[Zelnando]

What would work, is a small gas RC motor powering a small generator but would need to be light.
They do produce a hydrogen fuel cell drone, but it has a ways to evolve yet.

Oh wow I forgot about those small RC motors-that’s a good idea but would have to be super lightweight.

 

[Bernie]

Or you could have a noisy RC motor drone and be done with Batteries

 

[AnzacJack]

What would work, is a small gas RC motor powering a small generator but would need to be light.
They do produce a hydrogen fuel cell drone, but it has a ways to evolve yet.

HyDrone 1550 Hydrogen-powered Multirotor with Super Long Flight Time - MMC Aero Technology Co., Ltd.
getting closer

 

[Zoidsfan77]

The laws of thermaldynamics prevent this from being possible.

To simplify, say you are driving an electric car. If you put a windmill on top, and have it charge the batteries, will it extend your range?
The answer is no. Reason being the forces turning the windmill are generated by the forward movement of that car. Where is the energy coming from that is moving the car forward? The batteries.
The extra drag of the windmill will only REDUCE the cars range, and provides no benefit.

 

[bad karma]

Boom. There’s no free lunch...