Pulling Backward To Go Forward: The Brennan Torpedo Explained

December 17, 2024 by Donald Papp 16 Comments

The Brennan torpedo, invented in 1877 by Louis Brennan, was one of the first (if not the first) guided torpedoes of a practical design. Amazingly, it had no internal power source but it did have a very clever and counter-intuitive mode of operation: a cable was pulled backward to propel the torpedo forward.

If the idea of sending something forward by pulling a cable backward seems unusual, you’re not alone. How can something go forward faster than it’s being pulled backward? That’s what led [Steve Mould] to examine the whole concept in more detail in a video in a collaboration with [Derek Muller] of Veritasium, who highlights some ways in which the physics can be non-intuitive, just as with a craft that successfully sails downwind faster than the wind.

The short answer is gearing, producing more force on the propeller by pulling out lots of rope.

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Behold A Geared, Continuously Variable Transmission

December 14, 2024 by Donald Papp 72 Comments

When it comes to transmissions, a geared continuously-variable transmission (CVT) is a bit of a holy grail. CVTs allow smooth on-the-fly adjustment of gear ratios to maintain a target speed or power requirement, but sacrifice transmission efficiency in the process. Geared transmissions are more efficient, but shift gear ratios only in discrete steps. A geared CVT would hit all the bases, but most CVTs are belt drives. What would a geared one even look like? No need to wonder, you can see one for yourself. Don’t miss the two videos embedded below the page break.

The outer ring is the input, the inner ring is the output, and the three little gears with dots take turns transferring power.

The design is called the RatioZero and it’s reminiscent of a planetary gearbox, but with some changes. Here’s how the most visible part works: the outer ring is the input and the inner ring is the output. The three small gears inside the inner ring work a bit like relay runners in that each one takes a turn transferring power before “handing off” to the next. The end result is a smooth, stepless adjustment of gear ratios with the best of both worlds. Toothed gears maximize transmission efficiency while the continuously-variable gear ratio allows maximizing engine efficiency.

There are plenty of animations of how the system works but we think the clearest demonstration comes from [driving 4 answers] with a video of a prototype, which is embedded below. It’s a great video, and the demo begins at 8:54 if you want to skip straight to that part.

One may think of motors and gearboxes are a solved problem since they have been around for so long, but the opportunities to improve are ongoing and numerous. Even EV motors have a lot of room for improvement, chief among them being breaking up with rare earth elements while maintaining performance and efficiency.

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Small Steam Generator Creates Educational Experience

October 27, 2024 by Danie Conradie 13 Comments

Steam turbines have helped drive a large chunk of our technological development over the last century or so, and they’ll always make for interesting DIY. [Hyperspace Pirate] built a small turbine and boiler in his garage, turning fire into flowing electrons, and learning a bunch in the process.

[Hyperspace Pirate] based the turbine design on 3D printed Pelton-style turbines he had previously experimented with, but milled it from brass using a CNC router. A couple of holes had to be drilled in the side of the rotor to balance it. The shaft drives a brushless DC motor to convert the energy from the expanding steam into electricity.

To avoid the long heat times required for a conventional boiler, [Hyperspace Pirate] decided to use a flash boiler. This involves heating up high-pressure water in a thin coil of copper tube, causing the water to boil as it flows down the tube. To produce the high-pressure water feed the propane tank for the burner was also hooked up to the water tank to pressurize it, removing the need for a separate pump or compressed air source. This setup allows the turbine to start producing power within twelve seconds of lighting the burner — significantly faster than a conventional boiler.

Throughout the entire video [Hyperspace Pirate] shows his calculation for the design and tests, making for a very informative demonstration. By hooking up a variable load and Arduino to the rectified output of the motor, he was able to measure the output power and efficiency. It came out to less than 1% efficiency for turning propane into electricity, not accounting for the heat loss of the boiler. The wide gaps between the turbine and housing, as well as the lack of a converging/diverging nozzle on the input of the turbine are likely big contributing factors to the low efficiency.

Like many of his other projects, the goal was the challenge of the project, not practicality or efficiency. From a gyro-stabilized monorail, to copper ingots from algaecide and and a DIY cryocooler, he has sure done some interesting ones.

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COBB Tuning Hit With $2.9 Million Fine Over Emissions Defeat Devices

September 20, 2024 by Maya Posch 110 Comments

Recently, the EPA and COBB Tuning have settled after the latter was sued for providing emissions control defeating equipment. As per the EPA’s settlement details document, COBB Tuning have since 2015 provided customers with the means to disable certain emission controls in cars, in addition to selling aftermarket exhaust pipes with insufficient catalytic systems. As part of the settlement, COBB Tuning will have to destroy any remaining device, delete any such features from its custom tuning software and otherwise take measures to fully comply with the Clean Air Act, in addition to paying a $2,914,000 civil fine.

The tuning of cars has come a long way from the 1960s when tweaking the carburetor air-fuel ratios was the way to get more power. These days cars not only have multiple layers of computers and sensor systems that constantly monitor and tweak the car’s systems, they also have a myriad of emission controls, ranging from permissible air-fuel ratios to catalytic converters. It’s little surprise that these systems can significantly impact the raw performance one might extract from a car’s engine, but if the exhaust of nitrogen-oxides and other pollutants is to be kept within legal limits, simply deleting these limits is not a permissible option.

COBB Tuning proclaimed that they weren’t aware of these issues, and that they never marketed these features as ’emission controls defeating’. They were however aware of issues regarding their products, which is why they announced ‘Project Green Speed’ in 2022, which supposedly would have brought COBB into compliance. Now it would seem that the EPA did find fault despite this, and COBB was forced to making adjustments.

Although perhaps not as egregious as modifying diesel trucks to ‘roll coal’, federal law has made it abundantly clear that if you really want to have fun tweaking and tuning your car without pesky environmental laws getting in the way, you could consider switching to electric drivetrains, even if they’re mind-numbingly easy to make performant compared to internal combustion engines.

A Two-Stroke Engine Made From Scratch Using Basic Hardware Store Parts

August 5, 2024 by Maya Posch 15 Comments

A working DIY two-stroke in all of its glory, with the flywheel removed. (Credit: Camden Bowen)

How hard could it to be to build a two-stroke internal combustion engine (ICE) from scratch? This is a challenge that [Camden Bowen] gladly set for himself, while foregoing such obvious wastes of time like first doing an in-depth literature study on the topic. That said, he did do some research and made the design in OnShape CAD before making his way over to the hardware store to make some purchases.

As it turns out, you can indeed build a two-stroke engine from scratch, using little more than some metal piping and other parts from the hardware store. You also need a welder and a lathe, with [Camden] using a Vevor mini-lathe that totally puts the ‘precision’ in ‘chatter’. As building an ICE requires a number of relatively basic parts that have to move with very little friction and with tight tolerances, this posed some challenges, but nothing that some DIY spirit can’t fix.

In the case of the very flexible boring bar on the lathe, improvising with some sturdy metal stock welded to a short boring bar resolved that, and precision was achieved. Together with an angle grinder, [Camden] was then able to manufacture the crank case, the cylinder and crank shaft and all the other pieces that make up an ICE. For the carburetor he used a unit off Amazon, which turned out to have the wrong throat size at 19 mm, but a 13 mm version worked. Ultimately, the first ICE constructed this way got destroyed mostly by running it dry and having the starter fluid acting as a solvent, but a full rebuild fixed all the issues.

This second attempt actually ran just fine the first time around, with oil in the crank case so that the poor engine wasn’t running dry any more. With a 40:1 fuel/oil mixture the little engine idles and runs as well as a two-stroke can, belching blue smoke and making a ruckus. This answers the question of whether you can build a two-stroke ICE with basic machining skills and tools, but of course the question that’s now on everyone’s lips is whether a four-stroke one would be nearly as ‘easy’. We wait with bated breath.

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Making EV Motors, And Breaking Up With Rare Earth Elements

July 9, 2024 by Donald Papp 85 Comments

Rare earth elements are used to produce magnets with very high strength that also strongly resist demagnetization, their performance is key to modern motors such as those in electric vehicles (EVs). The stronger the magnets, the lighter and more efficient a motor can be. So what exactly does it take to break up with rare earths?

Rare earth elements (REEs) are actually abundant in the Earth’s crust, technically speaking. The problem is they are found in very low concentrations, and inconveniently mixed with other elements when found. Huge amounts of ore are required to extract useful quantities, which requires substantial industrial processing. The processes involved are ecologically harmful and result in large amounts of toxic waste.

Moving away from rare earth magnets in EV motors would bring a lot of benefits, but poses challenges. There are two basic approaches: optimize a motor for non-rare-earth magnets (such as iron nitrides), or do away with permanent magnets entirely in favor of electromagnets (pictured above). There are significant engineering challenges to both approaches, and it’s difficult to say which will be best in the end. But research and prototypes are making it increasingly clear that effective REE-free motors are perfectly feasible. Breaking up with REEs and their toxic heritage would be much easier when their main benefit — technological performance — gets taken off the table as a unique advantage.

Building A Hydraulic Loader For A Lawn Tractor

March 14, 2024 by Lewin Day 10 Comments

Lawn tractors are a great way to mow a large yard or small paddock. They save you the effort of pushing a mower around and they’re fun to drive, to boot. However, they can be even more fun with the addition of some extra hardware. The hydraulic loader build from [Workshop from Scratch] demonstrates exactly how.

The build is based around a John Deere LX188 lawn tractor, which runs a 17 horsepower Kawasaki engine and features a hydrostatic transmission. It’s a perfectly fine way to mow a lawn. In this case, though, it’s given new abilities with the addition of a real working loader. It’s fabricated from raw steel from the arms right down to the bucket. It’s all run from a hydraulic pump, which is mounted to the engine via an electromagnetic clutch. The clutch can be engaged when it’s desired to use the hydraulics to actuate the loader.

As you might expect, the humble lawn tractor isn’t built for this kind of work. Thus, to support the extra equipment, the mower was also given some frame reinforcements and a wider track for stability.

If you’re trying to give your neighbours mower envy, this is how you do it. Or, you could go another route entirely. Video after the break.
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