a *consumer* Fuel Cell RC vehicle…!

[PandaBear]

There s been various minature fuel cells (for your mobile phone etc),
and there s been various attempts at mating same with an RC chassis.

Now here s one RTR straight from the factory:

Water powered Fuel Cell Toy Car by Daido Metal

Japan s Daido Metal, a manufacturer of bearing metals, has developed a fuel cell toy car that uses water as its source of hydrogen.

The Daido Metal toy car is using hydrogen created from the electrolysis of pure water. The car is 19cm long, 10cm wide and 8.5cm high, and weighs 350g with a full tank of water.

The Fuel Cell Toy Car will sell for 20,000yen.

[jamiekulhanek]

$246.66 AUD not bad!!!….my big worry about this thing is power upgrades, is there a limit to what the fuel cell can push???

[PandaBear]

No idea… I’m still stuck at trying to find out
WHERE it gets the power from to split the water?? :question:

[ph2t]

Got a link bigboy?

[PandaBear]

Gadget-phreak pal sent me this:- http://www.i4u.com/article1266.html
(which I conveniently ‘borrowed’ above :))

… but the on-link doesn’t pickup anything more.

[oldtamiyaphile]

Obviously it uses a generator or altenator to provide itself power. It would be really cool if it runs on AC power 🙂

and of course there’s a power limit, even a nuclear reactor has a limit :p

Not much heavier than an Xmods 👿

[PandaBear]

Quote:

Obviously it uses a generator or altenator to provide itself power. It would be really cool if it runs on AC power 🙂

and of course there’s a power limit, even a nuclear reactor has a limit :p

Not much heavier than an Xmods 👿

Might be a while before it comes to that… given that it
*is* only the size of a 1/24 XMod or MiniZ.

So you think it charges itself up, off some external electric source?
(which splits water, car stores the components as fuel and
oxidises it in the fuel cell to power the car later)

Output power limit in a fuel cell depends on a lot of variables,
eg its design, the amt of area its permeable interface there is,
the tyre of membrane used for the interface, ambient temperature
the pressure/temperature/volume of fuel flowing through it etc.

Hey where’s uA??

Had posted this up if only to bait him… 👿

[micro_Amps]

Power output would be VERY low. Extremely low electron transfer on a water fuel cell.
It does need some source of power to split the water.
Bait me, yeah right.
Damn, got me again.
:)uA
Also, Jaycar sell a vry basic solar / water powered fuel cell too.

[oldtamiyaphile]

Given that a fuel cell produces more electricity than it uses, I guess the easiest way to make it work is to us a battery to get the process going, after that it’s self sustaining. Very interesting regardless.

Who needs a scale 800+ km/h anyway?

[PandaBear]

Quote:

Given that a fuel cell produces more electricity than it uses, I guess the easiest way to make it work is to us a battery to get the process going, after that it’s self sustaining.

Ummm.. I think you’ve missed something, OTP.

Water is NOT the fuel fed to the fuelcell; hydrogen is.

Water is too chemically stable to be any good as a fuel. It is only
the media used as a source of H2 & O2 ions, formed via electrolysis.
H2 & O2… now there’s an explosive combination!

Feed H2 into the fuel cell and it’ll oxidise to liberate electricity,
but really its no more energy than what you’ve put in into the
system in the first place (electrolysis).

These fuelcell/hydrogen systems are pretty common as backup generators
(aka UPS) for PC server installations. They store the hygroden in
tanks filled with lead pebbles, then kick in whenever necessary.
Better than a petrol engine generator as they need less maintenance
and they ‘recharge’ their own fuel when grid power is available.

Fuel cells (ideal circumstances) don’t need any starting; the fuel
at the interface does not do anything until current is drawn.
When the current flows, the fuel then begins oxidising and only uses
as much as necessary with no waste.

[oldtamiyaphile]

So, and I may have gotten it wrong again, it’s sealed with hydrogen inside? Essentially, no different to a battery?

[PandaBear]

I’d think that’s what it is… unless some wacky
scientist has invented a way to burn water lately.

Probably not ‘sealed’ either; sounds like it
splits the water and stores only the H2.

But don’t know what happens to the fuel cell’s
exhaust – essentially pure water, as it’ll just
re-oxidise with atmospheric O2.

[trash]

I’m supprised that nobody has suggested that water really can be used as fuel alone for a fuel cell.
How you say ?
For those of you who have done year 11 Physics or Chemistry, you’ll remember something called…
DISASSOCIATION.
Pure water, is not just H2O… sometimes for short periods of time is is also (H+)aq + (OH-)aq
It’s these free ions that can be used to power the fuel cell. And yes it does work.

So why don’t we see cars running on water ?
Well, the disassociation occurs in such tiny amounts that it is practically useless.

It amazes me what useless information I remember from high school.

[PandaBear]

How about running Bits powered by a Potato Battery?? 🙂

[Aaron]

I have this strange vision of uA desperating working out how to FET mod it and Jamie working out how to stack a bag of Spuds onto a chassis. and Ph2t sitting back wondering which eyes to attach the lights to.

Betty.K just wants to get the Spud back into the dirt :smiley2:
A.:clown:

--
Site Owner Guy.

[PandaBear]

Quote:

Betty.K just wants to get the Spud back into the dirt :smiley2:

LOL… (groan)

… and Trash watering it with heavy water..? 🙂

[betty.k]

:D:8ball:

[jamiekulhanek]

:evil::evil: hehehe very funny Aaron.

I was considering getting one of these, as i was told that “A fuel cell will put out as much power as you can feed it” which can’t be true because there is a limit to everything (usually resistance).

I am a crazy power nut so this just wouldn’t float my boat….but a car that’ll just keep on going would be cool.

[trash]

heheh,
I was just thinking about the DSE funway 1.
Beer powered radio ….
Homer Simpson style at the pump with a beer powered car ….. one for you, one for me, one for you, one for me 🙂

Hmmm… heavey water. I had quite a bit of palladium I bought a few years ago, but I sold it and made a pretty penny. I should by some again now it’s cheap.

[jamiekulhanek]

Thats no good trash i’d drink the fuel tank dry :8ball::D

[trash]

A challange !
I have a 25 litre bottle of vodka at home.
Actually I have several, home made, better than the stuff made in the factory … wanna try for a new world record. The current record is held by some dead (pickled) russian dude !
He died a hero ! 🙂

[jamiekulhanek]

Quote:

I have a 25 litre bottle of vodka at home.
Actually I have several

Lord Almighty, i know where i’m going next for a piss up!

[Author]

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