Hello, group, groupies, and lurkers.

MOEPED 3 (MObile Experimental Physics Educational Demonstrator) rode
the parking lot behind this condo, the first major project I have been
able to slap together since we settled November 24, 2004.

The 600 W @ 36 V stall consumption hub might deliver 200 W of shaft
power on a good day. It can certainly generate the 140 W capacity of
the 12 V inverter although that has not been demonstrated. It cost only
a little more than the piddly 3 W rated brusheless AC alternator hubs
that can put out 6 W on a fast coast. It weighs much more; 20 pounds,
and has more friction, since it's a brushed, commutated
motor/generator.

ftp://users.aol.com/DGoncz/Bicycle/HappyNewYear.wmv

will show the drive-by with Christmas lights blazing at 13 W load.
Hardly detectable when they kick in at about fourth gear on level
ground. There's a little amateur guitar on the credits to keep them
from getting boring. It's a Malguen~a, followed by a brief Alegrias,
for those who care about such things.

I laced the hub to the tiny 16 inch rim with 80 mm spokes. What a
hassle. It came out pretty good. Er, well. Er, what's an adjective,
again? Whatever. I reamed the Presta to 5/16 for the Schraeder stem to
match the other wheel and had to inflate it with a 135 degree air hose
tire chuck and MAPP gas because it's so damn cramped in between the big
hub, the tiny spokes and the tiny rim. I didn't feel like dragging out
the Power Pal. I am looking for a tapered reamer designed for Schrader
stems, if any of you know of one. A pin reamer, perhaps?

Now I can mount the *brilliant* 8 W white LED rail/shipyard traffic
signal donated by John Viselli at Dialight a few years ago! I am busily
lacing 13 sockets to the seat frame to hold C9 Christmas bulbs in red
and green. I think those are 5W each; we'll see how that feels on the
legs, and what happens on coasts. After, that, well, how about some
neon?

The next phase is the onboard AC motor/generator, already tested with
this inverter in the dynamic brake configuration. If I can get a
constant input of 400/290 rpm (that's the synch speed over the slipped
speed) I will be able to find the appropriate capacitance using a sub
box I built, and one I bought, to fine resolution. However, the whole
thing may never work under human input; the strokes vary a lot and I
can't afford the weight budget to put a bigger flywheel on it. Dr.
Majewski at NVCC may provide lab time with a rotator and tach at this
speed to explore the range of available caps. It would be an SEIG
configuration. The inverter may feed a phase of the motor to provide
sync and an excitation. That's not an SEIG configuration; it's
something I want to try.

A parallel ultracpacitor bank of 40 kilojoules is ready to mount drop
in the rack bag; I just have to wire a trailer connector and T. Please
let me know if you have a source for 16 gage trailer wiring connectors.
Radio Shack sells 18 or 20 gage and the wiring on the inverter is 16 so
I want to use 16 gage throughout. This will provide some
electric-flywheel effect that may even out a few local small hills. As
is, the whole thing can still be grunted onto the Metrobus bike rack
and taken anywhere on rail and bus. I'm going to run up to MIT and show
it off some day during a Friday Lunch at ESG there; I'd take the 1B to
Ballston, the Metrorail to Union Station, Amtrak to Boston, and the BMT
to the Skwayah, where I could easily ride to the elevator up to ESG.

Live nude metalworking action coming from here soon. You see, we have
privacy panels in the front, and in the LR, the patio fence provides
privacy, so I hang out naked most of the time.

I have machined a small block of wood to hold my Quick Cam Notebook
Deluxe onto the desk lamp, and fashioned a mic mount from a paper
clamp, an AA cell, and a mic holder that had a camera thread. The mic
is a zoom mic; a shotgun. There will be a dimmer to adjust the
lighting. The system was up a few days ago, but I downloaded some "free
erotic video" and caught a script virus. I have no internet, no audio,
and no Control Panel on my main computer right now; it is a Compaq
TC1000 pen tablet. How many times do they have to tell me; free porn is
never free. The live action will be mobile within the condo, as the
notebook is 11b wireless, and will likely not be a web cam; I don't
think our ISP, Cox, permits those. Too many feeds and packets; but they
don't mind a Messenger setup, which is only one feed and one packet
stream.

Enjoy!

Doug Goncz
Replikon Research
Falls Church, VA 22044-0394