the sinclair c5 - 20 years ahead of its time ?

nickj_2

geordie_joe wrote: »

He didn't completely give up on that idea, I've seen him on the telly with his hoover with a ball on it.

Sorry for the use of the word "hoover", I'm from the generation that hoovered their carpets, although I did hear that the posh people vacuumed theirs.

i think you'll find posh people get somebody else to do their vacuuming for them - they would never stoop so low

Cardew

nickj wrote: »

if you take the 1st mobile phones - the batteries were huge .. now look at the size of them

That is mainly because the modern mobile phone draws very little power.

There has been huge sums spent on research to find batteries that would be suitable for transport and essentially they have come up with nothing that is suitable.

Toyota and panasonic have spent millions developing the battery pack for the Prius and that still weighs about 100 pounds and even then is not often used to power the car without the engine running.

If anyone made a real breakthrough on battery technolgy it would be a market worth multi-billions of pounds.

moonrakerz

Cardew wrote: »

If anyone made a real breakthrough on battery technolgy it would be a market worth multi-billions of pounds.

I am working on the AC battery - it will make me a fortune once I get it working !

Cardew

moonrakerz wrote: »

I am working on the AC battery - it will make me a fortune once I get it working !

Thats great, as I am working on a device that converts it back to DC.

Without giving away too many secrets it works on the principle of some rectifiers and a bridge circuit.

Cardew

geordie_joe wrote: »

Why insert the word "affordable"? Does this indicate that better rechargeable batteries are available, but cost to much?

Ther are many types of rechargable battery that have far more capacity than the humble lead acid battery that has been around for the last 100 years.

You only have to look at your mobile phones, cameras etc.

However they all have drawbacks that make them unsuitable - even if they were afordable.

Ability to be recharged frequently and quickly being just one. Safety is another.

Without getting into electrical theory, any form of transportation needs lots of power. To provide this you need high voltage or high current.

High voltage needs lots of 'individual' batteries(cells) connected together.

High current needs huge thick cables. Look at the size of the cables for a starter motor on a car - and that is for carrying about 2kW for a second or two.

I don't think there is a petrol car on the road with an engine of less than 30 kW. A moped might have 2-3kW.

Batteries to produce that sort of power for even an hour will be huge.

geordie_joe

Cardew wrote: »

I don't think there is a petrol car on the road with an engine of less than 30 kW. A moped might have 2-3kW.

Batteries to produce that sort of power for even an hour will be huge.

You are right, as always. But as I said earlier, electric cars should be seen as something different to petrol.

An electric car is never going to have the power to transport your whole family 300 miles up the motorway at 70mph. They are only going to be good for short, in town journeys where you never get above 30mph. Going to work, shopping etc.

The problem is most people need, or want a car that can do both, so have to go for the petrol car.

skelly01

Everyone seems to be hedging their bets on battery power in this topic.
Hydrogen power is fast coming, the next big commodity will no longer be oil it will be water.
I can guarantee you that the big oil conglomorates are investing huge sums of money on this as are the car manufacturers?
And basically yes the C5 was ahead of its tie, but I agree with Caldew battery power has not evolved enough to make it really viable.

globalds

Did anybody see the gadget show last week with the electric screw driver that used a large capacitor instead of a battery .
It took about 90 seconds to charge and lasted about 15 minutes.
Not many practical uses yet but another avenue now worth investigating.
This is the only link I could find (Not me trying to advertise )
http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/technology_news/4223118.html

geordie_joe

skelly01 wrote: »

And basically yes the C5 was ahead of its tie, but I agree with Caldew battery power has not evolved enough to make it really viable.

I was going to post some twaddle about electric cars being useful for short town journeys, and that you could save a a lot of money getting to and from work/shops etc.

As the Twike was on TV tonight, and apparently is "is big in Germany" (they sell one per week!). So I decided to research it and post a link.

However, having looked at the site I don't think the Twike is going to save you any money. According to the site the cost per mile is the same as a car!

Here's the link if you want to look at it.

http://www.twike.co.uk/Start.html

Cardew

skelly01 wrote: »

Everyone seems to be hedging their bets on battery power in this topic.
Hydrogen power is fast coming, the next big commodity will no longer be oil it will be water.
I can guarantee you that the big oil conglomorates are investing huge sums of money on this as are the car manufacturers?
And basically yes the C5 was ahead of its tie, but I agree with Caldew battery power has not evolved enough to make it really viable.

Well if water is to be the next 'big commodity', enough of it fell on this part of UK today to make us rich.

To be serious, the research into hydrogen powered vehicles is only geared towards making a practical vehicle with zero emissions - a totally clean exaust!

Hydrogen contains no energy, but can carry it! So the energy for a Hydrogen car will have to come from another source.