You could make dual air tanks mounted on each side of the rear wheel like saddlebags from a touring bike. That would improve the bikes center of gravity as well as make it easier to mount and dismount. I like where you're going with this. It's pretty cool!
I was going to write that ! 🙂 Of course, a collaboration with Colin Furze would probably result in a 400V solenoid switched 4500 PSI test drive with maddening punk music in the background ...
This channel does engineering first and walks the edge of tech/function. Colin does cobble, try, iterate, though since he passed through 500,000 subs, he's become more of a performing clown vs the garage inventor he was when he had fewer morons in the crowd and more guys as viewers that were like him....I, for one, not longer find myself anxious to see Colin's next creation, whereas this channel always has some interesting engineering challenges/ideas on it.
I had a similar thought. Those high pressure hand pump could be used like regenerative braking. When you hit the brakes, the pumps engage and bleed off speed by putting pressure back in the tank. LOL
Steam is less efficient in this case. The extra weight and complexity would only serve to cause issues. Not to mention the electric valve would probably be damaged from this, and the added danger of a boiler so close to your back.
Maybe you should make it direct drive on the rear wheel. Then add extra valves and pipes so when you are braking or downhill you reverse the action to fill the tank.
Finally more pneumatic stuff! This is what I came here for. A second cylinder would be nice, you could make the rear sprocket larger for torque. It would make it easier to move if you started by pedaling and let the engine take over - there's probably not much to get the bike moving on its own but you could probably get it going and maintain a speed with the cylinder. Any chance we could get the Arduino project code? Also, one final note, a hall effect sensor would be better. Infrared can easily pick up interference, especially outside. There's plenty of television remotes and garage door openers out there waiting to screw up your timing, discounting the IR coming from the sun and street lamps!
@Farley Moab Interrupt driven would be better I think, that way you could do something else in the background when not updating the valve positions. Check sensors, calculate efficiency, diagnostics, etc
Yes! Hall effect sensors are far more reliable than IR sensor or mechanical switch. Especially in sunlight, an IR sensor gives a lot of false positives. Also a simple motor encoder unit attached to the sprocket wheel can give lot more precise information for triggering the relays
I actually made an engine quite similar to this a couple years ago but with 4 pistons instead of 1 (vid on my channel). I found one of the most important things is to advance the timing as the rpm increases and to gear down the output as currently your engine seems to be struggling to get past top dead center. Nevertheless I'm very excited to see where this goes in the future and wish you the best of luck.
Reciprocating internal combustion engines are basically air pumps, very similar in concept (Look at very early motorcycles, and they will seem oddly similar to this bike). They operate on a similar principle. Gasoline engines require variable ignition timing dependent on engine speed (it takes time for the fuel to burn, so the process has to be anticipated before the piston is in the ideal position). Similarly, I expect delays in air flow into and through the pneumatic cylinder will also have to be anticipated. Good comment.
Reciprocating internal combustion engines are basically air pumps, very similar in concept (Look at very early motorcycles, and they will seem oddly similar to this bike). They operate on a similar principle. Gasoline engines require variable ignition timing dependent on engine speed (it takes time for the fuel to burn, so the process has to be anticipated before the piston is in the ideal position). Similarly, I expect delays in air flow into and through the pneumatic cylinder will also have to be anticipated. Good comment.
I really love the snapping sound as the system cycles through its rotation. It very much reminds me of the crack of the whip when I was a galley slave rower during the Carthage war against Rome! Ah, yes, lads, those were the days! Chained to my station, the freezing cold salt spray stinging against my cheeks, the once a day meal of maggoty "soup" and the desperate cries of my fellow travelers as they finally gave up and keeled over dead. It's a funny deal, this reincarnation business, very funny indeed!
Just realizing that I have had a smile on my during most of this video. Thank's Tom for that. In today's bizarre times,.....I needed a smile on my face. Keep it up.
So the cylinder would become the compressor? Except I dont think regulators are reversible. You could have a secondary, lower pressure reservoir. Or would you have a separate compressor for braking?
@@TomStantonEngineering Would it be hard to make a system that use the piston to fill the tank when you ride down a hill? That may be useful for trips where you are constantly climbing up and down small hills.
@@TomStantonEngineering Very fair point. I was also wondering if it would be at all feasible to make a hybrid bike; Where you pedal to increase pressure in the tank, and the tank powers the bike. It would most likely be completely useless, but nevertheless a cool concept. It would allow you to keep going for a while after you stop pedaling, which might be interesting.
@@pstrap1311 Agreed, the regulator prevents a reversed pressure flow. I was trying to think of a way to use a pressure equalization valve running counter to the regulator, but that would be problematic when the tank is at a much higher pressure than the operating pressure. Your suggestion of a secondary tank sounds like a much better design.
This is so amazing. It seems like better timing on the valves could help. A crank sensor, like from a car engine or something, might help. I'm impressed with those skills of yours. Oh, you noticed the timing already.
pretty cool, you could add an air suspension front fork and harvest the air pressure created by the suspension to refill your tank and extend your range.
@@ronjones4069 yes maybe you can take a smaller tank and connect it with frame(that is a tank it self) so you can have a much smaller tank on the back and you can fill some free space on the frame with some bags that serves as air tank so it's lighter
Good idea, though you might need a little larger frame tube diameter. 3 inch tube/ 76 mm .Steam powered might work a little better.Heat the water inside the framework.On a cold morning it would appear as if your on fire.LOL Always a crowd favorite.Smoke trails
@@batery5156 Nah, not even the piston would stand such pressures, he even said the crank couldnt stand 80psi before snapping. The idea is to have a small high pressure tank with a regulator so it would take less volume. Ideally id say 100-120psi would be good enough but he has to fix the crank problem first, wither reinforcing the bolt or welding it.
I hadn't realised that they were so strong. I just looked this up because I was surprised and apparently a 2500 psi scuba tank would be classified as a low pressure tank. Blimey.
Crank shaft breaking at 80 psi is do to terrible metal being used. I know the metal in the US is better then the rest of the world but still...how did he find something so weak. A 3000Psi paintball tank that has a built in 300Psi regulator should work once he builds a decent crankshaft.
The energy needed to turn the water into steam is too high. You need 5.5x as much energy to vaporize the water than you do to take it from freezing to boiling!
Second video I've watched of yours. You are not only brilliant but also make awesome projects and execute them with exceptional skill. Just subscribed.
@TomStanton you should use a radial piston motor. They are used for high torque, low rpm applications like conveyor belts. They contain multiple pistons so they can provide power in all degrees of rotation. They can also be used as a pump for regenerative braking.
Bigger hammer? If _I_ were doing this experiment, I don't think I'd want to strap a 3000PSI bomb to my butt until I knew the system worked, and I had regulating equipment to handle it.
@@tananam9782 I'd trust a 3000 psi airsoft tank over that made in china tank to 100 psi. The 3000 psi systems are to a much higher factory of safety, actually get pressure tested in a hydro chamber and certified, etc etc etc. A keep in mind these airsoft tanks are built to take all of that even after having a 200 lb guy running full tilt trip and smash it between him and a rock. you can bet an air compressor tank isn't built for that,
@@tonystockdale1323 The mechanical components fail at 80 PSI. Your solution would be more effective as a Newtonian rocket, rather than as an energy supply for a reciprocating piston. Um... That's "Jackass" show level of risk.
@@tananam9782 regulating down the pressure means that the thing would be inneficient. But using high pressure with a very fast cuttof of the intake valve might be a very good idea.
was my opinion as well, use i.e. a 7 liter carbon "scuba" tank, with some 300 bar in it, regulate back to around 5 bar . that 7liter 300 bar tank has 420 liter air in it at 5 bar and only weighs a few kilo's those air tanks are also used for PCP air guns and for this, they don't need the specs needed for diving thus saving money :D
This is so awesome. I would recommend you calculate your required torque to achieve the acceleration/speed you want. You should be able to back calculate through the wheel, sprocket ratios, and eventually to your cylinder and find how much punch you need at the piston. You then can calculate your required piston size too. You can get your required 'thrust' force by having someone pull yourself on your bike with a scale. Whatever force you measure parallel with the ground is the same force needed at the contact patch of the wheel; and again back calculate through all the gears. That should get you your required torque and piston size too. Keep us posted on this project. It would be so fun to this turn into a steam engine bike one day too :-D
if you use the exact same system reversed on a disc and when you pull the brake it starts compressing air? that works right? if so you got it already, the only problem is that as soon as you get a pressure the brake power will increase so it will not be linear, it will only increase right?
Your ideas and concepts you make are seriously the most fun things to watch! Keep it up man, mad props to you for learning on every project and pushing the limits of DIY!
Great video as always. Thanks for that. Car repair shops have a hammer screw gun that can be used to achieve incredibly high torques and speeds. And above all, easily controllable with a lever.
Love the air-engine video's! Just thinking out loud, I'd expect there to be a trade-off between torque and efficiency, which is also influenced by cilinder volume. In order to end up with a one atmosphere pressure at the end stroke the pressure going in must be reduced, reducing the torque of the cilinder. This problem can be omitted by adding cilinders, or by using a larger cilinder, either way increasing the (sum) cilinder volume.
He could do just that with the old steam power style set up with a high pressure and low pressure cylinder where the high pressure side exhausts into the low pressure cylinder driving it... it's way more efficient than a single cylinder pneumatic set-up... I wanna see the high-low dual piston pneumatic set-up done... and I personally would have used grade 8 steel bolt for the crankshaft...
100psi regulated to 50? Yeah you need a higher pressure in the tank and to the cylinder. There's high pressure compressors for air rifles and the like that go to crazy pressures (joerg sprave from the slingshot channel uses one) So if you used that and a suitable tank at 1000psi and regulated down to 80 to 100psi at the cylinder you should have more torque and similar runtime with a smaller tank :)
@@AiOinc1 A higher tank pressure would still mean a much longer runtime. Of course the regulator will have to be set for a value the piston/crank can take.
Yep, I'm thinking one of those nice 13Ci paintball/airsoft 3000psi tanks, SLP regulator ( 3000psi down to 300psi ), then a secondary regulator that gives final output pressure of 0-150psi. The tank would be much smaller and lighter but he'd have air for hours of testing still- not very expensive either really, couple hundred quid in total at most.
I think a left hand drive freewheel would allow you to coast a bit better than the solid mount one you have. Well unless you want to add a reverse option.
Hey Tom. I was thinking, you should try to pedal normally up to like 4m/s and THEN see if/how the system keeps up. Don't immediately expect it to handle acceleration for you, but try if it will MAINTAIN a normal speed if you speed it up to that yourself. Of course, I'm three years late, so my tip won't do much. Oh well, what is a man to do, time travel? Sorry, my air pressure is too low for that .
You want to increase the rpm of the "engine" in order to increase the amount of times in which the piston is supplied with air. This means, you increase the rear sprocket in order to decrease gear ratio.
You need some kind of super compressed gas - compressed to a liquid. Store in a tiny cryogenic tank behind seat tube. You need about 10x the power of regular compressed air. Your ideas are so fun to watch Tom!
That's a brilliant bit of work. You made me laugh when you walked up to the bike with the air tank,.....huge,....but totally makes sense,.......You just took me by surprise with the size of it.
Amazing to be honest. Going this way, you could add another cylinder perpendicular to the one you have then you will get like 4 stroke engine. Cool idea. I'm curious for how long you could power this thing. Plus as guys below says some pump to add pressure to the tank. Great stuff!
To get some distance, use liquid air in a tank. The liquid will expand using a radiator sucking heat from the ambient air. It lasts much longer that way.
Thank you internet for those tinkerer guys. You people are so amazing i can't find a words to describe my impression. Never seriously thought this will be even possible to build an air powered bike.
So far you've done a good work ! Some improvements may make it excellent: A stronger but LONGER pedal for a bigger moment, and a faster back wheel by using a suitable couple of gears.l.
Great idea. Just get a rotary air motor. Save on frictional loses. Used in industry a lot But great idea for the bike. Why not drive a compressor with the peddles?
Can you set this up to pressurize the cylinder? Say on down hill parts where its the easiest to pedal you could possibly set the cylinder to pressurize the tank and capture back some energy and extend the ride time.
I'm not sure how much PSI the piston could supply and if it would be too much for the rider and the bike to apply enough force to the piston to pressurize the tank.
His system allows for much more precise valve control. The 1/rotation reset function compensates for pulse drops that will surely occur in an ir based system.
bro im just watchin this for the first time and when you set that air tank on there and then bent over to look at it then lookin at the cam and shook your head... i felt that... that was hilarious bro... great job...
101.3 J/L*atm. He said 100 psi, and it looks to be around 10 L. So a little under 7 kJ. Or about the same energy as 0.16 g of gasoline. The energy density is roughly 64,000 times less than with gasoline.
The energy is pressure times volume. The pressure is 100psi = 690kPa. I don't think he said how large the tank is but I'd guess it's around 30 liters. So 690000Pa * 0,03m^3 = 20700J. For comparison that's about half of what the battery of a new smartphone can store.
@@MrDomino4ever That's what I was thinking (not a whole lot). Not saying I hate the video though, I understand that he just wants to test the concept. Cheers.
The benefit of air is it can be done without dangerous substances or specialised metals. Steel or aluminium will do. Of course the downside is the usable range is about the same as the early rubbish electric cars.
*Tom Stanton* Clicked on this so fast! Very interesting video and subject. Being interested in inventions I have always said that when compressed air motors have a breakthrough in technology (above 5-10% efficiency) it will literally change the world. Or the military will sieze the patent, if they haven't already that is. Compressed air storage for energy generating purposes mated with actually efficient air motors is the breakthrough this world needs, it would make batteries and other storage technology obsolete in many cases, especially for solar and wind storage. Thanks again for an excellent video!
Friggin genius, Sire! YT was running in the background and I was like "what's this noise like a tiny steam engine" I bet the tank is heavy, but what if you made a composite monobody bike frame with walls thick enough to endure pressure? Less components, fitting, and more stable mounting for the piston.
The pneumatic control valves already exist, Ingersoll used them for decades, you get all the components you would Have in a electronic circuits. I always enjoyed how they mirrored each other.
don't think so, why? the tank is way too high, and he needs 2 smaller cylinders with higher pressure. mounted at 90 degrees to each other but he is doing ok.
Can not understand how anyone could spend 4 weeks on a project that uses compressed air , one of the most expensive inefficient forms of energy there is A few simple calculations beforehand would tell you what torque that cylinder would generate on 50psi is. Wallace and grommet stuff and the position of the air receiver , obviously not covering handling or centres of gravity in this lesson 😀
Try using a liquid CO2 tank with vapor with draw. Install a regulator and you should be able to get a much longer range. Have the ram in a push pull piping and timing.
It would be much harder to come by CO2 than air. He'd have to go to some sort of store every time he needs a refill. Now he can just use his air compressor. Besides, the point of the bike is for it to be driven by air, even though CO2 would probably be more efficient.
Toony's UA-cam Channel I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be offensive in any way. I think you misinterpreted my second comment. I wasn’t being sarcastic (I probably worded it incorrectly, I’m not a native speaker 😅). You convinced me that it would indeed be cool to see a more compact gas to increase the range of the bike. 👍
My thought on seeing this would be to get a firefighter's SCBA tank (4,500 psi and half the size) and use it as an aid to pedaling like those times you need that extra omph. Bravo on the ingenuity.
I've always wanted to make a spring powered bike, with a giant coiled spring in a giant disk in the middle of the frame. This spring will wind as I go down hill, and wind as I stop, and after it has sufficient energy stored, I can use it to start up, or to assist on a hill. Also, if I am riding down a long sloping path where I don't have to pedal, I would have the ability to include a front sprocket that I can switch to that will wind the spring also with the pedals. The winding will be ratcheted and the drive itself will be an additional rear sprocket on the other side of the regular rear chain drive. It will be a direct chain drive on a free-wheel rear sprocket so that at any speed it will wind quickly to meet the current wheel speed, or start from a stop. Just like pedaling. So if you engage the spring drive from a stop it will click in and put power to the wheel which you can hold with your breaks.. then at any speed when you click in the spring will wind rapidly until the rpm's reach the wheel speed and assist. So I'm talking about a disk enclosure in the middle of the frame about 2.5 feet in diameter that is about 6 inches thick with a 1/4 inch thick 5 inch wide and 20 foot long wound spring alloy wound around a central shaft and connected to the shaft and inner wall of the disk via bolts through the spring. This is how vintage wind-up toys worked, but this would be a giant version of it.
Attach the piston to a cog connected to the bottom bracket, make that cog spin twice as fast as the front cog and then make it so that the power stroke of your piston coincides when the pedals are top/bottom.
"You've seen me make electric bikes, and air powered mini vehicles, so I thought it's about time I combined the two... That's right, I'm making Electric Air."
With the air tank it looks like a jet powered bike!
oh yes! ua-cam.com/video/kjfFgSZkRcw/v-deo.html
Lol who are you? @Sparka
You could make dual air tanks mounted on each side of the rear wheel like saddlebags from a touring bike. That would improve the bikes center of gravity as well as make it easier to mount and dismount. I like where you're going with this. It's pretty cool!
bagger
how would you keep the 2 tanks balanced ? is there a regulator of sorts?
Now just brass-plate everything and you'll have the coolest retro-mod, steampunk bike.
Rite! Sounds rad too.
It should be as easy as converting the tank to a boiler
1922:in a hundred years we will have flying cars
Tom Stanton: *air powered bike*
🤣
This is 97 years
Man the genuine wonder I see on ur face when things work. shows how passionate you are about engineering.😀
This is slowly getting into colinfurze crazy territory.
I was going to write that ! 🙂 Of course, a collaboration with Colin Furze would probably result in a 400V solenoid switched 4500 PSI test drive with maddening punk music in the background ...
but more advanced tho, less LET'S WELD and more I cnc'd this all perfectly look at it lmao
This channel does engineering first and walks the edge of tech/function. Colin does cobble, try, iterate, though since he passed through 500,000 subs, he's become more of a performing clown vs the garage inventor he was when he had fewer morons in the crowd and more guys as viewers that were like him....I, for one, not longer find myself anxious to see Colin's next creation, whereas this channel always has some interesting engineering challenges/ideas on it.
@@vidznstuff1 No one gives a shit bud.
Nothing is on fire. Not like Colin at all.
now get a pedal powered air compressor
I had a similar thought. Those high pressure hand pump could be used like regenerative braking. When you hit the brakes, the pumps engage and bleed off speed by putting pressure back in the tank. LOL
@@StevenIngram Had a very similar idea.
So essentially turn it into a hybrid.
He already has one, runs the cylinder in reverse, he simply needs a deeper gear reduction on the bike to pump it up.
That could be a good idea as you pedal a little bit for a long time and then when you drive, release the air quicker.
I think it is obvious that if you had a lathe, you would build a steam engine powered bike.
Steam is less efficient in this case. The extra weight and complexity would only serve to cause issues.
Not to mention the electric valve would probably be damaged from this, and the added danger of a boiler so close to your back.
@@AiOinc1 yes but steam power is awesome
@@AiOinc1 And you also have to recycle the Water if you want to get decent range, which means you have to attach a radiator and possibly a fan
The sound of it made me think of a steam engine
@@DerH0ns wait what?
Maybe you should make it direct drive on the rear wheel. Then add extra valves and pipes so when you are braking or downhill you reverse the action to fill the tank.
Turning the crank the same way the pedals to is better, at least in ebike world. Don't see any reason same wouldn't apply here.
I would love to do something like this in more of a steam locomotive style. They didn’t have any electronics onboard, only complex mechanical parts.
Good news, if you need to fill the tires, you already have a air compressor 😂😂😂
Gonna need a schrader valve for that. 👍🏻
@@NitroGuyJH Yes
NOT JUST THAT, IF YOU NEED TO FILL THE TANK, JUST GO TO A GAS STATION TO THE PRESSURE CHECKING MACHINE AND FILL HER UP!!! NEVER PAY FOR GAS AGAIN!!!!
Genius! 😂
@@darkseid6412 overhere the air is not free anymore, you have to put 50 euro cent for a copple of minutes.. that free service is several years gone..
Finally more pneumatic stuff! This is what I came here for.
A second cylinder would be nice, you could make the rear sprocket larger for torque. It would make it easier to move if you started by pedaling and let the engine take over - there's probably not much to get the bike moving on its own but you could probably get it going and maintain a speed with the cylinder.
Any chance we could get the Arduino project code? Also, one final note, a hall effect sensor would be better. Infrared can easily pick up interference, especially outside. There's plenty of television remotes and garage door openers out there waiting to screw up your timing, discounting the IR coming from the sun and street lamps!
@Farley Moab Interrupt driven would be better I think, that way you could do something else in the background when not updating the valve positions. Check sensors, calculate efficiency, diagnostics, etc
Yes! Hall effect sensors are far more reliable than IR sensor or mechanical switch. Especially in sunlight, an IR sensor gives a lot of false positives.
Also a simple motor encoder unit attached to the sprocket wheel can give lot more precise information for triggering the relays
@Farley Moab JTAG is the way to go, definitely. Saves space on the chip and I/O pins. Also saves RAM because of the afforementioned bootloader.
a second cylinder limits the duration it could power the bike though
@@handsup90 A magnetic sensor would be better since it doesn't require current to operate. hall effect sensors require a power source.
I actually made an engine quite similar to this a couple years ago but with 4 pistons instead of 1 (vid on my channel). I found one of the most important things is to advance the timing as the rpm increases and to gear down the output as currently your engine seems to be struggling to get past top dead center. Nevertheless I'm very excited to see where this goes in the future and wish you the best of luck.
Reciprocating internal combustion engines are basically air pumps, very similar in concept (Look at very early motorcycles, and they will seem oddly similar to this bike). They operate on a similar principle. Gasoline engines require variable ignition timing dependent on engine speed (it takes time for the fuel to burn, so the process has to be anticipated before the piston is in the ideal position). Similarly, I expect delays in air flow into and through the pneumatic cylinder will also have to be anticipated.
Good comment.
@@tananam9782 certainly true, i have seen air compressors turned into engines and engines turned into air compressors
@@tananam9782 hello
Reciprocating internal combustion engines are basically air pumps, very similar in concept (Look at very early motorcycles, and they will seem oddly similar to this bike). They operate on a similar principle. Gasoline engines require variable ignition timing dependent on engine speed (it takes time for the fuel to burn, so the process has to be anticipated before the piston is in the ideal position). Similarly, I expect delays in air flow into and through the pneumatic cylinder will also have to be anticipated.
Good comment.
I really love the snapping sound as the system cycles through its rotation. It very much reminds me of the crack of the whip when I was a galley slave rower during the Carthage war against Rome! Ah, yes, lads, those were the days! Chained to my station, the freezing cold salt spray stinging against my cheeks, the once a day meal of maggoty "soup" and the desperate cries of my fellow travelers as they finally gave up and keeled over dead. It's a funny deal, this reincarnation business, very funny indeed!
I love you for this
Caught me way off guard.
Imagine just Imagine
What the fu-
finally, someone else recalls being a lowly slave rather than queen cleopatra or hannibal something...
Just realizing that I have had a smile on my during most of this video. Thank's Tom for that. In today's bizarre times,.....I needed a smile on my face. Keep it up.
13:21 look at that primitive road bike without compressed air power
👍🏻🤭
The compressed air bike travelled through time 😱
I read this in Jeremy Clarksons voice
It's better
😂😂
Looking forward to your compressed-air reusable orbital rocket.
What about an air powered regenerative braking system?
I've considered it, but my current aim is to get it to a reasonable speed to where braking will be needed haha
So the cylinder would become the compressor? Except I dont think regulators are reversible. You could have a secondary, lower pressure reservoir. Or would you have a separate compressor for braking?
@@TomStantonEngineering
Would it be hard to make a system that use the piston to fill the tank when you ride down a hill?
That may be useful for trips where you are constantly climbing up and down small hills.
@@TomStantonEngineering Very fair point. I was also wondering if it would be at all feasible to make a hybrid bike; Where you pedal to increase pressure in the tank, and the tank powers the bike. It would most likely be completely useless, but nevertheless a cool concept. It would allow you to keep going for a while after you stop pedaling, which might be interesting.
@@pstrap1311 Agreed, the regulator prevents a reversed pressure flow. I was trying to think of a way to use a pressure equalization valve running counter to the regulator, but that would be problematic when the tank is at a much higher pressure than the operating pressure. Your suggestion of a secondary tank sounds like a much better design.
This is so amazing. It seems like better timing on the valves could help. A crank sensor, like from a car engine or something, might help. I'm impressed with those skills of yours. Oh, you noticed the timing already.
pretty cool, you could add an air suspension front fork and harvest the air pressure created by the suspension to refill your tank and extend your range.
To improve it you should make the entire frame the air tank itself
666
Good idea but i expect the volume of the frame is pretty insignificant compared to that of the tank.
@@ronjones4069 yes maybe you can take a smaller tank and connect it with frame(that is a tank it self) so you can have a much smaller tank on the back and you can fill some free space on the frame with some bags that serves as air tank so it's lighter
Good idea, though you might need a little larger frame tube diameter. 3 inch tube/ 76 mm .Steam powered might work a little better.Heat the water inside the framework.On a cold morning it would appear as if your on fire.LOL Always a crowd favorite.Smoke trails
@@thomaslewis7883 there are a few steam powered bicycles people have made with videos on here, very fun worth a look some if them
get a 2500psi scuba tank
Rly he whould go 1000kmh
@@batery5156
Nah, not even the piston would stand such pressures, he even said the crank couldnt stand 80psi before snapping. The idea is to have a small high pressure tank with a regulator so it would take less volume. Ideally id say 100-120psi would be good enough but he has to fix the crank problem first, wither reinforcing the bolt or welding it.
I hadn't realised that they were so strong. I just looked this up because I was surprised and apparently a 2500 psi scuba tank would be classified as a low pressure tank. Blimey.
Crank shaft breaking at 80 psi is do to terrible metal being used. I know the metal in the US is better then the rest of the world but still...how did he find something so weak. A 3000Psi paintball tank that has a built in 300Psi regulator should work once he builds a decent crankshaft.
@@laharl2k if the parts would withstand
Take it to the next level: steam bike
Hilarious
And you just made a steam engine train
Nuclear reactor bike
Fusion powered bike.
The energy needed to turn the water into steam is too high. You need 5.5x as much energy to vaporize the water than you do to take it from freezing to boiling!
Second video I've watched of yours. You are not only brilliant but also make awesome projects and execute them with exceptional skill. Just subscribed.
@TomStanton you should use a radial piston motor. They are used for high torque, low rpm applications like conveyor belts. They contain multiple pistons so they can provide power in all degrees of rotation. They can also be used as a pump for regenerative braking.
Interesting Build, Maybe Use a refillable 3000psi paintball air tank instead of that big heavy one.
Bigger hammer?
If _I_ were doing this experiment, I don't think I'd want to strap a 3000PSI bomb to my butt until I knew the system worked, and I had regulating equipment to handle it.
@@tananam9782
I'd trust a 3000 psi airsoft tank over that made in china tank to 100 psi. The 3000 psi systems are to a much higher factory of safety, actually get pressure tested in a hydro chamber and certified, etc etc etc.
A keep in mind these airsoft tanks are built to take all of that even after having a 200 lb guy running full tilt trip and smash it between him and a rock. you can bet an air compressor tank isn't built for that,
Nice "steam" bike. You should use a 4000psi scuba tank and regulate it down. You could go a lot further.
Just use 4000psi you won't need to gear it!
@@tonystockdale1323
The mechanical components fail at 80 PSI. Your solution would be more effective as a Newtonian rocket, rather than as an energy supply for a reciprocating piston. Um... That's "Jackass" show level of risk.
@@tananam9782 regulating down the pressure means that the thing would be inneficient. But using high pressure with a very fast cuttof of the intake valve might be a very good idea.
Tanana M why you said that ?
was my opinion as well, use i.e. a 7 liter carbon "scuba" tank, with some 300 bar in it, regulate back to around 5 bar .
that 7liter 300 bar tank has 420 liter air in it at 5 bar and only weighs a few kilo's
those air tanks are also used for PCP air guns and for this, they don't need the specs needed for diving thus saving money :D
This is so awesome. I would recommend you calculate your required torque to achieve the acceleration/speed you want. You should be able to back calculate through the wheel, sprocket ratios, and eventually to your cylinder and find how much punch you need at the piston. You then can calculate your required piston size too. You can get your required 'thrust' force by having someone pull yourself on your bike with a scale. Whatever force you measure parallel with the ground is the same force needed at the contact patch of the wheel; and again back calculate through all the gears. That should get you your required torque and piston size too.
Keep us posted on this project. It would be so fun to this turn into a steam engine bike one day too :-D
This is extremely clever. More ambitious than any project I've seen lately.
Ingenuity pays. Great engineering concepts and mechanical abilities !!! Congrats
Regenerative braking. That's all I have to say, make it repressurize the tank when braking.
if you use the exact same system reversed on a disc and when you pull the brake it starts compressing air? that works right? if so you got it already, the only problem is that as soon as you get a pressure the brake power will increase so it will not be linear, it will only increase right?
That's all you have to say? Maybe you could say one more thing:
How?
@@tananam9782 reverse the valve timing when off throttle.
Add a flux capacitor.. That's all I'm going to say..
@@prophez23 I had to search flux capacitor because I thought it was a thing, and sure enough it was a Doc's time machine thing!
Your ideas and concepts you make are seriously the most fun things to watch! Keep it up man, mad props to you for learning on every project and pushing the limits of DIY!
The good side is, you don't need a bell to be heard by pedestrians
Great video as always. Thanks for that. Car repair shops have a hammer screw gun that can be used to achieve incredibly high torques and speeds. And above all, easily controllable with a lever.
Impact driver
It's a drill that hammers at bolts that go over a certain torque threshold to turn
14:07 good thing is you can fill up your pneuma bike at any fuel station.
-Can I pump up my bike?
-Sure, mate, it's right over there!
Love the air-engine video's! Just thinking out loud, I'd expect there to be a trade-off between torque and efficiency, which is also influenced by cilinder volume. In order to end up with a one atmosphere pressure at the end stroke the pressure going in must be reduced, reducing the torque of the cilinder. This problem can be omitted by adding cilinders, or by using a larger cilinder, either way increasing the (sum) cilinder volume.
Lol that's how cylinder mechanics works :P
Thank you for this knowledge, now go write a book on how to breathe.
He could do just that with the old steam power style set up with a high pressure and low pressure cylinder where the high pressure side exhausts into the low pressure cylinder driving it... it's way more efficient than a single cylinder pneumatic set-up... I wanna see the high-low dual piston pneumatic set-up done... and I personally would have used grade 8 steel bolt for the crankshaft...
100psi regulated to 50? Yeah you need a higher pressure in the tank and to the cylinder. There's high pressure compressors for air rifles and the like that go to crazy pressures (joerg sprave from the slingshot channel uses one)
So if you used that and a suitable tank at 1000psi and regulated down to 80 to 100psi at the cylinder you should have more torque and similar runtime with a smaller tank :)
He said towards the end of the video that at 80PSI is damaged the crank.
@@AiOinc1
A higher tank pressure would still mean a much longer runtime. Of course the regulator will have to be set for a value the piston/crank can take.
Yep, I'm thinking one of those nice 13Ci paintball/airsoft 3000psi tanks, SLP regulator ( 3000psi down to 300psi ), then a secondary regulator that gives final output pressure of 0-150psi. The tank would be much smaller and lighter but he'd have air for hours of testing still- not very expensive either really, couple hundred quid in total at most.
@@AiOinc1 It really isn't that hard to modify the crank to make it stronger
@@SuicideNeil Sounds great, could even have a spare tank for long journeys if they're as small as I think
Just discovered your channel and I'm on an absolute BINGE! Love it.
Such a genius . Good to see ideas being put to reality.
I love this dude I hope to one day do something like him
darn it i thought when you said combine the 2 you were gonna make a 3d printed air powered electric bike...lol
“i think i’ll try a wheelie now!”
**air tank that is soon to hit the ground**: i’m about to blow on this mans career!
This mans career - :o
@@LeglessWonder lol
I think a left hand drive freewheel would allow you to coast a bit better than the solid mount one you have.
Well unless you want to add a reverse option.
"Oh my God, it's working!!"..... I laughed too....
Hey Tom. I was thinking, you should try to pedal normally up to like 4m/s and THEN see if/how the system keeps up. Don't immediately expect it to handle acceleration for you, but try if it will MAINTAIN a normal speed if you speed it up to that yourself.
Of course, I'm three years late, so my tip won't do much. Oh well, what is a man to do, time travel? Sorry, my air pressure is too low for that .
should have used a Hall effect sensor and magnet. you could have directly read the rotor position that way. no accidentally going out of position.
You should put a gear system like in cars. Lift off at 1st gear etc.
Or on bikes...
The RPM is too low. You should put a larger sprocket in the rear.
would of said on the front
You want to increase the rpm of the "engine" in order to increase the amount of times in which the piston is supplied with air. This means, you increase the rear sprocket in order to decrease gear ratio.
on the tarmac test portion i noticed he did put a smaller sprocket on the front.
@@sirbow2 Watch the video again, he said and explained that before and tested it first at the grass as well.
it already doesn't have enough power.
You need some kind of super compressed gas - compressed to a liquid. Store in a tiny cryogenic tank behind seat tube. You need about 10x the power of regular compressed air.
Your ideas are so fun to watch Tom!
That's a brilliant bit of work. You made me laugh when you walked up to the bike with the air tank,.....huge,....but totally makes sense,.......You just took me by surprise with the size of it.
engine: Start working
Me:Flashbacks from steam age.
kappa :D
This is one of the best things you've done, so professionally done!
12:55 most British fart joke ever.
When ur bike starts to breathe harder than u pedalling it........ Btw nice work there Tom
Store clerk: so what are you buying this bike for
Tom: *sweats in science*
Amazing to be honest. Going this way, you could add another cylinder perpendicular to the one you have then you will get like 4 stroke engine. Cool idea. I'm curious for how long you could power this thing. Plus as guys below says some pump to add pressure to the tank.
Great stuff!
"I'm into the wind as well right now"
Meanwhile, the catkins hanging from the willow trees are completely still...
To get some distance, use liquid air in a tank. The liquid will expand using a radiator sucking heat from the ambient air. It lasts much longer that way.
Thank you internet for those tinkerer guys. You people are so amazing i can't find a words to describe my impression. Never seriously thought this will be even possible to build an air powered bike.
Great 1st test. Proves the basic premise.
Small magnet in sproket for timeing
So far you've done a good work ! Some improvements may make it excellent:
A stronger but LONGER pedal for a bigger moment,
and a faster back wheel by using a suitable couple of gears.l.
Humans Breath Air
Therefore its "Airpowered"
Air doesn't give you energy
@@RonMillbrae exactly
Actually air only provides co-power.
We're actually technically biofuel powered.
@@RonMillbrae you didn’t get the joke
@@Daniel-dg8hd no I did. A good joke is one that makes sense
Great idea. Just get a rotary air motor. Save on frictional loses. Used in industry a lot
But great idea for the bike. Why not drive a compressor with the peddles?
Probably needs way more airflow than this thing. And this thing needs loads.
@@akkudakkupl Possibly, but could probably still produce enough energy to be used like a pedal-assist for hills and take-offs
Di Pietro Rotary Air Engine
What actually powers this - is it compressed air in the tank, that is repeatedly released
Jeez, this dude just casually doing all the R&D for every major bike, automobile, aircraft, power gen, power storage company
Can you set this up to pressurize the cylinder? Say on down hill parts where its the easiest to pedal you could possibly set the cylinder to pressurize the tank and capture back some energy and extend the ride time.
Sky Knight exactly my thoughts!
@@erickuhn1042 Great idea. Came to my head as soon as I saw the prototype.
I like the idea, but I think you would need another gear ratio to get any meaningful amount of air out of it.
@@Geerice I agree. The gear ratio definitely needs much optimization.
I'm not sure how much PSI the piston could supply and if it would be too much for the rider and the bike to apply enough force to the piston to pressurize the tank.
This is brilliant! I wonder if magnetic sensors would be more accurate than infrared. Thanks.
Much more reliable at least, maybe not more accurate
Yes, a hall effect sensor would almost certainly be more reliable and accurate. Infrared gets interference from daylight.
His system allows for much more precise valve control. The 1/rotation reset function compensates for pulse drops that will surely occur in an ir based system.
Just think about energy density vs mass. This talented gentleman seems to have a ton of fun than a practical design.
When you consider the goal is to make an interesting UA-cam video it makes more sense
Wow, your camera has an automatic tracking and zooming system.
Thanks for this video, was very interesting to watch.
bro im just watchin this for the first time and when you set that air tank on there and then bent over to look at it then lookin at the cam and shook your head... i felt that... that was hilarious bro... great job...
How much potential energy is actually stored in the compressed air reservoir?
101.3 J/L*atm. He said 100 psi, and it looks to be around 10 L. So a little under 7 kJ. Or about the same energy as 0.16 g of gasoline. The energy density is roughly 64,000 times less than with gasoline.
The energy is pressure times volume. The pressure is 100psi = 690kPa. I don't think he said how large the tank is but I'd guess it's around 30 liters. So 690000Pa * 0,03m^3 = 20700J. For comparison that's about half of what the battery of a new smartphone can store.
@@MrDomino4ever That's what I was thinking (not a whole lot). Not saying I hate the video though, I understand that he just wants to test the concept. Cheers.
The benefit of air is it can be done without dangerous substances or specialised metals. Steel or aluminium will do.
Of course the downside is the usable range is about the same as the early rubbish electric cars.
tin2001 it's probably worse
*Tom Stanton* Clicked on this so fast! Very interesting video and subject. Being interested in inventions I have always said that when compressed air motors have a breakthrough in technology (above 5-10% efficiency) it will literally change the world. Or the military will sieze the patent, if they haven't already that is. Compressed air storage for energy generating purposes mated with actually efficient air motors is the breakthrough this world needs, it would make batteries and other storage technology obsolete in many cases, especially for solar and wind storage. Thanks again for an excellent video!
In my mind I thought pedaling was going to compress air into the cylinder, and then you would release the air for a rocket boost.
i appreciate how safe is it for your leg, nice work!
Friggin genius, Sire! YT was running in the background and I was like "what's this noise like a tiny steam engine"
I bet the tank is heavy, but what if you made a composite monobody bike frame with walls thick enough to endure pressure? Less components, fitting, and more stable mounting for the piston.
It was time for Thomas to go, he had seen everything.
One stroke air engine sounds like steam engine great sound
Something tells me the ghosts of Trevithick and Stephenson are standing by the side of the road and watching proudly
like watching Wright brothers first flight in 1903. barely flying but inspiring
The pneumatic control valves already exist, Ingersoll used them for decades, you get all the components you would
Have in a electronic circuits.
I always enjoyed how they mirrored each other.
You need a steam boiler next!
Wood powered bicycle do it
"INTELLIGENT MAN'S INTELLIGENCE WORK"
don't think so, why? the tank is way too high, and he needs 2 smaller cylinders
with higher pressure. mounted at 90 degrees to each other but he is doing ok.
Reverse the air valves so you can recharged the tank by pedalling 👌🏻
Can not understand how anyone could spend 4 weeks on a project that uses compressed air , one of the most expensive inefficient forms of energy there is A few simple calculations beforehand would tell you what torque that cylinder would generate on 50psi is. Wallace and grommet stuff and the position of the air receiver , obviously not covering handling or centres of gravity in this lesson 😀
I can't believe I just discovered this channel. I've got years of videos to catch up on lol they're so cool!
That was an excellent demonstration on power of air.
Try using a liquid CO2 tank with vapor with draw. Install a regulator and you should be able to get a much longer range. Have the ram in a push pull piping and timing.
It would be much harder to come by CO2 than air. He'd have to go to some sort of store every time he needs a refill. Now he can just use his air compressor. Besides, the point of the bike is for it to be driven by air, even though CO2 would probably be more efficient.
@@rublie1426 true, but it would be cool to see what kind of range you could get. Being a liquid tank you could use a much smaller one.
@@vinylexperience77 Yeah that's true. Maybe he can go all out and use a gas that's even more compact for maximum range.
@@rublie1426 no need to beat me up lol. It was just a comment that I thought would be cool to try.
Toony's UA-cam Channel I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be offensive in any way. I think you misinterpreted my second comment. I wasn’t being sarcastic (I probably worded it incorrectly, I’m not a native speaker 😅). You convinced me that it would indeed be cool to see a more compact gas to increase the range of the bike. 👍
How much energy did you need to fill your tank to propel you a few hundred wobbly metres ?
😁😁😁
A weird locomotive like bike, any way good trial I give u thumb up try it with proper control system.
My thought on seeing this would be to get a firefighter's SCBA tank (4,500 psi and half the size) and use it as an aid to pedaling like those times you need that extra omph. Bravo on the ingenuity.
I've always wanted to make a spring powered bike, with a giant coiled spring in a giant disk in the middle of the frame. This spring will wind as I go down hill, and wind as I stop, and after it has sufficient energy stored, I can use it to start up, or to assist on a hill. Also, if I am riding down a long sloping path where I don't have to pedal, I would have the ability to include a front sprocket that I can switch to that will wind the spring also with the pedals. The winding will be ratcheted and the drive itself will be an additional rear sprocket on the other side of the regular rear chain drive. It will be a direct chain drive on a free-wheel rear sprocket so that at any speed it will wind quickly to meet the current wheel speed, or start from a stop. Just like pedaling. So if you engage the spring drive from a stop it will click in and put power to the wheel which you can hold with your breaks.. then at any speed when you click in the spring will wind rapidly until the rpm's reach the wheel speed and assist. So I'm talking about a disk enclosure in the middle of the frame about 2.5 feet in diameter that is about 6 inches thick with a 1/4 inch thick 5 inch wide and 20 foot long wound spring alloy wound around a central shaft and connected to the shaft and inner wall of the disk via bolts through the spring. This is how vintage wind-up toys worked, but this would be a giant version of it.
Is that Ivor the engine I can hear coming lol... I like the way you stopped when the Lycra clad cyclist passed by! 😉
Vert
Step aside Elon. We’ve got air power.
11:29 sond reminds me of an steam engine
Attach the piston to a cog connected to the bottom bracket, make that cog spin twice as fast as the front cog and then make it so that the power stroke of your piston coincides when the pedals are top/bottom.
"You've seen me make electric bikes, and air powered mini vehicles, so I thought it's about time I combined the two... That's right, I'm making Electric Air."
It sounds like its saying " poo Cack poo Cack " Nice work though Buddy
or maybe you can Pump Air back into the system By pedaling
You should use a Tesla turbine and see whether it improves the efficiency
With the Tesla valvular conduit
At 8:50 he makes the old Minecraft Steve noise when damage is taken. Like spot on. Haha
I don't know if you calculated that, but if you use the magnetic switch as an output, you get a lot more
force