Anyone here have a Dyno?

[ATeam]

I was checking out some motor Dyno's and noticed that they were stupid expensive! Does anyone here have one, and if so are they worth it.

ATeam

[HowieStern]

i currently have a Robotronics sitting on the workbench.... but have used nearly all of them.... recently, i went into a "don't beleive in dynos anymore" phase... so it hasn't gotten much use.....

anywhos...

are they worth it?? if you are the type of person who likes to tune motors... sure, they are worth it.... i know some people who have more fun tuning/tweaking motors than they do driving... for those people a dyno is worth every penny...

if you are an A-main regional or faster racer, who needs your motors on top of the their game week-in and week-out, and has the time to do it youself, then a good dyno is nearly a must have....

or, if you are a person that just wants to pop 500+ bucks as quickly as possible... then a dyno is for you..... LOL....

basically.... a dyno is most useful to motor guru's.... if you don't really get off on sitting and testing motors 5 or more hours a week.... then you would never get your money out of one....

peace out.... :)

[BMainBH]

A power 40-50 Amp power supply would not be enough. It would work but your results would be limited by the power supplys amp rating. These DC motors we use can pull anywhere between 120 to 200 amps when starting up. A battery is the only reliable source that can do that. I do agree a battery does loose its charge quick when testing motors. Here is what I do. I have an automotive gell cell battery that I run my dyno off of and inbetween the runs i have it on a switched power supply that keeps the charge up.

hope this gives some info. :cool:

[Grizzbob]

Yup, that's the ticket. Really a lead-acid battery can run a dyno(at least the Robitronics one) for a VERY long time on a charge. I know of guys who've run it all day( & most of a night) without charging it back & it never had a problem. One thing about the Robi's recommendation for batteries, though is that if you supply it with too much battery or power supply, you can fry it's voltage regulator when testing low-turn mod motors, that's why Robi recommends using a sealed-type lead-acid 12V battery with a current rating of 17Ah to 40Ah, any more & you could damage the dyno(I use a 17Ah one, & it works flawlessly)..... :)

[ATeam]

Thanks Howie.

I noticed that the Robotronics dyno recomended running it off a 12V battery, at least thats what an old issue if RCCA said in a review of it. It said that power supplies couldn't handle the amp load. Now what about a 45-50 Amp power supply. Wouldn't a power supply that big handle it. I would think a 12V battery would die out pretty fast.

ATeam

[jeepinator]

I'm with Howie, dynos are for tweak freaks. Unless you have an ungodly amount of hours on one, the results that are given are very near useless.
I DO have ungodly hours on one and I still don't use it. Comparitive analysis only.

Still, if you really understand the numbers, you can be faster, but don't expect to plop down the cash and be instant speed demon ...

[ATeam]

Thanks for all the info.

ATeam