On-board Vehicle Test

Today, we conducted on board vehicle testing. The Picoscope computer is placed inside the car, with all the connections already fitted to the generator (Figure - 1). The scope data was recorded inside the vehicle while the road tests were carried out. 

Figure - 1: On board vehicle testing using the computer Picoscope

The tests were carried out on several categories of road types with under various speeds: Unitec campus driveway (20-30 km/h), main road (50 km/h), residential road (50km/h) and motorway (100 km/h). The results of the experiment were as follows:

Chart - 1.0:  Test on motorway @ 100 km/h , voltage output is minimal

Figure -1.1: Test on motorway after 5 minutes, reaches 0.2 V

Chart - 2.0: Test on normal residential road @ 50km/h, peak voltage - 1.2 V

Chart - 2.1: Test on main road after 3 minutes of driving, peak voltage - 1.28 V 

Chart - 3.0: Test on campus driveway @ 30 km/h, peak voltage - 1.3 V

Chart - 3.1: Test on campus driveway @ 30 km/h, peak voltage - 2.0 V

The test results were not up to our expectations. Nevertheless, it is enough for us to make a comparison of the results with regards to the effect of different road profiles on the overall output voltage.