building new dyno cell... looking for guidance

[Nick Gidwani]

We are about to put together a brand new dyno cell. We are trying to secure a motoring eddy currnt dyno, but may end up using the water brake dyno we already have.

I looking for any advice anyone out there would have. Especially if you have a set up that is easy to operate and mainitain.

-how do you wire your electronics
-how do you cool your engine
-how do you run all plumbing
-what DAQ do you run
etc...

pix would be great. i think we could all learn a great deal looking at other's set ups.

thanks in advance.

[B Lewis @ PE Engine Management]

Hey Nick,

I believe that I can give you a few suggestions based on my experience. Here goes....

- How do you wire your electronics?
Carefully! http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif Seriously, I'm not sure what you mean here. I can make one suggestion and that is to keep the dyno and engine wiring harness completely separate. This allows for changes/removal of the engine harness without butchering the dyno setup. This is very important so subsequent teams don't have to reinvent the dyno wiring every year. Also, don't skimp on the connectors. Good connectors are expensive, but there is a reason.

- How do you cool your engine?
For these small engines, we have had pretty good luck using large truck radiators and a good strong fan to keep them cool under load.

- How do you run all your plumbing?
Again, I'm not sure what you mean.

- What DAQ do you run?
For PC applications, I am partial to National Instruments cards. They are generally easy to program and the newer ones are plug and play. Be careful when choosing a DAQ to make sure that you have all of the required signal conditioning. Load cells to measure torque will reguire strain gage conditioning and temperatures will require thermocouple conditioning.

Good Luck!

[Chris Boyden]

For PC applications, also try Measurement Computing, they sell alternatives to National Instruments boards at a lower cost, ~2/3.
I'm always looking for a cheap, yet effective, solution.

You might look at Analog.com. They
also have signal conditioning chips for thermocouples, strain gauges and Do it yourself DAQ(requires more solder and programming).
However, some of the example code is great, and the serial interface to a PC has already been done for you.

Chris

[Chris Boyden]

Check out some of the USB DAQ modules from
Measurement Computing....they look awesome...and they are cheap! and they come with free software.

[Sam Zimmerman]

I am not sure if you are setting up a chassis or engine dyno but if it is an engine dyno make sure you keep the dyno and engine wiring harness the same, as Brian said. In addition, if you are going to be using an engine stand to dyno make sure you build a seperate wiring harnesses for both the engine on the stand and the car. We went through a phase where we were trying to transfer the wiring harness back and forth between the car and the stand and it made getting the engine on the dyno take twice as long. It is also hard on the wiring.

In addition, make sure your water brake dyno is temperature compensated. It is a complete pain in the ass without it. We just got ours switched over last year.