Hybrid electric nitro 1/8th scale!

[hootie7159]

Originally Posted by suicideneil

But but but, hybrid cars have been around for years, and Mike already makes really great centerdiff motor mounts

If this was ~10-15 years ago then I'd say it was really interesting and had lots of potential for scaling up, but its all been done before & probably better executed... ( I think thats why alot are viewing it as pointless ).

First off ...I wasn't comparing the college students projects to mike's business.....i was just stating that this is a pretty creative project and we all should at least be supporting these types of projects...it's thinking outside of the box...and creating things just to prove that it can be done and because it's FUN! and gets today's youth involved...and if anything, will further support the known fact that brushless is far more efficient and powerful than nitro.......Why build an electric e-revo with a remotely fired paintball gun mounted to the top?...Why build an emaxx/lawnmower? why build a brushless barbie jeep?...BECAUSE ITS FUN! :).some of you guys on here are bashing this project and questioning the validity of why they made this nitro/electric hybrid RC however, I think you're all missing the point of why I posted this project....RC's are supposed to be FUN! I think most of you will agree that building/creating new things is almost as much fun as driving it.....but of course...everyone is entitled to their own opinion.... :) NOt trying to start a "this project is stupid why build it" thread

[Overdriven]

Originally Posted by hootie7159

i was just stating that this is a pretty creative project and we all should at least be supporting these types of projects...it's thinking outside of the box...and creating things just to prove that it can be done and because it's FUN! and gets today's youth involved...and if anything, will further support the known fact that brushless is far more efficient and powerful than nitro

I think that sums it up. Could the project have been engineered more like a real hybrid? Yes. But the electronics and engineering for implementing that would've been alot more complex and probably not within the scope of the project.

Quote from the website: "Earlier this year, Pro-Line was approached for a special project by a University of Kansas senior named Will Pro who is studying Mechanical Engineering.

The design project is entitled the KU “EcoHawks,” and it involved the designing, building, and testing of small-scale remote-controlled vehicles. His group designed a 1:8 scale parallel hybrid vehicle.

Pro-Line was commissioned to provide a few sets of tires, wheels and a body for static/kinetic friction coefficient comparisons, as well as drive train efficiency comparisons and wind tunnel comparisons."

So the student was a senior. The project was to create a 1/8 vehicles, and they are testing drivetrain efficiency, static/kinetic friction coefficients, doing windtunnel testing etc. So I doubt the students or the teacher where looking for any groundbreaking designs here. They were simply looking for a working vehicle, a complete analysis of its performance, and presumably a paper on it as well. Clearly not a design competition, just create a test mule and test it. This one got press because someone asked for Prolines help and they thought it was the coolest one to put on their website.

Is it useless to an RC enthusiast who just wants to drive? Most definitely. Is it a cool tool to learn about designing around problems, testing various factors of a vehicles perfromance, while playing with rc for a school project? Most definitely.

[zeropointbug]

Again, because of the simplicity of the project, why do it at all? You could spend a moment in your mind and predict the outcome...

Besides, scale working such as these SIMPLY don't compare to making the full scale thing... ask the "Myth Busters" on that one, many of their scale experiments turned out different results than the real thing.

[hootie7159]

Originally Posted by zeropointbug

Again, because of the simplicity of the project, why do it at all? You could spend a moment in your mind and predict the outcome...

Besides, scale working such as these SIMPLY don't compare to making the full scale thing... ask the "Myth Busters" on that one, many of their scale experiments turned out different results than the real thing.

I think your missing the point zero...these students made the car to get real-world results in the testing of the drive train efficiency friction coeff blah blah blah etc etc...in an 1/8th scale hybrid.....sure it would be simple on paper and just coming up with the results in your head...but where's the fun in that?...and I hardly think this design is simple...the concept may be simple but the actual build , IMHO, was not a simple thing to do....or it just may be that I lack the tools, knowledge, and know how to view this project as "simple"...I get jammed up trying to fabricate a battery tray...lol... :)