Examining A World’s Record From The Age Of Steam

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://hackaday.com/2026/03/02/examining-a-worlds-record-from-the-age-of-steam/

Examining A World’s Record From The Age Of Steam https://hackaday.com/2026/03/02/examining-a-worlds-record-from-the-age-of-steam/
#TransportationHacks #Dynamometer #Mallard #Speedrecord #Steamlocomotive

Building Gearbox Dynamometer

https://www.thriftybuilder.dev/post/gearbox-dynamometer

#HackerNews #Building #Gearbox #Dynamometer #DIY #Gearbox #Engineering #Projects #ThriftyBuilder #Innovation

Putting Some Numbers on Your NEMAs https://hackaday.com/2024/07/02/putting-some-numbers-on-your-nemas/ #microstepping #dynamometer #MiscHacks #Trinamic #stepper #TMC2209 #driver #TB6600 #torque #dyno

This weekend is the European #hamradio #fieldday and before heading out tomorrow, I’m preparing all my gear.

That also means cleaning and adjusting my #cw #morse keyers, amongst them, this beauty which has served me well for likely 28 years and continues to do so ❤️🥹

I’m measuring the paddle pressure with a #dynamometer, a surprisingly expensive little instrument, but well worth the purchase: the balance between dashes and dots becomes absolutely perfect 🤩

I actually prefer somewhere between 20 and 30 gram, but these old #HI-MOUND are difficult to get below 35. The springs are getting old I guess ☺️

Listen for me tomorrow and Sunday, I’ll be operating as OZ2EDR/P 🙂🙂

#radio #passion #cwops #hamradio #fieldday #portableops #superkeyer #superkeyerii

The Argument for Grip Strength as a Vital Sign
Body temperature, weight, heart rate, and blood pressure inform any patient appointment. Should physicians include grip strength in that group?
Grip-strength testing is easy, fast, and noninvasive. It can be monitored over time. All it requires is a handgrip dynamometer, a tool that may cost less than a stethoscope, and a chair.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/995121?src=rss #GripStrength #VitalSign #handgrip #dynamometer

DIY Prony Dyno Properly Displays Power Production

When hackers in the US think of a retailer called Harbor Freight, we usually think of cheap tools, workable but terrible DVM's, zip ties, and tarps. [Jimbo] over at [Robot Cantina] looked at the 212cc "Predator" engine that they sell and thought "I bet I could power my Honda Insight with that." And he did, successfully! How much power did the heavily modified engine make? In the video below the break, [Jimbo] takes us through the process of measuring its output using a home built dyno.

The dyno that [Jimbo] has built is a Prony Dyno, and it's among the oldest and simplest designs available. A torque arm is extended from a disk brake caliper and connects to a force gauge. The engine is ran up to its highest speed, and then he brake is applied to the crankshaft until the engine almost stalls. A tachometer keep track of the RPM, and the force gauge measures the force on the torque arm. Torque is multiplied by RPM and the result is divided by a constant of 5252, and voilà: Horsepower. A computer plots the results across the entire range, and the dyno test is complete.

That only tells part of the story, and the real hack comes when you realize that the dyno stand, the force gauge setup and pretty much everything that can be built at home has been built at home. You'll also enjoy seeing the results of some driving tests between the 212cc engine and its bigger 420cc brother, how even minor changes to the engine affect the horsepower and torque curves, and how that affects the Honda that he calls his "Street legal go cart."

Speaking of unusual power plants, how about plant some hobby sized jet turbines on the back of your Tesla for fun?

#enginehacks #212cc #dynamometer #dyno #engine #harborfreight #horsepower #pronydyno #torque

Sanity Check your Engines with this Dynamometer

As you get ready to pop the hood of your RC car to drop in a motor upgrade, have you ever wondered how much torque you're getting from these small devices? Sure, we might just look up the motor specs, but why trust the manufacturer with such matters that you could otherwise measure yourself? [JohnnyQ90] did just that, putting together an at home-rig built almost from a stockpile of off-the-shelf parts.

To dig into the details, [JohnnyQ90] has built himself a Prony Brake Dynamometer. These devices are setup with the motor shaft loosely attached to a lever arm that can push down on a force-measuring device like a scale. With our lever attached, we then power up our motor. By gradually increasing the "snugness" of the motor shaft, we introduce sliding friction that "fights" the motor, and the result is that, at equilibrium, the measured torque is the maximum amount possible for the given speed. Keep turning up that friction and we can stall the motor completely, giving us a measurement of our motor's stall torque.

Arming yourself with a build like this one can give us a way to check the manufacturer's ratings against our own, or even get ratings for those "mystery motors" that we pulled out the dumpster. And [JohnnyQ90's] build is a great reminder on how we can leverage a bit of physics and and a handful of home goods to get some meaningful data.

But it turns out that Prony Brake Dynamometers aren't the only way of measuring motor torque. For a disc-brake inspired, have a look at this final project. And if you're looking to go bigger, put two motors head-to-head to with [Jeremy Felding's] larger scale build.

#mischacks #robotshacks #toolhacks #dynamometer #pronybrake #torquemeter