How much does the prototype weigh?

Not a whole lot for it's size! I haven't weighed it yet but I would guesstimate around 25 or 30 pounds?


65 pounds. Because apparently I suck at estimating weight. lol.

 

The results are in:

Success!

I managed to get about 8-10 seconds of good cranking before the voltage dropped too far. Had the fuel pump been switched on and the governor set to run, I am sure it would have fired right up!

Here are some locomotives with their fuel turned on to get an idea of how much cranking is needed to get them started for comparison. (Without the aid of manually holding the fuel racks open during cranking to make them fire immediately.) In all cases they fire up within the time frame above!

Time to draw up a bill of materials and advance this project to the next stage!

 

More testing. Successfully started a diesel locomotive. Peak discharge calculated at around 1,000 amperes and 80,000 watts. (10 volts per second * 100 farads = 1 kA.)

Now I have some new questions:

I need to perform some level shifting between my logic circuits and my output devices. I am using 5 volt logic ICs and 12 volt indicator lamps because availability of 5 volt panel devices is poor. I have 9 indicators to shift. Aside from using a bank of opto-isolators, what options do I have using transistor logic to control 12 volt outputs from 5 volt logic?


Additionally, what options do I have for providing brownout protection to the control board in the event the capacitor voltage falls below the minimum required by my linear regulators? Some way to cut power to the control logic entirely if the input voltage drops below around 15 volts?

 

Power Mosfets with 5v gate rating?