Volusiano
Well-known member
I have a couple of questions about regen.
1. I've heard a few different numbers about regen efficiency. Some poster said you can only get back 30% of the power from regen. Others mention 80% efficiency. Which is it? And if it's only at 30%, why is there so much loss?
2. I understand that regen works by operating the motor in reverse of the forward. So basically in forward mode, you pass current through the coil, generating a magnetic field which causes the motor to turn one way, moving the forward gear. In regen, you use the momentum to "somehow" reverse the motor direction in order to revert the magnetic field in order to induce current back into the battery.
The "somehow" is the fuzzy part I don't understand. Exactly how is it done? How do you transfer the momentum of the car into a gear mechanism that can cause the motor to spin the opposite direction as soon as you let go of the forward pedal?
Do you use the same gear mechanism for forward motion and regen motion? It seems like you can't use the same gear for both because the switching of direction has to be instantaneous. So if you use 2 sets of gears, one for forward and one for regen, do they drive 2 different motors then (one for forward and one for regen)? Surely 1 motor can't instantaneously switch direction back and forth between forward and regen.
1. I've heard a few different numbers about regen efficiency. Some poster said you can only get back 30% of the power from regen. Others mention 80% efficiency. Which is it? And if it's only at 30%, why is there so much loss?
2. I understand that regen works by operating the motor in reverse of the forward. So basically in forward mode, you pass current through the coil, generating a magnetic field which causes the motor to turn one way, moving the forward gear. In regen, you use the momentum to "somehow" reverse the motor direction in order to revert the magnetic field in order to induce current back into the battery.
The "somehow" is the fuzzy part I don't understand. Exactly how is it done? How do you transfer the momentum of the car into a gear mechanism that can cause the motor to spin the opposite direction as soon as you let go of the forward pedal?
Do you use the same gear mechanism for forward motion and regen motion? It seems like you can't use the same gear for both because the switching of direction has to be instantaneous. So if you use 2 sets of gears, one for forward and one for regen, do they drive 2 different motors then (one for forward and one for regen)? Surely 1 motor can't instantaneously switch direction back and forth between forward and regen.