3 ms·

Is this safe? It's a cool idea and I'd appreciate even the slightest discussion of potential risks of the motor coming apart, or whatever else failure mode (I d

• dghlsakjg 3y ago
  About as safe as any other use of a motor. Moving parts like belts and fans are potentially a problem. The engine won't come apart in a dangerous way. It might overheat, which creates superheated water in the cooling system, which is designed to handle that. Although I sort of doubt it since they are basically using about 1/20th of its maximum power output. The most dangerous thing about this is likely the standard risks of any generator, fuel and electricity.
• deepspace 3y ago
  Hell, no, it is not safe. That box of Arduino madness is going to fail sooner rather than later, and destroy the motor, the person's house wiring or both.
  • nikau 3y ago
    not sure how its going to destroy the motor, and most it can fail and set the equivalent to the accelerator being foot to the floor, at that point the engine will just bounce off the ECU governed rev limiter until he turns the engine off.
• KennyBlanken 3y ago
  If there's no system to shut down the engine on overheating of coolant or oil, you're definitely looking at a fire hazard. The bigger issue is the terrible efficiency; alternators are about 50% efficient, whereas proper mechanical generators are 90%+. The better solution would be to buy a "generator head" and connect it to the engine...but by the time you get done making a frame to hold the generator, engine, fuel tank, radiator, expansion tank, etc - as well as the necessary safety systems - you might as well just have bought an used generator.