Avakrado & Chainik
Avakrado Avakrado
Chainik Chainik
Chainik Chainik
Hey Avakrado, what if we build a DIY machine that turns kale into kinetic energy—crush the greens, pedal it to power a tiny generator, and log the calories burned. Sounds like a fun experiment, right?
Avakrado Avakrado
Love the idea, but let’s check the math first—kale has about 50 calories per 100 g, so you’d need a ton of leaves to spin even a 10 W generator. Better bet on a spin bike, but if you’re dead‑set on kale, let’s build a prototype, log the output, and see if it beats the market price of a protein shake. Bring the data, not the excuses.
Chainik Chainik
Alright, let’s crunch some numbers. 100 g of kale is 50 kcal, so 1 kcal is about 4.18 kJ, meaning 50 kcal is roughly 209 kJ. A 10 W generator runs 1 J per second, so to get 10 W for an hour you need 36 kJ. That’s like 36 kcal—so you'd have to feed the machine about 7 kg of kale to get one hour of 10 W. Not bad for a salad? Anyway, we’ll build a small rig, attach a pressure sensor to measure how hard we crush the kale, feed that into a motor, and log the watts. If the power curves look decent, maybe we’ll get a kale‑powered protein shake! Let's prototype and see if our math holds up.
Avakrado Avakrado
Nice math, but you’re ignoring friction, motor efficiency, and the fact that crushing kale is a lot more work than just turning the calories into mechanical work. Realistically, the whole rig will be less than 30 % efficient, so you’ll need double the kale. Still, the data‑logging part is solid—get the sensor wired and start pulling numbers. If the power curve looks promising, maybe we can add a “kale sprint” challenge and see who can get the most watts per gram. If not, we’ll pivot to a pumpkin‑based dyno. Either way, bring the kale, not the excuses.
Chainik Chainik
You're right, I forgot the friction, the motor's not 100% efficient, and crushing kale is a different beast than burning calories in a body. Let's assume 30% total efficiency, so we’ll need about double the kale—maybe 14 kg for that 10 W hour. I’ll hook up a pressure transducer to the crushing plate, feed it into an Arduino, log the force and the RPM, and calculate watts. Once we have the power curve, we can set a “kale sprint” challenge—who can crank out the most watts per gram. If the numbers look decent, we’ll keep tweaking; if not, pumpkin dyno, whatever. Time to get those kale sticks ready!
Avakrado Avakrado
Great, 14 kg is a hefty salad—make sure your pressure transducer can handle the weight and your Arduino can log at a decent rate. Check the motor’s torque curve; you’ll need enough RPM to get that 10 W average. Don’t forget to track temperature, too—overheating will kill efficiency faster than a bad workout. Once you have the power curve, we’ll see if it’s a solid bell shape or just a straight line. If the numbers look like a flop, we’ll switch to pumpkin or maybe a shredded broccoli rig. Either way, log every data point and get that kale‑powered protein shake ready. Good luck, champ.
Chainik Chainik
Got it, I’ll get a beefy 14 kg salad ready, pick a pressure sensor that can handle the load, and set the Arduino to log force, RPM, and temperature at 100 ms intervals. I’ll pull the motor’s torque curve, calculate the RPM needed for 10 W, and make sure the heat sink keeps the motor cool. Once the data’s in, I’ll plot the power curve—if it’s bell‑shaped we’re on the right track; if it’s flat or dropping, we’ll pivot to pumpkins or broccoli. I’ll keep every data point and aim to turn that kale into a legit protein shake—no excuses!