Compressed Air Powered Light

[Thalassamania]

Scooter would be a no go, the French tried that with subs in the 18th century and lost most of them. Or converted them to battery's.

The proper idea was mentioned, put the turbine inline with the second stage, just up the IP a bit (say stock is 12-13) crank it to 14-15( BAR), and there should not be too much of a difference in WOB. The reason that it would be better for this, is that it would increase WOB on the exhale side if the turbine was there, and we can't bend things for that( IE have a significantly higher pressure in the lungs), as exhale pressure is just barely higher than the ambient pressure if not the same. Hook the whole bugger to a capacitor(either in a canister light pack, or something smaller depending on actual amount of power generated and light (assume LED) use and then get a cable fed LED torch (good man handle?) un Vola.
Allen

We can do one better, there are some excellent commercial diving second stages designed to work at 60psi over ambient, so there's an extra 90psi that can go into power generation.

 

[langforg]

Really some good ideas out there. I'm curious why people think that a contraption similar to this would use large amounts of air. Seems like it wouldn't take much to get a small magnet attached to some fan blades spinning. The more I think about this the more I want to try it. I would be willing to sacrifice some air if it meant that I didn't have to worry about my light dying on me at the most inopportune time.

 

[Tigerman]

Excuse my kinda... crummy drawing skills, but the idea would basically be something like this?

Of course with the "black box" hosting whatever electronics needed.
Now, the questions that pops to mind at once is;
1. The turbine will only turn when I breathe in, as thats the only time i remove air from the hose?
Is that a problem that can be solved with a capacitor?
2. Will this even produce an ammount of electric energy needed for a LED light to function?
3. How to transport the energy to the LED module in a reasonable fashion? Is wires an option? Energy loss in transfer?
4. Will this make your breathing harder? I assume not, since the hose pressure is higher than your breathing pressure?
5. What if the "powerplant module" fails and wont let air through? Redundancy?
6. Will there be a noticeable "loss of air" in this module? It shouldnt be?

Half of the questions can probably be answered with a little math..

 

[Kingmob3]

1) yes
again, yes it(the caps) would contain the charge and meeter it out. Think of them as quick re charge battery's.
2) go buy an LED at radio shack, and tape the leads to either side of a hearing aid battery, see how long it lasts (check polarity)
3) Wires, yes, but that only occurs over extreme distances, with what were talking about (+- 3ft?) it would not have too much of an effect (not I am not a EE, so this may be more/less of a problem)
4) In theory, no
5) Simple way would be a built in bypass, or partial vanes in the generator
6) nope, everything is still going to you It would probably only work well for low out put lights, not a HID etc, probably use just as much air as a high performince reg.
Allen

 

[Codyjp]

Now, after a reg failure it would also gets very very dark... this could be exciting!

I think this device would need to be installed before the first stage on the way out of the tank. This way you will use have full benifit of it regardless of what source (regs, inflators etc) you are drawing air from.

 

[sambolino44]

Ooh! I just had another idea! How about using the adiabatic cooling effect? Like a stirling heat engine with the hot side in the sea water and the cold side cooled by the pressure drop in the first stage.

Still, rather than using mechanisms with moving parts, I'd rather see it more solid state, like peizo crystals and LEDs. Photovoltaics produce electicity from light with no moving parts. Is there something like that that works on heat, not light?

 

[Otter]

Strap on a pair of doubles, one full tank full and one empty. Open the valve and as the tanks equalize you have gas movement with no loss. Hopefully(?) that movement would charge a capacitor or some storage system long enough for the diver then to breathe down 1 tank to near empty and then the valve opens and the tanks equalize again.

 

[Thalassamania]

Now, after a reg failure it would also gets very very dark... this could be exciting!

I think this device would need to be installed before the first stage on the way out of the tank. This way you will use have full benifit of it regardless of what source (regs, inflators etc) you are drawing air from.

I would not see it as a way to replace batteries, just to augment them.

 

[spectrum]

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

So what do we have that represents a source of free energy? How about our exhaled air? If the exhaust were collected (after exhausting to ambient pressure) and run up a hose the buoyant lift would be a force that could do some work. This work may include turning a vane pump that may be able to drive a small magneto. Adding a capacity could level the output and drive an efficient light source such an LED array.

The collection would be accomplish most easily on a double hose regulator. Effective operation would be limited to the coverage of the collector. Swimming in an odd posture could result in erratic operation. A certain amount of depth would be required to develop the lift so it probably would not work in the shallows.

Pete