It's the future.........
 

http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/03/h...-for-r-c-cars/

Give it ten years, and we'll all be using it...... Or not.

Ian F.

RE: It's the future.........
 

yea, well be using it for full size cars, i doubt that fuel cell will be able to provide the voltage and battery advancements that our progressing speed junkies face...in 10 years i expect to see the rc car speed record over 200 mph :D

RE: It's the future.........
 

l want one now !

Nice find.

RE: It's the future.........
 

seems like an interesting idea.
would probably kick ass at a track, if they would put in a hydrogen generator so people could stay running with minimal downtime.

RE: It's the future.........
 

You watch the car industry, buy all the patencies for onboard energy conversion of hydrogen, and l bet in the end hydrogen will be more expencive than buying fuel. Because there greedy.
They have done the exact same thing in the power industry, any inventions that stop the use of a coal power station, are bough out by power companies.
Hydrogen wont fix the polution issue.Only slightly lessen it.
The world needs to become vegitarian, use no coal for power and abolish fuel for cars.

RE: It's the future.........
 

Not every new technology (or implementation of existing technology) necessarily catches on, honestly for every one thing that I hear about while in concept that later comes to fruition or gets into mainstream use, there are ten or more that don't. The fuel cell setups have been around for years and they have been seriously underpowered and expensive compared to the alternatives, unless they can get over both these humps it's not going to be anything more than a novelty to the RC world.

RE: It's the future.........
 

that's wild

RE: It's the future.........
 

my favorite part is "50mph for 45 - 60 minutes" That's just insane...ly awesome. I want one. Now. Even if it's big and heavy and effects handling, I don't care, because it would be worth it.

RE: It's the future.........
 

that is pretty cool. But um NITRO ALL THE WAY FOR ME!!!! Forget becoming vegetarian. I love a good quality medium well done steak. Forget abolishing coal as energy. Invest in clean coal technology, natural gas, along with wind and solar to lower cost. Abolish petroleum? No way let me keep burning my unleaded gas while we look for other alternative fuels for the internal combustion engine. Dont push that go green stuff on me let it be my choice for my way of life and for my hobby. Well thats my 2¢. I do think that thing was pretty cool though.

RE: It's the future.........
 

I'm sorry but that hydrogen system looked quite bulky. Unless it gets much smaller, I don't really see much advantages of hydrogen over a couple good lipo batteries. Sure you can run 45-60 mins, but at the same time you'd have to watch your motor's temp after running so long. Plus, are we honestly going to have refuelling stations at our houses???

RE: It's the future.........
 

It is new , it will get smaller and better, like batteries have.
20 years ago, batteries were crud. LIPO is all lm gunna say.

no no, but wait theres more     !  hahaha





Titanode batteries are comming, they are the imediate future [5 years away from mass production ] 100 times, yes     o n e   h u n d r e d    times the storage of a LIPO battery and roughly 60 times the discharge rate, truelly, they are an insane looking cell, and to open your eyes further, this MIGHT be the first battery with the real potential for pulse weapons. Yes star trek comes alive ! spun or what  !

When they come online for R/C, whos gunna bother with any fuel ones after that ! LOL  120klm/h in an RC for 3 hours, hahahaha, they are insane looking batteries.

The first tests done on these by car companies, had to remove the batteries because they kept setting fire to the ESC and motors, f___n LOL !
None with a high enough AMPAGE to run em hahaha !

RE: It's the future.........
 

The only problem I see with them is in a racing environment. Hydrogen is HIGHLY flammable when mixed with oxygen. Now, if your car wrecks and a line for the fuel cell gets damaged, it can go up in smoke. Add to that the fact that the hydrogen is compressed, so if a cell ruptures while it is burning, you basically have a bomb. They need to makes sure that the lines for the system can't be punctured in the event of a crash, simply because all it takes are two wire touching that shouldn't in order to create a spark. Another problem is the amount of heat that hydrogen fuel cells give off. They tried making them for use in cell phones, but it ended up not being feasible due to the simple fact that people would get burned while using the phone.
I personally prefer prefer nitro anyways. Just love the sound of the engine and the tuning needed to keep it running at peak. Don't get me wrong, I do also run electric. It has a place, like when I want to run something and the noise will be an issue, or if it's just too wet out.
Me, I don't believe that they will do away with gasoline in our lifetimes. They tried with E85, but it ends up costing more to drive the same distance because you burn more E85 to keep the engine from being run lean. Even my S-10 gets better mileage out of real gasoline(as in no ethanol) than it does on what is now normal gasoline(with up to 10% ethanol), and it runs better as well, as in more bang for the buck.
It is interesting technology, and I can see a household use for emergency power in place of a generator. When the power is on, it generates hydrogen until the storage cells are full, and then when the power goes out, it automatically comes online to keep the power steady. The hardware needed to use them like that is already out there in the form of automatic transfer switches and inverters because hydrogen fuel cell produce DC current, and your house uses AC current. Look at people who get all their power from solar cells and wind turbines. They use a battery storage bank for when the sun isn't out and the wind isn't blowing.
Still, it is an interesting approach to advancing fuel cell technology. Use a hobby to advance the technology further while getting it out there so that, once it's perfected, it will be easier to implement in the rest of life.

RE: It's the future.........
 

That's the other thing. The application doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The fuel cell is more of a generator/converter, not an optimum power storage device (for our needs).

RC trucks aren't used for classical transportation, they are used for entertainment. So there is honestly little practical value to moving the generator along with your truck.

Hence it would be better to split things up. You can get 40 minute runtimes with a battery today, and that battery is lighter, cheaper, etc. So you run for 40 minutes and then you change out the battery, which takes less than a minute. At the same time you have the fuel cell charging another battery, and that
way you can run basically nonstop by swapping the batteries.

The fuel cell is really no more useful than any other portable generator, maybe the fuel is a bit cheaper since you can make your own hydrogen. But that's pretty much it.

In real-world, fixed applications the fuel cell may be a useful device. For instance, when the power company installs 'smart meters' and then starts charging for electricity based on realtime design, if the fuel cell is efficient and does not degrade over multiple cycles (like a battery does), you can fill up the cell when the rates are cheap (ie. at night) and then use the power or even dump it back into the grid (and sell it) during the day.

And I for one do believe that oil-burning engines are on the way out. Once China, India, other nations with 2-5x our population become fully developed, the price of oil products will be so high that the free market will move things in other directions.

RE: It's the future.........
 

Yea but they will be fine for onroad drift cars ! 6 hour runs ! hahaha endurance rc race !