Power trainer tool

bianchi77

Hello anyone...

I have an idea in creating a power meter by myself...
It's attached in my trainer, connected to generator that will be measured by Ampere and volt meter...it will be connected to the DA converter...and the output will be read in my Laptop...

Anyone has an experience with it ?
Share with me...

BeaconRuth

Wouldn't it be easier just to buy a turbo with a power reading? I got mine secondhand for about £100 a few years ago and have spent many happy hours on it since. It's not calibrated to give an accurate reading in watts but it does everything I need it to.

Ruth

portuguese mike

Beaconruth - is it possible to calibrate a turbo trainer if you have a third party power meter such as a powertap?

BeaconRuth

Yes, certainly. How accurate (and therefore useful) it would be to do so would depend on the turbo and how carefully you controlled all the variables, though. Slight changes in tyre air pressure, the roller pressure onto the tyre, the type of tyre, the room temperature, how well warmed-up the turbo is etc etc.......... all these are going to affect the accuracy.

The crux of the question is whether knowing your power output accurately in absolute terms is important to you. If it is then the only real answer is to get a proper powermeter such as a Powertap or SRMs. If what interests you is mainly measuring relative improvements in power output and you can live with a bit of inaccuracy, then there's little point in trying to calibrate a turbo. That doesn't stop many people from doing it - I know loads of people who have played around with calibrating turbos using Powertaps and the like - but they are usually motivated by academic interest in seeing the comparison rather than a belief that this is a route to transforming their training.

Ruth

portuguese mike

thanks beacon; i don't need to know in absolute terms my power output but rather, as you say, only in terms of relative improvements. The reason i asked is because looking to get a powertap in the near future and wondered if would help if turbo was calibrated to allow direct comparisons but i suppose as long as the turbo was innacurate by a reasonably consistent percentage then that would be ok.

Alex_Simmons/RST

portuguese mike wrote:

thanks beacon; i don't need to know in absolute terms my power output but rather, as you say, only in terms of relative improvements. The reason i asked is because looking to get a powertap in the near future and wondered if would help if turbo was calibrated to allow direct comparisons but i suppose as long as the turbo was innacurate by a reasonably consistent percentage then that would be ok.

When you have a Powertap then it really won't matter as you will able to measure power when riding on the trainer.

That's the thing with the power meter, it matters not what the conditions are, it just tells you how much power you are generating.

portuguese mike

Alex_Simmons/RST wrote:

portuguese mike wrote:

thanks beacon; i don't need to know in absolute terms my power output but rather, as you say, only in terms of relative improvements. The reason i asked is because looking to get a powertap in the near future and wondered if would help if turbo was calibrated to allow direct comparisons but i suppose as long as the turbo was innacurate by a reasonably consistent percentage then that would be ok.

When you have a Powertap then it really won't matter as you will able to measure power when riding on the trainer.

That's the thing with the power meter, it matters not what the conditions are, it just tells you how much power you are generating.

good point, thank you

bianchi77

BeaconRuth wrote:

Wouldn't it be easier just to buy a turbo with a power reading? I got mine secondhand for about £100 a few years ago and have spent many happy hours on it since. It's not calibrated to give an accurate reading in watts but it does everything I need it to.

Ruth

Where can I buy it, does it look like a Mag Trainer ?

bianchi77

How much for the turbo with a power reading cost ?

inseine

If your only interested in relative improvements and not totally accurate power measurements, why not just use speed? If you always set the turbo up the same (resistance etc) then higher speeds mean more power. I do my 2x20 sessions like that and compare my average speeds to map improvements (or not :oops: ).

SunWuKong

I use speed for my turbo sessions, it has improved them and therefore my cycling a lot. I know it's not as good as using an SRM or Powrtap, etc but I can't justify the expense to be honest. I'd love a power meter as I am geek and love data.

bianchi77

inseine wrote:

If your only interested in relative improvements and not totally accurate power measurements, why not just use speed? If you always set the turbo up the same (resistance etc) then higher speeds mean more power. I do my 2x20 sessions like that and compare my average speeds to map improvements (or not :oops: ).

maybe this is the simplest way....just see the speed
The power tools is very expensive I guess

bianchi77

inseine wrote:

If your only interested in relative improvements and not totally accurate power measurements, why not just use speed? If you always set the turbo up the same (resistance etc) then higher speeds mean more power. I do my 2x20 sessions like that and compare my average speeds to map improvements (or not :oops: ).

As I can see in
http://www.analyticcycling.com/ForcesPower_Page.html

I can use power as my reference for training....
because I don't know how much power do I generate on my trainer do I?
May be I can use generator and wattmeter for a simple measurement ???
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wattmeter#Digital
Generator
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_generator

inseine

I prefer to use speed (power would be better still, I know) as a reference because i found that when I used heart rate I would push too hard at the start to get up to the target and so tire more quickly. Now using speed I can see that my heart rate drift is quite pronounced (ie at the end of the second 20min session my heat rate is a lot higher foir the same speed.

bianchi77

I found this interesting tool...
http://www.econvergence.net/electro.htm

Anyone ever tried it ? Share it with me..[/url]

Or may be I can use this simple one :
http://www.woodengenerator.com/Related%20Sites.html

bianchi77

Here's the trainer that I was talking about...I was thinking a motor on it to train my pace...

The motor will be attached in the core for more resistance...


Where do you think I should put more flywheel ?

Thanks guys....