Prony brake design

A google search may be useful. You may have some luck running a starter motor backwards, or an alternator or dynamo. These are all in the right power range, and using old immersion heater elements as a load is very convenient.

I'm not too sure what you mean by a prony brake, pony brake sounds more likely.

The main difficulty with a brake is that you have to measure the restoring couple. This is not conceptually difficult, but is either expensive or time consuming.



Cheers

Greg Locock

A 'Prony' brake Greg is basically a band brake. Brake horsepower is calculated by measuring the difference in tension on each side of the band to give work done, and relating it to motor speed to get power. Well that's the basic principle anyway...

It's named after the guy who invented it, I think he was french?

One of the few and pointless things I took out of 3 years at uni.