pedgens

[hiker]

sence i like to hike and bike--i coud'nt help but build these...there just exersize bikes--with bike rims installed-then a flat belt for power out...

might give some of you guys some ideas...

first one is a stock car alt--no mags..theres a small amout of magnatizem left in the rotor to get things started. its good for how many amps your strong enough to put out.

heres three 50watt car headlights....i did get up to 24v with a 28v 400watt aircraft landing light[no easy task]..100watts is real easy at a slow pedal rate..

heres a treadmill motor 1.5hp dc --ive used it a few times to jump start my motorhome..

same three bulbs hooked up [lights look a little dim because of the camra flash]





last is a 0.38hp ac 280-400?volt motor conversion--puts out a easy 110v ac at a slow rate of peddling..works great for floresent lights[heres two 40watt bulbs]or a 110v ac color tv.its wired right now with all 3 phases in series..i can also wire it with a rectifer for each phase--then wire those in parelle--good for about 280watts..dc..[the tv is a easy pedal-so far ive watched a 1.5 hr program]





im still workin on a 4hp ac motor conversion-not sure what im going to do with that....later...

[Phil Timmons]

This is great.  Thanks for posting it.

Mrs. Phil has a beater stationary bike I found for her on FreeCycle (a yahoogroup junque swap).  She has put 3000 miles on it and I have been threatening to do something like your generator or maybe this (bicycle blenders):

http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/06/bicycle_blenders.html

Any tips or Do Not Do list to consider before hacking?  The automobile alternator is the place I would start.  I have all the part laying around, and can frame it up with unistrut.  (I love that stuff -- erector set for electricians).  But your plywood board looks very stable and probably safer around toes, as well.

I guess with the automobile alternator you use the matching voltage regulator?  And I guess you do not use a battery to make the voltage stable?  I would sort of tempted to put a battery in it, or at least add a large capacitor.  

What RPMs do target the alternator to turn at?  Typical automobile apps are something like 500 rpm minimum up to 2000 rpm at nominal running speed?  Does that sound correct?

Thanks.

[MattB]

another clever one...

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/workshop/4220505.html?series=27

[Phil Timmons]

A spud gun is great, too.

Now I am waiting to see the local use one of these start taking out Humvees in Iraq.

All things considered, I think THESE guys understand marketing the best:

[DamonHD]

Hmm, not that I'm much fan of the gym, etc, but the idea of getting a little exercise and topping up my RE system in the gloom of mid-winter sounds like quite a decent idea.  A brisk 20min pedal might run my server (20W) for a couple of hours (and the waste heat warms up the house)!

Rgds

Damon

[willib]

Hey hiker nice work!

I finished a video yesterday of my excercize bike in action.

i'll post it soon

great pics

they are lots of fun  

[TomW]

Matt;

My kinda human powered device.

Some folks just have entirely too much fun.

Say howdee to everyone up there, especially to Daphne from Amy.

Cheers.

TomW

[hiker]

hey phil...

no regulator is needed--i just use a taillight bulb hooked up to the field clip on alt

and the batt. lug on alt..that gives more than enough power to the field coil-maybe

even a smaller bulb would even work[the less field stringht the easyer to pedal]

heres a post i made a while back-plus video...there i had a 30watt headlight hooked to the field coil--i changed that to a taillight bulb--makes it a lot easyer to pedal under load...

          http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2007/7/31/93955/8934

[hiker]

heres my old 12"dual rotor mill 8 and 6 combo--used the pedgen as a test bed..

never did get a chance to fly it--blew up when i tried to power up a 400watt

aircraft landing light[real close call]!!!!!!!!!

[hiker]

nice vid there willib....

any ideas on power output?

[gotwind2]

Here's my 100 watt max version using the Ametek 30v DC motor.

Worked well...

[hiker]

nice setup....

i just rewired a old car alt with smaller wire--havent had a chance to check it out yet.  ive tried a few diffrant dc motors in the past--seems like just about any motor will work[depending on how many watts you want]--its just a matter of getting the gear ratio right..

summer winding down here --getting a little cool outside.  :{

[chadking]

Nice collections! It's kind of inspiring...