Bike Dynamo Project (5/2/2015)
Hello everyone. Again it has been a while since I added another page to this website. I hope this one becomes as interesting for you as you may have found some of the projects I posted.
This project again has something to do with energy harvesting from small power sources. As I have said in many of my projects here, we need to do our part in helping combat global warming or climate change due to continuous fossil fuel consumption. Small maybe these projects are, if many people adapt the attitude that any measure, however small, to limit or reduce the use of fossil fuel, if added together can be something.
Now to the project itself. In the Philippines, small DC motors are ubiquitous in small electronic shops and even in the sidewalks whenever I walk the electronics parts center area in Manila(Raon). Besides using them in small robotics/mechatronics/electronics projects, I figure they are also small power sources. As I found out in the internet, many projects have already been made for just such purpose. One that caught my interest is as a bike generator. Although those I have seen uses something a bit different called the bottle generator. The ones I will use are those that come from old cassete/dvd/vcd/vhs players. They are the ones I see in the sidewalks.
To complete the project, all I need is a way to attach the motor pictured above to the bike wheel rim and let the shaft ride it as the wheel turns during pedaling. I also attached a Tamiya spare wheel to the shaft since the shaft itself is very small and cannot reach the rim.
During testing, I found that voltage can reach about 9VDC with the wheel spinning bit fast already. My goal is to be able to charge even a 12volt battery. Obviously the output would not be enough to do the job.
Hence I have to construct a booster circuit to increase the voltage sufficiently above 12volts for charging purposes. See the picture below of the small circuit I added.
This project again has something to do with energy harvesting from small power sources. As I have said in many of my projects here, we need to do our part in helping combat global warming or climate change due to continuous fossil fuel consumption. Small maybe these projects are, if many people adapt the attitude that any measure, however small, to limit or reduce the use of fossil fuel, if added together can be something.
Now to the project itself. In the Philippines, small DC motors are ubiquitous in small electronic shops and even in the sidewalks whenever I walk the electronics parts center area in Manila(Raon). Besides using them in small robotics/mechatronics/electronics projects, I figure they are also small power sources. As I found out in the internet, many projects have already been made for just such purpose. One that caught my interest is as a bike generator. Although those I have seen uses something a bit different called the bottle generator. The ones I will use are those that come from old cassete/dvd/vcd/vhs players. They are the ones I see in the sidewalks.
To complete the project, all I need is a way to attach the motor pictured above to the bike wheel rim and let the shaft ride it as the wheel turns during pedaling. I also attached a Tamiya spare wheel to the shaft since the shaft itself is very small and cannot reach the rim.
During testing, I found that voltage can reach about 9VDC with the wheel spinning bit fast already. My goal is to be able to charge even a 12volt battery. Obviously the output would not be enough to do the job.
Hence I have to construct a booster circuit to increase the voltage sufficiently above 12volts for charging purposes. See the picture below of the small circuit I added.
The booster is already encapsulated in a resin to protect from the elements. Next I attached it to the rear wheel base. See picture below.
A couple of short videos shows the dynamo in action. The first one shows the voltage reaches 30volts with the multimeter set at 50VDC reading.
The second videos shows the dynamo lighting a couple of LEDs while the wheel is turning slowly.
OK that's it! All I need is to link it to a small 12volt battery mounted on the bike itself and I can start harvesting energy while biking around. The device (with booster circuit) is offered for sale at www.mybenta.com and www.olx.ph for those interested to acquire one.
In the future I might try using a dynamo for a pico-windturbine set-up. But that's another project for another day.
In the future I might try using a dynamo for a pico-windturbine set-up. But that's another project for another day.