never thought that just connecting the wires to the battery would turn the engine on and make the bike move. Learned a lot watching this video!!!! thanks!
Just before the pandemic started I ordered a 1,000 W 48V 26" motor integrated in a wheel for my bike with the idea that I am going to convert my bicycle into an electric bike, then the lockdown happened. Since I was not going to go out anytime soon I decided to do a temporary project, I converted my bike into a generator bike, I ordered a stationary stand for my bicycle but not the one you have since I was not able to verify if the side holder hooks would fit the axle Torx since the bike axle of the motor came bigger than the standard, is so bigger than it came pre-cut so that it can fit the bicycle regular standard slider, so if the mounting hole where the bold do into to hold it in place is smaller, then your stationary bicycle mount would not work or this case. I ended up ordering one where the bicycle is held by the sidebars instead of the center of the wheel axle Torx. I already had a 750 Watts MPPT charge controller (1/4 the wattage when used in 12v mode or all the wattage when used in 48v mode) that I used for the project. I only had to order a three-phase diode, I got one that can handle up to 150A on eBay. After installing everything I hooked up a 600W true sine wave inverter and a capacitor in parallel. I can power stuff directly from the bike by just pedaling approx 0.8 RPM is sufficient to generate about 14 V and good enough amperage. Two days ago I did a test to see how long I can last powering an LCD TV I have that draws 42 watts from the bicycle and I was able to last 1 hour and 10 minutes. On the other hand, I plug in my DeWalt 36 Volts drill battery charger to charge a battery and it draws approx 140 watts from the bicycle, in this case I can't last longer than over 2 without my legs turning really tired. The idea of generating electricity while doing exercise is a great motivator since you are putting a real purpose of bike ridding other than just doing exercise, it can become a fun activity while keeping one's self healthier -- and I plan to beat my DeWalt battery charging duration record (another idea to improving endurance!). Just an observation from what I saw on your video: 1. Using a separate motor connected with a drive belt decreases efficiency, it works, but you lose generation potential to added friction. 2. When using a charge controller, I would recommend to use an MPPT based charge controller rather than a PWM (Pulse Width Modulated) based charge controller. The reason is that with a PWM controller the current is drawn out of the motor-generator at just above the battery voltage, whereas. With an MPPT charge controller, the current is drawn out of the motor-generator at the generator's “maximum power voltage” (think of an MPPT charge controller as being a “smart DC-DC converter”).
Thanks for all the suggestions and feedback! I'm happy to hear that your setup worked out! I certainly agree that my design has room for improvement, but the primary goal was to make it simple and cheap, to make it less intimidating of a project for kids or people new to engineering, rather than maximum efficiency. The belt solution seemed like the easiest route to go without significant efficiency losses... It's at least better than a purely-friction approach of two wheels spinning each other with friction, alone. I definitely agree with the MPPT controller upgrade, not only for efficiency, but for input voltage range, since you wouldn't have to worry about overvoltage issues. That's actually why I happened to have the PWM controller sitting around, because I upgraded the RV solar setup to MPPT. I thought I mentioned MPPT controllers in the video, but maybe not... This was a long time ago, haha. Anyway, thanks for watching and thanks again for all the feedback!
Let's do some math, shall we? Can you tell me how much current or power the TV draws? It might say on the back sticker, or you might have to Google the model number... Or we can do a rough estimate if you tell me what size/type of TV
@@dimachesebastian6407 I already did that experiment: I have a 32" Westinghouse 1080P LCD TV that I use as my computer monitor. This monitor draws approx 40w from the wall. I wanted to see how comfortable I would be able to power this LCD TV using my bike so this is what I did: My setup: 1,000w Electric wheel 3 phase motor connected to a 150A 3 phase rectifier and the rectifier output to a 15A up to 48v MPPT charge controller. The charge controller is set to output unlimited amperage (its mas 15A rating) and the output voltage was set to 14.5 v which serves as a great power regulator as this ensures that if I generate more than 14.5 volts by pedaling too fast that the power inverter will always see no more than 14.5 volts. Power inverter: 600w True Sine Wave. I unplugged the LCD TV from the wall outlet and I plugged it into the power inverter. I started pedaling, turned on the MPPT charge controller and the blue standby light showed up on the TV, using my remote control I powered on the TV when the TV powered on the MPPT charge controller watt meter indicated the load drawing approx 40 watts so while I was pedaling I VNC'd remotely into my PC that was connected to this LCD TV monitor in order to put a youtube video since I don't have a wireless keyboard and I couldn't exactly get off the bicycle in order to put the video. I set my timer on my phone to see how long I will be able to continue powering this TV using nothing but the electricity being generated as I pedaled while I entertained myself watching a TH-cam video on the same TV being powered by pedaling. Results: I was able to power this TV that consumed approx 40 watts for 1 hour and 11 minutes. I wasn't exceptionally tired when I stopped, I had somewhat sweated but I still had energy left to keep on going if I wanted. So, the results was: I was able to power a TV that consumes over 40 watts from the wall for a duration of 1 hour and 11 minutes with the possibility of being able to keep on going for an unknown duration. More experiments I did before I did the TV experiment on a different day: Experiment: Charging my 36 Volts DeWalt cordless hammer drill battery. I plug in my DeWalt battery charger into my Inverter, insert the battery to be charged, and just started pedaling. Within about 10 seconds the battery charger starts to charge, it is drawing about 135 watts from my MPPT charge controller, but its doing is in a repetitive cycle, 3/4 of a second drawing that wattage and the other 1/4 of a second drawing nothing, so it was basically pulsing 3/4 of a second the charge to the battery, this obviously meant that I would experience super friction for 3/4 of a second per every second, and then all of a sudden zero friction for the remained of each 1/4 of a second, not exactly fun to power this way, but I was able to do it regardless. About 2 minutes and 20 seconds I got so timer, I maxed myself out and I had to stop. I was not able to keep on going. A 120 watts fan: I was able to power this fan on high for about 2 to 3 minutes and just like on my drill battery charging experiment, I reached a point where I fully maxed myself and I simply couldn't keep on going. I first watched myself slowing down without the ability to maintain speed until I slowed down until the speed that wasn't enough to keep the inverter running. So, in conclusion: You should be able to power a 40 watt TV for a very long time. You should be able to charge your phone fully with no issue (note: My phone fast charges drawing just 15 watts from my charge controller, a load I do not even feel as I am pedaling.
Great build! I needed a basis for my next project! I intend to build something similar, and use it to charge a 24V 18aH battery bank for emergency power, and off grid lighting! As a builder, I appreciate your explanations, and as a prepper- thank you for teaching me to help keep my family powered, and my stomach flat! Cheers from WV!
The charge controller specs should correspond to your chosen motor and battery, but I recommend an MPPT solar charge controller capable of outputting at least 20A for 12v batteries or 10A if you do a 24v battery setup. MPPT charge controllers generally have a wide input voltage range, so they should work with just about any motor, and I doubt you will be outputting more than 200 Watts unless you are sprint-biking, in which case, you can get a bigger charge controller
Note that the max power lance Armstrong biked was around 500W, which would be 42 Amps at 12V or 21 Amps at 24V: www.ridemedia.com.au/features/lance-vs-cadel-a-study-of-two-22-year-olds/#:~:text=The%20best%20test%20results%20achieved,a%20VO2max%20of%206.10%20L.
Thank you so much for this video. I wanted to make a bike generator for our science fair, though I couldn't find any video that explains it in full detail except for you. I hope it goes well and ill tell you how it went. You just earned yourself another subscriber. :D
Thanks for watching and subscribing! Glad to hear it will help you out. Feel free to ask me any questions about things while you work on it. Also, I would recommend using proper-gauge wire, a proper DC switch, and adding one or two properly-sized fuses or breakers in, to make things more correct/safe. My example is just a proof of concept and if I ever do a true test-run to gather data, I'll be replacing things first
@@LifeIsForEnjoying Stupid question - how does the pulley "attach" to the shaft? I didn't notice. the charge controller aspect was helpful. I ordered one - and I'm setting up the DC motor right now. Do you think I can direct charge some 20 volt lithium drill batteries? Or do I need an inverter to use the proper charger that comes with the battery... So I will have to pedal quite a bit to get up to 20 volts I suppose. But they're a 1.5 amp battery and I'll buy a 3 amp battery. So it's a PWM controller. My main concern is not overcharging by accident. So hopefully I won't get too much power to get up to 20 volts - since I'll lose 50% of the power. haha. Right? thanks
OMG your video is the most extensively explained video for engineering a pedal powered energy generator that I've found. Thank you for being so thorough and an excellent teacher. Also great concept to market this towards teaching kids about all those different facets.
Always wants to build my own with the motors that I have kept. I don't want to waste the energy, so that is the way to store/harness it. Thanks for sharing of awesome idea!
Doesn't it always feel like such a waste to just burn energy as heat and noise? It's a nice little extra motivation to know you can use that same energy again later for something useful :-)
I just bought the two of the last four parts I need to put together my pedal power project. Thankful you are using a motor identical to mine. So I used the amazon link you provided for the pulley and belt. Now all I have left to get a 29" rear mountain bike wheel and a comfortable chair/seat to mount to the wood frame of my project. True a mountain bike like you are using would get the job done just fine and you have the added bonus of transmission of sorts via the front and back derailers but sitting on a bike seat (without using biking shorts) for any length of time usually gets painful. So I'm choosing to forgo the benefits of derailers for a comfortable seat that I can sit and bike in for hours on end without the concern of sitting on a painful bike seat for any length of time. Although I still have the issue of figuring out where the actual pedals are going to go. The only two options I can see is putting the pedals directly on a fix bike wheel shaft or buy more parts to mount a pedal assembly in front the bike wheel and attach a chain to one of the gears. I welcome any ideas or thoughts you'd like to share. Cheers man and God speed...
Sounds like a pretty solid plan to me. You don't necessarily need the 29inch wheel. My calculations for ratios were done assuming a normal ground speed using the bike as it is built, since I knew I could comfortably use its gears to fine-tune the effort/speed as need be. Since you are planning to not use any changeable gears, you could probably use a normal 26.5" wheel, but you may want to at least mount the pedals in such a way that you could do some trial and error for which sprocket to use on the wheel to make things the most comfortable for long charge rides. Best of luck and let me know how it goes!
I like your design. Renology is a great company for solar and these types of projects so kudos to them too. It might make sense to add weight to the bike wheel to stabilize the speed, like a flywheel. I haven't seen anyone do that yet in these projects so I'm wondering if that would help.
Yea, I considered mounting some washers to a few spokes or something to smooth things out a bit, but never got around to it. FYI, it's actually Renogy, not Renology (no extra L and syllable) I've also found that HQST products seem to be identical to Renogy (same manufacturer, probably) but cheaper... I might be missing out on some warranty or support by using them for a lot of my solar stuff, but definitely worth being aware of :-)
Tbh, I really like this idea and re-listening to ready player one got me thinking if it's actually possible to fill a couple batteries (deep cycle of course) and be able to use them as power units.
@@jsauce01 oh, for sure! Unfortunately, I still have yet to actually pull the numbers off this rig, so I don't know for sure how long it would take to fill up a sizable deep-cycle from empty :-/ I would estimate that you could reasonably generate around 150 Watts for an extended period with this, but that is just a rough estimate
@@LifeIsForEnjoying Thanks. So if you generated 150 watts in an hour of pedaling,, you would have generated 150 watt-hours. Is that right? A 100 amp-hour deep cycle battery would be 1200 watt-hours, so in theory you could charge up the 1200 watt-hour battery from empty to full with 1200 divided by 150 = 8 hours of pedaling. Does that sound right? Thanks.
@@rootcanal7188 sounds like you have the right idea! You could also think about it the other way... 150 watts/12v is about 12 amps, so a 100 amp-hour battery divided by 12 amps would be about 8 hours of pedaling. Keep in mind that this assumes 100% efficiency, which is never the case, and you really don't want to run batteries down to truely empty too many times because they will wear out quicker
Dude, wow. What an amazing video that's was just what I was looking for. I have some ideas buzzing around in my head about the practical application of this kind of thing. I teach a spin class, and the bikes we use say that during a really hard class, an elite cyclist can will usually generate about 250 watts of electricity constantly for about an hour. How many amp hours is that? I would like to rig something up like this in my house for when the power goes out because it goes out OFTEN. Not sure if that pedaling alone could power the house, but if you had a big enough battery to charge over time then you could perhaps have enough to run the whole house for a couple hours or a few days. I'm reluctant to get a 5000 dollar generator system installed when I could go green for perhaps the same cost.
Thanks! Glad to hear this helped you out! 250 watts on a 12V system is 250W/12V=20.8Amps, so doing this for an hour is 20.8 Amp-hours (minus efficiency losses). To give you a reference point, a laptop power supply normally uses about 150Watts, so you could certainly power that directly, but not a whole house. Keeping a residential refrigerator running for a day would use around 1000-2000 Watt-hours, so that 250W biker would need to work out for 4 hours to store up that energy and around a 150 Ah battery to store it. If you have a decent battery bank and exercise routine, you should definitely be able to use something like this to keep the essentials running for a few hours/day in a power outage, but probably not indefinitely
@@LifeIsForEnjoying my laptop is only about 10-20 watts so you could power it easily. Maybe about 80 watts when it's sucking in power to a flat battery so then you'd probably feel a bit of resistance but it wouldn't get hard until about 3-4 laptops charging from flat.
This was great, thanks! Might build one of these in the future and was curious about the steps. You’re explanations are clear and concise. Also, seems like this would be a great project for experimenting with some of the concepts we’re learning in my Dyanamic Systems and Controls class. System modeling and what not. Thanks again!
Amazing video! Very straight to the method with your instructional video. I find it a hassle having to shift threw others videos that are not direct with the information making people feel average when we know everyone has equal opportunity with regards to thier personal knowledge. Thanks for giving back
Yeah, I thought about maybe just some clamp-on weights on the spokes or something to help with that...I also don't want to make the setup a permanent installation, though, so gotta make them easy to get on and off
Hello Matt thank you for putting together this video. I just got one of the crucial items I needed for this project (the motor). Though my version of this DIY will be a little different mostly because I had already begun my project by the time I saw your video. So this is what I have: CMTD 2420 Series Solar Charge Controller... unfortunately it is only 20 AMPs. I'll likely need to buy a stronger one. 55Ah AGM Battery bank (two duracell batteries) ...definitely will be adding more batteries as time goes on. 2000 watt inverter and a old pedal resistance exercise unit with a bunch of gears that I've most torn out. Which I have yet to figure out how I'm going to incorporate it into the design. The main difference with my set up is that I won't be using a bicycle. Because bicycling for hours on end without high quality bicycle shorts isn't something I'm interested in doing. So I'm trying to come up with a setup that's more like sitting in a recumbent bike with a comfortable seat. Unfortunately cheap old recumbent bike frames are so far impossible to come by so I'll just make due with a chair for now. If you have and ideas or suggestions for me I'd like to hear them. Cheers man and God speed!
Sounds like an excellent project, feel free to let me know if you have any questions while you're working on it! Just a heads up, if you actually plug something ~2000 Watts into that inverter with fully-charged 55Ah batteries powering it, you will only be able to run it for about 10 minutes before your batteries are dead...and you ideally only want to take deep cycles down to 50%, so I would only recommend about 5 minutes before charging those batteries back up.
@@LifeIsForEnjoying Thank you for the advice Matt. Actually though I don't need to worry about running the battery down past 50% because I programed my charge controller to cut the power at 11.7 volts. Needless to say I need to drastically increase my battery bank but honestly it's ok for now because the only two things I plug into it is either a power strip for a aquarium or a high end battery charger for my AA's and AAA's. I do have a 325 watt inverter (Sima STP-325 Titanium Plus 325-watt Power Inverter) but it was built around 13 years ago and the 2000 watt is a Modified Sine Wave inverter built around 2 years ago. So I'm figuring the 2000 watt would be better to use than the old 325 inverter. Unless of course I'm jumping to the wrong conclusion there. If the 2000 watt inverter is too much right now for my current set up how many Ah does my battery bank need to be before I consider hooking up the 2000 watt?
@@adventureinlife7700 you can certainly use the 2000 watt inverter on a small battery bank, as long as you are aware of what sort of devices you are plugging into it and keep their power consumption in mind. You could always get a power meter with a shunt or hall effect current sensor to get a better idea for how much power is really being used through the inverter, too
I’m using this as a guide in 2022 in UK. Thanks to eco-hysteria and break down in supply - I have to build something to charge my devices at least, to save up on energy
6:06 I needed to mentally break that down. Basically, its just the distance traveled in one minute divided by the circumference of the wheel. [ (20 miles per hour) x (5280 feet per mile) x (12 inches per feet) / (60 mins per hour) ] / [ (29 inches diameter) x (pi) ] = 231.9 rotations per minute and then the pulley calculation is based on how much smaller the other pulley has to be to spin fast enough, RPM Input/RPM Output = Diameter Out/Diameter In (vibralign.com/other-topics/calculating-output-speed-using-pulley-diameters-input-speed/)
You know what? = You are amazing :D Since I was a child , I wanted to build some muscle powered pedaling generator like this one. Last week I finally purchesed a generator almost exactly like yours from ebay for 33 € ! (18 Ampere & 24 volts) And by the way, I started the whole project only because I was asked to buy an ergometer/hometrainingbike some like 8 days ago.. So now, as I finally started the project, I thought that I at least should store the energy, instead of wasting it with these custom spinning resistors ... Today I went to the bikeshop and asked for some trash-parts, like gearwheels and chains and so on.. they gave me all their broken chains and gears, I cleaned them.. for such a case, they are still good enough! Why I am telling you all this? Because I simply did not figure out, which way would be the best to couple the bike with the genereator without loosing to much energy because of unnecessary friction . So I thout to directly connect the chain of the bike to the rotor of the generator, which in my case was even delivered with a small 2,5 cm 11 teeth gearwheel already mounted on it´s rotor... "but no!" I thought to my self... "Then I would have to renounce the option to take advantage of the 24 gearshifts of the bike"... And then.. at 3 ´o clock in the morning, I finally discovered your amazing video... Yeah! Great man! Thank you for this simple solution. While watching, I was even thinking about building a really really big gearwheel from a bike wheel..with like 200 gears or so .. in order to hold it more tightened.. But anyway.. thank you thank you thank you. Sometimes I just think too complicated! You made my day.. :D And by the way, I was seriously asking myself, if a simple pwm-chargecontroller would do the job.. but did not find real life esperiments, only conversations in forums.. and now you gave me the answer! Yes.. obviously yes! It works! Thank you!
@Shahab Gabriel Behzumi Could you please send me the link of the generator/motor you purchased on ebay. It would be really helpful for me as I am building a bicycle powered generator like this for a school project.
One of the links in the description doesn't work. Other than that this is awesome and putting the links of the products mentioned in the description is genius. I love this and have been looking for a way to go off grid. Thank you.
Thanks for pointing that out! I replaced the link with another cheap, similar inverter, but not the exact one I used. Glad it helped you out! Let me know if you have any questions about it!
@@soulassassin0g haha, perhaps the phones and tablets should only be allowed to charge via the bike... That might be the more modern equivalent motivation, much more doable, as well... A 5v 2.4A charger (standard USB, non-turbo charger) is only 12W, which could be easily produced with this setup and the new USB C chargers max out around 100W, so a bit more challenging, but still doable
I didn't catch if it was a pwm solar charger or mppt. Pwm wastes all over current you make and mppt adjusts the voltage while increasing the amps,less waste
The one in this video is a cheap PWM... Partly because I wanted to keep the cost down and partly because I had recently upgraded my RV solar setup to MPPT and had this one left over. MPPT is certainly more efficient and also allows a wider input voltage range, so it would be great for this project, but does add to the price a bit
I did the same thing I found a permanent magnet 12-volt DC alternator with built-in regulator! Eliminating the solar controller. I have done it both ways but I found it much more efficient capable of producing 12V DC @ 120 amps at just 800 revolutions per minute. Allowing me to Pedal without overloading the solar controller because it was eliminated. Great idea though I started the same way. But give the permanent magnet alternator a try. These alternators do not require a 12-volt to turn them on u-turn it generates! It is self exciting it can lose that charge if not used over a extended period Of time but it took as little as 1.5v or a double A battery in order to re excite alternator used consistently you will never have to do this.
That's awesome! Thanks for the advice! Were you able to produce 120 amps on the bike or is that just what it is rated at? 1,440 watts is insane for a bike generator
Good idea! You certainly could, as long as you can find a 29" street wheel that's the same width, I was just primarily using this project as an experiment/learning opportunity, so I didn't bother with that.
A car's alternator generates (about) the same voltage regardless of RPM. Can you comment on using an alternator instead of your scooter motor / solar charge controller setup? It seems like that would be advantageous rather than trying to pedal a specific speed
Yep, there are a number of comments asking about using an alternator instead of a motor, and my general response is that yes, it would work, but there are a couple drawbacks: 1) Most modern alternators have a slightly more complex wiring configuration, which is often controlled by the vehicle's computer in order to control when the alternator is activated and how much load it can put on the system. Some of this also plays into how it can keep its voltage constant at varying rpms. The motor and charge controller setup leaves all the wiring complexities in the charge controller itself so you don't have to worry about them. 2) In this sort of situation, you would ideally be using a deep cycle battery, rather than a starter battery, because you would likely be regularly using much of it and then recharging it, rather than using it for a couple seconds (starting a car) and then immediately topping it back off. To allow deep cycle batteries to last longer in the long term, they should generally be charged using smart, multi-stage chargers, rather than a constant voltage supply like an alternatot
the bottle generator for ebike can be upgraded to an amp generator by attaching coils in ceramic to the bottleneck of the bottle shaped wire generator. this will increase amperage for motor without a transformer but it is diy and you have to test them. good luck.
Thanks for the video. Here another idea: replace the front bike wheel with a wheel with an ebike motor on it. That way, there should be a lot less peedaling resistance (I hope).. You may have to connect a bridge rectifier, after the ebike motor. Also, have a volt meter in the circuit, to make sure you are not inputting too much voltage into the battery. What do you think? Thanks again!
not really. I mean, sure, the extra few watts that you offset against the utilities supply MIGHT be barely noticeable... for my money I'd power up a video screen or a fan- maybe just use the system as a way to keep my phone's charge topped up. setting up this brilliant contraption as a way to make keeping my portable batteries charged the way i actually get and stay in shape may be my best idea yet! Imagine the bragging rights: "Oh no i don't just charge my phone- i physically make the electricity it runs on- I could become a local legend (at least in my own mind)
The battery I used in the video (and the one linked in the description) are small 7Ah motorcycle/UPS (or similar) batteries, which are great for cheap and easy demonstration purposes, but I do not recommend them for long term storage or significant loads. Long term disconnected battery storage discharge rate is usually provided on a battery's spec sheet, but I do not know this information off the top of my head. However, larger deep-cycle batteries are much better suited for this sort of job, so I would recommend something like a 35Ah AGM deep cycle, or bigger... And if you really want to spend some money, lithium ion or lithium iron batteries are both great, but you will need a specific charge controller for those
For quicker conversion, I would probably buy the city tire and buy its own inner tube specifically for this purpose. In fact, how about a whole extra wheel, to make it practically hot-swappable?
I don't follow exactly what you mean here....are you suggesting that all kids should go into engineering because it is a "real" job? As opposed to which "fake" jobs?
@@mwint1982 ahhh, I see, so you're assuming I'm already a full-time TH-camr with no "real" job? I'm flattered, thank you! I must be making progress if people think it's already true! 😆
The improvements I would recommend are 1: Use a decent MPPT charge controller, rather than the cheap PWM one I used...this will improve efficiency and widen the compatibility with motors/generators, since it has a wider voltage/current range 2: Shop around to see what motors/generators there are out there. Choices were limited when I first did this, but now that e-bikes are a bigger deal, there are probably a lot of good choices out there 3: Use resettable DC breakers on each side of the charge controller to both protect things from over-current and act as a switch to fully disconnect things, when you want (don't use an old light switch like I do in the video) 4: Use lower gauge (thicker) wires than I do...especially if you're hooking up a sizable inverter to the battery. My thin wires were for proof-of-concept and were probably not ideal for efficiency or safety. Let me know if you have any other questions while you build it!
I think if you could incorporate a heavy flywheel it would conserve a lot of man power... Bursts of pedaling instead of constant... Kinda of like a hit or miss engine design
That's a very good point...I was considering clamping some washers onto the wheel to get a little bit of flywheel effect, but I have a feeling I would need a LOT of washers to make that effective, haha
I would assume that no human is capable of producing enough power to get the full benefit of one... According to this (www.cyclist.co.uk/in-depth/539/how-much-better-are-pro-cyclists), even the top pro sprinter cyclists put out a max of 1600 Watts of power for a short time, which would be just over 130 amps in a 12v system. This means that you and I couldn't even dream of using a 150Amp high-output alternator to its full potential for even a second... But you can always hook it up and see what happens!
@@LifeIsForEnjoying I wonder if the average Joe could do better than a professional athlete. If you modded the bike so it could support a bigger wheel and or wheels. Of course I don't know what the resistance feels like already?
Thanks! To clarify, Watts are a measure of power, not energy. They are an instantaneous measurement of voltage times the current(amperage). This is why batteries are normally labeled using Amp-hours, milliamp-hours, or Watt-hours, because this incorporates time into the measurement to explain how much power is available for how long, which would be effectively a measure of its potential energy. This being said, I would estimate that this setup could produce about 150W,but I never actually measured it, unfortunately. This means if you can keep peddling for an hour, you could produce about 150 Watt-hours... Pedal for 2 hours for 300 Watt-hours, etc
Can I purchase a written copy of these instructions that would include the step by step process and also where to go to purchase the necessary working components you show in the video?
I put links to the components in the description of the video, so just look below the video (web) or click the arrow (mobile) to see those links, but they may be out of date by now. I unfortunately don't have time right now to write these into a set of instructions, but the video should be fairly simple and straightforward to follow. Sorry, but thank you for your interest!
Hi! I want to build a bike generator using an old exercise bike with some of my students. I'm afraid some while I understand the gist of your directions the math eludes me and I'd rather not electrocute any kids or burn down the school. Could you direct me to any written resources that would help me figure out the motor and battery size. I would like to be able to power a USB port or outlest for cell phones. The idea is to SHOW the students how much energy we use in terms they can understand. Ultimately, I would like to have several of these in the cafeteria for students to use. Thanks so much! I would be happy to share all lesson materials with you if I can get the bike to work.
This sounds like a fun project! If you want to just make a proof-of-concept project, you don't necessarily need the battery or charge controller... Connecting straight from the motor to a 12-24v USB charger, you could also feel the extra work needed to charge a cell phone. Human skin is high enough resistance that anything under 30V is safe to handle directly, so I think that could be a great project! Which math was confusing you the most, determining the pulley size, or voltage/current/power?
I loved your video. I was just wondering if the generator could possibly power a mini barbeque (like one of those Korean ones). And if it could, how would I be able to set that up?
Thanks! Technically, this setup could *contribute* to powering just about anything electrical, as long as you can find an inverter capable of handling it... The question is really more about how significant the contribution would be. If you connect this generator to a battery and inverter powering a 200W television, but it is only generating 150W, the television will still work, you will just be draining the battery as if a 50W device were connected with no generator. I couldn't find any power consumption numbers for mini ones, but this one is 1000W, meaning this generator would likely offset about one tenth of the power consumed www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01JIBOFYS/ref=as_li_tl?imprToken=ChDrSiW4crcBBZ4wiSHdGQ&slotNum=2&ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B01JIBOFYS&linkCode=w61&tag=bbqbarbecuegr-20&linkId=a6fc58ab22a35869662718261565dfcb
Hi, I just had a quick question. Is there a way to reverse the direction you have to rotate the generator in order to produce power, or can the generator only produce when it’s rotated clockwise?
Good question! I believe, in the general case of DC motors (but possibly not all of them), just as reversing the polarity would make them rotate in the opposite direction, rotating them in the opposite direction would reverse the polarity of the voltage being generated.... This means that if you installed things backwards on accident, you can just flip the red and black wires on the motor, and everything else should work the same. Again, this is a generalization for DC motors and may not always be the case. Some may be designed with integrated fans, etc, that may cause it to overheat faster by spinning backwards, due to insufficient airflow.
I just finished setting up my system, the only problem is that whenever I start pedaling, the motor spins up as if being charged from the battery. Is my solar charger not working properly?
Thanks! Any device you are able to power for a short time is mainly determined by the battery, the cables, and the inverter sizes you use. With a big enough battery and inverter, you could power a large space heater or A/C if you really wanted to... HOWEVER, I would estimate that this setup can only produce about 150Watts of charging power to the battery, so if you intend to use only the bike power and not use any battery you would be limited to about 150Watts. For example, you could plug in a 60Watt incandescent light bulb to a 100 watt inverter, and as long as you are peddling, the battery would stay fully charged. If you hooked up three 60watt light bulbs to a 200W inverter, they would be pulling 180Watts, and the bike would be producing 150watts, so the battery would be draining at a rate similar to plugging in a 30Watt light bulb... Does that all make sense?
Great Video! I have a question though. How do you hook up the device to plug things into? Perhaps you could make a video of how to do that with and a demonstration of you powering something. Thanks, Noah
Noah Berman all you need is an inverter and 2 wires to connect to the battery... Nothing special or difficult there! Sorry I didn't show that in more detail
Thanks for this nice video! I made about the same setup, with a Wanderer, but I happen to notice there is a 1amp current coming from the PV to the motor when charging, making it spin and harder to compensate. I don't know how to fix it.
I've heard of a few people having that problem...seems like that would indicate a defective or damaged charge controller to me. I don't know for sure, though.
The surface area of the turbine needs more dir3ct contact with the two wheels, redoublement of its internal generating energy will yield even more energy!
This does give me mcuh needed ideas for a generator that I was tasked with at work, thank you so much! quick question though, does it have to be a big motor? I was given just small, toy car-like motors :/
Using small motors will accomplish the same thing, but obviously on a much smaller scale... Think of what the motor was designed to power, and that will give you a good idea for the size of what could be used to do the opposite. For example, the motor I used is designed for small motorized bicycles/scooters, so turning that around and powering the motor WITH a bike makes sense. Powering an RC car motor with a bike does not make sense and you will end up burning out the motor.
Life Is For Enjoying I know, I know, I’ll most likely burn it just to show my boss that such a small motor is not gonna work, I had found dynamos and bigger motors online, but I was told to work with just what we already had :/
Hi, thank you for the precious info. Do you think you can connect a switch for switching on the controller and then adjust the power output while you are pedaling?
Thanks for watching! Glad to hear it helped you. I'm not sure I entirely understand your question, but the motor I have linked in the description can only be run by 12VDC, 24VDC, or 36VDC. 60VDC is outside that range, so I would not recommend applying 60V to that motor. If you are asking if a 60VDC 1000 Watt alternator could be used in place of that motor, it is probably possible, but you would want to check the input voltage range of the charge controller you are using. Some charge controllers will support 100V input and charge a 12V battery, but some will max out at 30V or so.
Thanks! I measured the wheel size in inches, but am looking for a ratio involving miles/hour, so to get from inches to miles I do 1 inch = 1/12 of a foot and then 1 foot = 1/5280 mile
what would be the best way to control the voltage that goes out of the bike, to make it 12 V stable, since that is what the charge controller needs. what i mean is that no matter how strong you pedal theres something in between motor and controller. would you use a resistor or a capacitor, or maybe both?
The charge controller is designed to handle a range of voltage, so you don't really need to add anything to regulate it more than that... MPPT charge controllers can handle an even wider range than PWM ones, so if you upgrade to that, you really don't have to worry about it
You can absolutely use whatever size battery you want, but you want to make sure the voltage matches the output of the charge controller and keep in mind that the bigger the battery, the longer it will take to charge to 100% (and the cost/size/weight that comes with it)
I was gonna maybe do this in the future if I might want to save on electricity but I doubt neighbors would appreciate the noise 😅 Also can u make a maybe more mobile version where u can take it on camping or something?
I unfortunately never ended up doing any good measurements, but based on the devices I ran directly, I would estimate around 150 Watts would be sustainable, which in a 12V system would be around 12 amps
This is my usual go-to chart for determining wire size for DC circuits like this www.bluesea.com/resources/1437 Since I would estimate this setup to be around 150 watts, maximum, for a 12v system, that's about 12Amps...so, according to the chart, if you have a circuit length less than 10ft, you could stay below 3% voltage drop with 12AWG cables and below 10% drop for up to 30ft circuit length. Note: I do recommend using a real DC switch (or resettable 20A DC breaker) rather than a household switch like I used in the video
maybe I missed it ... how much electricity would this make ? Or specifically would this have enough power to charge a car battery or a 12 volt battery ?
The system in the video is charging a 12v battery, and a car battery is 12v, so it could certainly charge that as well, but ideally you would use a deep cycle battery for this sort of thing, not a car battery. The real question, however, which I unfortunately did not answer in the video, is "how long would it take to charge battery X from empty?" otherwise worded as "how much power output does this produce". I still haven't connected this up to measure the output power, but I would estimate around 150Watts of power output at a sustainable pace. This would be 12.5 Amps in a 12V system, which would mean it could theoretically charge a 12Ah battery in one hour, 24Ah battery in two hours, etc...
Thank you! Awesome! 2 questions pls.: 1) Could this be used with waterwheel as well? 2)What about putting the whole thing (bettery n generator..) behind the bicycle so that when I bike out still charging? Jake
Thanks! I don't see any issue with using a similar setup for building a waterwheel, but you will want to re-calculate things based on the speed you expect the water to be normally travelling and the size of the wheel to shoot for the proper ratio. I don't think I understand your second question, but there should not be any issue with relocating the motor and battery anywhere nearby
There are certainly some commercial pedal-powered generators that you can find online at Amazon, etc, but this is actually a very simple project to do safely and learn a lot while you do it! No need to be an engineer, just give it a try and I think you will impress yourself!
20 seconds in and I'm happy with this channel
Thank you very much! I take it I should make more videos like this one?
never thought that just connecting the wires to the battery would turn the engine on and make the bike move.
Learned a lot watching this video!!!!
thanks!
Just before the pandemic started I ordered a 1,000 W 48V 26" motor integrated in a wheel for my bike with the idea that I am going to convert my bicycle into an electric bike, then the lockdown happened. Since I was not going to go out anytime soon I decided to do a temporary project, I converted my bike into a generator bike, I ordered a stationary stand for my bicycle but not the one you have since I was not able to verify if the side holder hooks would fit the axle Torx since the bike axle of the motor came bigger than the standard, is so bigger than it came pre-cut so that it can fit the bicycle regular standard slider, so if the mounting hole where the bold do into to hold it in place is smaller, then your stationary bicycle mount would not work or this case. I ended up ordering one where the bicycle is held by the sidebars instead of the center of the wheel axle Torx.
I already had a 750 Watts MPPT charge controller (1/4 the wattage when used in 12v mode or all the wattage when used in 48v mode) that I used for the project.
I only had to order a three-phase diode, I got one that can handle up to 150A on eBay.
After installing everything I hooked up a 600W true sine wave inverter and a capacitor in parallel. I can power stuff directly from the bike by just pedaling approx 0.8 RPM is sufficient to generate about 14 V and good enough amperage. Two days ago I did a test to see how long I can last powering an LCD TV I have that draws 42 watts from the bicycle and I was able to last 1 hour and 10 minutes. On the other hand, I plug in my DeWalt 36 Volts drill battery charger to charge a battery and it draws approx 140 watts from the bicycle, in this case I can't last longer than over 2 without my legs turning really tired.
The idea of generating electricity while doing exercise is a great motivator since you are putting a real purpose of bike ridding other than just doing exercise, it can become a fun activity while keeping one's self healthier -- and I plan to beat my DeWalt battery charging duration record (another idea to improving endurance!).
Just an observation from what I saw on your video:
1. Using a separate motor connected with a drive belt decreases efficiency, it works, but you lose generation potential to added friction.
2. When using a charge controller, I would recommend to use an MPPT based charge controller rather than a PWM (Pulse Width Modulated) based charge controller. The reason is that with a PWM controller the current is drawn out of the motor-generator at just above the battery voltage, whereas. With an MPPT charge controller, the current is drawn out of the motor-generator at the generator's “maximum power voltage” (think of an MPPT charge controller as being a “smart DC-DC converter”).
Thanks for all the suggestions and feedback! I'm happy to hear that your setup worked out! I certainly agree that my design has room for improvement, but the primary goal was to make it simple and cheap, to make it less intimidating of a project for kids or people new to engineering, rather than maximum efficiency. The belt solution seemed like the easiest route to go without significant efficiency losses... It's at least better than a purely-friction approach of two wheels spinning each other with friction, alone. I definitely agree with the MPPT controller upgrade, not only for efficiency, but for input voltage range, since you wouldn't have to worry about overvoltage issues. That's actually why I happened to have the PWM controller sitting around, because I upgraded the RV solar setup to MPPT. I thought I mentioned MPPT controllers in the video, but maybe not... This was a long time ago, haha.
Anyway, thanks for watching and thanks again for all the feedback!
how many minutes you need to pedal to keep tv running for 1h?
Let's do some math, shall we? Can you tell me how much current or power the TV draws? It might say on the back sticker, or you might have to Google the model number... Or we can do a rough estimate if you tell me what size/type of TV
@@dimachesebastian6407 I already did that experiment: I have a 32" Westinghouse 1080P LCD TV that I use as my computer monitor. This monitor draws approx 40w from the wall.
I wanted to see how comfortable I would be able to power this LCD TV using my bike so this is what I did:
My setup:
1,000w Electric wheel 3 phase motor connected to a 150A 3 phase rectifier and the rectifier output to a 15A up to 48v MPPT charge controller. The charge controller is set to output unlimited amperage (its mas 15A rating) and the output voltage was set to 14.5 v which serves as a great power regulator as this ensures that if I generate more than 14.5 volts by pedaling too fast that the power inverter will always see no more than 14.5 volts.
Power inverter: 600w True Sine Wave.
I unplugged the LCD TV from the wall outlet and I plugged it into the power inverter. I started pedaling, turned on the MPPT charge controller and the blue standby light showed up on the TV, using my remote control I powered on the TV when the TV powered on the MPPT charge controller watt meter indicated the load drawing approx 40 watts so while I was pedaling I VNC'd remotely into my PC that was connected to this LCD TV monitor in order to put a youtube video since I don't have a wireless keyboard and I couldn't exactly get off the bicycle in order to put the video.
I set my timer on my phone to see how long I will be able to continue powering this TV using nothing but the electricity being generated as I pedaled while I entertained myself watching a TH-cam video on the same TV being powered by pedaling.
Results:
I was able to power this TV that consumed approx 40 watts for 1 hour and 11 minutes. I wasn't exceptionally tired when I stopped, I had somewhat sweated but I still had energy left to keep on going if I wanted.
So, the results was:
I was able to power a TV that consumes over 40 watts from the wall for a duration of 1 hour and 11 minutes with the possibility of being able to keep on going for an unknown duration.
More experiments I did before I did the TV experiment on a different day:
Experiment:
Charging my 36 Volts DeWalt cordless hammer drill battery.
I plug in my DeWalt battery charger into my Inverter, insert the battery to be charged, and just started pedaling. Within about 10 seconds the battery charger starts to charge, it is drawing about 135 watts from my MPPT charge controller, but its doing is in a repetitive cycle, 3/4 of a second drawing that wattage and the other 1/4 of a second drawing nothing, so it was basically pulsing 3/4 of a second the charge to the battery, this obviously meant that I would experience super friction for 3/4 of a second per every second, and then all of a sudden zero friction for the remained of each 1/4 of a second, not exactly fun to power this way, but I was able to do it regardless. About 2 minutes and 20 seconds I got so timer, I maxed myself out and I had to stop. I was not able to keep on going.
A 120 watts fan:
I was able to power this fan on high for about 2 to 3 minutes and just like on my drill battery charging experiment, I reached a point where I fully maxed myself and I simply couldn't keep on going. I first watched myself slowing down without the ability to maintain speed until I slowed down until the speed that wasn't enough to keep the inverter running.
So, in conclusion: You should be able to power a 40 watt TV for a very long time. You should be able to charge your phone fully with no issue (note: My phone fast charges drawing just 15 watts from my charge controller, a load I do not even feel as I am pedaling.
@@LifeIsForEnjoying is 60 watt hour for tv.
Great build! I needed a basis for my next project! I intend to build something similar, and use it to charge a 24V 18aH battery bank for emergency power, and off grid lighting! As a builder, I appreciate your explanations, and as a prepper- thank you for teaching me to help keep my family powered, and my stomach flat! Cheers from WV!
could you please tell me the charge controller specs?
The charge controller specs should correspond to your chosen motor and battery, but I recommend an MPPT solar charge controller capable of outputting at least 20A for 12v batteries or 10A if you do a 24v battery setup. MPPT charge controllers generally have a wide input voltage range, so they should work with just about any motor, and I doubt you will be outputting more than 200 Watts unless you are sprint-biking, in which case, you can get a bigger charge controller
Note that the max power lance Armstrong biked was around 500W, which would be 42 Amps at 12V or 21 Amps at 24V: www.ridemedia.com.au/features/lance-vs-cadel-a-study-of-two-22-year-olds/#:~:text=The%20best%20test%20results%20achieved,a%20VO2max%20of%206.10%20L.
Thank you so much for this video. I wanted to make a bike generator for our science fair, though I couldn't find any video that explains it in full detail except for you. I hope it goes well and ill tell you how it went. You just earned yourself another subscriber. :D
Thanks for watching and subscribing! Glad to hear it will help you out. Feel free to ask me any questions about things while you work on it. Also, I would recommend using proper-gauge wire, a proper DC switch, and adding one or two properly-sized fuses or breakers in, to make things more correct/safe. My example is just a proof of concept and if I ever do a true test-run to gather data, I'll be replacing things first
oh my gosh im doing that for my science fair too
Feel free to shoot me any questions while you're at it!
@@qctech9590 :D
@@LifeIsForEnjoying Stupid question - how does the pulley "attach" to the shaft? I didn't notice. the charge controller aspect was helpful. I ordered one - and I'm setting up the DC motor right now. Do you think I can direct charge some 20 volt lithium drill batteries? Or do I need an inverter to use the proper charger that comes with the battery... So I will have to pedal quite a bit to get up to 20 volts I suppose. But they're a 1.5 amp battery and I'll buy a 3 amp battery. So it's a PWM controller. My main concern is not overcharging by accident. So hopefully I won't get too much power to get up to 20 volts - since I'll lose 50% of the power. haha. Right? thanks
Motors can also be used as motors
Julio haha, a revolutionary concept, I know :-)
Get it? REVOLUTIONARY!?
conspiracy theorist
Not all motors -- A/C electric ones don't create A/C automatically - need to add to the armature.
That's impossible
OMG your video is the most extensively explained video for engineering a pedal powered energy generator that I've found. Thank you for being so thorough and an excellent teacher.
Also great concept to market this towards teaching kids about all those different facets.
Thanks! I appreciate the kind words and am always happy to help if you have any questions that I didn't manage to answer in the video :-)
@@LifeIsForEnjoying Appreciate it! Cheers!
Thanks for the Video. I never knew motors can be used two ways.
No problem! Thanks for watching!
Always wants to build my own with the motors that I have kept. I don't want to waste the energy, so that is the way to store/harness it. Thanks for sharing of awesome idea!
Doesn't it always feel like such a waste to just burn energy as heat and noise? It's a nice little extra motivation to know you can use that same energy again later for something useful :-)
Watching these videos to learn how to create the energy to watch these videos.
Haha, very nice
Hey man, good one! Things like this can really prove useful in many places in India!
Thanks! Hopefully it helps someone out!
very very good!
Very informative and step by step explanation, good camera angles and yep I'm subscribed
Thank you very much!
Wow man. Very nicely done with specific info on where to find specific parts. PERFECT.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!
I just bought the two of the last four parts I need to put together my pedal power project. Thankful you are using a motor identical to mine. So I used the amazon link you provided for the pulley and belt. Now all I have left to get a 29" rear mountain bike wheel and a comfortable chair/seat to mount to the wood frame of my project. True a mountain bike like you are using would get the job done just fine and you have the added bonus of transmission of sorts via the front and back derailers but sitting on a bike seat (without using biking shorts) for any length of time usually gets painful. So I'm choosing to forgo the benefits of derailers for a comfortable seat that I can sit and bike in for hours on end without the concern of sitting on a painful bike seat for any length of time. Although I still have the issue of figuring out where the actual pedals are going to go. The only two options I can see is putting the pedals directly on a fix bike wheel shaft or buy more parts to mount a pedal assembly in front the bike wheel and attach a chain to one of the gears. I welcome any ideas or thoughts you'd like to share. Cheers man and God speed...
Sounds like a pretty solid plan to me. You don't necessarily need the 29inch wheel. My calculations for ratios were done assuming a normal ground speed using the bike as it is built, since I knew I could comfortably use its gears to fine-tune the effort/speed as need be. Since you are planning to not use any changeable gears, you could probably use a normal 26.5" wheel, but you may want to at least mount the pedals in such a way that you could do some trial and error for which sprocket to use on the wheel to make things the most comfortable for long charge rides. Best of luck and let me know how it goes!
Your were the first guy who is really explaining else other bg music and build up.
Haha, happy to help!
Excellent Job!
Thanks!
¡Gracias por el video! Muy instructivo y la explicación muy clara.
I like your design. Renology is a great company for solar and these types of projects so kudos to them too.
It might make sense to add weight to the bike wheel to stabilize the speed, like a flywheel. I haven't seen anyone do that yet in these projects so I'm wondering if that would help.
Yea, I considered mounting some washers to a few spokes or something to smooth things out a bit, but never got around to it. FYI, it's actually Renogy, not Renology (no extra L and syllable) I've also found that HQST products seem to be identical to Renogy (same manufacturer, probably) but cheaper... I might be missing out on some warranty or support by using them for a lot of my solar stuff, but definitely worth being aware of :-)
Very cool! And a relatively simple wiring setup. Thanks for the lesson
No problem! Thanks for watching and feel free to reach out if you have questions
Tbh, I really like this idea and re-listening to ready player one got me thinking if it's actually possible to fill a couple batteries (deep cycle of course) and be able to use them as power units.
@@jsauce01 oh, for sure! Unfortunately, I still have yet to actually pull the numbers off this rig, so I don't know for sure how long it would take to fill up a sizable deep-cycle from empty :-/ I would estimate that you could reasonably generate around 150 Watts for an extended period with this, but that is just a rough estimate
@@LifeIsForEnjoying Thanks. So if you generated 150 watts in an hour of pedaling,, you would have generated 150 watt-hours. Is that right? A 100 amp-hour deep cycle battery would be 1200 watt-hours, so in theory you could charge up the 1200 watt-hour battery from empty to full with 1200 divided by 150 = 8 hours of pedaling. Does that sound right? Thanks.
@@rootcanal7188 sounds like you have the right idea! You could also think about it the other way... 150 watts/12v is about 12 amps, so a 100 amp-hour battery divided by 12 amps would be about 8 hours of pedaling. Keep in mind that this assumes 100% efficiency, which is never the case, and you really don't want to run batteries down to truely empty too many times because they will wear out quicker
This is a great one lad. Even the bike generator add to the electric bike as an option might run the bike faster when you pedal.
Dude, wow. What an amazing video that's was just what I was looking for. I have some ideas buzzing around in my head about the practical application of this kind of thing. I teach a spin class, and the bikes we use say that during a really hard class, an elite cyclist can will usually generate about 250 watts of electricity constantly for about an hour. How many amp hours is that? I would like to rig something up like this in my house for when the power goes out because it goes out OFTEN. Not sure if that pedaling alone could power the house, but if you had a big enough battery to charge over time then you could perhaps have enough to run the whole house for a couple hours or a few days. I'm reluctant to get a 5000 dollar generator system installed when I could go green for perhaps the same cost.
Thanks! Glad to hear this helped you out! 250 watts on a 12V system is 250W/12V=20.8Amps, so doing this for an hour is 20.8 Amp-hours (minus efficiency losses). To give you a reference point, a laptop power supply normally uses about 150Watts, so you could certainly power that directly, but not a whole house. Keeping a residential refrigerator running for a day would use around 1000-2000 Watt-hours, so that 250W biker would need to work out for 4 hours to store up that energy and around a 150 Ah battery to store it. If you have a decent battery bank and exercise routine, you should definitely be able to use something like this to keep the essentials running for a few hours/day in a power outage, but probably not indefinitely
@@LifeIsForEnjoying my laptop is only about 10-20 watts so you could power it easily. Maybe about 80 watts when it's sucking in power to a flat battery so then you'd probably feel a bit of resistance but it wouldn't get hard until about 3-4 laptops charging from flat.
This was great, thanks! Might build one of these in the future and was curious about the steps. You’re explanations are clear and concise. Also, seems like this would be a great project for experimenting with some of the concepts we’re learning in my Dyanamic Systems and Controls class. System modeling and what not. Thanks again!
Thanks for the support! Feel free to let me know if you have any questions about it :-)
Will do, best of luck to ya! @@LifeIsForEnjoying
Amazing video! Very straight to the method with your instructional video. I find it a hassle having to shift threw others videos that are not direct with the information making people feel average when we know everyone has equal opportunity with regards to thier personal knowledge. Thanks for giving back
Glad to hear it helped you out! If you have any questions about the project, don't hesitate to ask!
anyone else here in case the zombie apocalypse happens
Shits gonna hit the fan one way or another Im ttrying to learn anything I know will stick lol
#AlwaysPrepared
The zombie apocalypse is already upon us and a bicycle isn't gonna help us.
Get fit+have electricity
Nah I’m doing a science fair project
Add flywheel(beside the the rim) to ease the pedalling in the long run.
Yeah, I thought about maybe just some clamp-on weights on the spokes or something to help with that...I also don't want to make the setup a permanent installation, though, so gotta make them easy to get on and off
Hello Matt thank you for putting together this video. I just got one of the crucial items I needed for this project (the motor). Though my version of this DIY will be a little different mostly because I had already begun my project by the time I saw your video.
So this is what I have:
CMTD 2420 Series Solar Charge Controller... unfortunately it is only 20 AMPs. I'll likely need to buy a stronger one.
55Ah AGM Battery bank (two duracell batteries) ...definitely will be adding more batteries as time goes on.
2000 watt inverter
and a old pedal resistance exercise unit with a bunch of gears that I've most torn out. Which I have yet to figure out how I'm going to incorporate it into the design.
The main difference with my set up is that I won't be using a bicycle. Because bicycling for hours on end without high quality bicycle shorts isn't something I'm interested in doing. So I'm trying to come up with a setup that's more like sitting in a recumbent bike with a comfortable seat. Unfortunately cheap old recumbent bike frames are so far impossible to come by so I'll just make due with a chair for now. If you have and ideas or suggestions for me I'd like to hear them. Cheers man and God speed!
Sounds like an excellent project, feel free to let me know if you have any questions while you're working on it! Just a heads up, if you actually plug something ~2000 Watts into that inverter with fully-charged 55Ah batteries powering it, you will only be able to run it for about 10 minutes before your batteries are dead...and you ideally only want to take deep cycles down to 50%, so I would only recommend about 5 minutes before charging those batteries back up.
@@LifeIsForEnjoying Thank you for the advice Matt. Actually though I don't need to worry about running the battery down past 50% because I programed my charge controller to cut the power at 11.7 volts. Needless to say I need to drastically increase my battery bank but honestly it's ok for now because the only two things I plug into it is either a power strip for a aquarium or a high end battery charger for my AA's and AAA's. I do have a 325 watt inverter (Sima STP-325 Titanium Plus 325-watt Power Inverter) but it was built around 13 years ago and the 2000 watt is a Modified Sine Wave inverter built around 2 years ago. So I'm figuring the 2000 watt would be better to use than the old 325 inverter. Unless of course I'm jumping to the wrong conclusion there. If the 2000 watt inverter is too much right now for my current set up how many Ah does my battery bank need to be before I consider hooking up the 2000 watt?
@@adventureinlife7700 you can certainly use the 2000 watt inverter on a small battery bank, as long as you are aware of what sort of devices you are plugging into it and keep their power consumption in mind. You could always get a power meter with a shunt or hall effect current sensor to get a better idea for how much power is really being used through the inverter, too
awesome! wish to see more tutorials on life science and technology from you!
Using a large shunt resistor will add resistance with the magnetic field generated. Different wattage light bulbs should do the trick.
Great video by the way 👏
I’m using this as a guide in 2022 in UK. Thanks to eco-hysteria and break down in supply - I have to build something to charge my devices at least, to save up on energy
Awesome! Good luck to you and feel free to ask questions!
thanks for you video great work, and also just a genius puts our great unique and beautiful Chilean flag on your wall, we are the big red tide
Appreciate the video, looks great. Sweet mountain bike!
Thank you very much!
I like what you taught very informative.
Thanks! Hopefully it helped you out!
I highly recommend using a small liter car alternator so you only have to pedal an hour to charge a battery vs. Pedaling 4-5 hours
this is really cool, thanks for the share
Thank you!
Good job!
Excellent video 👍
Thank you very much!
6:06 I needed to mentally break that down. Basically, its just the distance traveled in one minute divided by the circumference of the wheel.
[
(20 miles per hour) x (5280 feet per mile) x (12 inches per feet) / (60 mins per hour)
]
/
[
(29 inches diameter) x (pi)
]
=
231.9 rotations per minute
and then the pulley calculation is based on how much smaller the other pulley has to be to spin fast enough,
RPM Input/RPM Output = Diameter Out/Diameter In
(vibralign.com/other-topics/calculating-output-speed-using-pulley-diameters-input-speed/)
Well done! I always enjoy unit conversion math like that, haha
Would’ve been great to have the camera like right over the bike. 😕 but overall great info! Thanks
Yea, some better camera placement and better audio would have gone a long way for this video...glad to hear it helped out, anyway! Thanks!
This is absolutely awesome!!!
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!
You know what? = You are amazing :D
Since I was a child , I wanted to build some muscle powered pedaling generator like this one.
Last week I finally purchesed a generator almost exactly like yours from ebay for 33 € ! (18 Ampere & 24 volts) And by the way, I started the whole project only because I was asked to buy an ergometer/hometrainingbike some like 8 days ago..
So now, as I finally started the project, I thought that I at least should store the energy, instead of wasting it with these custom spinning resistors ... Today I went to the bikeshop and asked for some trash-parts, like gearwheels and chains and so on.. they gave me all their broken chains and gears, I cleaned them.. for such a case, they are still good enough!
Why I am telling you all this? Because I simply did not figure out, which way would be the best to couple the bike with the genereator without loosing to much energy because of unnecessary friction .
So I thout to directly connect the chain of the bike to the rotor of the generator, which in my case was even delivered with a small 2,5 cm 11 teeth gearwheel already mounted on it´s rotor... "but no!" I thought to my self... "Then I would have to renounce the option to take advantage of the 24 gearshifts of the bike"... And then.. at 3 ´o clock in the morning, I finally discovered your amazing video... Yeah! Great man! Thank you for this simple solution. While watching, I was even thinking about building a really really big gearwheel from a bike wheel..with like 200 gears or so .. in order to hold it more tightened..
But anyway.. thank you thank you thank you. Sometimes I just think too complicated! You made my day.. :D
And by the way, I was seriously asking myself, if a simple pwm-chargecontroller would do the job.. but did not find real life esperiments, only conversations in forums.. and now you gave me the answer! Yes.. obviously yes! It works! Thank you!
Haha, glad to hear it helped you out! The solar charge controller definitely works like a charm. Let me know if you have any questions for your build!
@Shahab Gabriel Behzumi
Could you please send me the link of the generator/motor you purchased on ebay. It would be really helpful for me as I am building a bicycle powered generator like this for a school project.
@@shivambhatt5352 sure ;)
www.ebay.com/itm/FreeEnergy-12V-24V-DC-Permanent-Magnet-Motor-PMA-for-Wind-Turbine-Generator-350W/132083425769?epid=13028312734&hash=item1ec0c921e9:g:ifcAAOSwxIRZ79Fl
@@shivambhatt5352 all the product links are in the video description
One of the links in the description doesn't work. Other than that this is awesome and putting the links of the products mentioned in the description is genius. I love this and have been looking for a way to go off grid. Thank you.
Thanks for pointing that out! I replaced the link with another cheap, similar inverter, but not the exact one I used. Glad it helped you out! Let me know if you have any questions about it!
Hey kids, wanna watch TV? Get peddling! Love it
If only I could convince myself to use this same sort of motivation to exercise more, haha
Kids: "That old thing? No thanks."
**kids proceed to look down at their phone**
@@soulassassin0g haha, perhaps the phones and tablets should only be allowed to charge via the bike... That might be the more modern equivalent motivation, much more doable, as well... A 5v 2.4A charger (standard USB, non-turbo charger) is only 12W, which could be easily produced with this setup and the new USB C chargers max out around 100W, so a bit more challenging, but still doable
I didn't catch if it was a pwm solar charger or mppt. Pwm wastes all over current you make and mppt adjusts the voltage while increasing the amps,less waste
The one in this video is a cheap PWM... Partly because I wanted to keep the cost down and partly because I had recently upgraded my RV solar setup to MPPT and had this one left over. MPPT is certainly more efficient and also allows a wider input voltage range, so it would be great for this project, but does add to the price a bit
pwm solar charger have not heatsink
Good Work 👍
Thanks!
Wonderful! Thank you.
Great video, very inspiring, thanks
Glad to hear it, thank you for watching!
I did the same thing I found a permanent magnet 12-volt DC alternator with built-in regulator! Eliminating the solar controller. I have done it both ways but I found it much more efficient capable of producing 12V DC @ 120 amps at just 800 revolutions per minute. Allowing me to Pedal without overloading the solar controller because it was eliminated. Great idea though I started the same way. But give the permanent magnet alternator a try. These alternators do not require a 12-volt to turn them on u-turn it generates! It is self exciting it can lose that charge if not used over a extended period Of time but it took as little as 1.5v or a double A battery in order to re excite alternator used consistently you will never have to do this.
That's awesome! Thanks for the advice! Were you able to produce 120 amps on the bike or is that just what it is rated at? 1,440 watts is insane for a bike generator
@@LifeIsForEnjoying 800 revolutions per minute wasn't hard to achieve. Low RPM high amp permanent magnet alternators are the way to go.
since its quick release why not get an extra wheel and have a city bike set and a mountain bike set?
Good idea! You certainly could, as long as you can find a 29" street wheel that's the same width, I was just primarily using this project as an experiment/learning opportunity, so I didn't bother with that.
A car's alternator generates (about) the same voltage regardless of RPM. Can you comment on using an alternator instead of your scooter motor / solar charge controller setup? It seems like that would be advantageous rather than trying to pedal a specific speed
Yep, there are a number of comments asking about using an alternator instead of a motor, and my general response is that yes, it would work, but there are a couple drawbacks:
1) Most modern alternators have a slightly more complex wiring configuration, which is often controlled by the vehicle's computer in order to control when the alternator is activated and how much load it can put on the system. Some of this also plays into how it can keep its voltage constant at varying rpms. The motor and charge controller setup leaves all the wiring complexities in the charge controller itself so you don't have to worry about them.
2) In this sort of situation, you would ideally be using a deep cycle battery, rather than a starter battery, because you would likely be regularly using much of it and then recharging it, rather than using it for a couple seconds (starting a car) and then immediately topping it back off.
To allow deep cycle batteries to last longer in the long term, they should generally be charged using smart, multi-stage chargers, rather than a constant voltage supply like an alternatot
the bottle generator for ebike can be upgraded to an amp generator by attaching coils in ceramic to the bottleneck of the bottle shaped wire generator. this will increase amperage for motor without a transformer but it is diy and you have to test them. good luck.
great vid,nice kid..super info layout to go by w links
very awesome 😎😎 i wish i get that material soon 😑
Thanks! Feel free to let me know if you have any questions!
Thanks for the video. Here another idea: replace the front bike wheel with a wheel with an ebike motor on it. That way, there should be a lot less peedaling resistance (I hope).. You may have to connect a bridge rectifier, after the ebike motor. Also, have a volt meter in the circuit, to make sure you are not inputting too much voltage into the battery. What do you think? Thanks again!
Very good. I'm guessing you could basically wire this into the house mains just as solar charged batteries are.
not really. I mean, sure, the extra few watts that you offset against the utilities supply MIGHT be barely noticeable... for my money I'd power up a video screen or a fan- maybe just use the system as a way to keep my phone's charge topped up. setting up this brilliant contraption as a way to make keeping my portable batteries charged the way i actually get and stay in shape may be my best idea yet! Imagine the bragging rights: "Oh no i don't just charge my phone- i physically make the electricity it runs on- I could become a local legend (at least in my own mind)
Great video! for how long can you store the energy produced in this type of battery and which battery would you recommend?
The battery I used in the video (and the one linked in the description) are small 7Ah motorcycle/UPS (or similar) batteries, which are great for cheap and easy demonstration purposes, but I do not recommend them for long term storage or significant loads. Long term disconnected battery storage discharge rate is usually provided on a battery's spec sheet, but I do not know this information off the top of my head. However, larger deep-cycle batteries are much better suited for this sort of job, so I would recommend something like a 35Ah AGM deep cycle, or bigger... And if you really want to spend some money, lithium ion or lithium iron batteries are both great, but you will need a specific charge controller for those
You can store it for about a year. And the bigger the battery the better!
For quicker conversion, I would probably buy the city tire and buy its own inner tube specifically for this purpose. In fact, how about a whole extra wheel, to make it practically hot-swappable?
Cyrus the Acceptable that's a great idea! It would definitely be quicker to switch that way, haha
Aye well I couldn't have gotten the idea without seeing yours, first. Thank you for sharing
Cyrus the Acceptable no problem, thanks for watching!
Superb bro i really appreciate your effort
excellent vid. thanks
No problem, thank you! If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know!
Thank you for this.
No problem! Thanks for watching
This will teach kids to get a real job
I don't follow exactly what you mean here....are you suggesting that all kids should go into engineering because it is a "real" job? As opposed to which "fake" jobs?
@@LifeIsForEnjoying so they dont have to be a loser like you
@@mwint1982 ahhh, I see, so you're assuming I'm already a full-time TH-camr with no "real" job? I'm flattered, thank you! I must be making progress if people think it's already true! 😆
Heyyy any updates on this project? I’m building one currently & would love to see any improvements or updates. ❤
The improvements I would recommend are
1: Use a decent MPPT charge controller, rather than the cheap PWM one I used...this will improve efficiency and widen the compatibility with motors/generators, since it has a wider voltage/current range
2: Shop around to see what motors/generators there are out there. Choices were limited when I first did this, but now that e-bikes are a bigger deal, there are probably a lot of good choices out there
3: Use resettable DC breakers on each side of the charge controller to both protect things from over-current and act as a switch to fully disconnect things, when you want (don't use an old light switch like I do in the video)
4: Use lower gauge (thicker) wires than I do...especially if you're hooking up a sizable inverter to the battery. My thin wires were for proof-of-concept and were probably not ideal for efficiency or safety.
Let me know if you have any other questions while you build it!
awh thanx so much. That was a great video and had more info for me :)
one thought thanks! Glad to hear it helped out!
I think if you could incorporate a heavy flywheel it would conserve a lot of man power... Bursts of pedaling instead of constant... Kinda of like a hit or miss engine design
That's a very good point...I was considering clamping some washers onto the wheel to get a little bit of flywheel effect, but I have a feeling I would need a LOT of washers to make that effective, haha
Life Is For Enjoying... Yea! I love science and engineering! Great vid
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it and thank you for the suggestion :-)
Would be cool to see with a high output alternator!
I would assume that no human is capable of producing enough power to get the full benefit of one... According to this (www.cyclist.co.uk/in-depth/539/how-much-better-are-pro-cyclists), even the top pro sprinter cyclists put out a max of 1600 Watts of power for a short time, which would be just over 130 amps in a 12v system. This means that you and I couldn't even dream of using a 150Amp high-output alternator to its full potential for even a second... But you can always hook it up and see what happens!
@@LifeIsForEnjoying I wonder if the average Joe could do better than a professional athlete. If you modded the bike so it could support a bigger wheel and or wheels. Of course I don't know what the resistance feels like already?
Really effective work
Thank you very much!
Great project. Any idea how long it will take to fully charge the battery?
Loved your video! Would you happen to know how much energy (W) you can make in an hour? thanks!
Thanks! To clarify, Watts are a measure of power, not energy. They are an instantaneous measurement of voltage times the current(amperage). This is why batteries are normally labeled using Amp-hours, milliamp-hours, or Watt-hours, because this incorporates time into the measurement to explain how much power is available for how long, which would be effectively a measure of its potential energy. This being said, I would estimate that this setup could produce about 150W,but I never actually measured it, unfortunately. This means if you can keep peddling for an hour, you could produce about 150 Watt-hours... Pedal for 2 hours for 300 Watt-hours, etc
Can I purchase a written copy of these instructions that would include the step by step process and also where to go to purchase the necessary working components you show in the video?
I put links to the components in the description of the video, so just look below the video (web) or click the arrow (mobile) to see those links, but they may be out of date by now. I unfortunately don't have time right now to write these into a set of instructions, but the video should be fairly simple and straightforward to follow. Sorry, but thank you for your interest!
Hi! I want to build a bike generator using an old exercise bike with some of my students. I'm afraid some while I understand the gist of your directions the math eludes me and I'd rather not electrocute any kids or burn down the school. Could you direct me to any written resources that would help me figure out the motor and battery size. I would like to be able to power a USB port or outlest for cell phones. The idea is to SHOW the students how much energy we use in terms they can understand. Ultimately, I would like to have several of these in the cafeteria for students to use. Thanks so much! I would be happy to share all lesson materials with you if I can get the bike to work.
This sounds like a fun project! If you want to just make a proof-of-concept project, you don't necessarily need the battery or charge controller... Connecting straight from the motor to a 12-24v USB charger, you could also feel the extra work needed to charge a cell phone. Human skin is high enough resistance that anything under 30V is safe to handle directly, so I think that could be a great project! Which math was confusing you the most, determining the pulley size, or voltage/current/power?
Great video
Thanks!
I loved your video. I was just wondering if the generator could possibly power a mini barbeque (like one of those Korean ones). And if it could, how would I be able to set that up?
Thanks! Technically, this setup could *contribute* to powering just about anything electrical, as long as you can find an inverter capable of handling it... The question is really more about how significant the contribution would be. If you connect this generator to a battery and inverter powering a 200W television, but it is only generating 150W, the television will still work, you will just be draining the battery as if a 50W device were connected with no generator.
I couldn't find any power consumption numbers for mini ones, but this one is 1000W, meaning this generator would likely offset about one tenth of the power consumed www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01JIBOFYS/ref=as_li_tl?imprToken=ChDrSiW4crcBBZ4wiSHdGQ&slotNum=2&ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B01JIBOFYS&linkCode=w61&tag=bbqbarbecuegr-20&linkId=a6fc58ab22a35869662718261565dfcb
Hi, I just had a quick question. Is there a way to reverse the direction you have to rotate the generator in order to produce power, or can the generator only produce when it’s rotated clockwise?
Good question! I believe, in the general case of DC motors (but possibly not all of them), just as reversing the polarity would make them rotate in the opposite direction, rotating them in the opposite direction would reverse the polarity of the voltage being generated.... This means that if you installed things backwards on accident, you can just flip the red and black wires on the motor, and everything else should work the same. Again, this is a generalization for DC motors and may not always be the case. Some may be designed with integrated fans, etc, that may cause it to overheat faster by spinning backwards, due to insufficient airflow.
Life Is For Enjoying thank you, you’ve been a huge help!
@@ds4056 no problem! Keep up the good questions!
I just finished setting up my system, the only problem is that whenever I start pedaling, the motor spins up as if being charged from the battery. Is my solar charger not working properly?
Thank you so much.
No problem! Thanks for watching!
Awesome 💖
Thanks 🤗
very nice video! detailed! what about powering an incandescent lamp or like a
charging station
Thanks! Any device you are able to power for a short time is mainly determined by the battery, the cables, and the inverter sizes you use. With a big enough battery and inverter, you could power a large space heater or A/C if you really wanted to... HOWEVER, I would estimate that this setup can only produce about 150Watts of charging power to the battery, so if you intend to use only the bike power and not use any battery you would be limited to about 150Watts. For example, you could plug in a 60Watt incandescent light bulb to a 100 watt inverter, and as long as you are peddling, the battery would stay fully charged. If you hooked up three 60watt light bulbs to a 200W inverter, they would be pulling 180Watts, and the bike would be producing 150watts, so the battery would be draining at a rate similar to plugging in a 30Watt light bulb... Does that all make sense?
Great video! Well done : D
Thank you!
Great Video! I have a question though. How do you hook up the device to plug things into? Perhaps you could make a video of how to do that with and a demonstration of you powering something. Thanks, Noah
Noah Berman all you need is an inverter and 2 wires to connect to the battery... Nothing special or difficult there! Sorry I didn't show that in more detail
Thanks for this nice video! I made about the same setup, with a Wanderer, but I happen to notice there is a 1amp current coming from the PV to the motor when charging, making it spin and harder to compensate. I don't know how to fix it.
I've heard of a few people having that problem...seems like that would indicate a defective or damaged charge controller to me. I don't know for sure, though.
The surface area of the turbine needs more dir3ct contact with the two wheels, redoublement of its internal generating energy will yield even more energy!
This does give me mcuh needed ideas for a generator that I was tasked with at work, thank you so much! quick question though, does it have to be a big motor? I was given just small, toy car-like motors :/
Using small motors will accomplish the same thing, but obviously on a much smaller scale... Think of what the motor was designed to power, and that will give you a good idea for the size of what could be used to do the opposite. For example, the motor I used is designed for small motorized bicycles/scooters, so turning that around and powering the motor WITH a bike makes sense. Powering an RC car motor with a bike does not make sense and you will end up burning out the motor.
Life Is For Enjoying I know, I know, I’ll most likely burn it just to show my boss that such a small motor is not gonna work, I had found dynamos and bigger motors online, but I was told to work with just what we already had :/
Haha, i know how that goes! Best of luck to you!
Good job !
Thanks!
Nice idea🙏🙏🙏🙏
Thanks!
Hi, thank you for the precious info. Do you think you can connect a switch for switching on the controller and then adjust the power output while you are pedaling?
Very helpful video brother thanks
faisal prince no problem! Glad to hear that :-) thanks for watching!
👍 Thanks for this video 👍
Sir this bldc motor can directly run by dc 0-60 volt 0-1000 watt alternator if this can posible so please reply
Thanks for watching! Glad to hear it helped you. I'm not sure I entirely understand your question, but the motor I have linked in the description can only be run by 12VDC, 24VDC, or 36VDC. 60VDC is outside that range, so I would not recommend applying 60V to that motor. If you are asking if a 60VDC 1000 Watt alternator could be used in place of that motor, it is probably possible, but you would want to check the input voltage range of the charge controller you are using. Some charge controllers will support 100V input and charge a 12V battery, but some will max out at 30V or so.
Awesome video, Thank you very much! One question, what is the 12 inches for in the equation?
Thanks! I measured the wheel size in inches, but am looking for a ratio involving miles/hour, so to get from inches to miles I do 1 inch = 1/12 of a foot and then 1 foot = 1/5280 mile
what would be the best way to control the voltage that goes out of the bike, to make it 12 V stable, since that is what the charge controller needs.
what i mean is that no matter how strong you pedal theres something in between motor and controller.
would you use a resistor or a capacitor, or maybe both?
The charge controller is designed to handle a range of voltage, so you don't really need to add anything to regulate it more than that... MPPT charge controllers can handle an even wider range than PWM ones, so if you upgrade to that, you really don't have to worry about it
Thanks, its very informative
Can u add a bigger battery for a longer charger and able to use multiple devices??
You can absolutely use whatever size battery you want, but you want to make sure the voltage matches the output of the charge controller and keep in mind that the bigger the battery, the longer it will take to charge to 100% (and the cost/size/weight that comes with it)
I was gonna maybe do this in the future if I might want to save on electricity but I doubt neighbors would appreciate the noise 😅
Also can u make a maybe more mobile version where u can take it on camping or something?
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what is the sustainable amperage you can create? what about the average person who is in shape?
I unfortunately never ended up doing any good measurements, but based on the devices I ran directly, I would estimate around 150 Watts would be sustainable, which in a 12V system would be around 12 amps
It's really nice, what's the name of the motor and how much does it cost?
There should be links in the description
good idea
Thanks!
I am finally revisting this. :) What size of wire ..do you recommend from the battery to switch to contoller and visa versa..Thanks.
This is my usual go-to chart for determining wire size for DC circuits like this www.bluesea.com/resources/1437
Since I would estimate this setup to be around 150 watts, maximum, for a 12v system, that's about 12Amps...so, according to the chart, if you have a circuit length less than 10ft, you could stay below 3% voltage drop with 12AWG cables and below 10% drop for up to 30ft circuit length.
Note: I do recommend using a real DC switch (or resettable 20A DC breaker) rather than a household switch like I used in the video
@@LifeIsForEnjoying gotchya! Thank you!! So much!!!
maybe I missed it ... how much electricity would this make ? Or specifically would this have enough power to charge a car battery or a 12 volt battery ?
The system in the video is charging a 12v battery, and a car battery is 12v, so it could certainly charge that as well, but ideally you would use a deep cycle battery for this sort of thing, not a car battery. The real question, however, which I unfortunately did not answer in the video, is "how long would it take to charge battery X from empty?" otherwise worded as "how much power output does this produce". I still haven't connected this up to measure the output power, but I would estimate around 150Watts of power output at a sustainable pace. This would be 12.5 Amps in a 12V system, which would mean it could theoretically charge a 12Ah battery in one hour, 24Ah battery in two hours, etc...
Thank you! Awesome! 2 questions pls.:
1) Could this be used with waterwheel as well?
2)What about putting the whole thing (bettery n generator..) behind the bicycle so that when I bike out still charging?
Jake
Thanks! I don't see any issue with using a similar setup for building a waterwheel, but you will want to re-calculate things based on the speed you expect the water to be normally travelling and the size of the wheel to shoot for the proper ratio.
I don't think I understand your second question, but there should not be any issue with relocating the motor and battery anywhere nearby
So interesting video ! Thanks ao much ! Any idea where to buy a great bike generator ? (Looks to difficult for my level 😊)
There are certainly some commercial pedal-powered generators that you can find online at Amazon, etc, but this is actually a very simple project to do safely and learn a lot while you do it! No need to be an engineer, just give it a try and I think you will impress yourself!
@@LifeIsForEnjoying Thanks so much...i ll try then 😊
@@Marshmalo99 No problem! Feel free to ask any questions you might have while you're at it :-)