And you don't even have a Pulley on the treadmill motor - for the belt. That's how I set up my generator also! I just got a new treadmill motor. (or 3 years used). I was gonna try get a pulley but I'll probably skip it again.
in the case of a typical cheap treadmill motor, results in the HP falling by the square of the speed- as in, at half RPM, HP is a quarter rating, at a quarter speed it's a sixteenth, etc. If you lower the voltage the current will be lower. So in order to calculate the actual power we need to find the R or resistance of the motor. If we use ohms law V = I x R and rearrange it to V/I = R then 95Volts/21.4amps= 4.44 ohms. The formula for Power in watts is Vsqrd/R or 48v x 48v / 4.44ohms = 519 watts At full voltage 95v x 95v / 4.44 = 2033 watts V = volts, I = current, R = resistance in ohms. So that's 44 watts at 4.44 ohms and 14 volts! Not the watts you are claiming. thanks
Troy, this is the first video I ever remember of you. I followed you for years and learned so much. I even started making my own videos and bought my own solar panels. I hope you're doing alright now. Thanks for sharing
Diodes do not work well in parallel. Electricity takes the path of least resistance and manufacturing differences between diodes cause them to be slightly different from diode to diode. Even if it is only slightly different the diode with the least resistance will get hit with the majority of the power causing it to fail prematurely. You would be better off finding a single diode of sufficient capacity. You can also connect them in parallel by installing a resistor to each diode to balance the loading but then you are wasting power in heat through the high current low ohm resistors thus again you are better off with a single large diode in this application. Just thought I'd toss that idea out there to you. Cool video!
I think the idea of pouring concrete in the spokes of the back wheel of the bike is the easiest one I have heard of so far. It will add mass and should be relatively even. It would be easy to balance due to its already being on the bike bearings.
Yes I have used one with a bike like this. It is very hard to turn and gives you quite a workout but it does work. You must have the coil energized with a flip switch though or it will not work. Get the bike pedals pumping, flip the switch and charge the batteries. When you flip the switch you can feel the drag on the pedals.
For those willing to buy the gas, stick a bike motor on it. Those things get like 60 miles to the gallon. You could charge up a good amount of batteries off of a five gallon gas tank
Some irrigation to divert a stream near by and a man made mini water fall will solve the having to get on the bicycle to recharge the batteries. But still practical idea especially if you live in a desert.
DreDredel3 The stream here is on a neighbor property so out of the question. In a grid down scenario this would provide both exercise and some power. It would be especially valuable in a bunker or just to save some power even now.
Depends on the size of the battery. But, I figure this puts out about 300 watts of power. Maybe a little less. Lets even say 200 due to you getting a bit tired and maybe slowing down a bit. Take a 100 AH battery, then it would take about 5 to 10 hours roughly estimated, to charge the battery. That is equivalent to a standard plug in the wall charger time as well, for comparison. But, since you are not supposed to discharge a battery below 50%, then half that. Swap with family and keep it going
Cool idea - I might try this myself. Be careful with your battery placement, it's a little too close to the gas tank, big trouble if you get an accidental arc discharge.
Hard to answer because it depends on the size of battery and the depth of discharge. Estimating 300 watts output for this motor you get about 25 amps per hour of usable energy. Count for some losses in the lines and battery figure maybe 15 amps. An average "car" battery has maybe 50 amps hours capacity. That means just over 3 hours if its fully discharged. A deep cycle may have as much as 100 AH or more. Means a lot more work.
I noticed in one of your other videos that you only have one battery bank. It is bad for batteries to be charged while under load. If you want to charge batteries and still run a load you need two battery banks. One for running the load while the other is charging. Your batteries and your wallet will love you for it. Peace!
You would need an inverter since household appliances don't normally run off of DC (Direct Current), let alone 12v. The inverter converts the output to 115v-120v AC (Alternating Current), so that is definitely a must in most cases. There are many ways to connect wires, but soldering would be a good start. I would say the white wire was positive (the one with the diodes) because diodes should always be connected to the positive current lead.
@@bencentral5713 yes they are incorrectly claiming high amps when in fact the battery resistance is very high since they are just topping off their battery.
@@nikims_ yes unfortunately the resistance of batteries are typically too low so the draw is not strong enough. But they have their batteries with loads on them and then they are just topping off their batteries under load. Normally a battery charger for any kind of inverter has a built in voltage management at around 80%. So the draw as resistance is increased dramatically to then drop the voltage level to make sure the battery is not over charged. So then if you are trying to charge when the battery is being topped off - then it will take an extra long time to do the last 20%. For lithium batteries there is even a final 1 hour for just evening out the individual cell voltages without any amps going in at all. So yeah unless we know what kind of loads they have then we can't know the amps - you are correct. I have uploaded on my channel different draw load examples - so I pedal at 6 amps for light bulbs - 12 volts - oh that must have been 5 amps so 60 watt light bulb at 12 volts. But since the load was so strong then the resistance was - what's Ohms again? volts/amps I think - so over 2 ohms - resistance on PEDALING was also very strong. So it's better to do low watts for a longer time and then power a device directly without charging a battery. I power a 10 watt DVD player so then I can watch a whole movie without being worn out. Right now I have a battery of 31 amp-hours - I have used it down to about 20 percent. So it's only at 6 amp-hours. I also have a DIGITAL DC-DC buck converter so I can read digital amp output of my DC motor generator-bicycle charger. So I'll try charging up the battery on bicycle and see how many amps the generator draws. But I think the internal battery management system will limit the amp draw to just 6 amps at most. Normally I just get a 3 amp draw on the generator-battery-inverter and so that does not create too much pedaling resistance. So that way I can pedal for an hour and increase the generator charge by 10%. Oh I remember now - I had a 10 watt draw hooked up to the DC output - but it kept shutting down because the cord had the polarity switched. So... yeah I was gonna check how much draw I could increase by having the battery load increased while charging. It depends on how the cells of the batteries are hooked up. I have 9 cells for 4 packs each for 36 total cells for 346 watt-hours. So they are wired in parallel so the draw is actually just for one of the four packs of 9 cells. 31/4=about 9 amps per cell. So at 12 volts the Ohms resistance is 1.3. The built in battery management has I think an 8 amp fuse or something - so I think it will only draw at that limit. Yeah so a normal 12 volt battery I suppose has no limit - just the total amp hours will give the ohm resistance based on how close you are to topping it off. Oh my car charging was not working - I'll test that first. That normally draws only 6 amps.
@@nikims_ I reset the Dc-Dc buck converter to over 8 amps to see if the battery would draw that much but I forgot to SAVE the settings. I have to review the instructions. I had it set to limit to 1.5 amps for powering the portable DVD player (10 watts)....
You are probably right in that. But a flywheel is very helpful. I guess I can always keep some extra bearings on hand. But, then again, look at how they load up bikes in China and India. They can take a beating. I guess I will find out. Getting into winter now, so I will probably do it in spring and post another video.
The white on the diode is positive. Yes solder them, thats best. More batteries is better. It is a lot of work to charge batteries though, so be ready for some exercise. The batteries life depends on what you use. Move to a laptop and an LED tv and your batteries will thank you. You need an inverter to run AC household appliances.
The batteries hold 200 Ah, or 2400 Watts total power. The bike puts out about 150 to 300 Watts. So it would take about 8 to 16 hours to fully top off the batteries. But you should never allow the batteries to get that low. One hour of peddling provides 2 - 4 hours of laptop use for example. Or 2.5 to 5 hours of running a 60 Watt light bulb. Or you could run a ccfl light for 15 - 30 hours on a single hour of peddling. You could run a fridge or blender peddling full speed non stop.
Yes, very true. That is why I do not plan to change the world. Just to change my little part of it and show others that they can do the same. Stay under the radar and have your little bit of peace.
Awesome, thank you sir! It seems so obvious now. I've gotten a lot of help from youtubers like you's videos and replying to my comments for my projects. Thanks again.
Yes, very much so. I will fill the wheel with cement one day to make it a flywheel. It will be so much easier to peddle and will reduce strain on the bike and mounting frame.
Very cool! I don't like the weights on pedals suggestion. The mass should be added to the rear wheel or even the motor somehow, since that's what needs to turn at a steady rate. Maybe extend the motor shaft and attach a round weight. The hard part will be proper balancing to prevent wobble and bearing stress. Also, you can pick a lower gear and just pedal faster to produce equivalent power.
The battery is considered safe in that configuration as long as the protective cover stays on it and no connections are made or broken or the battery is allowed to short out at the terminals or wiring in the immediate vicinity of the tanks while the tanks are attached. There was likely a warning placard on the original battery cover. The battery belongs there because it will vent flammable gas, just like the tanks. There is risk, but it's accepted if you want electricity and gas.
Put the bike inside and you dont have to worry about the snow :) plus you will help heat the living space. I have suggestion for the flywheel, if you want to do it cheap put a tire back on the bike wheel, make a mount to hold a big rig tire/wheel/hub assembly, (just make a bracket out of wood or metal to bolt to the spindle) and friction drive it from the bike wheel. Make an adaptor to bolt a keyway hub to the truck wheel, and drive the motor directly. You could gear up the bike to get the proper rpm.
With the Bedini motor you do not need to flush the batteries. It is actually best not to do so. When I get it set back up I will be restoring batteries again.
Alice, If you need to convert the rotational movement from a wheel to a back and forth motion, Find some pictures of an old steam engine and look at the wheels. You'll see a rod connected to the outer edge of the wheel that will go back and forth as the wheel turns.
Yeah, makes me wonder too. Thats how the camper was made. An alternator has no magnets, so it wont work. Get a motor scooter motor off ebay for about $30 to 50. Use that instead. People get good results with them. High power means higher voltage. Go with 24 or 36 volts.
They used to have an exhibit at the epcot center where you could use a bicycle generator. Of course the read out said I would have to peddle for 7 days to get the output you could get from 1 gallon of gasoline in 1980s technology. And I was a 200+ miles a week bicyclist in those days.
I really wish there were power plants that used this system. Very low maintenance, crazy low setup cost, and with enough bikes, plenty of green, sustainable power.
Keyshell Let's sentence prison inmates to "X # of kilowatts generated" instead of months or years in a cage. We'd have a future generation of Tour de France winners...
Transmitting through brain waves. I use my cell phone. It is off grid because I have no wires, pipes or hoses to my home. Without the phone I would not be uploading videos and this channel would not exist. But when the grid fails, I am happy and comfy just as well.
Very cool. Now can i take 4 6v deep cycle batteries from a golf cart, wire them together in series so i have a 24v(or wire them into 2 12v) battery, use a bike to a alternator to charge them every once and a while, then get a 2000 watt inverter and plug in a space heater and some lights?
It depends on how many batteries you get and how many watts your electronics use. Say two golf cart batteries at 200 AH x 12 votls = 2400 Watt hours. Say your stuff uses 400 Watts, then you get about 6 hours on a full charge. If your treadmill motor puts out about 400 watts, then it takes 6 hours to charge the batteries back up. Ouch. Or hook it up to a windmill and get the energy for free.
Ouch, i never looked at the math to see how much I wasted. A buck inverter would also help match the voltage of the motor to the voltage of the batteries. This would reduce wasted power as well. One day I will be working on this idea. Thanks for the info.
It will never be accepted by big oil and industry because it is a sustainable energy. Meaning, once you buy the gear, there are no more costs associated with it later. oil keeps us coming back for more and more and more.
if you put a much bigger flywheel (something with considerable weight) on the motor would this make the rotation smoother in the end and easier to peddle?
You can charge just about anything with this if you charge up a small 12 volt lead acid battery first and then use car chargers for your small electronics
A common AC motor will not work because they have no magnets in them. Use DC motors which have permanent magnets inside and can product power when turned.
Most of it is surface charge. Batteries hold a lot of energy, that's why it takes so much work to raise it .1 volt. If you ever have inconsistent reading it's the meter and not the battery.
Thanks for the great tip. The weights would probably help smooth out the rotation, wouldnt they? I am also considering adding cement to the back wheel to act like a huge flywheel.
With my ideas as a future mad scientist type person. I have thought of making a coil gun and induction heating to make exploding flint guns. But I realized it would take power, so this is a great idea to get a work out and make energy! :P
How long do you have to ride the bike for to keep up a good day's worth of battery work? This is such a simple, and brilliant idea, I'm happy to have stumbled upon this!(:
For details, come to thediyworld (dot) com forum and I will be happy to help you out. The short version is NOT car batteries. Use true deep cycle batteries (not marine starting). Other than that, use a volt meter to fine which wire is plus when you pedal the bike. Hook up plus from the motor to plus of the batteries and minus to minus. A diode in the + side blocks voltage from the batteries draining back out thru the motor. Thats the simple version.
I got all the other parts pretty well thought out, but I couldnt think of how to build a good reliable stand...what you got there looks perfect. My only question is, what metal parts do you have on top of the 2x4's that connect to the axle bolts on the bike?
be aware your meter does not show all the high voltage spikes coming from the generator and these can reduce the life of the battery substantially especially if using gel or agm batteries. if you have a solar charge controller use that for ease or get a 15/20A step down with constant current dcdc module from ebay. also lots of decoupling/filtering caps and a flyback diode across the generator. the caps must be rated to handle the highest spikes so a 90v motor potentially may put out 150v+. peace
I get 8 hours on a gallon of gas to charge my batteries at 40 amps. The only energy I exert is to pull the starter rope. The only time I use is about 5 minutes a day to start and stop my generator. you are getting 5 or 6 amps out of that. At that rate it would take you about 60 hours of peddling to replace what I use in 24 (assuming you don't stop to eat drink or rest). I leave the TV on at night for a night light. I don't have to conserve energy for $90 a month
I have a treadmill motor in mind for the same type of project. The label says it can produce over 23 Amps. Would a 25 Amp charge controller or a 25 Amp diode be better to use? Thanks for your video, it was cool to watch.
I'm impressed. He has a volt meter to measure voltage, but at 2:45 he uses his fingers to measure the current? He's got a multimeter the measures 10a. Can someone tell me why he's using the meter to measure voltage and his fingers to measure current? Work or wattage is what we care about, not voltage or potential.
Agree. I'm sick of the perpetual motion and other magic on youtube. Physics in this case is easy. Humans can only produce so much power. "About 1HP" for very short periods, and a fraction of that over an hours time. Not counting losses and losses might amount to more than 50%, a HP is about 750 watts. I doubt, frankly, those batteries would charge from that mess in 2 days time. Last, I guess the OP has never heard of battery "surface charge." This is artificially raised voltage immediately after charging. You must let the batteries rest for a bit to get a true reading.
I can't tell you why he did those things... but if he's right about the amperage being 8-12, and the voltage was 12-14 then we can safely conclude it was about 96-168 watts per hour, which is completely within human levels, and also a fairly useful amount of power in the grand scheme of things. It's enough power after an hour's worth of pedalling to microwave a burrito ;)
savaship Would pedaling for an hour even be enough? The smallest microwave oven is 600 watts. Don't you think it would take about 1,000 watts for 2 min to nuke a burrito?
Great idea. Guy Martin uk recently rode a bike upto 100mph he used a 3rd crank to ease the strain of the very tall gearing. That could surly be applied here too not so drastic but just make it alittle more comfortable to ride. Or put in the same effort but get higher voltages from the better gear set up.
So I'm guessing that in this setup you'd have to moderate your speed to moderate the voltage output. If you pedaled too fast you'd put out too high a voltage. I've heard that you can get a solar controller that will step down the voltage while boosting the current. That way you can use motors with higher voltage outputs to charge low voltage batteries. The plus side of this is that many larger motors that are available for salvaging are higher voltage
Actually I just pedal as hard as I can sustain. The battery absorbs it. But yes a charge controller will be much more efficient and give you more power in the battery.
The motor must be just the right specs then. What is the maximum voltage you can get if you pedal as hard as you can? Also, what is the maximum wattage output of the motor? I imagine if you have a high enough wattage motor then you will only ever achieve low voltages when using it as a bike generator because to get it to its max rpm (and therefore maximum voltage output) would require its maximum wattage output. Eg. If you had a 90 volt motor with a max output of 1000 watt and your target output voltage is 14 volt, you would want to run the motor at 15.5% (14/90) of its max output. Assuming that the relationship between the wattage input and the voltage out is linear (I'm not sure if this is the case) then the wattage necessary would be 155.5 watt (0.155x1000). From the figures I've been reading on average output of someone on a bike, that would be the upper end of what most people could output anyway. Not sure if the assumptions around the linear relationship between rpm/wattage/voltage are correct, but if they are then if you choose a mid-range voltage motor (around 90 volts) that outputs around 1000 watts then you effectively eliminate the need for expensive charge controllers.
@@burdocktheloopwizard this type of motor gets the power from RPMs - so for a treadmill - a typical RPM value is 6700 RPM 18 AMP MAGNET. So at 14 volts you can see the amps is very low. "alternator runs off RPM, not HP. A 100 amp alternator must turn at 1200 RPM to produce 100 amps. At 600 RPM it will generate half that or 50 amps." And so the battery has a 2 Ohm resistance but what is the resistance of the treadmill at low speeds? With that kind of RPM rating - there is a high torque at low speeds, so high back current resistance at low voltage.
Boban Orlovic Because capacitors hold a charge, it would keep the load constant, so the voltage doesn’t drop making it easier to power it. An inductor would keep the current constant as well. These are basic filtering techniques to help generating power more constant instead of the load being on/off all the time. It is also less wear on any batteries.
the would actually generate less electricity cuz it will turn slowly . for every 1 turn of pedals the wheel will rotate 7 times , and for every 1 revolution of the wheel the motor will rotate 7 times
Wow! Great video! Off grid people are amazing! Who would have thought about a bicycle generator? Tell me, when you planted your bicycle seeds and treadmill motor seeds how long did it take them to grow? With that much pedaling you could have taken your ass to work and back and paid for electricity for a month! You guys have definitely outsmarted society...
the white wire with the diodes is that a positive or negative wire, do u need to solder the wires to the diodes? do you need an inverter to use the car batteries? I want to make one to charge the tv and computer..how long does the batteries last should I buy 4 batteries as were getting sick from the smart meters and im a concerned mum looking for another option..
Actually, many years ago I saw that a man had done just that. If the kids wanted TV or a game, they had to pedal for it. Good stuff.
And you don't even have a Pulley on the treadmill motor - for the belt. That's how I set up my generator also! I just got a new treadmill motor. (or 3 years used). I was gonna try get a pulley but I'll probably skip it again.
in the case of a typical cheap treadmill motor, results in the HP falling by the square of the speed- as in, at half RPM, HP is a quarter rating, at a quarter speed it's a sixteenth, etc.
If you lower the voltage the current will be lower.
So in order to calculate the actual power we need to find the R or resistance of the motor. If we use ohms law V = I x R and rearrange it to V/I = R then 95Volts/21.4amps= 4.44 ohms.
The formula for Power in watts is Vsqrd/R or
48v x 48v / 4.44ohms = 519 watts
At full voltage 95v x 95v / 4.44 = 2033 watts
V = volts, I = current, R = resistance in ohms.
So that's 44 watts at 4.44 ohms and 14 volts! Not the watts you are claiming. thanks
Troy, this is the first video I ever remember of you. I followed you for years and learned so much. I even started making my own videos and bought my own solar panels. I hope you're doing alright now. Thanks for sharing
Diodes do not work well in parallel. Electricity takes the path of least resistance and manufacturing differences between diodes cause them to be slightly different from diode to diode. Even if it is only slightly different the diode with the least resistance will get hit with the majority of the power causing it to fail prematurely. You would be better off finding a single diode of sufficient capacity. You can also connect them in parallel by installing a resistor to each diode to balance the loading but then you are wasting power in heat through the high current low ohm resistors thus again you are better off with a single large diode in this application. Just thought I'd toss that idea out there to you. Cool video!
Thank you -an aspiring tradesman
I think the idea of pouring concrete in the spokes of the back wheel of the bike is the easiest one I have heard of so far. It will add mass and should be relatively even. It would be easy to balance due to its already being on the bike bearings.
Yes I have used one with a bike like this. It is very hard to turn and gives you quite a workout but it does work.
You must have the coil energized with a flip switch though or it will not work. Get the bike pedals pumping, flip the switch and charge the batteries.
When you flip the switch you can feel the drag on the pedals.
Its exercise and free energy at the same time. Running an engine uses gas, which costs money. I will make a wind turbine soon.
For those willing to buy the gas, stick a bike motor on it. Those things get like 60 miles to the gallon. You could charge up a good amount of batteries off of a five gallon gas tank
Some irrigation to divert a stream near by and a man made mini water fall will solve the having to get on the bicycle to recharge the batteries. But still practical idea especially if you live in a desert.
DreDredel3 The stream here is on a neighbor property so out of the question. In a grid down scenario this would provide both exercise and some power. It would be especially valuable in a bunker or just to save some power even now.
Depends on the size of the battery. But, I figure this puts out about 300 watts of power. Maybe a little less. Lets even say 200 due to you getting a bit tired and maybe slowing down a bit.
Take a 100 AH battery, then it would take about 5 to 10 hours roughly estimated, to charge the battery. That is equivalent to a standard plug in the wall charger time as well, for comparison.
But, since you are not supposed to discharge a battery below 50%, then half that. Swap with family and keep it going
Cool idea - I might try this myself. Be careful with your battery placement, it's a little too close to the gas tank, big trouble if you get an accidental arc discharge.
Thank you. Yes, I have run some parallel diodes. The wires are going to be replaced with larger gauge ones soon.
Yes, that is a very good idea. I will change it out when I get a chance. I got some off ebay recently and just need to set it all up.
Hard to answer because it depends on the size of battery and the depth of discharge. Estimating 300 watts output for this motor you get about 25 amps per hour of usable energy.
Count for some losses in the lines and battery figure maybe 15 amps.
An average "car" battery has maybe 50 amps hours capacity. That means just over 3 hours if its fully discharged.
A deep cycle may have as much as 100 AH or more. Means a lot more work.
They found out something for there self's and others who did not know keep the knowledge coming brothers.
Yes, I think you mean a charge controller and I agree. It is better and safer for the batteries. I will be adding that soon as well. Thanks.
I noticed in one of your other videos that you only have one battery bank. It is bad for batteries to be charged while under load. If you want to charge batteries and still run a load you need two battery banks. One for running the load while the other is charging. Your batteries and your wallet will love you for it.
Peace!
You would need an inverter since household appliances don't normally run off of DC (Direct Current), let alone 12v. The inverter converts the output to 115v-120v AC (Alternating Current), so that is definitely a must in most cases.
There are many ways to connect wires, but soldering would be a good start.
I would say the white wire was positive (the one with the diodes) because diodes should always be connected to the positive current lead.
You are correct that some more circuitry would help out a bit. But at the speed I am turning the motor, I am not getting much voltage out of it.
You have to monitor the output amps and not the voltage/
This is true voltage is not the actual thing flowing but rather a "pushing force" Amperage is the a measurment of the current flowing through the wire
@@bencentral5713 yes they are incorrectly claiming high amps when in fact the battery resistance is very high since they are just topping off their battery.
@@nikims_ yes unfortunately the resistance of batteries are typically too low so the draw is not strong enough. But they have their batteries with loads on them and then they are just topping off their batteries under load. Normally a battery charger for any kind of inverter has a built in voltage management at around 80%. So the draw as resistance is increased dramatically to then drop the voltage level to make sure the battery is not over charged. So then if you are trying to charge when the battery is being topped off - then it will take an extra long time to do the last 20%. For lithium batteries there is even a final 1 hour for just evening out the individual cell voltages without any amps going in at all. So yeah unless we know what kind of loads they have then we can't know the amps - you are correct.
I have uploaded on my channel different draw load examples - so I pedal at 6 amps for light bulbs - 12 volts - oh that must have been 5 amps so 60 watt light bulb at 12 volts. But since the load was so strong then the resistance was - what's Ohms again? volts/amps I think - so over 2 ohms - resistance on PEDALING was also very strong. So it's better to do low watts for a longer time and then power a device directly without charging a battery. I power a 10 watt DVD player so then I can watch a whole movie without being worn out.
Right now I have a battery of 31 amp-hours - I have used it down to about 20 percent. So it's only at 6 amp-hours. I also have a DIGITAL DC-DC buck converter so I can read digital amp output of my DC motor generator-bicycle charger. So I'll try charging up the battery on bicycle and see how many amps the generator draws. But I think the internal battery management system will limit the amp draw to just 6 amps at most. Normally I just get a 3 amp draw on the generator-battery-inverter and so that does not create too much pedaling resistance. So that way I can pedal for an hour and increase the generator charge by 10%.
Oh I remember now - I had a 10 watt draw hooked up to the DC output - but it kept shutting down because the cord had the polarity switched. So... yeah I was gonna check how much draw I could increase by having the battery load increased while charging. It depends on how the cells of the batteries are hooked up. I have 9 cells for 4 packs each for 36 total cells for 346 watt-hours. So they are wired in parallel so the draw is actually just for one of the four packs of 9 cells. 31/4=about 9 amps per cell. So at 12 volts the Ohms resistance is 1.3. The built in battery management has I think an 8 amp fuse or something - so I think it will only draw at that limit. Yeah so a normal 12 volt battery I suppose has no limit - just the total amp hours will give the ohm resistance based on how close you are to topping it off. Oh my car charging was not working - I'll test that first. That normally draws only 6 amps.
@@nikims_ I reset the Dc-Dc buck converter to over 8 amps to see if the battery would draw that much but I forgot to SAVE the settings. I have to review the instructions. I had it set to limit to 1.5 amps for powering the portable DVD player (10 watts)....
@@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885 ye.
You are probably right in that. But a flywheel is very helpful. I guess I can always keep some extra bearings on hand.
But, then again, look at how they load up bikes in China and India. They can take a beating.
I guess I will find out. Getting into winter now, so I will probably do it in spring and post another video.
The white on the diode is positive. Yes solder them, thats best.
More batteries is better. It is a lot of work to charge batteries though, so be ready for some exercise.
The batteries life depends on what you use. Move to a laptop and an LED tv and your batteries will thank you.
You need an inverter to run AC household appliances.
The batteries hold 200 Ah, or 2400 Watts total power. The bike puts out about 150 to 300 Watts. So it would take about 8 to 16 hours to fully top off the batteries. But you should never allow the batteries to get that low.
One hour of peddling provides 2 - 4 hours of laptop use for example. Or 2.5 to 5 hours of running a 60 Watt light bulb.
Or you could run a ccfl light for 15 - 30 hours on a single hour of peddling.
You could run a fridge or blender peddling full speed non stop.
Yes, very true. That is why I do not plan to change the world. Just to change my little part of it and show others that they can do the same. Stay under the radar and have your little bit of peace.
Awesome, thank you sir! It seems so obvious now. I've gotten a lot of help from youtubers like you's videos and replying to my comments for my projects. Thanks again.
Yes, very much so. I will fill the wheel with cement one day to make it a flywheel. It will be so much easier to peddle and will reduce strain on the bike and mounting frame.
Great idea! Raise your seat and get some clipless pedals and shoes. Your pedaling efficiency will increase!
Yes I have seen those and you are right. i think I will invest in a set. Thanks.
I will also make a flywheel later.
Very cool!
I don't like the weights on pedals suggestion. The mass should be added to the rear wheel or even the motor somehow, since that's what needs to turn at a steady rate. Maybe extend the motor shaft and attach a round weight. The hard part will be proper balancing to prevent wobble and bearing stress. Also, you can pick a lower gear and just pedal faster to produce equivalent power.
The battery is considered safe in that configuration as long as the protective cover stays on it and no connections are made or broken or the battery is allowed to short out at the terminals or wiring in the immediate vicinity of the tanks while the tanks are attached. There was likely a warning placard on the original battery cover. The battery belongs there because it will vent flammable gas, just like the tanks. There is risk, but it's accepted if you want electricity and gas.
Put the bike inside and you dont have to worry about the snow :) plus you will help heat the living space. I have suggestion for the flywheel, if you want to do it cheap put a tire back on the bike wheel, make a mount to hold a big rig tire/wheel/hub assembly, (just make a bracket out of wood or metal to bolt to the spindle) and friction drive it from the bike wheel. Make an adaptor to bolt a keyway hub to the truck wheel, and drive the motor directly. You could gear up the bike to get the proper rpm.
What about leaving the motor in the treadmill and jogging? Or teach your dog to run on it.
***** Or 100 little gerbils, lol
This is great. if I get support, I could have manufactured one ROBO which pedals continously and we will use those electricity .
With the Bedini motor you do not need to flush the batteries. It is actually best not to do so. When I get it set back up I will be restoring batteries again.
It is a good idea. When I get some cash, I will be doing so. Thanks.
To help reduce the uneven input from the bicycle weight the rear wheel so it performs also as a flywheel.
Alice, If you need to convert the rotational movement from a wheel to a back and forth motion, Find some pictures of an old steam engine and look at the wheels. You'll see a rod connected to the outer edge of the wheel that will go back and forth as the wheel turns.
Yeah, makes me wonder too. Thats how the camper was made.
An alternator has no magnets, so it wont work.
Get a motor scooter motor off ebay for about $30 to 50. Use that instead. People get good results with them. High power means higher voltage. Go with 24 or 36 volts.
They used to have an exhibit at the epcot center where you could use a bicycle generator. Of course the read out said I would have to peddle for 7 days to get the output you could get from 1 gallon of gasoline in 1980s technology. And I was a 200+ miles a week bicyclist in those days.
Clever system there. Imagine if you could get 100% efficiency!
Thanks. That sure would be nice.
I really wish there were power plants that used this system. Very low maintenance, crazy low setup cost, and with enough bikes, plenty of green, sustainable power.
Keyshell Let's sentence prison inmates to "X # of kilowatts generated" instead of months or years in a cage. We'd have a future generation of Tour de France winners...
Keyshell And very low power output you couldn't even power a street light with one of these.
I'm not too sure about putting batteries behind the propane tanks though...
Aleon Vileslayer Most campers are designed like that
+The Do It Yourself World Its still stupid
Transmitting through brain waves.
I use my cell phone. It is off grid because I have no wires, pipes or hoses to my home. Without the phone I would not be uploading videos and this channel would not exist.
But when the grid fails, I am happy and comfy just as well.
This is so cool I wish my parents would let me do this
A cowboy on a bicycle next to a trailer home.... :)
AVALY T sounds like you're about to tell a bar joke
Very cool. Now can i take 4 6v deep cycle batteries from a golf cart, wire them together in series so i have a 24v(or wire them into 2 12v) battery, use a bike to a alternator to charge them every once and a while, then get a 2000 watt inverter and plug in a space heater and some lights?
An alternator would be better?
It depends on how many batteries you get and how many watts your electronics use. Say two golf cart batteries at 200 AH x 12 votls = 2400 Watt hours.
Say your stuff uses 400 Watts, then you get about 6 hours on a full charge.
If your treadmill motor puts out about 400 watts, then it takes 6 hours to charge the batteries back up. Ouch.
Or hook it up to a windmill and get the energy for free.
There is one but its very far from the camper. I plan to make a hydro plant and use smaller batteries to carry back and forth.
Ouch, i never looked at the math to see how much I wasted. A buck inverter would also help match the voltage of the motor to the voltage of the batteries. This would reduce wasted power as well. One day I will be working on this idea.
Thanks for the info.
I got a little DC-DC buck inverter so I get 3 to 4 amps while in lowest bicycle gear.
About 300 watts = about 25 amps depending on how fast you pedal.
Where do you plug in the volt meter?
did you have to disconnect or shut off the solar panels while using the bike generator??? please some one answer this
It will never be accepted by big oil and industry because it is a sustainable energy. Meaning, once you buy the gear, there are no more costs associated with it later. oil keeps us coming back for more and more and more.
True, I want to do that one day
Now thats an interesting thought. Consider the fact that the trailer was made that way. Funny the manufacturer did not think of that.
if you put a much bigger flywheel (something with considerable weight) on the motor would this make the rotation smoother in the end and easier to peddle?
Yes, I know. I am working on that problem right now. I had no money for it. I am saving up right now to do just that.
Should use a solar charge controller inline to keep the charging current steady.
Forgive my ignorance, what is the benefit of steady current?
It would be great exercise to run it while watching TV. To run much else you need batteries and a lot of riding time.
Yes i got a portable DVD player - so I can watch a movie while also powering the DVD player and also charging up the generator!
You can charge just about anything with this if you charge up a small 12 volt lead acid battery first and then use car chargers for your small electronics
You can use any old vehicle belt that fits.
Do you need a charge controller? I'm going to make this and don't know if i need one. i intend on charging 12v batteries.
no
this is so cool, how long would you estimate to fully charge a battery ???
amazing i´ll connect it to my cellphone charger and some small speakers while working out thats a nice way too keep going.
A common AC motor will not work because they have no magnets in them. Use DC motors which have permanent magnets inside and can product power when turned.
Most of it is surface charge. Batteries hold a lot of energy, that's why it takes so much work to raise it .1 volt. If you ever have inconsistent reading it's the meter and not the battery.
Thanks for the great tip. The weights would probably help smooth out the rotation, wouldnt they? I am also considering adding cement to the back wheel to act like a huge flywheel.
With my ideas as a future mad scientist type person. I have thought of making a coil gun and induction heating to make exploding flint guns. But I realized it would take power, so this is a great idea to get a work out and make energy! :P
cool :)
How long do you have to ride the bike for to keep up a good day's worth of battery work? This is such a simple, and brilliant idea, I'm happy to have stumbled upon this!(:
good basic video that gets to the point ..thank you.
Thanks
For details, come to thediyworld (dot) com forum and I will be happy to help you out.
The short version is NOT car batteries. Use true deep cycle batteries (not marine starting).
Other than that, use a volt meter to fine which wire is plus when you pedal the bike. Hook up plus from the motor to plus of the batteries and minus to minus.
A diode in the + side blocks voltage from the batteries draining back out thru the motor.
Thats the simple version.
I got all the other parts pretty well thought out, but I couldnt think of how to build a good reliable stand...what you got there looks perfect. My only question is, what metal parts do you have on top of the 2x4's that connect to the axle bolts on the bike?
What happened to the bike? i didnt see it in your newer videos.
Now all you need is to design some type of perpetual motion device with weights and counterweights for it to self pedal
You can't create energy from nothing
Hi i am considering making something like this. Do u have an improved design plan since this was made?
You could always charge your batteries in the car while your on the way to work then you can save gas and use the car. Good luck on the wind project.
How long does it take you to charge the two car batteries? How long does the electricity last?
that is super cool would love to see more!
be aware your meter does not show all the high voltage spikes coming from the generator and these can reduce the life of the battery substantially especially if using gel or agm batteries. if you have a solar charge controller use that for ease or get a 15/20A step down with constant current dcdc module from ebay. also lots of decoupling/filtering caps and a flyback diode across the generator. the caps must be rated to handle the highest spikes so a 90v motor potentially may put out 150v+. peace
lol. Thanks. I will be using it a lot now that I live in the camper full time and I am using solar power. And it keeps snowing.
Those are BMX bike foot pedals for people to stand on the back wheels of a BMX. Get them off ebay cheap.
Look up "BMX foot pegs" I think.
Did you connect both the negative and positive from the threadmill DC to negative and positive of the battery?
I get 8 hours on a gallon of gas to charge my batteries at 40 amps. The only energy I exert is to pull the starter rope. The only time I use is about 5 minutes a day to start and stop my generator. you are getting 5 or 6 amps out of that. At that rate it would take you about 60 hours of peddling to replace what I use in 24 (assuming you don't stop to eat drink or rest).
I leave the TV on at night for a night light. I don't have to conserve energy for $90 a month
I have a treadmill motor in mind for the same type of project. The label says it can produce over 23 Amps. Would a 25 Amp charge controller or a 25 Amp diode be better to use? Thanks for your video, it was cool to watch.
Very cool idea. Would be happy to help.
You can also buy wifi routers from Verizon and Clear that allow you to connect via cell phone signals- They work anywhere a cellphone works.
Yup, it works well.
what about making a windmill and hooking the treadmill motor up to it, do you think that would work?
I'm impressed. He has a volt meter to measure voltage, but at 2:45 he uses his fingers to measure the current? He's got a multimeter the measures 10a. Can someone tell me why he's using the meter to measure voltage and his fingers to measure current?
Work or wattage is what we care about, not voltage or potential.
Agree. I'm sick of the perpetual motion and other magic on youtube. Physics in this case is easy. Humans can only produce so much power. "About 1HP" for very short periods, and a fraction of that over an hours time.
Not counting losses and losses might amount to more than 50%, a HP is about 750 watts. I doubt, frankly, those batteries would charge from that mess in 2 days time.
Last, I guess the OP has never heard of battery "surface charge." This is artificially raised voltage immediately after charging. You must let the batteries rest for a bit to get a true reading.
fourfortyroadrunner +1
fourfortyroadrunner You are absolutely 100% correct in everything you said.
I can't tell you why he did those things... but if he's right about the amperage being 8-12, and the voltage was 12-14 then we can safely conclude it was about 96-168 watts per hour, which is completely within human levels, and also a fairly useful amount of power in the grand scheme of things. It's enough power after an hour's worth of pedalling to microwave a burrito ;)
savaship Would pedaling for an hour even be enough? The smallest microwave oven is 600 watts. Don't you think it would take about 1,000 watts for 2 min to nuke a burrito?
Great idea. Guy Martin uk recently rode a bike upto 100mph he used a 3rd crank to ease the strain of the very tall gearing. That could surly be applied here too not so drastic but just make it alittle more comfortable to ride. Or put in the same effort but get higher voltages from the better gear set up.
How much total power would those two car batteries store? And how much time would it take pedaling to charge them?
For how long do you need to pedal in order to charge a 35A 12VDC Lead Acid Battery? What's the friction like?
Yes and good exercise too.
So I'm guessing that in this setup you'd have to moderate your speed to moderate the voltage output. If you pedaled too fast you'd put out too high a voltage. I've heard that you can get a solar controller that will step down the voltage while boosting the current. That way you can use motors with higher voltage outputs to charge low voltage batteries. The plus side of this is that many larger motors that are available for salvaging are higher voltage
Actually I just pedal as hard as I can sustain. The battery absorbs it. But yes a charge controller will be much more efficient and give you more power in the battery.
The motor must be just the right specs then. What is the maximum voltage you can get if you pedal as hard as you can? Also, what is the maximum wattage output of the motor? I imagine if you have a high enough wattage motor then you will only ever achieve low voltages when using it as a bike generator because to get it to its max rpm (and therefore maximum voltage output) would require its maximum wattage output. Eg. If you had a 90 volt motor with a max output of 1000 watt and your target output voltage is 14 volt, you would want to run the motor at 15.5% (14/90) of its max output. Assuming that the relationship between the wattage input and the voltage out is linear (I'm not sure if this is the case) then the wattage necessary would be 155.5 watt (0.155x1000). From the figures I've been reading on average output of someone on a bike, that would be the upper end of what most people could output anyway.
Not sure if the assumptions around the linear relationship between rpm/wattage/voltage are correct, but if they are then if you choose a mid-range voltage motor (around 90 volts) that outputs around 1000 watts then you effectively eliminate the need for expensive charge controllers.
@@burdocktheloopwizard this type of motor gets the power from RPMs - so for a treadmill - a typical RPM value is 6700 RPM 18 AMP MAGNET. So at 14 volts you can see the amps is very low. "alternator runs off RPM, not HP. A 100 amp alternator must turn at 1200 RPM to produce 100 amps. At 600 RPM it will generate half that or 50 amps." And so the battery has a 2 Ohm resistance but what is the resistance of the treadmill at low speeds? With that kind of RPM rating - there is a high torque at low speeds, so high back current resistance at low voltage.
Use a capacitor bank to keep the voltage consistent.
What is the benefit/reason of that? (I'm a total newbie and trying to make a water generator)
Boban Orlovic Because capacitors hold a charge, it would keep the load constant, so the voltage doesn’t drop making it easier to power it. An inductor would keep the current constant as well. These are basic filtering techniques to help generating power more constant instead of the load being on/off all the time. It is also less wear on any batteries.
Make it more efficient, place the motor right under the pedals and relocate the chain to drive the motor directly. Less friction = more power.
the would actually generate less electricity cuz it will turn slowly .
for every 1 turn of pedals the wheel will rotate 7 times ,
and for every 1 revolution of the wheel the motor will rotate 7 times
+Amn Red flag Yes I think you are right.
Perhaps you could use your bedini to bring back your old batteries. They will need flushed first. A messy proposition, but worth it.
Peace!
Great video I have setup my own and linked up to an inverter generating between 20-50w. Would this be something you expected?
You should connect the bike to a big heavy fly wheel to even out the jerkiness.
Wow! Great video! Off grid people are amazing! Who would have thought about a bicycle generator? Tell me, when you planted your bicycle seeds and treadmill motor seeds how long did it take them to grow? With that much pedaling you could have taken your ass to work and back and paid for electricity for a month! You guys have definitely outsmarted society...
couldn't you add a bigger gear on the bike ? or is there a river near by ?
the white wire with the diodes is that a positive or negative wire, do u need to solder the wires to the diodes? do you need an inverter to use the car batteries? I want to make one to charge the tv and computer..how long does the batteries last should I buy 4 batteries as were getting sick from the smart meters and im a concerned mum looking for another option..