I think I'm on the right track now

[Norm]

  The exercise bike with a little generator

was very inefficient 15 watts...the new one,

David Butcher's style works a lot better, I have

a 3" driven pulley and I get something like 30

watts....I'm hoping I can get close to 45 watts

with a 2 " pulley well anyhow .....





Yep that's your Ametek TomW ! It's sure found a

lot of uses....Handy little gadget !

  This machine is so easy almost like it isn't

even connected but looking at the ammeter at 2.1

amps and the voltage at 15.4 tells me it must be

working....I try to get in about 2hrs 20 minutes

at a time....usually I catch myself daydreaming

forgetting the time and I've been pedaling for

almost 30 minutes instead of the 20.

Fun! The snow has melted and it's like spring

here in Conneaut!

[Bruce S]

Norm;

Wow!! I just noticed that it was direct drive!! What's the size of the flywheel?

Bruce S

[ghurd]

Now we all know how

"Norm- The Enforcer"

Stays in shape!

G-

[Norm]

Bruce, It started out as 36 inches diameter...

but then it was a little bit off center and

by the time I took a router to turn off some

of the edge and (oopsie !)it is something like

....35" ?? so with a 3" pulley the ratio is like

.....1:11.2 ?? So when I crank it at 60 rpm its

spinning the Ametek about 660rpm.

  It is neat !

[hiker]

cool norm...

[Bruce S]

Ahh;

Now the troops are all coming together

We have TomW aka Robo ED 2.0

G- aka FAQ writer GURU

Norm aka "The enforcer"

Norm ( enforcer) that's a good way to get those up to speed, are you using a charge controller? or direct?

Bruce S

[TomW]

Pretty neat, Norm.

Gonna be ripped and lean with abs like concrete blocks powering the house with that.

I can't seem to lose any weight watching turbines spin and panels soaking up sun.

Fun stuff, anyway, huh!

Tom

[zap]

Nice Norm, I'm glad your results are getting closer to your liking.  How noisy is it?

It's time here for the annual "trade your trash" event.  I'll try and keep an eye out for a mower.

[Norm]

It would be pretty quiet if it had a soft plastic

roller skateboard wheel instead of a rubber hose

tire on a wood plug...I think the rubber hose

probably has s lump in it gives it a low rumble,

I'd never be able to run it at 2 AM....

[Norm]

I'm using a full-wave rectifier direct to a

battery ....no need for a charge controller....

no chance I'll ever overcharge a battery I doubt.

[zap]

I tried a few different ways to quite things down.  Before I went with the current v belt I tried a roller blade wheel on the bare MDF but it slipped too much.

Then I tried a rubber bike tire liner on the MDF.

Then I cut down a bike tube.

Both of these would eventually work their way off the MDF so I tried hot gluing them to the MDF and that didn't work well either.  Too much area to try and glue all at once.

The v belt is very quite... I'd say 90% of the noise is from the motor/generator.  If it used a dual rotor axial I have a feeling it would near silent.

[Norm]

A roller blade wheel on this is very quiet and

no slippage...but it's about 4 inches, a 1:9 ratio, so when you're pedaling at 60rpm that's too

slow 540 rpm only get about 15 watt charging rate

, I've been thinking about trying a dryer belt on

a treadmill motor but I'd have to make the flywheel about 30inches instead of 36 and a new

dryer belt cost $30 or unless I go dumpster

diving and then come to find out that was why they

got rid of the dryer in the first place...broken

belt.

   Gotta go fix my recliner....if they had used

just a bit heavier braces....2 extra wood screws

next size bigger it would have went 20yrs

instead of 10.  Just think 20 cents extra on a

 $300 chair?

[hiker]

what happened to the flywheel that was on the bike?

did you try running a flat belt off of that down to your gen?

seems like you would get less friction and drag using the flywheel on the bike..

just my thoughts.....hey its a blast any which way..

i finally wore out the front bearing on my 300v ac pedgen alt..just watching tv-stereo.

playing records........

ps..  stop by a auto shop--should be able to get a used auto flat belt for free..

[hiker]

heres a shot of my little 300v ac pedgen NORM..

real simple set up--gen is  bolted to a scrap piece of plywood

bike is moved forward to mount belt--slid bike back to tighten belt

then your body weight is all that is needed to keep the belt tight..

[Electron Pump]

  I havent had a chance to show anyone this ped jen, I think I'll take the opportunity to do so now. She worked, but not very good. She needs a perminent magnet motor. Thats right boys... Thats a bone stock Jeep alternator. And I tell ya, It was all I could do to get it up to charg volts.

  One advantage to design... I've still got gears to get those coils all excited. Another is I can put a tire back on her and go to town for a beer.

 

[hiker]

if you lower the volts-amps- going to the field coil--it will be a lot easyer to

pedal--hook up a 12v tail light bulb in series with the wire going to the field coil..

you should still be able to get 250+ watts that way..if you want more amp output

add another bulb[or more] in parell with the first one...[will be even harder to pedal]

i just hit the field coil with a 9v trasiter radio batt. for a secound or so..

then the field coil kicks in and theres no need for a batt. you can slow your pedgen down to a crawl and still get power output--as long as the load is not to big..

otherwise you lose your field coil voltage and will have to do a restart..

check my pedgen files if you want..   fun stuff

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

[Norm]

Wish I had your variety of motors to experiment

with but it's just plain fun to see how I can get

the most out of what I have.

  You really impress me how you can get things

to work seemingly so effortlessly and simply.

I do have one little trick I'm going to try with

a treadmill motor and it will be very quiet....  





(the particle board flywheel in place of the bike

wheel)would be a 1:24 ratio about 1400rpm of the

motor when pedaling 60 rpm.

[Norm]

Have you tried charging a low 12volt battery in

top gear with this?

[Electron Pump]

  Yessir. Its hard when you get started but eases up after about thirty seconds or so. I call it "getting over the hump!"

[Norm]

 Electron Pump,

   'Getting over the hump' as you call it, If you

have a watt meter or use a couple of multimeters

like I do occasionally getting the voltage and

the amps readout you might notice on a low battery

that it probably cuts in early but then it will

putting in a lot of amps, but then it brings the

battery voltage up quickly (my theory) once the

battery voltage gets up higher the charging rate

goes down (I've noticed that 6 volt battery paks,

with fairly large capacity is harder pedaling than

12 or 24 volt)

BTW I try to put this on 'hot list' so I don't

miss interesting feed back.

I'm really trying to do the flywheel to friction

pulley thing....David Butcher succeeds in doing

about 150 watts with his setup so I see no reason

why I can't do the same...but I keep an open mind

and if someone can convince me otherwise

I want something simple efficient and quiet...

I've got the belt and auto alternator...(someplace)