A bike generator using a charge controller

[freeEnergy4me]

I purchased a Leeson Electric motor per the suggestion of someone that made a bike electric generator to charge deep cycle 12V batteries.

The generator/motor can crank out 14Amps max with voltages around 12V.

http://astore.amazon.com/bicycle-generator-stand-20/detail/B000BO3NPY

Without any load, I was thinking about using a charge controller to make sure I was getting 12V without overcharging.  I was going to use the SunForce Solar Charge Controller to regulate the voltage to the battery.

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200332575_200332575

So the bike will crank the electric motor which will output to the charge controller which goes directly to the battery.

The controller is pretty neat, it has amps and volts, and a digital bar graph of how much charge the battery has.

Any other recommendations or suggestions would be helpful.

[ghurd]

A solar controller will blow up.

G-

[Flux]

I have never understood this desire for pedal power.

If you want the exercise and want to do something useful with it then fine. When the battery is fairly well charged that seems the time to stop. The final stages of battery charging are so slow that pedalling against some charge controller that may put 5% of your energy into the final stages of charging seems crazy.

Why not watch a voltmeter and pedal gently to maintain the finishing charge in leisure if you absolutely must do it.

Most solar controllers are designed strictly for that, with limited open circuit capability and are generally not suitable for other sources.

Flux

[s4w2099]

you should use a dumpload controller instead.

[electronbaby]

you should grid tie it. haha

PV controller will blow up. Everyone else is right, I would just sit there and watch the voltmeter while peddling.

[CmeBREW]

I wouldn't purchase that motor for a wind or pedal generator. It is only a 12vdc motor.  You will never pedal up to anywhere near the 12 volt cut-in-- and the 14Amps is irrelevant as a generator.

You need a HIGH dc voltage like 180 volts at 1700-1800 rpm.  And I'm hoping to pedal upto 2 or 3 amps out of it.

-I don't like to be negetive, but...

[freeEnergy4me]

Do you have a product suggestion? Thnx.

[CmeBREW]

Hello,

You probably don't even need a regulator as was said. The 12volt battery will hold it down to its own voltage.(12volts)   The battery will 'regulate' the voltage of the motor/generator by itself. I've been just using a voltmeter.

The specs for that motor are here:

http://www.leeson.com/leebiz/plsql/LEC_LESSON_COM_GTWY.LEESON_COM_PROD_SRCH

I'm no expert, but from my experiences with 12vdc motors, that motor would need to be going over 2000 rpm to get over 12 volts and BEGIN making alittle power into a 12v battery. Probably more like 2200rpm to begin making usuful power.  That is extremely fast for a pedal generator I think.   That ad sounds very disceptive to me. Most of one's pedal efforts would probably be wasted in  friction losses of 20:1 gearing. Even mentioning 14 Amps is very deceptive for beginners. 14 amps is what it DRAWS as a motor hooked to a 12v source or battery.

I wonder if anyone here has ever made a 2200 rpm pedal generator??

I know fellow member 'HIKER' has done some pretty high rpm pedal generators. I don't know if anyone ever tried to make one THAT fast before though.

I am still experimenting on it myself right now.  The faster you can spin a MASS the better, but the more gearing required to do so, the Worse it is.  I'm not sure which is better yet. Probably somewhere in the middle I suppose.

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2007/9/1/7921/49961

[freeEnergy4me]

Just to make sure, the posting you showed used a car alternator. Car alternators have built-in regulators. The DC motor does not, hence less of your energy is lost in regulating voltage with the DC motor. But the motor may be battery unfriendly?

I have been really looking hard on the internet for some type of spec for my battery that tells me the max voltage/amp for recharging. Some pages have said to avoid a non-regulated charger with lead acid batteries.

This is my first time messing with this stuff. I just don't want to overlook something and blow up the battery.

[jonas302]

Have you built the bike generator yet? You will be fine putting it directly to batt of course with a blocking diode so the motor doesn't turn put a cheap meter on the batt I don't know what you have but most will want to charge up to at least 14 volts you will never make enough amps to damage them once you realize how long it takes to charge them you will want to built a windmill to do the work for you lol

[CmeBREW]

Hello again,

That posting is alittle confusing because he did multiple projects there.

Forget the car alternator for now though. Maybe someone will talk about that. But he also did a DC treadmill motor which is a permanent magnet motor like yours.

I think I can see what you are doing now here:

http://www.scienceshareware.com/articles/byo-stand/build-your-own-generator-bike-trainer-stand-1.htm

I guess I was wrong to some degree. He is using a standard 26" 10-speed bicicle and back wheel I believe to power that motor a very fast rpm.(probably 2000 or more)

So I suppose it will work to some degree. (But I still don't believe his stated Watt output though)

However, I would think the rubber wheel and especially that small rubber drive on the motor would wear out quick though, but I could be wrong.

Personally, I would just use a small WOODEN drive on the motor like Ben did at "www.gotwind.org"  on his PedGen project.

I suspect just about any PM treadmill motor would have worked equal to or better at a lower rpm than that motor.

 Such as:

http://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?UID=2008020719461300&item=10-1783&catname=

  It starts making power into a 12volt battery at about 600rpm I believe.

I think its too fast for a decent 4' windmill though.

Your concern about the regulator and battery was my first concern and question when i started here a few years ago. I don't know if I've learned that much since then but I havent blew up any batteries yet, so I believe you don't have to worry about the voltage OR the current (to a great degree) going into your 12v battery.

I highly doubt you will get anywhere near 60 amps flowing into a battery, so you don't have to worry about that.

You don't have to worry about the open voltage from your dc generator(motor) either.

I have hooked up generators and alternators that are doing upto 140 volts dc  to my 12v battery and it handles it fine.  The battery itself 'clamps' the open voltage down to its 12-14 volt level. It sort of turns the 'extra' volts into more amps, automatically, while holding the voltage down. Of course it is an ineffiecient thing to do though. I think usually about 25-40 open volts is pretty common for a dc generator's open max voltage-- for going into a 12volt battery.

You will need an appropriate sized DIODE (or,bridge rectifier works also) in series between the motor and the battery to keep the motor from spinning like a motor.

What I do is, when I am generating at about 2 amps into my 12v battery, I know the battery is quite FULL when the volt meter says 13volts. That is an 'active' volt reading WHILE I am pedaling the generator.

Or, as was stated above, you can get a CHARGE CONTROLLER like a C-35 or a  C-40 (Xantrex) and it will know when the battery is fully charged automatically and a light comes on and then diverts to a DUMP load if you wish. They cost about $80-150 depending on the model.

Sorry I was overly negetive in my first response. I was in a hurry this morning--and I am not familiar with the high rpm pedal bike generators.

Keep in mind these are just my experiences, and I am no expert on anything.

I am just trying to help.

Maybe experienced others can comment about some of these things also.

Hang in there, keep learning, and always have fun.

[CmeBREW]

Sorry, I change so many things it gets confusing.

When I said:

"I have hooked up generators and alternators that are doing upto 140 volts dc  to my 12v battery and it handles it fine.  The battery itself 'clamps' the open voltage down to its 12-14 volt level. It sort of turns the 'extra' volts into more amps, automatically, while holding the voltage down. Of course it is an ineffiecient thing to do though. I think usually about 25-40 open volts is pretty common for a dc generator's open max voltage-- for going into a 12volt battery."

Forgot to move a sentence up higher,,,,Should be:

"I have hooked up generators and alternators that are doing upto 140 volts dc  to my 12v battery and it handles it fine.  OF COURSE IT IS AN INEFFICIENT THING TO DO THOUGH.  It is normal that the battery itself 'clamps' the open voltage down to its 12-14 volt level. It sort of turns the 'extra' volts into more amps, automatically, while holding the voltage down to the battery voltage.  I think usually about 25-40 open volts is pretty common for a dc generator's open max voltage-- for going into a 12volt battery"

[ghurd]

You could use my dump controller circuit.  It wouldn't need a dump load is my guess.

When the yellow LED lights up, you will be happy to stop.

Or a cheap volt meter.  Stop when it reads 14.4V.

G-

[freeEnergy4me]

thanks for your help. i'll post some pics when I get it completely working.

I am actually using a Spinner bike, so the wheel is heavy and is going to spin very fast, so the RPM is going to be very high.  

I'll have to figure out the diode configuration. I know the charge controllers have such an operation, keeping the battery from discharging while charging.

As far as gassing, do we only see gassing on charging?

[Norm]

  Got that right Ghurd....by the time I can get a

1300Ma/hr. 6vpack up to 7v, I'm ready to quit,

I have never accidently overcharged a battery

on pedal power...a cheap voltmeter is all that is

required.

[freeEnergy4me]

Thanks, that's what I did. It's kind of fun riding and instead of making your goal miles or calories, you try to get voltage!!

Why not use the energy you use in a workout?

[freeEnergy4me]

OK, completed the bike generator. I hooked it up to a spinner bike, so it's like a giant steel wheel that once is started is easier and easier to keep going.

Here are the images!

It takes some steady peddling but I got the output up to 12.50V. The battery charged very quickly once I got the spinner moving. From 11.30 to 12.10 in about 15 minutes.

Great excercise and motivation to keep doing it!

[jonas302]

Looks great glad to see you have it put together! Is nice to see the results of these projects