Building a Bike Generator

[@haizi7179]

20 seconds in and I'm happy with this channel

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Thank you very much! I take it I should make more videos like this one?

[@Julio-it1pl]

Motors can also be used as motors

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Julio haha, a revolutionary concept, I know :-)

[@stepheneberly1112]

Get it? REVOLUTIONARY!?

[@jakekleine9179]

conspiracy theorist

[@Dogalot1]

Not all motors -- A/C electric ones don't create A/C automatically - need to add to the armature.

[@RetroPlus]

That's impossible

[@hercules1309]

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!

[@selfmayed]

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!

[@wiltonjarms1117]

could you please tell me the charge controller specs?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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.

[@marensaffell8864]

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.

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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 :-)

[@marensaffell8864]

@@LifeIsForEnjoying Appreciate it! Cheers!

[@techpanda1938]

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

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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

[@qctech9590]

oh my gosh im doing that for my science fair too

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Feel free to shoot me any questions while you're at it!

[@techpanda1938]

@@qctech9590 :D

[@voidisyinyangvoidisyinyang885]

@@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

[@siphob11nchean74]

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!

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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 :-)

[@sayfmateen5754]

Thanks for the Video. I never knew motors can be used two ways.

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

No problem! Thanks for watching!

[@ani9208]

anyone else here in case the zombie apocalypse happens

[@joepoelmans5910]

Shits gonna hit the fan one way or another Im ttrying to learn anything I know will stick lol

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

#AlwaysPrepared

[@211steelman]

The zombie apocalypse is already upon us and a bicycle isn't gonna help us.

[@blueberry5996]

Get fit+have electricity

[@3ja_e]

Nah I’m doing a science fair project

[@FrenchRol]

Very informative and step by step explanation, good camera angles and yep I'm subscribed

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Thank you very much!

[@adventureinlife7700]

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...

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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!

[@yafilmDOTcom]

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”).

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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!

[@dimachesebastian6407]

how many minutes you need to pedal to keep tv running for 1h?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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

[@yafilmDOTcom]

@@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 KZbin 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.

[@dimachesebastian6407]

@@LifeIsForEnjoying is 60 watt hour for tv.

[@KartikeyG]

Hey man, good one! Things like this can really prove useful in many places in India!

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Thanks! Hopefully it helps someone out!

[@zozo71zozo71]

very very good!

[@nunontherunnumberone]

Watching these videos to learn how to create the energy to watch these videos.

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Haha, very nice

[@Sharptooth100]

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.

[@daveyboygee]

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.

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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 :-)

[@AtomicElectronCo]

Wow man. Very nicely done with specific info on where to find specific parts. PERFECT.

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@topnotchcontent]

Excellent Job!

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Thanks!

[@ga5957]

Good job! Excellent video 👍

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Thank you very much!

[@erasamusmoot5589]

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.

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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

[@TimpBizkit]

@@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.

[@jsauce01]

Very cool! And a relatively simple wiring setup. Thanks for the lesson

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

No problem! Thanks for watching and feel free to reach out if you have questions

[@jsauce01]

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.

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

@@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

[@rootcanal7188]

@@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.

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

@@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

[@solaradam7470]

Appreciate the video, looks great. Sweet mountain bike!

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Thank you very much!

[@sl-st8mv]

awesome! wish to see more tutorials on life science and technology from you!

[@marciomaia4020]

Great video by the way 👏

[@showman139]

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.

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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!

[@michaelmcdonough5983]

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!

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Thanks for the support! Feel free to let me know if you have any questions about it :-)

[@michaelmcdonough5983]

Will do, best of luck to ya! @@LifeIsForEnjoying

[@jakecooper5427]

Quick question how long would it roughly take to fill the battery

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

That would depend on the battery you choose and how discharged it is when you start...for example, a 9Amp-hour 12V battery would be 108 Watt-hours. I don't have an exact measurement of the power output of my setup, but I estimate it to be sustainable around 150 Watts, so you would be able to fully charge an empty battery in less than an hour. However, a 35Ah (420 Wh) battery would take almost 3 hours.

[@jakecooper5427]

@@LifeIsForEnjoying thank you very much

[@jakecooper5427]

@@LifeIsForEnjoying i may try to make one soon

[@MarceloBornscheuer]

¡Gracias por el video! Muy instructivo y la explicación muy clara.

[@reneamaton7498]

Great video! for how long can you store the energy produced in this type of battery and which battery would you recommend?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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

[@IceAge20017]

You can store it for about a year. And the bigger the battery the better!

[@MrHaydenpollack]

Great project. Any idea how long it will take to fully charge the battery?

[@ds4056]

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?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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.

[@ds4056]

Life Is For Enjoying thank you, you’ve been a huge help!

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

@@ds4056 no problem! Keep up the good questions!

[@tkrey23]

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

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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

[@philrose3524]

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?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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!

[@greppeda]

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?

[@crimsama2451]

since its quick release why not get an extra wheel and have a city bike set and a mountain bike set?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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.

[@ignaciasantillan1739]

Loved your video! Would you happen to know how much energy (W) you can make in an hour? thanks!

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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

[@zachary2182]

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?

[@KJ7JHN]

Using a large shunt resistor will add resistance with the magnetic field generated. Different wattage light bulbs should do the trick.

[@nathanmciver3829]

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

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Glad to hear it helped you out! If you have any questions about the project, don't hesitate to ask!

[@arenjanaynrandedusada2845]

Hi! is that also the motor used for wind turbines? because it is looks similar to the shopping sites.

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

It could most certainly be used similarly for a wind turbine, but I'm not sure if it is the same one

[@robinhood4640]

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

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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

[@kalamatagames2631]

pwm solar charger have not heatsink

[@keithcrawford6310]

Heyyy any updates on this project? I’m building one currently & would love to see any improvements or updates. ❤

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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!

[@HaloCrazi]

Awesome video, Thank you very much! One question, what is the 12 inches for in the equation?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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

[@adventureinlife7700]

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!

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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.

[@adventureinlife7700]

@@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?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

@@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

[@manav.b.pandya1081]

Your were the first guy who is really explaining else other bg music and build up.

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Haha, happy to help!

[@BrooklyFire]

what were those calculus thingys and the reverse sun batery thingy -im in quarintine and i want to ride bike indoors

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

The "calculus thingys" were my calculations to determine the ideal pulley size to put on the motor and the "reverse sun battery thingy" is a charge controller meant to charge a battery with solar panels, but can be used with other input power sources of similar voltage/current ranges. Best of luck to you!

[@CyrusOfNaias]

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?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Cyrus the Acceptable that's a great idea! It would definitely be quicker to switch that way, haha

[@CyrusOfNaias]

Aye well I couldn't have gotten the idea without seeing yours, first. Thank you for sharing

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Cyrus the Acceptable no problem, thanks for watching!

[@nelsonsiliezar3961]

Can it be done with a 3 phase motor ?

[@pigeonpea6275]

I am finally revisting this. :) What size of wire ..do you recommend from the battery to switch to contoller and visa versa..Thanks.

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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

[@pigeonpea6275]

@@LifeIsForEnjoying gotchya! Thank you!! So much!!!

[@alleafarolazno2524]

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?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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

[@robrain4566]

Can u add a bigger battery for a longer charger and able to use multiple devices??

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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)

[@TimpBizkit]

Does the magnetic resistance in the turbo trainer have a built in generator or is it eddy currents in a disc that you can't harness?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Just eddy currents, it would take some major work to capture the energy directly

[@TimpBizkit]

@@LifeIsForEnjoying I wasn't sure because some bikes could use a generator dumping power to a variable power resistor, but to change resistance you could just move the magnets towards and away, or change gear on the bike.

[@PeterLuong]

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/)

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Well done! I always enjoy unit conversion math like that, haha

[@entaroadun8209]

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?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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

[@lorenzoluigibressan8330]

Do you think that this can also be achieved with a 400w motor or alternator? Or would there be too much resistance on the cyclist? Thanks

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

I think a 400watt motor would be fine, just pay attention to the spec sheet to make sure the voltage matches up and aim for the peak power RPMs in your calculations. Alternators can be used, but may add a bit of extra complexity due to how they work in regards to their wiring.

[@lorenzoluigibressan8330]

Life Is For Enjoying Right on! Thanks

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

No problem! Let me know if you have any other questions... Good luck!

[@TheSonyman101]

11:00 You could of prob used a diode to ensure that electricity only flows one way but the charge controller is probably easier.

[@drekson23]

Is it really require a speed to harvest energy? I heard if the alternator thing only produce less than 14v the its nothing is it? I was thinking if its possible with perpetual motion that you dont need to mannually pedaling it but it would be slow. Please let me know.

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Perpetual motion machines are a perpetual lie and people making videos "demonstrating" them are just lying to the world for views... What they normally use to make these "work" is take advantage of people misunderstanding the relationship between energy, power, voltage, and current (amperage). The law of conservation of energy means that energy has to come from somewhere and just change forms. Sure, connecting a 5v motor to a 12v alternator could "magically" increase voltage, but what you're not seeing is the decrease in current. Power (the product of voltage x current) is the true metric of electrical input/output.

[@drekson23]

So this video are fake too? m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/oYeki3x6e7KFjrs

[@nurseleathers]

Any thoughts about creating a bike charging system that could directly power a portable electric generator, such as a Jackery?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

I don't know anything specific about the Jackery, but it appears to be the same sorts of solar-powered hardware as I used in this video, so as long as the accepted input voltage is similar, I don't see why you couldn't use something like that, instead. Basically, the Jackery appears to be the battery, charge controller, and inverter, all in one

[@nurseleathers]

Thank you SO MUCH for your super helpful (and crazy prompt) response! 👍🏼🙌🏼

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

@@nurseleathers No problem! Thanks for tuning in and asking questions :-)

[@bbblahoo7]

If higher rsistance or heavier peddling would ot result in higher power?im new to electric science stuff ha. Thanks

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Peddling faster/harder will produce more instantaneous power, but you would likely not be able to maintain it for as long. You have to balance things (pace yourself) to get the most energy out of it for charging a battery, etc. Charge controllers are really helpful for this, because of the way they respond to higher and lower voltages and the amount of power they then try to pull.

[@Marshmalo99]

So interesting video ! Thanks ao much ! Any idea where to buy a great bike generator ? (Looks to difficult for my level 😊)

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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!

[@Marshmalo99]

@@LifeIsForEnjoying Thanks so much...i ll try then 😊

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

@@Marshmalo99 No problem! Feel free to ask any questions you might have while you're at it :-)

[@mvmDEE]

Great work!, I am planning on buying one of those motors, but the manufacturer says the sprocket on the shaft can´t be change, how did you replace it?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Mine was just a reverse-threaded nut holding it down, if I recall correctly. Not the cleanest replacement, since the pulleys expect a keyed shaft, but it worked! If you're looking at the same model I have in the description, it should be replaceable, so I'm not sure why they are telling you otherwise...

[@UserFrmYurTube]

Good Work 👍

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Thanks!

[@graceatienza2390]

very nice video! detailed! what about powering an incandescent lamp or like a charging station

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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?

[@UnrealWorld1]

Awesome video, I loved everything about it, and I wish to make this project. But the problem is Amazon doesn't ship to where I live so I can't get the bike trainer and the charge controller. Now, I can find a workaround for the bike trainer (I can even try building one), but I need to find an alternative to the charge controller. Do you have any alternative method to store the electrical energy generated by the motor? Also, what if I can't find a motor that big, will a smaller one work just as well (after all the calculations, of course)?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Thank you! Glad to hear you found it helpful! Is it just Amazon that cannot ship to your location, or is there a lack of any access to shipping companies? I ask because you could very likely find the remaining two pieces other places, such as eBay, if they might be able to ship them to you. If shipping from any online stores is not a possibility, you could also look into local marketplaces like Craigslist or FB Marketplace and see if there is anything available. If those aren't available, do you have any automotive junk yards nearby? Pretty much every car has a 12V alternator that will convert rotational energy to electricity very similarly to this setup. Wiring things up will be a little different, but there isn't necessarily a need for the charge controller, either. The downsides of using an alternator: 1) Some are more complicated and require an outside voltage regulator to control their output...2) They do not do 'smart' charge cycles and modes, they will just apply a set voltage (around 13-14V) to the battery unless you disable/disconnect it...3) Along the lines of #2, these alternators are intended for car starter batteries, not deep-cycle batteries as you would normally use in an off-grid electricity configuration, so the voltage it applies might not be ideal. Best of luck with the project and let me know if you have any other questions while you're at it!

[@cusper77]

maybe a dumb question, but can you trickle feed a battery to recharge it. say if I had a wind turbine (small) and i wanted to charge a battery..?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

As long as the average power output of the charging device (wind turbine) is higher than the power draw, it will eventually charge the battery. Keep in mind that even things like charge controllers actually use a small amount of power to function, so if the wind turbine was super small and generated less power on average than the charge controller uses to function, it would eventually run the battery dead.

[@jasonbrown467]

what is the sustainable amperage you can create? what about the average person who is in shape?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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

[@pixar5]

just wondering i have a setup using a permanent magnet motor do i need to use a charge controller to charge a 12 volt battery .

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

I would highly recommend it. While you COULD manage with just a diode, it would be up to you to monitor the voltage, current, and status of charge to avoid overcharging/boiling the battery and manage the charge stages/cycles to keep the battery working properly for a long period of time. To make things easier, I recommend some sort of charge controller to take care of all this for you.

[@noahberman8379]

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

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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

[@feilox]

Could you tell me the capacity of the rechargeable lead acid battery is? also what is the charging rate of say 10mph or 15mph. I'd really like that information before going out and spending cash on equipment. 8-15v? what are the amps?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Fa Vang the battery I used and the one in the description are 7Ah batteries since I was mainly just experimenting and exercising, but it us really up to you how much capacity you want. I don't recall what the final numbers were that I was pushing to the battery, but it really depends on how in shape you are, haha... I do recommend an MPPT charge controller, rather than the PWM one I chose, to give some flexibility and help efficiency. I think I was able to push over 100watts (around 8 amps) for a few seconds, but trying to go for more than a few minutes, I would say the limits around 50 watts for a person in average shape... I should have taken some better data when I had it set up, but maybe I'll hook it up to my MPPT controller in the camper (it has a display to tell you these things) sometime and see what that reads

[@6EvieJoy9]

This might be a stupid question but I'd really like to know... Could one use some of the stored energy to power a simple motor that can turn the pedals (whether directly or indirectly through a set up that would require less energy expenditure) to continue producing energy indefinitely?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

This is called a "perpetual motion" machine. You will find thousands of "working" examples of this on KZbin, but it directly defies the law of Conservation of Energy and is physically impossible. Any videos you see of that sort of thing are 100% fake or taking advantage of people's misunderstanding of electronic principals to make people think it is doing something it is not. So, to fully answer the question, sure, you could charge the battery, hook a motor up to turn the pedals, and then send that energy back to the battery, but the power (Voltage x Current) to the motor will always be more than what's making it back to the battery, meaning it will eventually run itself dead. Energy has to come from somewhere, and in this case, it comes from the calories in the food you ate. If you have a closed system, with no energy input, but there is energy output, it will eventually go dead. Hope that answers the question for you and feel free to ask anything else about this stuff! Always happy to clear up the scams, lies, and misunderstandings like this, haha

[@6EvieJoy9]

@@LifeIsForEnjoying Thank you so much for taking the time to reply with a great explanation! I'm curious if you know if it would be possible to make something like a pully system that would need a small amount of energy initially to start the process that would lead to turning the pedals. So to say it a different way, could you power something that then uses very little energy to turn something to turn the next more difficult thing etc... Until turning the pedals? If not that... What about something like a starter that uses an external power source to "switch on" when the stored energy from the generator gets too low? I'm a total layman trying to understand how things work and get into physics and engineering on my own, so excuse my basic terms and knowledge, please!

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

It doesn't matter how many pulleys, gears, ratios, and switches you put into the equation... The input into the battery will always take more energy than you will get out of it. This is where the term 'efficiency' comes into play. For example, when people think 'efficiency' they think of miles per gallon in a car. The miles are a measure of output energy, effectively measuring by the amount of energy it takes to move a vehicle a certain distance against the forces of air resistance (wind), gravity (hills), wasted energy (like heat and sound), etc. The input energy is the gasoline. A gallon of 87 octane unleaded fuel (with some percentage of ethanol) has a certain amount of chemical potential energy and that will be pretty standard at any gas station. Even with super small vehicles minimizing the negative effects of gravity and air resistance, and hybrids minimizing wasted energy like heat from braking, you will always need to get outside energy from somewhere at some point. Be it a gas station, a charge station, a solar panel, electric rails, a small nuclear reactor... A closed system with no input energy will run out eventually... 100% efficiency is almost always the goal, meaning the output energy is EQUAL to input energy, whatever forms those may be, but in modern electronics, more like 75% efficiency at each energy conversion is a reasonable expectation...meaning if you spend an hour generating 100 Watts to charge a battery, that's 100Wh of energy... You could expect to get about 75 Wh of output... If you use all that energy to produce 75 watts for an hour and charge the battery a second time, now you will only get you 56.25 Wh out of the battery...does that make sense?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

But back to the gears and pulleys... Pulleys are a simple machine built for mechanical advantage, but the mechanical advantage comes from trading between force and distance. For example, if you hook a motor with a small pulley on its driveshaft to a giant pulley turning a ferris wheel full of people, the motor will very easily be able to turn the ferris wheel, but it's going to have to spend hundreds of thousands of times, if not more, just to spin the ferris wheel a single time. This is similar to the way that voltage and current is related in electronics, which is why watts are used commonly to compare devices. Watts (power) is voltage times current, and so you can use that to get a more full idea of input, output, and efficiency

[@6EvieJoy9]

@@LifeIsForEnjoying You really explained that in a way I could understand it. Thank you so much! I feel just grasping this has helped me quite a bit.

[@ChirstonLyne]

hello, I have a question. I'm wanting to build a workout bike the powers a tablet for my 4 year old. you were saying any motor would work., but would a power wheels motor work? I'm just starting to do research for this project. I'm very sorry if this sounds like a stupid question. just never attempted anything like this before.

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

A couple things to look into: 1) it needs to be a DC motor. AC motors would require additional circuit complexity 2) It should run on about the same voltage as you want to supply to the charge controller. The voltage generated by spinning it will be about the same as the voltage the motor normally runs on. If the charge controller max input voltage is 24V and your motor generates 48V, you will almost certainly fry the charge controller 3) try to find the spec sheet for the motor or see if the RPM info is on the side of the motor. You will want to shoot for the same RPM that it is intended to run at to avoid frying the motor. I don't know anything about power wheels motors, but would guess they are designed for low RPMs, so you may need to recalculate the pulley size accordingly

[@ChirstonLyne]

@@LifeIsForEnjoying Thank you for the info. Im still trying to figure this whole project out lol this weekend i plan on taking apart the power wheel and see if its something that can be used or if i need to just order a little motor. Thank you again

[@lakeshorerides]

Does it have to use a specific motor, any 12v or 24v motor with a shaft should work correct?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Any reasonably-sized 12v/24v DC motor should work. If you get one that is too small, it might not produce the power you want and could end up just getting worn out faster.

[@aliciamcnamar8203]

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 ?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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...

[@riquepr]

Will that battery power a refrigerator ? At least for a couple of hours.

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

According to reductionrevolution.com.au/blogs/news-reviews/fridge-power-consumption, a normal day mestic fridge uses about 100-250 watts when on. At 250W, for a 12V battery, this would be pulling about 21Amps (assuming the inverter is large enough) . The battery used in this video was 7Ah, which means it could theoretically power a fridge for about 20 minutes from fully charged to completely dead (granted, you should avoid actually discharging a battery that much) . There are, however, some smaller fridges/coolers that run on 12V directly, made for RV's and such, that pull more like 1-6 amps, so you could probably get an hour or two out of one of those using a 7Ah battery.

[@junzab1925]

Add flywheel(beside the the rim) to ease the pedalling in the long run.

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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

[@H2Dwoat]

Hi great video, thank you 👍. Did you calculate the performance of the system, I.e. how much work actually made it into the battery and how much was ‘wasted’ due to the translation of your peddling into energy to be stored?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Unfortunately I never actually ended up measuring or calculating total power output on the setup, but my guess is 150 Watts or so

[@zachary2182]

Could you just take the battery out and plug it directly into the inverter? Also is that charger just acting as a diode or is it also regulating the voltage. Is there any risk in just plugging the varying voltage from the motor to an inverter?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Take a look at the comment thread I had with 'd s' yesterday. He had the exact same question. The summary is "yes, you can do that, but you're going to have a hard time" the charge controller is either using PWM or MPPT technology to properly manage the voltage/current going to the battery to keep things safe and promote a long battery life

[@zachary2182]

@@LifeIsForEnjoying thank you for still replying so quickly on a older video.

[@shivambhatt5352]

Hi, I am planning to make a bicycle generator for a school science project and I would really appreciate it if I could get your advise. Firstly, you mentioned that the solar charge controller has internal circuitry that slowly drains the battery, and to solve this problem, you just added a manual switch. Is it necessary to have that sort of switch if I really just need this for a demonstration at school and am not planning to use it long-term? The battery would still charge effectively right (with just a little bit of power loss)? Second, which wire should I use if I am replicating your build (12 volts)? Finally, the motor you used is a motor that can run at 12, 18, and 24 volts and can generate 350 continuous watts of power, but it is also a little pricey at around 75 dollars. Do you think we can use a motor that can generate much less watts of power, maybe around 100 watts? You also mention that realistically we are not going to produce 30 amps of power, so do you know what would be the average amount of power we would produce so that we can buy a cheaper motor? If that is possible then it would also reduce the costs of the power inverter for me. Thank you so much for your help. P.S. Please respond as soon as possible, because my science fair is coming up soon and I need to order the materials.

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

I think this will make for a great science fair project and I'm happy to help you out... Hopefully I can answer all your questions: 1) Nope, the additional switch is not necessary if you plan to disconnect the battery when it is not in use. The power draw from the charge controller is very minimal and would only be noticeable if you left it for a long time with no charging. 2) I would recommend using at least 12 AWG wire, maybe 10 if you have any longer wire runs 3) technically, pretty much any 12V DC motor will work as a proof of concept, but 1, keep an eye on the shaft size when considering how it will be connected to the pulley 2, read the spec sheet to determine the target RPMs and redo the calculations accordingly, and 3, consider the mounting options you will have for the motor. Another note: the inverter and motor do not have to match up power-wise. The inverter just needs to be powerful enough to support whatever you are using for a demo... You could also use something that runs on 12v DC, and eliminate the inverter entirely! I would estimate that my setup generates around 150 Watts, which would be around 12.5 Amps at 12v, but I've never actually measured, unfortunately... Hopefully that helps, feel free to let me know if you have any other questions!

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

If you do shop for other motors, I recommend searching for electric scooter motors and make sure they are within the input voltage range of the charge controller and DC (AC will add complexity to the project)

[@anshvaishnav8289]

@@LifeIsForEnjoying Thank you sooooooo much, I am in his group, and these were major questions. Thank you for your help!!

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

@@anshvaishnav8289 no problemo! Let me know if there's anything else I can help clear up!

[@shivambhatt5352]

@@LifeIsForEnjoying Sorry to bug you again but I had just one more question. In the battery you showed, there are two terminals. The wires from the charge controller go into the battery which takes up both terminals. We want to add an inverter so that we can charge a laptop while riding the bike. If there are only two terminals on the battery, do we attach both of the wires (two input from charge controller and two output to the power inverter) in the same terminal. Thanks again for all you help.

[@quebecgold1984]

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.

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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.

[@mansooralam3468]

Hi I want to know what inside this janerater

[@patb8839]

how would you consider making a smaller version of this? i.e. just the pedals without the tires or a giant bike? i ask because i'm considering living in a van at some point, and if i'm wanting to store energy when i dont have sun light, i want a way to create clean energy instead of running the motor to generate energy.

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

There is a commercial version of what you're describing: www.amazon.com/Generator-Emergency-Portable-Lightweight-Polycarbonate/dp/B00EZS8VQS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1501249630&sr=8-1&keywords=pedal+generator ...but no, I haven't tried making a DIY version of that since I just don't have the shop equipment to custom-make that sort of stuff, haha

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

definitely a good idea for energy when it's dark out, though...especially if you can do it in the van! Do you transport a bike with you on the van normally? the rest of the equipment is actually pretty small, so if you have a bike already, instead, it isn't a huge cargo addition

[@patb8839]

yeah, i was looking at that commercial item you listed, though i dont think that would be for me, i'd rather not spend $200 dollars on something like that when i know i could figure out how to jerry rig something for way cheaper. the problem with using a full bike in a van would be the space, considering i'm already 6ft 3 in tall, sitting on a bike in a van might be a little cramped while i'm trying to get a little extra power, or watch a movie or something. it was just something i've been considering while looking up energy sources. thanks for the reply.

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Yea, doing it with a full bike setup would definitely require a setup on the outside of the bike with cables running to the batteries, so it definitely wouldn't work so nicely on those rainy days you don't get solar :-(

[@patb8839]

Maybe I can make a hand pump or something, who knows. Thanks for the conversation dude, rock on.

[@tomlambert4369]

great vid,nice kid..super info layout to go by w links

[@NightmareZerogbs]

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 :/

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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.

[@NightmareZerogbs]

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 :/

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Haha, i know how that goes! Best of luck to you!

[@ds4056]

Can you attach the inverter directly to the motor, or do you need a battery to attach it to?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

You certainly COULD connect it directly, but then you would need to make sure you always keep the voltage within the operating range of the inverter, which is very challenging when you turn a load on,especially a sizeable one. Its challenging, but can be done... Give it a try and see, just be careful not to go over-voltage, or you may fry the inverter

[@ds4056]

@@LifeIsForEnjoying Ok thank you, so then if I used a battery to mediate the voltage could I possibly connect the motor and the inverter to the battery at the same time or would it have to be seperately?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

@@ds4056 I would not recommend connecting the motor straight to the battery, as it is a motor, so it will just start spinning! I highly recommend putting the charge controller in between, as I do in the video, as this will also make sure you don't over-charge the battery or anything. In this case, the inverter could be connected to the battery at the same time as the charge controller and you could pedal and run a load simultaneously

[@ds4056]

@@LifeIsForEnjoying Thank you! You were very helpful.

[@AG-yj1jv]

Hi, I have asthma & need to run my room filter & charge my phone/computer. They have just shut down the coal mines in PA. That means, we're screwed for power soon. That means I die, because I can't breathe w/o this filter (because my neighbors burn wood and let their cat piss in my yard). I have an old schwin exercise bike. So this would have to mount in the front. Can you provide a shopping list for what to get? I also had a brain injury from an improperly installed heating unit, so it would be helpful if the information were a little slower, with some more close up focus on how you're connecting everything. Thank you! My big brother died in the military -- if he were here, I'd ask him -- he knew all this stuff. But he's not & so I really need your help. Thank you so much!

[@testingk410]

Can we make mechanism which distribute generated electricity to main grid and make money?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

This would require what's called a grid - tie inverter, along with a qualified electrician and an agreement with your electric supplier. And while this would technically be possible, you would only make money when you generate more energy then your house uses, and I would estimate this configuration to only output around 150 Watts, so unless you had a whole bunch of people biking, I doubt you would get past that line. You could save a little money on your electric bill, but probably wouldn't make money.

[@qctech9590]

Do you know the formula required to find the size of pulley you need

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

I briefly explain how to figure that out at 5:09, but didn't spend too much time on the details. What you want to do is figure out at what RPM the motor/generator is most efficient (in my case, 2900RPM) and what speed you feel most comfortable/efficient on your bike (I feel pretty good around 20mph). Then, you can use simple math with your wheel size to determine what the RPM equivalent of that would be for your bike (in my case, 232RPM). Now you have a ratio of RPM:RPM (in my case, 12.5:1), so you can multiply/divide that by your bike tire's diameter to determine the ideal diameter of the pulley (in my case, 2.32 inches). Once you get it set up, obviously you can still use the gears on your bike to fine-tune your comfortable speed based on how much resistance the motor puts on you, but this at least gets you a good starting point.

[@hollyh7443]

Could a bench grinder be used for the motor? 2.1amp 3450rpm

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

A bench grinder is (most likely) a 120V AC motor, so it would not work well with a solar panel charge controller, as those are DC and generally lower voltages than that. However, it could be used to generate 120V electricity with a bike, you would then just need to use a battery charger if you want to store the energy

[@jaydedelyuenduroairsoft4x448]

At a normal pedal speed whats how many amps being registered??

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

This is a very common question and I unfortunately never actually measured the output on it, but I think I came up with an estimate in some previous comments based on what I was able to power directly without a battery, and I think I was estimating somewhere around 150W, if I recall correctly, so around 11-13 Amps into the battery at 12-14 volts. Maybe I'll eventually set this up again and get real numbers 🤔

[@1gearwrench]

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

[@paulhaul1101]

It's really nice, what's the name of the motor and how much does it cost?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

There should be links in the description

[@alvintolentino194]

can you give me the specs of the materials that you used. i planning to make bike generator fir my thesis.

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

All the materials I used should be in the video description, but let me know if I missed something

[@waltertaylor6132]

could this be made portable, so that instead of just using it inside, I can ride my bike outside and still generate energy?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

I have seem some commercially-available usb chargers that you can clamp onto your bike to use some of that energy from the back wheel to charge a phone/battery, but you certainly wouldn't want to take much more energy than that from the wheel, unless you can turn it off for hill climbs :-)

[@asiawasia24]

Would’ve been great to have the camera like right over the bike. 😕 but overall great info! Thanks

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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!

[@rileydanes5456]

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?

[@Jongpang]

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

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

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

[@ankittripathi5621]

Sir ,this is what I am going to make for my final year project !! So I had a doubt that weather dynamo / alternator will be useful in the place of motor or no ????Please answer sir !!!! If yes , so do I need to add extra equipments or no ?????? And can 12 V 40 A alternator. Charges 12 V 7 A UPS battery with an paddling system??

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

An alternator may be able to be used in place of a motor, but depending on the alternator, there is some additional wiring you may need to do,depending on the alternator. If you connect the alternator to the charge controller, you should make sure the specs line up to avoid killing the charge controller. If you connect the alternator straight to the battery, you will lose some of the charge cycle/phase features that help keep your battery in good shape. A 7Ah battery should work fine in your setup

[@rootcanal7188]

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!

[@ChanChan-qr6zn]

Hi! I just wanna ask how long does it takes to fully charge the battery with a speed of 15 kmp?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Chan Chan this really depends on which motor, battery, pulley, and charge controller you use... I think 100 watts is doable at 20 mph, which would be about 8 amps at 12v. An empty 35Ah battery would then take about 5 hours to charge from empty, taking into consideration energy efficiency and loss between them.

[@ChanChan-qr6zn]

thank you so much for replying!! one last question :D , do you know any generator that can be used on moving bicycle?

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Chan Chan no problem! I recommend Googling "hub dynamo" for power generation while riding

[@ChanChan-qr6zn]

thank you!! you're a big help :D

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

Chan Chan no problem! Thanks for tuning in and good luck with your projects!

[@alainfabricebarakauwayo6581]

Thank you for the video. I want to ask if it possible to use that system to charge a battery of 200Ah

[@LifeIsForEnjoying]

This setup can be used to charge any size of battery bank, assuming the voltage matches between the battery and charge controller.... The question is not "is it possible", but instead "how long would it take". Assuming this setup outputs 150W (which I have yet to actually measure, but should be close), at 12V, this is around 12.5 Amps. The battery size Ah is referring to Amp * Hours. Meaning how much current could be drawn from the battery for how many hours before it dies. This means that in a 100% efficient ideal world, a 12.5 Ah battery could output 12.5 Amps for 1 hour or 1 Amp for 12.5 hours before it is dead... And would theoretically take the same amount of energy to charge it back up to 100%....so with these assumptions, it would take 1 hour to charge a 12.5Ah battery with this setup. A dead 200Ah battery would therefore take about 16 hours of biking to fully charge... And this is a rough estimate in a 100% efficient world.

[@alainfabricebarakauwayo6581]

@@LifeIsForEnjoying Thanks for the reply, I will try the experiment and see what I get.