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#1
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Battery Charging on a Bicycle
Has anyone ever seen a bike rigged with either a generator, or solar
powered battery charger? |
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#2
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Battery Charging on a Bicycle
Pilgrim wrote:
Has anyone ever seen a bike rigged with either a generator, or solar powered battery charger? The reason they use NiCd on cheap LED solar lawn lights is that the sun doesn't supply enough energy to charge a higher capacity NiMH. So in a day you'd get about one small LED's worth of night illumination, if you had the bike outside all day. For the same amount of solar panel, of course. -- Ron Hardin On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk. |
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Battery Charging on a Bicycle
On Feb 26, 7:42 pm, "Pilgrim" wrote:
Has anyone ever seen a bike rigged with either a generator, or solar powered battery charger? Wheel/rim and/or hub generators have been around for decades I believe. |
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Battery Charging on a Bicycle
On Feb 26, 5:46 pm, "ddog" wrote:
On Feb 26, 7:42 pm, "Pilgrim" wrote: Has anyone ever seen a bike rigged with either a generator, or solar powered battery charger? Wheel/rim and/or hub generators have been around for decades I believe. What I mean is does anyone use them to charge batteries, like for cell phones? |
#5
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Battery Charging on a Bicycle
Pilgrim wrote:
Has anyone ever seen a bike rigged with either a generator, or solar powered battery charger? I've seen both methods used by touring cyclists. The solar approach requires a good-sized panel to recharge decent capacity NiMH cells. If you a have a rear rack/panniers and can put a sizable panel across the top then it can work ok - at least in areas where you're likely to get lots of sunshine. Generators can also work, but AFAIK, none of them will do so off-the-shelf. They're AC devices which works fine for running incandescent lights, but to charge batteries you need a stable source of DC. So you need to rectify the output with a diode bridge and regulate the output voltage. Not hard to do, but does require some custom wiring and assembly of appropriate electronic components. I just carry a small charger and enough cells to last until I get to a campground/motel/restaurant that'll let me plug it in long enough to recharge them. Worst case I switch to using disposable alkaline AAs for awhile. |
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Battery Charging on a Bicycle
On Feb 26, 7:42 pm, "Pilgrim" wrote:
Has anyone ever seen a bike rigged with either a generator, or solar powered battery charger? "I used to have a Dynohub on a tandem, and the bulb consumption was unacceptable. I solved the problem (and some others) by running the Dyno's output through a full-wave bridge rectifier and then hooking the DC in parallel with a 6 volt (5 x 1.2v cell) nickel cadmium battery. This not only provided light when I was stopped, the Dyno would re-charge the nicads, and, when we went so fast that the voltage rose above 6 volts, the low internal resistance of the nicads sucked up the excess, gaining a bit of extra charge and saving the bulb. The rectified output of the Dynohub was always connected to the lights. There was no way to turn the light off while you were in motion. It would have been easy enough to rig a switch for that purpose, but I didn't see the need. The Dynohub has _very_ low drag. I had a three way switch connecting the battery pack to the lights. In the "night" position, the nicads were in parallel with the rectified output of the Dynohub, as described above. In the "day" position, the nicads were connected to the lights and Dyno through a diode (rectifier). This would allow the Dyno to charge the battery when it was going fast enough, but would not pass electricity the other way, so that the battery would not drain running the lights. The "park" position completely disconnected the battery, because diodes are not perfect, and there is a slight drain that would discharge the nicads over a period of time. Dynohubs are suitable for this type of set up because they do not use the bicycle frame as a ground. If you use a full-wave rectifier, you must keep the AC circuit seperated from the DC circuit. Since most bicycle generator setups are made to use the frame as one of the wires in the circuit, this is a problem. To use full-wave rectification, either the generator or the lamps must be kept insulated from the frame. Dynohubs are already insulated from the frame, that is why they have two screw terminals and use twin-lead wiring." From http://www.sheldonbrown.com/dynohubs.html - Frank Krygowski |
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Battery Charging on a Bicycle
I cycled across Australia in 1982 with a solar panel in the map pocket of my
handlebar bag. I used it to charge the 6v gel cell that ran my lights and 6v fluoro camping lantern. Worked ok. The panel supplied about 0.5A in full sun. Nick "Pilgrim" wrote in message oups.com... Has anyone ever seen a bike rigged with either a generator, or solar powered battery charger? |
#8
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Battery Charging on a Bicycle
Nick Payne wrote: I cycled across Australia in 1982 with a solar panel in the map pocket of my handlebar bag. I used it to charge the 6v gel cell that ran my lights and 6v fluoro camping lantern. Worked ok. The panel supplied about 0.5A in full sun. Nick "Pilgrim" wrote in message oups.com... Has anyone ever seen a bike rigged with either a generator, or solar powered battery charger? hi, I believe these may already be available http://www.bikeiowa.com/asp/features...?articleid=658 dan |
#9
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Battery Charging on a Bicycle
"Nick Payne" wrote in message ... I cycled across Australia in 1982 with a solar panel in the map pocket of my handlebar bag. I used it to charge the 6v gel cell that ran my lights and 6v fluoro camping lantern. Worked ok. The panel supplied about 0.5A in full sun. Nick "Pilgrim" wrote in message oups.com... Has anyone ever seen a bike rigged with either a generator, or solar powered battery charger? I used a solar panel on a 500 mile tour last summer as supplement. I found that the panel replaced the gps power use and left the battery full for night light. see this page; http://www.billcotton.com/quest_on_bicycle.htm |
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Battery Charging on a Bicycle
On Feb 27, 10:42 am, "Pilgrim" wrote:
Has anyone ever seen a bike rigged with either a generator, or solar powered battery charger? These guys have a lot of detail on their setup http://www.mark-ju.net/bike_ride/equ...lectronics.htm |
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