Bike that charges your cell phone as you ride!

My friend Jack and I wanted to make a bike that charges his cell phone as he rides, so we decided to use a small DC motor to power it!

For the peeps who don't know why it saves energy: 1st, you charge your phone without electricity from a power plant, obviously, because you are creating electricity by riding. 2nd, it gives you a reason to ride to wherever you want to go, reducing your carbon footprint drastically.

Note: the video is on the last step

Step 1 Get your parts!

OK, so the parts list is pretty basic.

1 Bike that you are willing to do some stuff to (every thing is reversible)
1 Small gear that will fit into your chain
1 Small piece of wood
1 Smallish DC motor
1 Cell phone
1 Cell phone charger that you are willing to destroy
1 Solder
A crap load of duct tape
Hot glue
Assorted washers, nuts, and bolts

Tools:
Soldering Iron
Socket wrench
Hot glue gun
Coke and Dr. Pepper
Good music to listen to
A friend to help you out

Comments

[Wasagi]

Excellent! Just to clarify, any old DC motor would work, right?

[imakethings]

no you cannot charge that way as it will reverse the polarity

[Agroking]

 He uses a diode to change from alternating to direct.

[Glockenator]

can you change the gears while charging the phone?

[sharlston]

the little gear is from a derailer

try putting some lube on the chain

[jjbalogh]

How do you change gears??

[jesusfreek]

put it on a cruiser, no gears

[flaresam]

This would also work quite well. Changing gears has become a bit of an issue.

[flaresam]

Its far enough up so that you can change gears without a problem.

[BigMac96]

Could this work on an exercise bike?

[omnibot]

If it doesn't have a chain a rubber roller against the flywheel should do.

[bombmaker2]

if it has a chain

[and-reas]

That's a great way to charge! Here in Holland we have dynamo's on our bikes (little generators actually), with a cap on the axe (you know, that round thing in a geerator) that's pressed to the side of the front wheel with a sort of spring. It gives a 6v ac current from about a half amp. Straighting it out with some diodes and a capacitor should also charge up a phone i think. Why I'm saying this? Less risk of your chain breaking off because of the extra strain put on it. Not that your solution is bad, not at all, it's even less friction then my idea, but this is also an idea I just came up with ;)

[RaWTHentic10]

just wondering does it matter want kind of engine u use and if so whered you get yours from

[fyrefox]

so when you change the gears it really doesnt mess with it.. cuz it seems like if you shifted to the smallest chainring in the back it would not be in line with your little wheel. did you get a chance to do anymore testing after the component conflict seen on your video?

[kimro]

if were to build this i wold add a power supply and a small capacitor bank so you can keep a constant charge even when your not moving for a short time i.e a stoplight.

[zplatt]

Where did you get your DC motor? did you scavenge it off of something? How do you know if it's the right one and prevent frying your cell phone's battery?

[bassmasta1010]

you can find the exact same motor in a cd player, and those mini handheld fans

[flaresam]

I just had it in my junk box =3
Test it with a multi meter and if you want, use a voltage regulator like aandre said. Oh, and use a powerful enough diode to change the current from ac to dc.

[natelawrence]

Great Idea

[TheFoerignMan]

great idea! would try it if it wasnt for one problem (unless you've explained it and i missed it)... what happens when you change gear? the chain will move and change position so you will have to change the generator's gear so that it matches the new position of the chain...

is this directed solely to those who dont change gears at all? cos thats what i do but i'll be getting a new bike, and i'll be using the gears a lot

but great idea!! =D

[vince086]

This is actualy a realy good idea, needs a bit more work but the idea is good. I was planing on making one of these but that used the weel, only problem was that with a dual suspention bike there is no space! So for that type of bike your idea is way more practical!

[aandre]

This is an amazing concept and the only thing i would change would be to add a voltage regulator. When you ride a bike, you change speeds, even if it is unnoticeable. You have the potential to break your phone without a voltage regulator and I am surprised you didn't do so already.

[flaresam]

Thanks! We used a diode (AC to DC current), and the motor did not put out a high enough voltage to brake the phone. Again, if hotrodbuild (Jack) ever wants to update his bike charger, then thats what we will do.

[imakethings]

Not a good idea as the motor will spin only when the rider peddles.you must attach the motor directly with the wheel so that it generates voltages constantly

[hotrodbuild]

even if you could somehow do that, it would not generate electricity constantly due to stop lights. i like welfare warrior's idea. that way at stop lights you can continue your charging.

[hotrodbuild]

one more thing. like most serious riders, i peddle while going down hill, so the only time i would not be peddling would be at a stop light. for a lot of idiot bikers, however, stop signs aren't even a problem because they don't pay attention to them, which annoys the crap out of me.

[flaresam]

We could not mount the setup directly on to the wheel. The wheel spins freely of the axle it is on, so we could not mount it onto the axle, we figured that the only way to get enough power out of it was to use the chain.

[jesusfreek]

connect a small wheel to the motor and put the wheel rolling on the outside of the tire

[alexsolex]

maybe it is not a big problem, I don't know exactly if there's a matter with charging/not charging/charging/not charging.. for the phone. One biggest problem may be to regulate the current as it will only depend on how fast you peddle... the author (sorry, i can't find he's name on the instructable ??...) may need to test it a whole ride, wit a multimeter attached to it to know how much max/min voltage/current it can deliver anyway, i'm pretty surprised how the idea is so simple... in the past we used to have a "dynamo" (it may not be the correct English name) to light the bike. It was a kind of motor pushing pretty hard on the pneumatic, and making harder to peddle. This solution, using the chain, may be lower constraint.

[rimar2000]

Today I use a cycle with a dynamo. It is very effective. I used a 4 NiMH pack of batteries, but the connectors I used were of such poor quality that I had to remove the batteries because they caused many problems.

[flaresam]

It is interesting, when we started, the battery was out of power, and when we biked the phone did not say it was charging. But afterwards, we checked the battery with a multimeter, and it was fully charged.

[Penru]

Great Idea!!! But I want your help to take it to the next level...

Here's what i have in mind, add a battery system (something like a Powerizer 12v 4200 mAh NiMH Battery for RC Car Boat should work and fit under seat). this battery would be used to run headlights, tail lights/turn signals and also power my droid phone (running a dash board app to give me speedometer, odometer, compass and gps. This would be accompanied by a 80cc slant head engine. Well that is my idea... Any help would be great!

Thanks

Penru

[Kiteman]

The author is flaresam - it is to the right of the page, and was under the image that you clicked to get here.

[imakethings]

IF the generator is attached to the wheel it will generate more power without much effort - i guess

[imakethings]

To charge your mobile you will have to peddle continuously which is not possible!

[rimar2000]

It is not possible? That depends where you live and who are you!

[rimar2000]

Good idea, good instructable. I think you should place the charger in the bottom segment of the chain, to avoid overloading the shaft of the generator. Where you've located it, this receives part of the force applied on the pedals, when you use a front or rear gear littler that you used when aligned. Pardon if you don't understand my idea, I speak Spanish.

[lemonie]

Put some chain-lube on your bike! (Good build) L

[flaresam]

Thanks! Trust me, there was plenty of chain-lube on the bike, it was all over my hands afterwards!