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20-Battery System

Step 10 Cut your wire to connect to your bike generator

DIY BYO - wire to use with your pedal power bicycle generator

Now it is time to connect wire to the generator. In this case a $3.00 extension cord was used. (14 AWG wire). You should use thicker wire then this if you have access to it. Size 10 AWG is thicker and would reduce the amount of power lost while delivering current to what ever you are trying to provide power to.

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Step 11 Strip the ends of your bicycle generator wires

Now you need to strip about 1/3 inches of wire insulation off the ends of your wire ends. (If you need to buy wire strippers then you can try this link HERE.)

SAFETY NOTE: These are very sharp like scissors. Read instructions first before using.

My favorite method of stripping wire insulation is to use needle nose pliers to secure the wire firmly in one hand, then use the Klein wire stripper in the other hand as shown in this animated image on the right. The nice part about this method is that all you have to do to remove the wire insulation is to gently roll your hand, and then the wire strippers land against the needle nose pliers and easily pull of the insulation.

It is very important to select the correct wire stripper hole. (see image below) In this case since we are using cheap extension cord wire, the correct wire stripper hole is 14. If you are not sure which wire stripper hole to use, then it is better to pick a bigger one and be safe than picking a hole that is too small. The danger of picking to small a hole is that the wire strippers can easily score the copper wire and cause it to break or sustain permanent damage so that after a few months of usage, the wire suddenly breaks.

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Step 12 Add solder to the ends of the generator wires and the extension cord.

This process is also known as "tinning" the wire end.

Tin the ends of your wires coming from your permanent magnet generator as shown in the pictures.

You must Follow safety precautions.

It is best to hold the wires with some needle nose pliers while they are heating up.

Now do the same thing for the ends of your extension cable. In this case a $3.00 extension cord was used. (14 AWG wire). You should use thicker wire than this if you have access to it. Size 10 AWG is thicker and would reduce the amount of power lost while delivering current to what ever you are trying to provide power to.

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20-Battery System

Step 13 Cut heat shrink tubing to length.

You must use heat shrink to cover the wires you will solder in two steps.

First cut two pieces of 1/4 inch diameter at a length of 1.5 inches.

Next cut a 3rd piece of heat shrink to a 2 inch length as shown at the bottom of this picture.

You can use a regular pair scissors to cut the heat shrink.

You can buy the heat shrink HERE

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Step 14: Slide on heat shrink

NOTE: IF you don't want to solder, you can use wire nuts instead from your local hardware store. Wire nuts are easy to use but not as robust of a connection.

Now that you have cut your heat shrink to length, you can slide the 3 pieces onto the wires as shown in the image above. #1 shows the large 3/8" diameter going over the two wires connected to the bicycle generator. #2 & #3 show how the smaller 1/4" diameter heat shrink pieces slide over the white extension cord wire ends.

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Step 15: Solder Wires

NOTE: If you want to take a shortcut here and avoid soldering all togehter, you could use twist on wire nuts available from your local hardware store instead.

Soldering is dangerous because you can get burned. You must read the owners manual first for the soldering iron and fully understand the safety precautions. You are responsible for you own safety!

Now that the wires have been tinned and your heat shrink is in place, solder the wires as shown in the figure below.

You probably need a 2nd person to hold the wires nicely together as you heat them up.

The best solution is to order a Panavise that holds the wires for your. They are very handy to have on your bench for all sorts of projects. Get more info HERE under the Category "Work holder vise"

Make sure that the solder gets hot enough for the solder to flow all over as shown in this picture.

They should look something like one piece of wire when you are done. You should be able to tug on them very hard and not have them come loose.

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Step 16: Use heat gun to shrink the heat shrink tubing

Heat guns are much hotter than hair dryers. You must read the safety section of your heat gun owners manual and fully understand the instructions therein.

Use your heat gun to shrink the two small pieced of tubing as shown below. It takes about 10 seconds when you hold the heat gun about 3 inches away. Don't hold the heat gun still, wave it back and forth and up and down during the 10 second period until you see the tubing shrink into place as shown below.

Now slide the large piece of heat shrink tubing over the two smaller pieces and proceed to apply heat.

Again, wave the gun back and forth in small strokes for about 10 seconds until the tubing shrinks into place as shown below.

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Step 17: Use tie wraps to strain relief your wiring

Adding strain relief with a service loop is very important. It will give you a little protection against having the red and black wires break off right at the point where the come out of the PM motor.

This could happen if you are moving your bike generator around a lot, or some one trips over the cord to your generator, or the cord could get wrapped up in your sprocket while you are pedaling for some reason.

You will use tie wraps in this step. Tie wraps are available at your local hardware store or auto parts store. You need to buy some that are small enough to fit into the holes of your PM motor / generator.

(1) This is the service loop

(2) This is the first tie wrap you put on.

(3) This is the 2nd tie wrap you put on.

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Step 18: Crimp on ring terminals to the ends of your bike generator cable.

CONGRATULATIONS! This is the last step to complete for your bike generator!!. Now it's time to crimp on connectors to the ends of your generator wire.

DIRECTIONS

(1) If you are using an extension cord and haven't cut off the end yet, do it now as shown in the picture above.

(2) Strip of about 1/3" of wire as shown in the picture.

(3) Slide crimp connector onto wire. Make sure that the bare wired slides through the entire way as shown at location A in the picture above. Position the sleeve seem of the crimp on connector at the "valley" off the crimper as shown at location B of the picture above. If you squeeze the crimper nice and hard (about 35 lbs of pressure) then you get a nice dimple like the one shown at location "C" above.

(4) Now you need to do the "Tug Test". Firmly grasp the crimped connector and wire in each hand and give it a real hard yank. You should not be able to pull them apart.

If you don't have crimpers then click HERE.
If you need crimp on ring terminals then click HERE.

Ring terminals are very handy method to connect your pedal power bike generator to things. This approach involves the use of a barrier strip also known as a "terminal block". For more info click HERE

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