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          Free Pedal Power Plans for Build Your Own Pedal Power Bicycle Generator

 

 

Voit Tre Exercise bike used as pedal power generator   +  Permanent Magnet DC motor Cutaway used as bike generator

Exercise Bike                        +            DC Permanent Magnet Motor

SEE OTHER STYLES of Bike Generators

HEAVY FLY WHEEL STATIONARY STYLE

EXERCISE BIKE GENERATORS

 

Why use an exercise bike for a generator instead of a regular bicycle? It is safe to use around children in schools or home.  Regular bicycles are can catch long hair, and damage little  fingers. 

Click on an image to see a bicycle generator mounted to a plate that would work with  most exercise bikes that have a  heavy fly wheel.   Or a bike on a bike trainer stand.  

Click on image

 for full size view

bicycle generator using car alternator with students

 

The exercise bike shown to the left  is a common design manufactured under many different names. Here are a few: 

  • Voit Tre Stationary

  • Sears Stationary Exercise Bike

  • Bollinger Aerometer Precision Upright Bike

  • Performax 5500

  • Tunturi Ergometer

  • Weslo Stationary exercise bike

Skill Level:   mechanical / shop skills needed to retrofit motor shaft with wheel (Take a look at the pictures Below)

 

dc permanent magnet motor pedal power generator assembly

 

dc permanent magnet motor pedal power generator assembly instructions side view   dc permanent magnet motor pedal power generator assembly instructions top view

 

This project requires some mechanical / shop skills. Especially usage of power tools.

 

The generator is actually a DC permanent magnet motor which is rated at 240V DC and 6 Amps.  This motor is specially fitted with a roller blade wheel by grinding the threads off of the shaft and putting on a bushing.  To do this symmetrically, you must hook up a 12 volt power supply motor. 

 

While the motor shaft is spinning, use a sanding or grinding wheel like the Makita grinder. Note: You must wear protective glasses to keep metal particles from embedding in the soft lining of your eye thus causing rust rings and incredible pain.  (Speaking from personal experience).  After making the shaft smooth, put a busing on that will allow you to fit the roller blade wheel on.  Drill a hole through both the shaft and busing at the same time.  Be very patient and use oil on your drill bit.

 

If the wheel is still loose then put RTV silicon in the gap around the shaft.   

 

Note: Current is calculated by reading voltage drop across a 0.02 ohm resistor (future software versions will let you calibrate this value)

 

Materials:

  Qty. Part # Description Price Order    From  

1

 1

OLDU-2424

 1 1/8" Thick particle board tops are thermo fused with Melamine laminate. $18.95

Here
2 1 Sears 267.291221 Sears Ergometer or Voit Tre Stationary Exercise Bike

 Thrift Store, ask around,  (people throw these away often, they were very popular) Beg, borrow, from friends
3 1 MOT1020 NOTE: Any DC permenant magnet motor can be used.  You do not have to use the on shown here.

Mcmillan Electric 0 to 240V DC Motor / generator (note that this generates DC voltage. no rectifier is needed)

  Here (ask for distributor)
4 1 LabJack USB Computer voltage monitoring system (optional) $99 Here
5 1 optional Windows computer with USB plug optional  
6 1 D80614C-UC-CU Ball Bearing Side Mount Drawer Slides, 110 lb capacity $14

Home Depot

info
7 1   1 foot 1/2" Unistrut $4 Hardware store

more info
8 1   Roller Blade Wheel to put on DC m otor Garage sale  
9 8   6/32 screws and nuts to hold unistrut to ball bearing slides    
10 5   Metal Brackets to hold bike in place on wood platform    

 

It is very important to provide something to look at that is fun for the kids, something that will inspire them to pedal faster.  I used a fan with a tube and a small ball.  (See picture) The kids love to make the ball fly to the top of the tube, and if the pedal fast enough, it will come up out of the tube and hover in mid air.  

Me and my buddy Joe setting up for a class activity

The kids really love doing this experiment.

  1. Have the class to divide up into teams of 3or 4 students
  2. Have the team create a name of their power company
  3. Each team gets 1 minute to come up to the bike to see how much power they can generate using two 35W spot lights for a load
  4. Have the students calculate how many KW hours they generated
  5. Everyone puts their data on the board with theri team name and we go over it.

It turns out that in 1 minute, each team generated about 0.0015 cents of power (assuming about 5cents / KW H) 

 

This photo is the bike with LabVIEW program projected on to the big screen. The data on the top chart (red) is the real time voltage, the 2nd chart (blue) is the current measured from a shunt resistor.  Both of these measurements are done by a  LabJack Data Acquisition Box Order Information HERE.