We love this DIY project on make.com: replace your traditional plug-in cell phone charger with your bike. It’s an innovative way to use less electricity and lighten your cell phone’s carbon footprint. It’s also a handy device if you’re camping or spending a few days without electricity.
Author Alastair Bland successfully modified his bike headlight generator to charge his cell phone – with just $25 worth of electronics equipment from Radio Shack.
Bland’s test ride was a success: starting with a dead cell phone, he was back at a full charge after a three-hour bike ride around San Francisco, rarely exceeding 4 mph.
His post includes lots of helpful pictures and provides clear step-by-step instructions. Check out the full post here, including the parts list and detailed instructions:
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/06/how-to_pedal-powered_phone_charger.html
You may have heard that uneven charges or using modified chargers are somewhat bad for your phone. That may be sort of true so try this at your own risk but general consensus here is that it will likely be just fine.
Curious to try this yourself? Tell us about your experience. Or, if you’ve tested another kind of environmentally friendly phone charger, let us know!
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Brilliant. I’m no electrician, but I would think one could include current-massaging circuitry (capacitors and resistors?) to “even out” the current delivery to the device battery (or just have the generator charge an intermediary battery that actually recharges the phone’s battery).
But watch out, Alastair: you will likely be scooped by some entrepreneur (not I!) looking to make these generators commercially for the mass market! If you want to make it yourself, get you some Obama money and get your biz on!
Very cool. I saw something like this years ago up at a Healdsburg energy fair thing–and even saw something similar in one my favorites, YES magazine. Do you know if you can use a stationery bicycle in the same way? Can’t see why this wouldn’t work, although I rarely ride more than 20 minutes at a pop.