GPS and Dynamo to recharge

In article <[email protected]>, John001 wrote:
>Can you hook up a GPS to a dynamo while cycling rather than carring spare batteries rechargers etc?

Yes you can. I have powered eg video camera with bicycle dynamo. All you need is a diode and a
volt-meter. If you do not know what diodes and volts are, please stay home :-/

Of course solarpowered GPS makes more sense: http://www.kolumbus.fi/timo.noko/etrex/index.html

In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
> In article <[email protected]>, John001 wrote:
> >Can you hook up a GPS to a dynamo while cycling rather than carring spare batteries
> >rechargers etc?
>
> Yes you can. I have powered eg video camera with bicycle dynamo. All you need is a diode and a
> volt-meter. If you do not know what diodes and volts are, please stay home :-/

You can get by without a voltage regulator? What about some caps to smooth the waveform?

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In article <[email protected]>, David Kerber wrote:
> In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
>> In article <[email protected]>, John001 wrote:
>> >Can you hook up a GPS to a dynamo while cycling rather than carring spare batteries
>> >rechargers etc?
>>
>> Yes you can. I have powered eg video camera with bicycle dynamo. All you need is a diode and a
>> volt-meter. If you do not know what diodes and volts are, please stay home :-/
>
> You can get by without a voltage regulator? What about some caps to smooth the waveform?

You forgot the *Fuse*. 20 Amps or more does not break easily and thus you do not need more than
dozen spares.

In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
> In article <[email protected]>, David Kerber wrote:
> > In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
> >> In article <[email protected]>, John001 wrote:
> >> >Can you hook up a GPS to a dynamo while cycling rather than carring spare batteries rechargers
> >> >etc?
> >>
> >> Yes you can. I have powered eg video camera with bicycle dynamo. All you need is a diode and a
> >> volt-meter. If you do not know what diodes and volts are, please stay home :-/
> >
> > You can get by without a voltage regulator? What about some caps to smooth the waveform?
>
> You forgot the *Fuse*. 20 Amps or more does not break easily and thus you do not need more than
> dozen spares.

I wasn't just throwing out terms I've heard of somewhere; it was a serious question: can you get a
good charge of a video camera's battery with just a rectifier, and without a voltage regulator or
capacitors?

In article <[email protected]>, David Kerber wrote:
>In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
>> In article <[email protected]>, David Kerber wrote:
>> > In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
>> >> In article <[email protected]>, John001 wrote:
>> >> >Can you hook up a GPS to a dynamo while cycling rather than carring spare batteries
>> >> >rechargers etc?
>> >>
>> >> Yes you can. I have powered eg video camera with bicycle dynamo. All you need is a diode and a
>> >> volt-meter. If you do not know what diodes and volts are, please stay home :-/
>> >
>> > You can get by without a voltage regulator? What about some caps to smooth the waveform?
>>
>> You forgot the *Fuse*. 20 Amps or more does not break easily and thus you do not need more than
>> dozen spares.
>
>I wasn't just throwing out terms I've heard of somewhere; it was a serious question: can you get a
>good charge of a video camera's battery with just a rectifier, and without a voltage regulator or
>capacitors?

Ok. Seriously. Pulsed current is factually preferable in some cases.

The procedure is as follows:

You go to the local Radio-Shack-type store and get a Diode of almost any kind, providing it can take
some 2 amperes of current. Also you buy a voltmeter of cheapest kind.

You connect the Diode to the dynamo and check how much DC voltage is coming through it. If there is
more volts than in your battery you can start charging. Depending on which way you happened to
connect the Diode, the positive current comes either from the diode or from the bike body. This is
positive current is connected to the plus-plug of the battery.

To avoid overcharging you charge the battery full at home and check how much voltage it does have.
While biking you check the voltage of the battery regularly. Soon you will learn how much time the
charging takes and can quit checking. This applies to NiCd or NiMH-types of batteries.

Lithium-batteries are more difficult. Fortunately the Dynamo-Diode produces pulsed current, which is
needed. Voltmeter is useless, but you can use the camera to check if the battery is full and if the
charging current is strong enough -- some large Lithiums need more than dynamo's 0.5 Amps.

Also if the battery gets noticeably warm, you are either over-charging or you have messed up the
wiring and you are actually discharging. Continue this and the battery *will* explode.

Fact is that I have never managed to overcharge 3000 mAh battery with the dynamo. They are always
half-empty anyway, especially if the you resort to the "free-energy"-regime, that is if you use the
dynamo only while riding down-hill.

This must be the longest explanation anyone can give from one-component circuit... <grin

In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
> In article <[email protected]>, David Kerber wrote:
> >In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
> >> In article <[email protected]>, David Kerber wrote:
> >> > In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
> >> >> In article <[email protected]>, John001 wrote:
> >> >> >Can you hook up a GPS to a dynamo while cycling rather than carring spare batteries
> >> >> >rechargers etc?
> >> >>
> >> >> Yes you can. I have powered eg video camera with bicycle dynamo. All you need is a diode and
> >> >> a volt-meter. If you do not know what diodes and volts are, please stay home :-/
> >> >
> >> > You can get by without a voltage regulator? What about some caps to smooth the waveform?
> >>
> >> You forgot the *Fuse*. 20 Amps or more does not break easily and thus you do not need more than
> >> dozen spares.
> >
> >I wasn't just throwing out terms I've heard of somewhere; it was a serious question: can you get
> >a good charge of a video camera's battery with just a rectifier, and without a voltage regulator
> >or capacitors?
>
> Ok. Seriously. Pulsed current is factually preferable in some cases.
>
> The procedure is as follows:
>
> You go to the local Radio-Shack-type store and get a Diode of almost any kind, providing it can
> take some 2 amperes of current. Also you buy a voltmeter of cheapest kind.
>
> You connect the Diode to the dynamo and check how much DC voltage is coming through it. If there
> is more volts than in your battery you can start charging. Depending on which way you happened to
> connect the Diode, the positive current comes either from the diode or from the bike body. This is
> positive current is connected to the plus-plug of the battery.
>
> To avoid overcharging you charge the battery full at home and check how much voltage it does have.
> While biking you check the voltage of the battery regularly. Soon you will learn how much time the
> charging takes and can quit checking. This applies to NiCd or NiMH-types of batteries.

I see: a manual charge regulator. Very ingeneous! <Grin>.

> Lithium-batteries are more difficult. Fortunately the Dynamo-Diode produces pulsed current, which
> is needed. Voltmeter is useless, but you can use the camera to check if the battery is full and if
> the charging current is strong enough -- some large Lithiums need more than dynamo's 0.5 Amps.
>
> Also if the battery gets noticeably warm, you are either over-charging or you have messed up the
> wiring and you are actually discharging. Continue this and the battery *will* explode.
>
> Fact is that I have never managed to overcharge 3000 mAh battery with the dynamo. They are always
> half-empty anyway, especially if the you resort to the "free-energy"-regime, that is if you use
> the dynamo only while riding down-hill.
>
> This must be the longest explanation anyone can give from one-component circuit... <grin>

Well, let's see: you have 1). the generator, 2) The diode, 3) The battery, and 4) The
voltmeter. <Grin>

Seriously, I thought you would likely damage the battery with unregulated voltage, but I guess with
low-frequency and low-power pulses, you might get away with it. Of couse, going to a full-wave
rectifier would nearly double your charge rate, but also cause more power loss via more voltage drop
across the diodes, and give the batteries less rest time as well.

I've got a bunch of NiMH batteries, so this might be worth messing with if I can find a generator
which uses a two-wire circuit instead of using the bike frame as one leg of it (I don't like the
thought of putting a hole in my bike's paint job when it's less than two months old <GG>).

Thanks for the info!

--
Dave Kerber Fight spam: remove the ns_ from the return address before replying!

REAL programmers write self-modifying code.

David Kerber wrote:

> Seriously, I thought you would likely damage the battery with unregulated voltage, but I guess
> with low-frequency and low-power pulses, you might get away with it.

The battery itself does an excellent job of smoothing out the voltage peaks.
> Of couse, going to a full-wave rectifier would nearly double your charge rate, but also cause more
> power loss via more voltage drop across the diodes, and give the batteries less rest time as well.
>
> I've got a bunch of NiMH batteries, so this might be worth messing with if I can find a generator
> which uses a two-wire circuit instead of using the bike frame as one leg of it (I don't like the
> thought of putting a hole in my bike's paint job when it's less than two months old <GG>).

Any regular bike generator can easily be used with two wires instead of utilizing the bike frame.
Protect the paint with a piece of rubber from an old tube before installing the generator mount and
don't use the screw that's supposed to cut through the paint. Instead run a second wire from any
convenient bolt on the generator mount.

In article <zETqb.99789$mZ5.646195@attbi_s54>, [email protected] says...
> David Kerber wrote:
>
> > Seriously, I thought you would likely damage the battery with unregulated voltage, but I guess
> > with low-frequency and low-power pulses, you might get away with it.
>
> The battery itself does an excellent job of smoothing out the voltage peaks.
> > Of couse, going to a full-wave rectifier would nearly double your charge rate, but also cause
> > more power loss via more voltage drop across the diodes, and give the batteries less rest time
> > as well.
> >
> > I've got a bunch of NiMH batteries, so this might be worth messing with if I can find a
> > generator which uses a two-wire circuit instead of using the bike frame as one leg of it (I
> > don't like the thought of putting a hole in my bike's paint job when it's less than two months
> > old <GG>).
>
> Any regular bike generator can easily be used with two wires instead of utilizing the bike frame.
> Protect the paint with a piece of rubber from an old tube before installing the generator mount
> and don't use the screw that's supposed to cut through the paint. Instead run a second wire from
> any convenient bolt on the generator mount.

Thanks; I thought of that after I posted the above comment...

--
Dave Kerber Fight spam: remove the ns_ from the return address before replying!

REAL programmers write self-modifying code.

Get a Garmin GPSV with lots of batteries. You should be able to go all day on one set of batteries.
The GPSV will even plot your routes for you and give you turn by turn instructions, just like a car
GPS system.

On 7 Nov 2003 23:38:57 +1050, John001 <[email protected]> wrote:

>Can you hook up a GPS to a dynamo while cycling rather than carring spare batteries rechargers etc?
>
>With ref to previous discussions, there are pretty detailed GPS maps of Italy which I have used to
>plan route. Am planning Rome to Florence for next year and looking for an alternative to stopping
>and checking maps!
>
>John Haigh

It's a lot easier to stop and check a map than it is to use the little tiny map on the screen of a
GPS to figure out where to go.