Bikes+16-17

Welcome to Bikes! Some useful references (added by Dr. Tupper 6/21/17) [|Bike stand designs], and [|here]. Some information about the electronics used: [|Solar Charge Controller], [|Methods for battery charging]. Here is some useful information about [|making pedal power more efficient], and [|here], which includes using a flywheel. Here are some [|general articles about pedal power] and [|this].

Last year's team page can be found here.


 * Mission statement**: to build a bike powered circuit that creates its own wifi.

PLEASE IGNORE THE COMMENT SECTION.

Link to our model circuit:
 * http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/how-to/a10245/pedal-power-how-to-build-a-bike-generator-16627209/**

1/4/16: The bikes team(Jacob and Myself) have been working on a bike that can produce its own wifi for the past month and a half. For this to work, we needed a few simple things; a power bright inverter, a wifi router/receiver, and a electric motor. We are still in the process of receiving the router and motor. For our project we decided to follow the designs of a bike that powers a lightbulb(popularmechanics.com) to figure out how to make our bike generate wifi. We then looked at the bike stand in the greengineering room and decided to make our own out of wood. This process took close to a month but we are finally finished and the stand is successful in holding up our bike. Pictures of our stand will soon follow. Drop by room 148 if you have any questions or concerns(probably just questions though).

1/11/17 : We have now successfully added lights to our bikes stand and have completely finished it. Our bike stand consists of two large wooden pieces that stand across from each other. They both have tiny little pegs that help keep the bikes back wheel off the ground so we can generate the energy required. Still waiting on the router and motor. Our pictures of bike and bike stand are as follows.



1/23/17: Our treadmill has arrived and we have begun deconstructing it to get the motor inside. Once we get the motor out of the treadmill we will start to set up our system and connect it to the bike. All we currently need is the router, and we have just finished connecting our power inverter to our 12 volt battery. The connection is strong and we have used it to charge some phones, so we know it works. We will keep you updated as we get closer to finishing our final project.

1/30/17: Still waiting on the router. We are finished with the treadmill and have gotten the motor, and are currently working on building our circuit. However, when building this, we noticed that the there was no space to for the motor to touch our bike in the current bike stand as the wooden blocks got in the way, so we are now extending our stand and making a platform for our circuit to stand on. We are almost done with this and hope to get our router very soon.

Here is our motor: 2/8/17: We have finished building our expanded bike stand and have tested it out with the motor. We placed the motor on the bike stand and adjacent to the back wheel of the bike. I then started to peddle and sure enough the wheel was successful in turning the motor and generating power. We are now working on setting up the battery and the power inverter to our system. We had a little trouble with our inverter as it let out an alarm every time we hooked it up, but we figured out it was just a low voltage alarm. We are currently checking if our bike can charge our system for an extended period of time. Still waiting on the router but for now everything is going smoothly.

2/15/17: We have run into a little trouble with our motor. We decided to put friction tape on it to make it catch the motor better, and it does make the motor turn faster, but unfortunately, whenever we pedal the bike, the friction tape on the motor starts to sand the wood when it turns. We are currently looking to expand the stand slightly so that our motor can be completely nailed down on all sides, and so it doesn't slope downwards into the wood.Just finished pumping up the tires and the bike is in better shape. In other news, we have got our battery hooked up to our motor and all we need now is to hook up the power inverter and get the router, pictures to follow shortly.

3/8/17: Back after an extended period of no class and we have officially fixed the motor problem by expanding our bike stand. Right now we are working on soldering our wires together so we can connect the motor to the battery, and the battery to the power inverter. We have found out where and how we can get our router, so that should arrive by the end of the week. Otherwise, not much else going on besides completing our circuit. After we get the router we will start looking into getting a WiFi hot spot set up and hopefully complete our project.

Here is a picture of our setup.

4/6/17: Sorry for the lack of posting as we have been very busy in class. We have decided to postpone our router to focus on stabilizing the bike first. The friction tape is starting to wear off, and we noticed that every time the front wheel turns a little bit, the back wheel almost completely comes of the motor. We are currently trying to fix this problem either by removing the front wheel or by creating a new, mini bike stand for the front. We will keep you guys posted.

4/12/17: We have just finished installing the mini bike stand to the front wheel. It is a great success and the bike is already turning less and is more stable. We have now realized that getting a router is not going to happen, so we have put in a request for a wifi booster instead and will hopefully be getting that soon.

5/4/17: Alright, Bikes is back for term 4 with a new goal and a new team member as well. Josh Castleman is joining the bikes squad from aquaponics, which will hopefully make us more productive. Unfortunately, we will not be continuing with the router and wifi idea, as it is taking too long to get the router and would probably take even longer to get our wifi hot spot up and running. This quarter we have decided to work on three separate things. Jacob will be working on a way to get our bike to go faster and generate more power, this involves getting and installing a fly wheel to our bike. Josh will be working on fixing/remodeling our bike stand to make it more stable and allow it to carry a larger weight without tipping either right or left. And I, Jack, will be working on finding new devices to hook up to our system and I will also be trying to improve our bike circuit, specifically the charging and discharging of the batteries. So far we are thinking about hooking up a small tv and a satellite dish to our bike so we can get tv in the greengineering room. We will keep you guys posted.

5/16: Nothing much has been happening so far into term 4, mostly because we are all doing some preliminary research and observations to let us know how we are going to finish our new system. Jacob has been testing out putting weights in the regular wheel and they have added more weight/resistance to our system. It is allowing us to peddle faster without losing our balance or traction on the peddle, which is allowing us to generate more power. If we combine this idea weights with the light flywheel, we will be able to peddle much faster and generate more electricity while maintaining balance and stability. Josh's new design for the bike stand(still a working progress), will add further more stability and make it easier to ride the bike without it slipping off the motor. As for me, I have been testing out different batteries and I have found that a few of the batteries are losing charge almost as soon as I plug them in. It is taking a long time to get the batteries over 12 volts, and then they lose battery very quickly, so I am going to try to charge and discharge the batteries at the same time by using a certain piece of equipment. I forget what it is called so I will share a photo of it and the name once I find out. I am going to be experimenting with the batteries and multiple pieces of equipment over the nest few weeks. Until then, we will be working very hard.