Bike 5V Generator that Clamps on for Phone or 5V Electronics

myminifactory

I've designed something to enter the #Hope3D design competition. My goal was to create a device that helps us stop relying on batteries and mains electricity. Batteries contain many toxic chemicals, but with this generator, you won't need any batteries for your bike lights. If you're using it to charge devices operating at about 5 volts, open the battery compartment, remove the earth-destructive batteries, and connect the two generator output wires to the positive and negative terminals. You can drill a hole in the battery cover, route the wires through it, and close the cover. This way, you'll save both the planet and your wallet by not using batteries. You can even charge your phone with this device and avoid using mains power. I also made sure it's affordable so that while saving money on batteries, you won't waste any on this. One way to expand on this idea is to sell this as a product and have people donate money to a manufacturer to manufacture these and distribute them to those who can't afford to buy one for free. In the near future, I'll be making multiple designs for the clamp so that it can fit different shapes of bike tubes. This one fits oval tubes about mm by mm (medium). Feel free to ask me any questions you may have. Here are more instructions: I tested it on a Novara, Buzz bike. You're biking while using your phone's GPS, ready to go to your friend's house for the first time, and suddenly the battery dies! Your house has a power outage, and your phone is dead. What do you do? Simply plug it into your bike, and off you go! If you don't want to charge your phone, you can power anything else as long as it runs on 5V. This generator is mounted to the rod to the left of the rear wheel using a simple screw-on clamp mechanism. There will be multiple versions with different clamping shapes to accommodate for different rod sizes and shapes. The generator has a nail that acts as a hinge and uses an elastic rubber string to tension it, pulling it to the right, and allowing the generator's small wheel at the top to lightly touch the metal rim of the wheel. The tension is adjustable. You can loosen the screw in the back, which allows you to pull the string downwards, and tightening the screw will keep the tension. As the bike's wheel rotates, the generator's small wheel rotates at a higher rpm due to the gearing that a small wheel provides. The two wires leave the generator and are routed neatly to a circuit box, ensuring a stable 5V power supply while the bike is moving. Two wires exit this control box and can be connected to a phone charging cable or any other device such as bike lights. There's a red LED on the Boost Converter circuit board that I used (link below). On the biggest half of the electronics box, there's a small circular indent inside it. That's where the LED will be positioned under. This circle is thinner than the rest of the box so that when the LED is on, you'll see a red circle through the box without there being a hole. This makes it more waterproof and looks very modern. This LED can tell you if you're pedaling fast enough for 5V to be generated. This board requires 1V minimum and 4-5V max, and if you aren't going fast enough, you could be generating less than 1V. The LED won't be on, and that means you need to pedal faster (you don't need to be that fast for it to work). If it's on, you're good!