Charge your laptop by pedaling your bike
November 11th, 2007
A group of MIT students have been testing out a new way to power a laptop.
By using an excercise bike and some other gizmos, the students are able to produce 75 watts of continuos power, which is more than the 30 watts needed to power a laptop.
After many hours in the lab, the students coupled a laptop donated by Dell to a much-altered exercise bike. In their design, the motion of the wheel is conveyed through a flywheel, belt and gears to a generator in the back, which charges a conventional 12-volt battery like that in a car. A charge controller regulates the electricity coming to the battery to prevent overcharging. With the aid of a 12-volt cigarette-lighter adaptor, the battery supplies electricity to the laptop, which rests on a tray atop a swiveling arm in place of the handlebars.
The bike seat is adjustable and the laptop easily moved, so a person of any height can produce an arrangement that’s comfortable and ergonomic for both pedaling and computing. A cover over the wheel ensures that the rider’s clothing won’t get caught, and a clear plastic box encloses the electrical components but leaves them visible to curious observers.
In preliminary calculations, the students predicted that a bicyclist should be able to produce up to 75 watts continuously–far more than the 30 watts needed to power the laptop. Indeed, in an initial test drive, team member Figari easily generated 50 watts while checking his e-mail.
MIT News via CrunchGear
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I need one of these so I can lose a few pounds, so sign me up!
If they made a bike that actually moved AND recharged your portable (and cell and ipod and …) , now that would be progress.
And they really shouldn’t let that fat chick pedal it though. Won’t she produce methane and stuff by farting all the time? Thus punching another hole in the ozone layer?
Wow I thought MIT students were educated. This has been done before. Back in the late 90’s my health club had these. You had to pedal in order to keep the machine on, while doing so you could use free internet. Stop pedaling and you lost power and had to start over. It did have a wall plug though to keep the interface on but it was the same idea.