Bike wheel alternator experiments

[Gotwind Ben]

I've seen similar ideas on Youtube, I thought I would have a play ;)
Using a 20" diameter front bike wheel, I attached eight 2"x 1" Neo magnets around the wheels circumfrance in a N-S-N-S configuration.
I wound a 1 ohm test coil, 140 turns of 0.9mm wire and obtained some reasonable results.


As can be seen here in the video, the single coil would light a 2.4v incandescent bulb



I'm not sure where to go with this, I could certainly add 5 more coils and see some decent voltage i suspect at fairly low rpms - maybe in VAWT territory with 3 coils per phase (9 in total).
Only took an hour to see these reasonable results.

I can see a use for it right now! :mrgreen:
Put the magnets on the side of the wheel and put the wheel back on the bike! :mrgreen:
Low resistance dynamo for cycle lights. ;)
Could use LED bulbs they usually flash anyway.

[Gotwind Ben]

Steel forks on a bike would play havoc with the magnets Shawn, cogging.

With this method, of mounting the magnets on the circumfrance the speed is a lot faster than at the hub.
Similar idea to the controversial earthtronics /honeywell idea.
http://www.earthtronics.com/honeywell.aspx

This is mainly for fun, Ideally I need to get a lot more steel behind the magnets (some bolted on steel banding) and fix up 6 coils series star connected in total to see what can be achieved - Its a nice and simple idea that justifies a couple hours of work I think.

I'll keep you all posted.