bike headlight generator for wind turbine to charge battery.

[Ageless]

So use (2) 6V batteries; wired in series they will give 12V

[pete42]

When I had a cushman motor scooter way back in the last century it had a generator that would put out way to many volts when crusing so much so it would blow the light bulbs I did get good at changing them in the dark.
a bike generator rubbing on your tires would do the same thing.

[MceeD]

There are alot of resources on the web about building Wind generators.

Most DC motors with permanent magnets will produce current if you spin then versus applying power to them. So if you have a fan blade on there and you let it ride in the wind, wa-la current.

Of course there are a ton of variables and options to make this more efficient. With a quick look it would seem that a vertical windmill utilizing a mag-lev system would be the best for a camping adaptation, Since they can be smaller, easier to store and you won't have to fuss with wind direction.

The motor, gearing, blade style and controller seem to be the areas of greatest tweaking.

Here are couple of quick links.

VAWT vid

VAWT vid

A how too

I really hope someone does this, it looks cool , easy and a darn good idea!

[Pottercounty]

Perhaps you could use a wind generator such as the one in the link for running when you're driving to keep the battery charged or perhaps find a old Aeronica or Stearman wind/prop generator. I saw these on a couple of ultralight aircraft hangered at our airfield.
Maybe look along these lines...

Seems that there is a small amount of resistance for a bike generator so a large well balances prop with a adequate pitch might do the trick as well..

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/e ... nnipod.php

[RonS]

How would 6 volts recharge a 12 volt battery.

It won't. Get a volt meter, start your car and check your car's voltage. More like 14.5 volts, to keep that "12 volt" battery (actually like 12.6 volts) charged.

And everyone, forget the silly ideas of rigging something to charge the battery while towing the trailer. USE YOUR TOW VEHICLE'S CHARGING SYSTEM. Much easier to just hook into it, probably safer, and it's not going to put any more load on the engine than whatever you'd rig up would. Probably less of a load than the decreased aeordynamics of trying to hook up some sort of windmill, and certainly safer.

[PhotoGuy]

I saw a post online on heating a teardrop in which someone suggested a old bike generator like the typs used as kids to run a head light to make a wind turbine out of. I get way to much wind in wyoming am already working on a idea for a large windturbine in my back pasture. So it was very easy to latch on to this idea. I did some research on ebay and found lots of the old bike generator and head light sets. Most informaton on them said the old bike generators are 6 volt. They run a 12 volt head light and a 6 volt tail light and the generator itself is 6 volt. How would 6 volts recharge a 12 volt battery. and would a 6 volt battery do a good job at trickle charge much like the small 5 watt solar panels. I amit I am curous on this idea and would like some feed back from someone on here more knowledgable and up on electricty. I have even thought about running the generator on my teardrops tires much like the bike it was desinged for on a homemade bracket. But won't do this idea as my tires on my teardrop probale will spin the bike generator way to fast and burn it up. Can 6 volt do a good job at trickle charging 12 volt??????? Slowcowboy working on ideas again.

Just a side note to your home wind idea. have a look at www.windchasers.ca they have books to build a home made wind turbin.. I am in the planning stages of building a TD to use on my many photography trips. I was thinking of going solar as most of my trips take me off grid. Now you have me thinking about using wind to keep me charges... hmmmm

[emiller]

I have built a wind generator, one of my shared shutterfly sites has pictures.
http://teardropcamper.shutterfly.com/

[emiller]

the controller I bought from some web site and the solar panel is a 33 watt from Northern Tool. I used the wind generator a couple of times but have no way of slowing it down in strong winds and the spinning prop really scares me. People just get to close to it and I am afraid someone will lose a hand or arm. For me the solar works the best. Quite and no moving parts.

[Grid Runner Adventures]

put a telescoping mast on it to get it out of arms length. also wind gens you hook directly to the battery bank and the controller diverts execss energy on the other side of the batteries to a dump load, ie water heater and such

this constant load of the batteries on the wind gen will keep it from over spinning.

[emiller]

My blades are 22" each.

[Frog]

slowcowboy:

Unless I read your post wrong, I'm not sure I agree that an automobile alternator only charges to 70% of a battery capacity. That would mean that the battery in your car or truck is ALWAYS discharged to 70% of capacity under the best of conditions.

That really would be illogical for a manufacturer, with 100 years of experience and millions in research to install an alternator that could not fully recharge the battery in their vehicle.

The alternator in my RV fully charges the engine battery and the two 6 volt batteries better and faster than the built in converter. I've driven my motorhome on a long haul, then plugged in an electronic 110 v charger and it read fully charged in a minute or less which I confirmed with a multimeter. Some older converters would not charge the battery fully, but the modern electronic ones do a far better job.

Still not as good as an alternator. The best way to recharge the battery short of a 110 v charger or a solar panel is by hooking up to the tow vehicle and driving it.

By all means, someone please correct me if I'm wrong on this.