Good day! Try to replace the alternator with the hub motor you used to convert your bike to ebike. Set it up with the controller but unplug the battery then test the voltage it produce in the battery terminal. Take note switch on the ignition. Please give it a shot.

L@@patrickarcega9861 5th 76

@@jpoe7448 i don't get it.

Now all you need to do is use that same setup except use water along a stream or something.

U could actually get a small electric motor and 4-5 more alternators to charge multiple batteries.

Thanks for the feedback :-)

@@greatscottlab you can also use the electric bike hub motor as a generator... I'm pretty sure you can generate a pretty good amount of electricity out of it.

@@jeruelvidad901 When i was a kid i had a light setup for my bike that included a generator with a knurled wheel that ran along the tire. It had a little rechargeable battery pack so the lights didn't go out when you stopped but when you started pedaling again they sure brightened up.

@@keithyinger3326 yeah, I also have that in my bike when I was in elementary but it only lights up when the wheel moves since it doesn't have a battery.

Yep, needs to tighten the belt to really get the power out of it.

6 pulse bridge rectifier for those who can't speak German.

Das hier ist Gold xDD

ONLY FULL BRIDGE RECTIFIER GANG

Hmmm

@@segfault-berlin tnx, this Brückenschaltung from video makes me cry

Could you essentially turn the alternator with a drill that is powered by the alternator which is charging a battery system?

This involves a loss of Efficiency so even if you started with a fully charged battery it would drain down till flat .

@@Suzukidave The battery connected between the alternator and the inverter acts like a reserve. And the alternator needs the battery to start producing current.

@@mike77tmc2 sorry mike I was trying to reply about useing a drill to power the alt .

yep an auto electritian wired one up for charging batteries at his work but it takes 1 hp to drive an alt and we cant generate that for very long. He had a 1 hp motor attached and it worked well. maybe a smaller gen would work rather than a car one .try a wipermotor

Came here to say this the belt is flopping about and no where near taught.

I like the versions with a charge controller and battery so the bike serves as a back up way to charge your power box

@@gregorytrenhed8318 CHARGE is half the key..storage is the other..

Or set it up as a slide so you can really crank on it while tightening the bolts.

Taut fkin ac

But then it will be even harder to pedal

@@charlie_nolan Yes but you can get more power right . It will be a good excercise 😅

@@ethangreen2022 yeah I too accept that

@@ethangreen2022 Yes but considering that he is on a flat surface and the cycle is elevated from the ground it might be ok. I guess

@@ethangreen2022 I guess only Great Scott should find out atleast in the behind the scenes video.

This man can do it, he's got cheetah blood

What if you play with the gearing? Could you find a ratio that lowers the amount of work required to produce that wattage?

@@bluecollarworktips5586 since wattage is volts x amps, it's sort of a total energy measurement. No matter the gear ratio, that's an insane output from a person for any length of time

@@downtube8fs cheetah are very poor at stamina, they are good at short bursts of energy.

Generator power out is entirely based on the power put into the pedals multiplied by the efficiencies of the generator and the bike/pulley system. My old legs can put out 150 Watts on average for about an hour. Maybe keep a fridge cold or slightly warm up a room. 1440W is a lot, essentially a mid size space heater. @bluecollarworktips5586

They taught you to accept "not to think"

​@@radleysmith7528 It really was an awfully long time ago. I think I liked Boolean algebra and Karnough maps. There's a strange warm feeling in the memories. When you get to this age you've had so much time you genuinely can't remember, but if you can work it out from first principles again, you're still sharp. I'm saying nothing about Boole, but you'd be amazed how your mind wanders in the queue in Tesco.

@@neilbain8736 Don't let them pack your shopping Niel that requires analitics, let them carry it though

@@radleysmith7528 LOL Bag packers exist but I can do a better job myself.

Me too. I was interested in electronics up until then. It was as dull as ditch water, I can remember that much!

ukposts.info/have/v-deo/i2SAaaymhnmiooU.html

Makes me appreciate a 300 watt solar panel too

@@d942yd42 Jesus the muscles on that Guy, he looks like a cartoon character.

The toaster is a very high draw though, you would want to store some for sure so you dont have to some how output 1000w.

Power isnt the issue... but the intensity over a short time.

Absolutely agree, it would be very easy to adjust the ratio to exponentially increase the RPM of the final drive. Incorporating some Capacitors might (just an off the cuff brainstorming) upgrade the starting power for larger demand requirements. I love being inspired by these great minds. Love to learn constantly. Majority of people don't realize that we don't have to be slave to big corporations and box stores to depend on for alternate gadgets, because they are not going to promote things to help us keep from spending a lot of money. So many things are simply much more inexpensive if you have knowledge or even think outside of the box. One example Fog-X, probably what 3-4 dollars. Look on the ingredients on bottle or MSDS, it's ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL, ie: rubbing alcohol that you can purchase for about 1 dollar US in a much larger bottle than Fog-X. Now I don't fault the makers of Fog-X, we live in a Capitalist economy after all. But you don't have to be a Sheep if you choose not to.

Yes definitely a pulley system

@@wildchild2193 the contrast in the replies... lol

Yes agree.

And a flywheel

Underrated comment! Fred

Right humans don't require anything to run, so where does your exhale carbon dioxide come from. Maybe some form of energy metabolism. Thank a farmer!

@@autopeep24 No, you misunderstand. I should have said "...how incredibly cheap electricity is to BUY from the electric company".

@@OregonDARRYL yes, your right. Sorry for the misunderstanding and it was a great academic exercise.

Somehow I understood that comment . Lol

It also requires a lot of rpm to _start_ self exciting.... Ford vehicles with the Cologne engine using a 130A 3G alternator you just have to ground the regulator screw to go full field. (But that would probably cause the belt to slip) They do make a good scooter or go-kart motor though.

I'm guessing that the exciter coil in a one wire alternator is connected internally in parallel with the output voltage, thus self-excited and very likely also regulated, in this case the regulator might be harder to deal with than with a separate excitation coil. I'm betting a permanent magnet excitation might be better than any other form of excitation in the long term.

@@1900OP Maybe a permanent magnet starter motor would be a cheap source for one large enough to actually be useful?

@@1900OP I had a chrome alternator rebuilt, and it's a one wire system and is obviously powered through the regulator. A pm system is used on some alternators, but both are good in different ways.

@@jimurrata6785 Output voltage too low.

60? Try 100 years

Where are your videos?

lol

Excellent advice.... I was left wondering why he hadn't gone the route of using an inverter.

and if you connect 5 inverters then you can have all power almost for free. no pedaling required.

At last a comment that rates human power in watts! Bravo! It struck me as the obvious thing to consider first, but no one does. I'd guess that a person of average fitness might sustain 200W for half an hour. So its daft to fuss about technical efficiency without a ball park figure for the max attainable with ideal 100% conversion.

@@raykent3211 I am a average cyclist, and yes we measure our power in watts. I have a crank on my cycle that shows me how much watt i put out. Actually, when some "average" person, that is not superfit nor super non-fit, they usually think its hard to keep 140watts for more than 30minutes. Best i've done is 270watt for an hour. And 270watt for one hour is nothing compared to a Tour de france pro. They probably can do 400watts average for 4 hours. Going from 270w to 400 is HUGE. I can keep 400Watt for a couple of minutes at best, before my legs hurt

@@raykent3211 Some years ago I experimented in the gym with stationary bikes, finding 150W power was acceptable for a longer time (say 30 mins or maybe more), 250W made my heart race quite a bit and was able to keep it up for around 10 mins.

@@AndrewTSq hi, what device it is?

@@raykent3211 Another interesting fact, to sustain 100W of energy output factoring in the efficiency of human metabolism requires about 60g of glucose per hour, and the Oxygen required to metabolize that glucose represents about 300 maximum capacity breaths based on some back of the envelope estimations of human lung capacity and efficiency at exchanging Oxygen. Sustaining that 100W of energy output also produces about 200W of waste heat. These estimations are almost certainly a bit low, I rounded a couple things up and didn't factor in stuff like self-repair and other necessary metabolic upkeep for simplicity. Incidentally, humans produce about 100W of waste heat at base metabolic rate, not doing anything, that represents around 20G of glucose per hour, and 100 maximum breaths, which is about one breath every 36 seconds. My math checks out okay on that based on myself. Edit: Some math

yes. old style GM "1-wire" alternators are best.

Chain drive is MOST efficient of the three types - Chain, Belt, Gear. The LEAST ENERGY LOST occurs with chain drive. Alternator needs sprocket -- chain -- chainring of pedaling apparatus. I have noted that direct tire attachment to alternator fixed , like the resistance devices on standard bicycle stationary mounts does not slip, heat, or wear, as can belts.

Its not self excited not an issue.

So do you need a voltage regulater ? finally got a old Ford alternator had the regulator separate but I don't have that I'm going to try to turn it with small electric motor see what I get out of it ... if it does have power can you run directly after that if you have some sort of regulator ? just have to use it to charge batterieslike a solar panel? I've been trying to figure this out for 3 years

Older style >non internally regulated, one wire - style "alternator"< is in fact a dynamo. The difference between the two is pretty big. The dynamo uses permanent magnets and produces dyrect current, while an alternator uses electro magnetic coils, and produces alternating current.

It's hooked to the run position on the key not the start position so it receives voltage as long as the the car is running which is y if you disconnect the battery the vehicle stalls older cars with generators instead of alternators you could do what you said

Thank u

You need a generator not an alternator ,alt takes power to make power a gen does not

@@rodneyfox5566 an alternator is a generator . It runs off the serpentine belt.. it is a true generator.. but for it to run properly it needs an electric load on it or the voltage generated will fluctuate wildly.. a lite bulb works great as a load.. the battery in a car is the load as well as the electrical equipment in the car.

@@rodneyfox5566 and an alternator produces AC electricity ! It is converted to dc inside the alternator . All generator induction motors produce ac electric.

ROFL !

Human bodies are horribly inefficient at power conversion. Vast majority of caloric intake is converted to heat. Only a few % is converted to usable work.

While you are right that this is an inefficient form of energy production when taking into account food, this would be a great excuse for somone to exercise!

- gym fee.

@@protonjinx even carburated gasoline engines do that much better

@@protonjinx It's not _that_ bad if you only count the time you're working, without including resting. Maintaining a 100 W output produces about 200 W of waste heat, so the efficiency can get close to 30%. The single-digit % values come from dietary tips, which essentially assume you only workout for half an hour or hour a day, while maintaining your body has a relatively flat cost per hour. It mostly comes from bodies just having so many moving parts. The lowest levels of metabolism, like converting pure glucose into mechanical/electrical energy, can by various estimates go as high up as 95% or more. This is not too surprising when you realize it's basically an electric dynamo, _not_ a thermal engine (which would be ridiculously inefficient at such low temperatures as 36 °C, of course!). Getting from there to actually moving your legs powering a bicycle drops the efficiency like crazy, though. But using that energy to power something like chemical synthesis? That's pretty awesome, compared to having to do chemistry at high temperatures and pressures.

what a nice idea !! but i dont think the alternator is heavy enough to provide enough tension when used used at that high of an rpm in this particular case.

Painful?? Lol

That is ingenuity and problem solving at its finest! I think you’ll find this interesting. In the final years of WW2, the remaining Nazi scientists and the engineers were forced to undertake what can only be described as an impossible task for the technology of that era, they created an entirely unique approach to solving the fuel shortages with respect to gasoline, kerosene, and the various chemicals needed to keep their aircrafts flying, their truck wheels spinning, and their tank tracks rolling. With Hitler ensuring that the immediate vicinity of his every location was both armed to the teeth, and had plenty of fuel for escape should whatever battle ensue, this meant that they had to come up with something else, but something no one else would consider possible. Their tireless work led to some of the coolest things the aeronautical field has ever seen to this day in my opinion. Airplanes that utilized wood burning and coal for the needed propulsion, altering the rotary engines of their day in different ways to develop an alternative rotary style steam engine of sorts, using fire wood and coal to fire up the engines and who would’ve thought that those ultra-heavy pile of metals would work as a functional aircraft?!? The Planes did nor have the capabilities of the traditional ones, that goes without saying but they did work! Another innovative last ditch effort to win the war was the Nazi Cold Rocket Engine and another UKpostsr named Integza actually did a video on it where he 3D printed one himself. It was pretty freaking cool. I’m with the rest of the world in hating the Nazi’s but I have to give credit to those in which credit is due regarding the field of science, against all odds and some of the most Especially considering scarcity in resources that were crucial to their survival leaving them with no alternative: innovate, or die. I do sometimes that their crazy last ditch efforts of innovation kn particular, the wood and coal aircraft, were is not given the credit that it deserves today (for obvious reasons I will admit). taking science and the field of mechanical engineering right up to the line of impossibility. The scientific achievements those Nazi scientists accomplished at wars end, is nothing short of the ingenious engineering and absolute marvels the world had seen by then. When the Allies had all but destroyed Hitler’s oil production and the other supply lines that the Axis Powers relied upon so heavily near the end, leading him to issue an executive order for the remaining scientists and engineers to develop an alternative means of power as well as alternative methods for producing the thrust needed for aircraft propulsion. I cannot understate just how insanely difficult this task must have been at the time with all the lack of free information, dwindling supply lines for the Axis Powers, and the undoubtedly terrifying amount of pressure placed upon their shoulders to make all of those things happen with such meager materials and available resources at hand. There is a reason that the Brits, the Soviets, and the U.S. wanted to get a hold of as many Nazi Scientists as they possibly could at the time, America was arguably the winner as Operation Paperclip lays out in detail, it was the Russians however that seized most of Hitlers V2 Rockets as well as all of the Experimental “Wunderwaffe” that it could find which I’m sure we will never know the true extent of, but in mg opinion “Die Glokken” was not among them…. Not trying to give kudos to the Nazi’s or anything by bringing this up, just giving credit where credit is due.

One of those mountain men shows had a truck that ran on wood fumes. I also remember the Bosnian war where people fixed paddle to generators and strung them across a river on oil drums.

the coal and wood fuel you are referring to is called a gasifier. It's actually extremely effective as a fuel. It's a neat read to look into.

@@tylerhusky4065 Wood And Coal Burning Would Have Been A Gimmie To Any People In That Situation. There Were Nothing Left For Them To Uses…. By De Facto They Have No Choice…..

had he had the chain on the right gear, he would probably have had a little more of the double effect he got

I face palmed when I seen this.

Buy a 250 amp alternator It produces 240 volts if you go around the rectifier. buy a 3/4 horsepower motor 240 volt single phase. hook it up to the the alternator with a belt and spin it up. The alternator will run on 12 amps which leaves 238 amps to run your house. Plenty of power to run your house. Remember, the magnets spinning causes the wires to make power it is not free power. The courts have said you have the right to be independent so it is legal.

@@wanttopreach of course you're not speaking of something you're doing. cause this can't work. many have tried the perpetual motion machine you're talking about but... not yet.

@@wanttopreach courts ? I don't need approval of the courts to do anything with my equipment

So, can work?

@@mihai.1302 It would make the slippage less of a problem, but it would also increase resistence, so it would probably work better, but would require more pedal force in general.

I concur. All of this is accurate. The resistance with a tensioner would be minimal, compared to the added friction, thus, increasing positive motion on the alternator. There is so much slop and wasted energy in this wooden set up it made my teeth itch.

Came here to sat exactly this, that was not the highest gear he was using.

I thought that was odd. Especially when he then calculated the ratio for the belt..

maybe he's paid by big electro companies to keep us from using our bicycles as power generators?

Not only by that, you can see, he's definitely a good electircal engineer, but not a mechanical one :).

The irony is that many of them have resorted to using gasoline generators to charge their EVs 😂

fantastic indeed....

Agreed! Even when retracing. How does the felt tip not give out? Granted, I rip through paper as though I'm trying to chip stone.

Or really, how much energy you're not getting to the wheels

Yea the belts too loose.

Forget a belt.. put a chain drive on it..

Also change the ratio of the pulling gear increased by 3 and reduce the size of the pulley .. that will triple the rpms..

And add a start run capacitor off of a dc to ac inverter !! It will amaze you !!

This setup should give you more power than you will need ..

All my Hyundai Ponys do this.

Interesting thanks.

Given the era of that movie, the alternator did not have the regulation circuitry this one does, and may even have had permanent magnets.

HI, it was also just a gimmick for that scene - its not really possible to generate usable power of a bicycle Here is sydney there is the "Power House Museum" one of the science exhibits is a bicycle with small generator, you sit of the bike and pedal, in front of the bike are some lights on a pole and a buzzer and up top a car horn, the scale shows 5watts 10 watts etc In my prime i could barely get it to go past 1/2 way and light up a very dimly light 2 incandescent car headlights - typically from 50's to 70's cars, full brightness they are 60 watts each on low bean and about 80 on high - both bulbs barely glowed like a small flashlight and the light was very yellow

In his book, first published in 1962 by Hachette, Bibliothèque Verte, Mon chien, mon ile et moi, Jaques Talrich decribes how he was left on a deserted island with a few fish hooks, a gun and a dog and some other equipment to re-enact a modern day Robinson Crusoe. He had to report daily by radio to the sponsors, and for this he was supplied with a radio transmitter powered by a battery that had to be rechargesd with a hand crank. It took him at least a half hour of vigorous cranking daily to recharge sufficiently.

@@Nono-hk3is Such alternators existed... they were just few & far-between in production-model cars at the time. GM had the internally regulated 10SI-series alternator, but Chrysler still used an external-type... which, following a DIY wind-powered generator article in Popular Science at the time, was the choice for building such.

IM AT THAT AGE. THAT I REMEMBER THAT MOVIE. LOL

It's not a full bridge rectifier. A full bridge rectifier has 4 Diodes and this one has 6.

@@allcrafter3747 even fuller bridge rectify yah

It's called Gretz Bridge in Poland, named after German scientist. I'm wondering if it's used anywhere else too.

@@allcrafter3747 full wave bridged rectifier has four diodes, two on each pole..a half wave two diodes, one per pole converting only half a cycle. 👍🏼🤔

@@allcrafter3747 we see six diodes there cos it's rectifying three phase you can't simply use 4 diodes to rectify 3phase

I watch your videos I liked the light added in multimeter

As far as i can remember car alterrnators are terribly inefficient so you might want to look for something better.

Oh Sir app yaha

Same.. I have tried this type of experiment few days ago.

দাদা তুমি এখানে?

Also I think he's losing a lot of power by not having any tension on the alternator pulley. I've seen it before in a car with a bad tensioner having low voltage problems

If you peel the belt on, its enough pressure. I size belts exact, minus a half inch. I think thats 13mm or so. You can also bring a belt up to heat, if sized too large, to shrink another 26mm or so.

It's irrelevant...because a man can nowhere near turn that alternator at full "volume" My experience is, you have to stand and push down on one peddle just to get it to go down once... Though I am experiming with a 14 amp 12 volt alternator hooked up to an airdyne.... If I achieve that to work I will consider it to out do my own exptations...

@@DarkLinkAD his belt was really loose, I guess if he peeled it on that would suffice but I still think having a little tension on the pulley would go a long way in terms of power, not too much tension though

Gilligans island in Puerto Rico?

@@sebastiannieves5472 lol, no.

Was that the episode where he made it from bamboo gears and the boat altenater with rope.. ? Or was there a show where they made a wind mill type ?

@@peterrivney552 I tend to think bamboo and boat alternator. But enlighten me?

@@rillloudmother bamboo bicycle ?

Supposedly the car alternators with the multiple wiring can be wired in a series where they power themselves continuously.

thanks for the advice.I'm considering if a small turbine could be installed on rising water main.use the pressure in the system to trickle charge.also,could small turbines be installed on pipework running from header tank.surely you'd get something with gravity.just an idea.if you'd like to chat about a few more ideas,im always happy to share ideas.maddog,west cork. republic of Ireland

you can buy ready made one wire general motors alternators ready to go under 60 bucks at most auto parts stores. I probably sold 200 over the years

Could I get some details...please :)

@@madeinjungle1977 Auto zone carries a 120 amp gm motors alternator for 68 bucks. Just ask for it. Tell them you want a one wire gm alternator. Or go out where the fuses and pigtails are and get the 3 dollar plug with wires to convert one to one wire. Works on the dual blade plug style general motors alternators like the 7140

I used to rebuild/repair GM alternators with their diode trio, rectifier, etc. Learning the most important tool was 2 straight paperclips to keep the brushes seated before cracking the case open. I went to help a friend fix theirs, a couple of years ago, on a non-GM car. Only to learn, 'not repairable' welded shut. Buy complete new one. :(

@@spockmcoyissmart961 The sad issue with a lot of modern stuff

He really needs an electric bike. The alternator could charge the bike battery. Just a bit of pedaling to get the system started then it runs on its own 🙂

It also keeps you warm in the winter -- at least while you're pedalling . 😅

I was thinking what about a stationary bike? when he built the frame Then thought he had more flexibility with gear change

@JSacchetti1 lol funny but you're right. Adding a flywheel to this is pointless. Also what do the bearings have to do with this?

@JSacchetti1 Well no not really, different bearings are designed for different applications.

@JSacchetti1 LOL wat?!

@JSacchetti1 Not true they make cheap in China.

He needs to either remove the one side of electromagnet and put magnets there or either he magnatised and it will work fine. Many people have done that already.

STU377 my good sir next round on me..lol. Fuggin brilliant sir. I don't give a hoot who you are, that shit is funny

@@chucktaylor4384 Thanks, bro. God bless.

Give the guy a break, he's not a Mechanical Engineer afterall... Did you SEE the frame he made?? Wood and steel bracket construction, but the bike was held on with ZIPTIES!!! xD

@@ConorFenlon bro that frame had me scared for his life lol also his belt tension was basically non-existent with a few tweaks he could get some power out of this thing.

@@circle7motorsports Facts. Guy's a lunatic!

I'd stay in the classes trust me I'm out of lockdown now and my maths is screwed

By leave you mean alt-tab?

Glad you like them!

So what? You're opting for the better education

@@Krmpfpks In the covid era...yes

That's how cars do it. They start off battery power but since the charging circuit is tied together, well I'm sure you get what I'm saying

Not the exciter coil but the voltage regulator. It will give you a steady voltage output with the amperage increasing as you put more power into the alternator, and it should smooth out the resistance similar to what GreatScott did.

It would be more sensible to just remove the exciter coil all together and install some neodymium permanent magnets. It removes many problems this setup has. No need for extra power input and no automatic regulation to keep the voltage at a stable 12v. You can regulate the voltage in-circuit without worrying about the way the regulator circuit on the coil messes with the RPMs. Its much easier to peddle steadily if the alternator isn't fluctuating from hard to easy to spin constantly, and you can take the output right into a charge regulator into a battery bank to store up the energy. This would never replace your home AC, but it definitely could be a great emergency power system to run 12v lighting for a home and some light electronics like radios and cell phones in a black out.

@@GamerLoggos I think a decent solar setup with storage batteries would be a much better solution.

@@xaenon I think a much better solution would be large centralised power generation serving multiple homes with a system of fossil fuel, nuclear, and renewable energy powered generators with a complex system of oversight to ensure every home has sufficient energy at all times and to cope with variable demand. This is not supposed to be a "good solution", it's a fun project.

I was thinking of one of those rowing machines . Has anyone tried this idea?

You got it check out Billions in change

You will have to pedal all the time- if you don't, the flywheel slows and you need more effort to get the heavy flywheel back up to speed. The only positive effect it has is to act like a mechanical regulator, keeping a smoother, more stable rpm.

That is what I was thinking; A flywheel (or just weights attached to the back rim) while used in a lower gear can help move things much more consistantly at a higher power output. When you are biking on the road your body becomes the 'flywheel mass' that keeps the bike moving at a steady rate even though the down-strokes of the pedals are inconsistant. When you lift the back wheel you loose that. Another thing sorely missing is a tensioner on the belt. The alternator would work much better with a higher magnet voltage, and the tensioner would prevent that slippage. So more gain on the alternator, combined with a flywheel to even out pedaling efforts would probably go a long ways towards making something like this work. Enough to power the whole house? Oh, probably not. But enough to supplement a solar array on a cloudy day? Maybe. Or enough to power 1 or 2 household items? Probably. But this is why you have kids. If it is going to take him 14 years with this setup to power his home, then he just needs 14 kids pedaling non-stop to live his dream! lol

I like the windmill idea of the power application. With this power source this idea could provide plenty power to run everything with dc power.

Do you have any idea as to the efficiency when a tread mill motor isused as a generator? Years ago I used a wind shield wiper motor as a generator which had a permanent magnet field. Upon some investigation I was disappointed to find its efficiency to be only around 50%. Central power plant generators can have efficiencies as high as 96%, I believe. This is not the efficiency of the overall plant, only the generator portion thereof.

They’re all dead dave! Dave. They’re all dead.

@@touchedouche8806 No Dave... They're all dead. They're dead, Dave... great show, great episode.

Or my desktop for 12 minutes

My laptop easily runs 8h from the 50 Wh battery, that makes 6.25 W on average. So with 200 Wh it would be 32h! Or 16h for half an hour, which sounds pretty fair to me ;)

Or if you have pinebook pro you can probably run it for day or two :D

But car alternators have the worst efficiency of all types

I think 200W estimate is too high. I think human is around 1/10th hp so that equals ~75W on a strong bike stand. Think about 10 guys in tug of war with a Clydesdale. Seems about right. You suggest 200W, which would be just under 4 guys.

Please do!

If you calculate the food cost, I assume it would be inefficient, still cool tho

I think so too ;-)

IT !! GENERATES !! LOTS !! OF !! POWER !! WHEN !! YOUR !! ON !! THE !! TOLIET !!

There's actually a guy (David Carroll) who has been developing a "power-suit" that uses the seebeck effect between your enviroment and you to generate around 8w~. The video is pretty old but if this manages to get to the market one day it'd be a boom i think. ukposts.info/have/v-deo/cIVef3uEnZhz2Y0.html

Thanks for that info - I was always wondering why the hell no perm magnets? What if your car battery is flat etc. I know in synchronous motors they rely on tiny amounts of residual magnetism to get the whole system going, was wondering why it would not be possible with alternators as well to have a similar setup?

Read my comment

Oh yeah!