-----Original Message----- From: Leo Mauler
("bicycle power" is inadequate to the task of charging car batteries, though it might run a laptop) and use
Says who? Bicycle power can be used to power a wide range of devices. I would be willing to bet that the average bicyclist could easily put out 1/10HP and quite probably more depending on a number of factors (including gear ratios).
directly, but stepping down the car battery to the laptop battery power level might require enough complexity that just an inverter with the existing AC adapter might be more workable.
This should be easily accomplished with a resistive series and resistance added in parallel with the laptop portion of series of the entire the circuit. The most difficult part being figuring out the effective resistance value of the laptop.
Of course, one could always go the route of using the cigarette adaptors spoken of earlier, and forego the calculations.
And on your latest post. The fact that your light wasn't steady might not have as much to do with constant power output as with other conditions and factors. A stationary bicycle that is properly configured should produce better output than a moving bicycle that is varying in angles relative to the road surface, rattling, bumping, climbing, descending, friction, etc. Don't forget you can get a lot more energy from a stationary bike than one that also has to power forward motion. But all that aside. A proper configuration would be for the bicycle to be used as a charging device, and the power drawn from a battery/fuel cell.