foot power

[Carlos Nazareno]

Hey guys.

I haven't taken that much look into foot pedal chargers and do know
what their internals look like -- I just remembered coming across the
link I posted so I shared The efficient way to do a foot pedal powered
generator would probably be to have a small weighted wheel spin as a
dynamo when you step on it?

You just keep pumping on the pedal to keep the wheel spinning and it
shouldn't take much effort, the wheel's momentum should keep power
flowing.

I have a small LED camping flashlight that does the same thing.
There's a push grip on the side, and then when you squeeze it, it
makes a wheel inside spin to generate power and it's pretty easy to
use.

Yep, raising your thigh with your toes down and stepping down with
your heel is so much easier than pumping with the foot muscles.

It doesn't take much effort and a number of people I know do it when
they're excitedly thinking or discussing stuff when brainstorming
while sitting down -> push leg up with ball of foot, step down with
heel.

Well, how about this ridiculous idea?

Hanging out in friends having fun thinking of hypothetical situations,
one subject that came up was "What if... we strap kinetic energy
harvesting generators to kids when recess starts, then just letting
them loose in the playground and put all energy to good use? ->
kinetic harvesters connected to small batteries to be charged, to be
collected after playtime" :)

http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/24/oranges-dance-charge-finally-makes-dance-meaningful
(I don't know what the internals of that thing look like)

Anyway, basically, kids have so much energy and just it up when they
run around having fun. Why not tap that as a power source?

Q: how much power would something like that be able to harvest if you
strap a few of them to someone playing basketball for 2 hours?

Ideal placement would be angle and wrists as those will have the most
motion. One of the bigger problems of that set up I think is that the
forearms and feet generate so much force when rapidly changing
directions that the device would break. (one I'm thinking of is
something like one of my other camping flashlights -> has a magnet in
the middle, generates power when you shake it & the magnet moves up
and down the tube).

-Naz

-- 
carlos nazareno
http://twitter.com/object404
http://www.object404.com
--
core team member
phlashers: philippine flash actionscripters
http://www.phlashers.com
--
poverty is violence