The maker decided to try turning an induction motor into a generator to create power while cycling. The "induction motor generator" idea didn't work well at first but he is still interested in creating his own electrical energy. Thankfully, the comment section suggested using a car alternator to achieve this goal.

Such generators are obviously used in cars and turn by the motor of the vehicle to create electrical energy and charge up the battery. The maker ordered one of these generators and found that it can output a maximum of 120A at 12V, which equals a power of 1440W - more than enough to power most home appliances.

The maker decided to hook this alternator up to his bike in order to finally create his long-desired bicycle generator setup and see how much power he could produce on his own. Let's get started! This video is sponsored by JLCPCB. Feel free to visit their website, JLCPCB.com, to find out what awesome PCB and assembly services they offer.

The car alternator was first examined. It features an exciter coil that can be powered with a DC voltage and turned into a magnet. However, the maker found that there was little information online about which pin to use for this purpose. After doing some experiments, he discovered that the upper pin seemed to be connected to the exciter coil.

The first test subject was a 12V 21W light bulb. After connecting it to the alternator and a power meter, it could apparently get powered by this system without any problems. However, using his hands to pedal while riding was not a very effective solution anymore. It was time to get serious about generating some real power.

To test the generator's performance, the maker rode his bike while wearing the light bulb as a load. The results showed that he could produce a maximum of 20W for a brief moment. However, notice how the exciter coil current constantly changes and ruins his effort to pedal at a constant rate.

The reason for this is the regulator circuit of the alternator. When used in a car, it creates a constant 12V output voltage no matter the RPM of the drive, by adjusting the exciter current. Since the maker is using a bicycle, this control circuit is just a hindrance that he wants to avoid.

After mistreating the alternator a bit, the maker found the two wires directly connected to the coil. He continued testing the bike generator setup by using these wires and was able to create an average power of around 20W when the current reached 2A.

However, it's worth noting that with a constant current of 2A, he could only deliver 8W because the resistance was apparently too big, which caused the belt to slip. This makes the generator setup almost useless except maybe for charging up your phone.

Overall, the maker finally got his bike generator system thanks to the comment section and hopes that you learned a thing or two as well through this video.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enSooo I have to admit that from time to timeI do mistakes which can lead to videos inwhich pretty much everything goes wrong.Case in point, the video in which I triedturning an induction motor into a generatorso that I can rotate it with my bicycle togenerate power.Now even though the “induction motor generator”didn't work well back then, I am still tothis date interested in hooking up a generatorto my bike and creating my own electricalenergy.And thankfully the comment section had theidea to simply use a car alternator to dothat which you can get more or less inexpensivelyfrom Ebay.And in case you do not know, such generatorsare obviously used in cars and are turnedby the motor of it in order to create electricalenergy and thus charge up the cars batteryto power all of the electronics.So I ordered one those generators and as youcan see it seems to be able to output a maximumof 120A at 12V which equals a power of 1440Wwhich should be more than enough to powermost of my home appliances.So in this video let's hook this alternatorup to my bike in order to finally create mylong desired bicycle generator setup and findout how much power I can truly produce onmy own and whether I could power my home withit!Let's get started!This video is sponsored by JLCPCB!Feel free to visit their website JLCPCB.comto not only find out what awesome PCB andAssembly services they offer but also to easilyupload your Gerber files and thus order affordableand high quality PCBs quickly.First off let's have a closer look at thecar alternator.As you can see the front side comes with agear that features 6 rips, which is prettytypical for such alternators.The backside was a bit more complicated thoughwith two big terminals which are both theplus output poles of the system, while theenclosure is the minus pole.And there were also two smaller pins a bitmore hidden whose function was not obviousyet.But anyway, to confirm that this alternatorworks, I simply hooked up my multimeter toits main output poles and gave the rotor agood spin and as you can see we get absolutelynothing on the multimeter, brilliant.At this point I thought that because the generatorconstruction probably comes with 3 main coilswhose AC output voltage needs to get rectifiedwith something like a Sechspuls-Brücken-Schaltung,the voltage drop of those diodes would betoo high to get a useable output voltage ata low RPM.I mean the voltage drop seems to be around1V and my low RPM might be able to createjust that.And considering that a car uses at least 1000to 2000 RPM to get 12V on the alternatorsoutput, it was time to rotate faster.So brought in an old bike I had lying aroundthat came with a decent shifting system, atleast for one side of it.I actually had to do some tinkering at theback wheel in order to get it into the highestgear.But after doing that, I was able to measurean RPM of around 300 to 400 while poweringthe bike with my hand.But as you probably already guessed, thatwas still not good enough which means we needanother additional gear system.And once again it was the comment sectionthat presented me with the most simple, butpromising solution.By simply removing the back wheel, deflatingit and removing its tube as well as its tire,we are left with a rim which we can use asone complete gear wheel of the system whilethe car alternator comes with the other wheel.And since the alternators gear wheel featuresa diameter of around 7cm, while the rim featuresa diameter of around 57cm, we will get a gearratio of around 8.14 that will hopefully beenough to turn the alternator fast enough.So next I measured the approximate lengthfor the mandatory drive belt as well as thewidth for it and finally decided on this 4ripe belt with a length of 2.49m, which seemedhuge after receiving it but on the plus side,it fit both sides perfectly and the systemlooked pretty promising so far.And after reinstalling the back wheel to thebike it was time to do what I am best at,.....woodworking!I know, my jokes are the best but honestlyI had to create a wood construction that notonly holds the front wheel in place, but alsosomething that elevates the back wheel andholds it in position as well for which I alsohad to do some metal working.And after using some zip ties for the backwheel, everything seems pretty tight and secure.So last but not least I added a big plankto the back of this wood construction ontowhich I then aligned the car alternator, beforeI secured it in place with metal bracketsand a couple of screws.And just like that the basics bicycle poweredgenerator setup was complete.So I once again hooked up my multimeter tothe output of the alternator and turned thewheel as fast as possible but as you can seewe still got no output voltage from the alternatoreven though I reached an RPM of around 1500.Now the reason is actually quite simple tounderstand and can be experienced when weturn the rotor which does not oppose any kindof resistance.But when we for example turn a BLDC motoron our own then we can feel some kind of resistancewhich is due to the utilized permanent magnetswhich are actually mandatory to create anoutput voltage with a generator.Now the car alternator does not feature suchpermanent magnets but its rotor comes withan exciter coil that we can power with a DCvoltage and thus current in order to turnit into a magnet.But after doing a lot of research online aboutmy particular car alternator, I found prettymuch no information on what pin to use forthat, so I had to do some experiments andas it turns out the upper pin here seems tobe somehow connected to the exciter coil.So I simply applied 12V to it while I connectedthe minus pole to the chassis and as you cansee we get the resistance we were lookingfor and we can also create a DC output voltage,awesome.That means that after applying this knowledgeto the bike setup, we can finally create somepower.As a test subject I went with this 12V 21Wlight bulb which after connecting it to thealternator and a power meter, can apparentlyget powered by this system without a problembut using my hands to pedal was not reallythe best solution any more.So it was time to get serious; and after Ifigured out how to properly sit on this bicycleconstruction, I was able to create a maximumpower of around 20W for a brief moment.But notice how the exciter coil current changesconstantly and thereby ruining my effort topedal at a constant rate.The reasons is the regulator circuit of thealternator.When used with a car, it is utilized to basicallycreate a constant 12V output voltage no matterif drive at a lower RPM of 2000 or a higherRPM of 5000 by simply adjusting the excitercurrent.But since I am using a bicycle, this controlcircuit is just a hindrance which is why Iwant to avoid it and directly power the excitercoil.And after mistreating the alternator quitea bit, I found the 2 wires which were directlyconnected to the coil and thus I continuedthe bicycle test by using them.As you can see with an exciter current of1A I got an average power of 8W, with 2A around12W and 3A did once again only deliver 8Wbecause the resistance was apparently toobig which caused the belt to slip.But with a current of 2A I was able to createa constant max power of around 20W at whichpoint it was actually a good workout.That means since I personally require around2500kWh of energy per year for my home, Iwould have to ride my bike generator setupfor around 14.27 years to produce that amountof energy.But only of we ignore that we also need 12Wof power for the exciter coil which makesthis generator setup almost useless; exceptmaybe if you want to charge up your phone.But all in all I finally got my bike generatorsystem thanks to the comment section and Ihope that you learned a thing or two as wellthrough this video.If so don't forget to like, share, subscribeand hit the notification bell.Stay creative and I will see you next time.