Final Project: The Puzzle of the Looks-Like-Model...

Today, my partner Christina and I built a model of what we wish our end product to look like. We want our energy bike display to be fun, inviting, aesthetically pleasing and easily understood. Needless to say, this took a lot of thought and visualization.

In the first place, we knew we would need a bike with the back wheel mounted up off the floor. A generator would need to be attached to this so that the wheel could power the generator. Finally, an inverter would need to be attached to the generator to keep the current in check for safety reasons.


We started by cutting all of our pieces out of foam and then using glue and markers to construct and decorate them. Originally, I had built a bike mount using bricks, wood, nails and a plastic pipe, however, it turned out that the engineering lab already owned a bike mount. Fail fast and frequently, fail fast and frequently...

Bike Mount Iteration 1

Bike Mount Iteration 2

Generator with Gear Representation

 

Bike to Generator Attachment Representation

Inverter Representation

Originally, Christina and I had planned on connecting the bike to the generator using a belt, however, after viewing several online generator and motor designs, we realized that the bike wheel could be placed flush against the generator gear and still work, so we updated our design.

Next, we got to work on the actual informational part of our project.  We knew we wanted four incandescent and four fluorescent bulbs to be in the display, so that the user could witness the resistive difference between each type of bulb as more were added in series.

We also included a voltmeter, so the user could see in units how much power they were producing by pedaling. Next, we added other electrical appliances, such as a hairdryer, radio and outlet to allow the user to power or charge their own items, like a cell phone.

 

Although we want to include as many applications as possible in our display, after talking with Professor Elaine Igo, we realized that we had a lot of calculations and careful circuit-board construction to do before we could begin building. In the first place, as 12 volt generator, which is what we originally planned on using, may not be enough to light even two bulbs at once, even with a large current. We may need to purchase a motor capable of producing up to 360 Watts. There will be more on this aspect once we begin our actual construction.

After we added all of our appliances to our board, we painted on a thermometer. We plan on using this (or some other similar system) to help the user keep the current within a safe parameter. based on the maximum current our appliances will be able to handle, the thermometer will tell the user when they are providing enough current and when they run the

risk of breaking something. This is simply another safety feature we are thinking about including. Though we want our final project to be as fun and interesting as possible, user safety is at the very top of our concern list.

 

Along the sides of the board, we will include 'Did You Know' facts and blurbs about energy consumptions and conservation so that the user will have a quantitative understanding of energy as well and the qualitative one (via their pedaling). 

 

Finally, we combined everything together using wires to represent our final appearance and paint 'Wellesley Energy Bike' across the top of our display.

Our Looks-Like model is both representative of what we hope our final version will look like as well as aesthetically pleasing in our eyes. We want our display to be attractive to potential users, so we used a variety of colors to make the board visually interesting. 

Our Looks-Like model is deceivingly simple, as the final model will have to incorporate an complex mechanical-to-electrical-energy conversion apparatus as well as a wiring system on the back of the board to transfer the power to our appliances in a specific way. Though the wiring may be difficult, it's the pre-planning that is proving the most difficult. Depending on our bulbs, we will need a certain generator/motor. We need to calculate how much the average person can pedal, how fast, how much energy they can produce, what is the range on energy human beings can produce by pedaling, etc. Overall, the actual build should be simple if we plan ahead properly. After our discussion with Professor Igo, we feel a little less daunted by the task and are ready to begin working on our complex pre-ordering process and the process of finding all the specific parts and devices we will need to make our vision a reality.