The Final Project Week One: The Puzzle of Going Out with a Bang.....

Today, we all received our final projects for the year. My partner Christina and I will be working towards her idea of creating a bicycle into an energy source. Plainly speaking, we have to turn mechanical energy into electrical energy. However, the potential (no pun intended) that this electricity creating bike has is unlimited. We could power anything, and it is hard to narrow the list down.

The idea itself is simple enough.....but the possibilities are endless.

We could...

Demonstrate the energy consumption differences between electric and traditional cars...

Heat a cup of water using pedal power...

Power a light board so people could see how difficult it is to generate energy and see how much they are capable of generating.....

Power a projector....that explains what they are doing on the bike.....

Power a heater to keep temperature in a fish tank constant.....

Power a hair-dryer so people could see how much energy everyday objects use.....

 Power a 9V Radio (we made these in Physics lab).....

Charge the users cell phone and see how much power different brands of phones require.....

Have people guess how much power objects consume and try to create it.....

Power a small fan using various gear ratios for resistance.....

Ultimately, our goal is to teach the future users about energy, energy consumption and the importance of conserving energy. By physically experiencing how difficult it is to generate energy into a usable form, the users will gain a new appreciation for it, as well as an understanding of how big a difference one small change can make. They will experience the energy through the bike itself as they pedal along, producing mechanical energy that turns into electrical energy. for mechanisms, we have a variety of options. The main one will be the bike gears. We will have to have a standard gear setting so that the only change in resistance comes from the change in energy requirements from the appliance it is powering. We will need to use either the pico cricket or an arduino based circuit board to help with the transformation from mechanical to electrical energy. Our exhibit's sensing and output will be pretty straight forward. For example, with the light-board idea, the system will have to measure the amount of power input, and light up a certain number of bulbs in reaction to it. For various other appliances, we will have to include a sensing mechanism that indicates when the user is getting close to the required energy input or has gone over, as for some appliances they will need to maintain a constant rate of pedaling to keep them working. Because it would not make sense to have our users randomly starting and stopping on the bike, we will have to incorporate proportional control to make the system respond in accordance with the energy input provided. The specific circuit board, wall covered in light-bulbs, flaps hiding answer to questions and any other hook-up requirements needed by any appliances we choose to power we will have to make ourselves. Fortunately, Christina knows a few people from the Energy Bike Project in Ohio who might be able to help us in our research.

http://www.ohioenergy.org/bike

Here we go.....