Home › Groups › Closing the Loop ›

Bicyle Powered Laptop

The bicycle-powered laptop ws designed and built in course 1.102 and implemented in the Wang Fitness Center adjacent to the Stata Center. Your pedal strokes drive a generator, which charges a 12 Volt battery, which runs the laptop. We have removed the laptop battery so if you stop pedaling and there is not enough residual charge in the battery, then the laptop will turn off. The laptop runs as a regular Athena Workstations, so users are able to access their files, e-mail, the internet, just as they would on any other workstation.

The Finer Details

deeeCharging the laptop is regulated by a charge controller that fixes the optimum voltage to charge the laptop. If you send excess power to the laptop, this unit will "dump" the extra energy using a resistive circuit with a fan to keep it cool. When the battery is extremely low in charge, the charge controller charges the battery at a lower voltage and this "dumping" circuit is on most of the time. However, once the battery is charged up to the point at which it can power the laptop, the charge controller only comes on if you are working very hard. Don't worry if it does, there is no harm in it, it just means you are producing more power than the system can effectively use.

Tips

Bring headphones and listen to your favorite online TV, news, radio, or music broadcasts, or browse youtube, while you work out.

Try turning the brightness up and down on the laptop (use the function key and look for the blue symbols on the keyboard). How does it affect the wattage the computer is drawing? If you have a laptop at home, turning off wireless internet has a similar effect (you cannot easily turn it off and on in Athena)

Troubleshooting

Computer won't turn on: If you get on the bike and cannot turn on the computer, it is most likely because the battery is low and you need to pedal for 5-10 minutes (until the voltage on the bike gets up to 11.3V or so) and then try turning on the computer again.

There is no resistance when pedaling: Turn on the switch, located on the electronics casing. If you don't have this turned on, then there is no electrical resistance and pedaling is too easy.

Links

Groups: