Giant Hamster Wheel Powers Your PC
Monday, March 30th, 2009 running time 13:26
From the inverter you plug into, to battery banks used to store energy, a Hamster Wheel Powerd PC has a lot in common with other alternative energy sources like Solar, Wind, Water or Bicycles!
Watch us build a human powered PC on this episode of Systm!
No. Seriously. David and Patrick borrowed the ten foot high hamster wheel that powers theThe Disgusting Spectacle (Thanks you to the ever charming Tracy and Don!), pulled a couple motors from David's stockpile, one of Patrick's inverters and his Giant Box of Wire, and got busy in the ridiculously cool NIMBY Space in West Oakland.
With a bit of running, a pair of DC motors generated 14V, pushing 6A when connected in parallel... and, yes, we managed to generate enough juice to charge the battery. At least in between having to stop running and catch our breath!
A more practical arrangement would be to power the inverter from deep storage batteries, using your alternative energy source to charge the batteries... generally speaking, you'd want a regulator in between the power source and the batteries, whether you're going solar, wind, water, bicycle or Hamster Wheel!
Where were we? NIMBY, in West Oakland, is "A place to create the impossible, the new, the ridiculous, the exiting and most importantly, the never seen before. It is the largest do-it-yourself industrial art space in the Bay Area." This is an incredible place to make art, from ceramics to neo, machining to textiles, steam engines to computer controllers. If you're in the Bay area, check it out!
Highlights
squarespace
(
0:42, 11:43, 11:51, 11:56, 12:23, 0:42, 11:43, 11:51, 11:56, 12:23
)
mel gibson
(
9:02, 9:05, 9:02, 9:05
)
tina turner
(
9:03, 9:03
)
hard drive
(
11:18, 11:18
)
squarespace
(
0:42, 11:43, 11:51, 11:56, 12:23, 0:42, 11:43, 11:51, 11:56, 12:23
)
mel gibson
(
9:02, 9:05, 9:02, 9:05
)
tina turner
(
9:03, 9:03
)
hard drive
(
11:18, 11:18
)
Automatically Generated Transcript(may not be 100% accurate) ( more )
" Wow. Are you were about becoming economic apocalypse but face -- we're gonna show you how to run your PC using nothing more than human power should. The energy -- shut down right patent. --"
" This episode system is made possible by Netflix Squarespace. Godaddy.com. I'm battery. While the system. So every time you find yourself sit around planning any picket me going to do next week's episode of systm. One -- to the other and says -- Can anybody with a giant human -- hamster wheel. Well of course. And it figures of this is a -- excuse to go to human powered PC. Forget about Windmills forget about bicycles for about solar power let's talk about story to human hamster style energy. Totally gonna need to do this very simple. Project and for those of you who don't know a motor and generator are electronically almost the same thing. Basically when you see -- meal -- really is is a motor being sponsors of a whit of a -- spinning around you have the end of the -- spinning around. It was provides power so something's."
" Like this such as. A 36 -- thirty amp. Robot -- which of course I have lots of kicking around. And if you just spin that tiger and a couple -- meter to your leaves you're gonna find that you actually get voltage coming out of it. So what we're gonna need any is we're just going to put these up to the giant hamster wheel."
" We're gonna throw Patrick in the -- hamster real he's gonna run lose a few pounds and turn on his notebook this -- Now."
" Before the emails are pouring into the questions and reforms why didn't you something cheap. I can Carlton. Well two reasons one most expensive Carlton it is required to be up around 1502000. Rpm to generate any decent man and birds. And two they also start out an EC machines running regulator on the new not a bunch of stuff we just didn't feel like doing especially since C. Hillary and high traction tires -- on these wheels it would make it super easy. To attract the outside the -- basically we're just going to be using friction grip of the tires on the robot motors just pressed up against. The giant hamster wheels as the -- those around so go. The answer to answer well see his."
" It's not to thank one of the sponsors of today's episode the system godaddy.com. To get reliable secure web hosting without the long term contract. Communities hosting plans are bigger and better than ever with 99% -- time 324 sevenths support and no annual commitment. We'll keep personal information away from spammers hackers and your crazy ex roommate. Private domain registration from godaddy.com protects your privacy by keeping your address phone number and more out of the public database. When a discount of course you do you enter in coach sits by that's SYS five you check out we'll save an additional. Ten dollars off any order of forty dollars or more restrictive and -- to the site for details. And do Christopher liver your system distribution the Internet and godaddy.com. And support us by entering in that goes. -- wide F five. So yeah."
" So we're here with John -- actually built the giant human powered -- real part of the amusing spectacle. Don want to build a giant if well it's funny down -- for our honeymoon and this is actually a -- other original that's like. -- We have we found this little thing -- room academies and this is little those picking machine and we -- left their butts off and six years later we decided we could be a perfect burning man thing. We actually contacted your own maker rattled email or delighted that we're gonna -- machine and make a long story short this is eight months of work for 32 out."
" Okay so the first thing we tried the action attached -- voters to the -- at the center of hamster real. Now in doing so basically were only getting about a one to one -- reach it which is one rotation of the real. 21 rotation the actual voter. Approximately. Seven -- revolutions and there's of them out which does not produce enough voltage for us to actually -- continuance and is stepping up so we took the motors and replace them all the way on the outside of the program. On and what it is actually keep this up all whipped up 1415 -- and you know that they're running. The -- want to do is when Don was holding the motor just by hand against the hamster real. You get a lot of slippage and so slippage is is you're running across -- but it. And you stop short you know he's quite a little bit all the motors. Com held by hand aren't going to you know give you enough. Trends it's actually hard to hold the motor up against that wield that spending Christmas with the motor has about thirty pounds and drag them -- Exactly. So what we did is basically Patrick and each -- decide. He supports for hamster. And we've secured the voters against that. We didn't have enough."
" Parts do the same thing on both wheels but we do we need three things we need some tension. Holding we will -- an initial there's always a lot of tension. Started and we also needed the hubs debris basically maintain. Can't constant contact right it will cost contact with the -- tensions were particular to. There's a circle them and office circles who won the parallel to the circle fiscal wanted to -- not go like this and stop me contact with we'll. Fortunately there are two giant legs on each -- hamster wheel him like three years steel pipe. After attaching -- we are getting consistently above twelve volts and this was good news for us because now instead of running the wheels. In series we can run them in parallel. Keeping us above twelve volts but doubling -- Anchorage and this is very important especially when you're trying to front a laptop. Now you may be wondering why we didn't do something like amber Keating brackets while on the steal land -- do more precise control attention. Maybe built in some sort of basically this this is an -- you back in the same condition founded. So we went to two over favorite standardize. Duct tape is going to be strong optical or some place. But -- it straps. Fourteen bucks for four at Home Depot now I didn't even break Rogers credit card this time and then basically we just are going to run the wires from these few voters. Into -- in murder case in verdict and why are we going to do that rot rather than trying to run collapse directly FTC's since actually. All computers are actually DC they're not -- In our previous this kind of twofold reason that one in previous testimony and that there power -- are almost. And in some cases even more efficient and easy these converters -- lot of these unique. In the heat -- to. Basically because it'll have an extra layer of protection in case the voltage source wavering too much to do horrible things like fifty dollars -- a set of my 75 dollars. Actually if you don't murderers almost -- our power -- any case but what we were as smart way to do this it was more long term project would be if you run. The output of your voters are -- generators basically up generators and -- voltage regulator that and shards as a bank of batteries -- batteries don't you yearn for more consistent power. That's the way they do when generation systems solar generation systems. We decided to do with the shortly here on a small scale there's no reason they couldn't do this on a bicycle obviously not everybody passage humans hamster on the backyard. But almost all of you have a bicycle or access to bicycle so quite literally. All the same principles being applied here you could charge your laptop. Using on a bicycle and Jimmy stationary bicycle or regular bicycle propped up so the wheels turning around. On and pretty much anybody. It's it's actually the same basic principles. Attached a generator two wheels in the we'll take the -- generator and probably put it into a batteries that work better for putting battery. Rather than a lesser evil about the television you want to television and be on -- lasers. You're basically converting chocolate chip cookie energy into actual. So. So we see if it works with. Us."
" We'll take a moment now for our Netflix sponsored pick of the week this week mad max beyond thundered out. The third installment in a mad max series mad max beyond thunder dome is the most iconic and probably the most goofy. Featuring don't flights in the -- post apocalyptic they haven't gasoline powered violence this 1985 classic start a pretty lethal weapon Mel Gibson. And a -- Tina Turner if you're gonna move to watch Mel Gibson kicking -- the Australian desert wasteland there just wonder where the phrase -- one man leaves came from. Stop this movie and Netflix queue to -- Browse the other 89999. Titles Netflix has to offer including bull that what Blu-ray titles you can find -- neighborhoods. Your map to find -- you're looking for with forty shipping centers almost all deliveries happen in a single business day shipping both ways free. Plans start at four dollars and 99 cents but the system me or you can score a free trial. By signing up today at www. Netflix.com slash system."
" This is the gentle song hopefully dimples on of the under powered murders over the real reason we're using it murder is because you know what it's a lot easier. T find it in murder that it is the planet be -- DC power supply for MacBook with a MagSafe connector so. Following guide is you can see your wires to these are wires connected directly to the voters there. The voters are."
" James -- right now my serafina. -- And Serbian -- hours -- murder as though this were hooked up to. Cigarette -- or something."
" And it works now again you don't have to use a human science hamster -- to do you got a bicycle but stationary -- anything that moves around in circles. You can hook up a modern -- generator we just had access to a human says hamster wheel. Thanks to our friends you. Brought us the disgusting spectacle with that to my wife's favorite things in the world. And you've even wonder if you build something like this or human size mousetrap -- or giant flaming robots where are. Britain and -- space over an Oakland center in northern California in space is a great place. To build your stuff to store -- not in my back yard and yes yes. Check and not -- MySpace dot org and if you're looking to build projects here means amount and I used to keep our robot combat arena. At Kennedy space is disgusting spectacle was built here it's -- place it is done some articles that we've ever seen at the maker Faire and -- don't apply have been made well facility very much like this from by the people to run this air space dot org."
" Wonder who else thought revision3.com. This week watch Tekzilla episode 81 who need to network to watch TV -- I look at the latest hard drive I get upset about media player. From Western Digital Seagate and -- and it is it -- delivers decent five point one surround sound for under 300 dollars. Plus -- the ratchet -- about it and give us -- insiders would -- ingredients absorb for a suspicious game developers conference. Tekzilla shows every Thursday it's PM eastern."
" It's not take a moment to thank one of our sponsors Squarespace. Here to tell you more -- our fabulous editor of release yeah. Hey everything of the editors -- them and I'm here to tell you about Squarespace the smarter web publishing site -- take the WTF. I don't -- Squarespace is a fully hosted environments which means that you don't have to worry about installing any code on any server. That combined with the great template design and gotten to take advantage of their fourteen day free trial. I was up and running within an hour and that includes the complete importing of my previous blog with their import tools. And even better use the code system that's SY ST and to get 10% off the light of your order. So head on over to Squarespace dot com and you won't be disappointed. Since."
" But the programs of the system check out revision3.com slash system join us of the forms -- revision3.com slash forums. And -- always email us with suggestions and ideas that system at Revision 3 done them a better Norton and they've got we'll see you next week. The system."
" Yeah."
" Wow. Are you were about becoming economic apocalypse but face -- we're gonna show you how to run your PC using nothing more than human power should. The energy -- shut down right patent. --"
" This episode system is made possible by Netflix Squarespace. Godaddy.com. I'm battery. While the system. So every time you find yourself sit around planning any picket me going to do next week's episode of systm. One -- to the other and says -- Can anybody with a giant human -- hamster wheel. Well of course. And it figures of this is a -- excuse to go to human powered PC. Forget about Windmills forget about bicycles for about solar power let's talk about story to human hamster style energy. Totally gonna need to do this very simple. Project and for those of you who don't know a motor and generator are electronically almost the same thing. Basically when you see -- meal -- really is is a motor being sponsors of a whit of a -- spinning around you have the end of the -- spinning around. It was provides power so something's."
" Like this such as. A 36 -- thirty amp. Robot -- which of course I have lots of kicking around. And if you just spin that tiger and a couple -- meter to your leaves you're gonna find that you actually get voltage coming out of it. So what we're gonna need any is we're just going to put these up to the giant hamster wheel."
" We're gonna throw Patrick in the -- hamster real he's gonna run lose a few pounds and turn on his notebook this -- Now."
" Before the emails are pouring into the questions and reforms why didn't you something cheap. I can Carlton. Well two reasons one most expensive Carlton it is required to be up around 1502000. Rpm to generate any decent man and birds. And two they also start out an EC machines running regulator on the new not a bunch of stuff we just didn't feel like doing especially since C. Hillary and high traction tires -- on these wheels it would make it super easy. To attract the outside the -- basically we're just going to be using friction grip of the tires on the robot motors just pressed up against. The giant hamster wheels as the -- those around so go. The answer to answer well see his."
" It's not to thank one of the sponsors of today's episode the system godaddy.com. To get reliable secure web hosting without the long term contract. Communities hosting plans are bigger and better than ever with 99% -- time 324 sevenths support and no annual commitment. We'll keep personal information away from spammers hackers and your crazy ex roommate. Private domain registration from godaddy.com protects your privacy by keeping your address phone number and more out of the public database. When a discount of course you do you enter in coach sits by that's SYS five you check out we'll save an additional. Ten dollars off any order of forty dollars or more restrictive and -- to the site for details. And do Christopher liver your system distribution the Internet and godaddy.com. And support us by entering in that goes. -- wide F five. So yeah."
" So we're here with John -- actually built the giant human powered -- real part of the amusing spectacle. Don want to build a giant if well it's funny down -- for our honeymoon and this is actually a -- other original that's like. -- We have we found this little thing -- room academies and this is little those picking machine and we -- left their butts off and six years later we decided we could be a perfect burning man thing. We actually contacted your own maker rattled email or delighted that we're gonna -- machine and make a long story short this is eight months of work for 32 out."
" Okay so the first thing we tried the action attached -- voters to the -- at the center of hamster real. Now in doing so basically were only getting about a one to one -- reach it which is one rotation of the real. 21 rotation the actual voter. Approximately. Seven -- revolutions and there's of them out which does not produce enough voltage for us to actually -- continuance and is stepping up so we took the motors and replace them all the way on the outside of the program. On and what it is actually keep this up all whipped up 1415 -- and you know that they're running. The -- want to do is when Don was holding the motor just by hand against the hamster real. You get a lot of slippage and so slippage is is you're running across -- but it. And you stop short you know he's quite a little bit all the motors. Com held by hand aren't going to you know give you enough. Trends it's actually hard to hold the motor up against that wield that spending Christmas with the motor has about thirty pounds and drag them -- Exactly. So what we did is basically Patrick and each -- decide. He supports for hamster. And we've secured the voters against that. We didn't have enough."
" Parts do the same thing on both wheels but we do we need three things we need some tension. Holding we will -- an initial there's always a lot of tension. Started and we also needed the hubs debris basically maintain. Can't constant contact right it will cost contact with the -- tensions were particular to. There's a circle them and office circles who won the parallel to the circle fiscal wanted to -- not go like this and stop me contact with we'll. Fortunately there are two giant legs on each -- hamster wheel him like three years steel pipe. After attaching -- we are getting consistently above twelve volts and this was good news for us because now instead of running the wheels. In series we can run them in parallel. Keeping us above twelve volts but doubling -- Anchorage and this is very important especially when you're trying to front a laptop. Now you may be wondering why we didn't do something like amber Keating brackets while on the steal land -- do more precise control attention. Maybe built in some sort of basically this this is an -- you back in the same condition founded. So we went to two over favorite standardize. Duct tape is going to be strong optical or some place. But -- it straps. Fourteen bucks for four at Home Depot now I didn't even break Rogers credit card this time and then basically we just are going to run the wires from these few voters. Into -- in murder case in verdict and why are we going to do that rot rather than trying to run collapse directly FTC's since actually. All computers are actually DC they're not -- In our previous this kind of twofold reason that one in previous testimony and that there power -- are almost. And in some cases even more efficient and easy these converters -- lot of these unique. In the heat -- to. Basically because it'll have an extra layer of protection in case the voltage source wavering too much to do horrible things like fifty dollars -- a set of my 75 dollars. Actually if you don't murderers almost -- our power -- any case but what we were as smart way to do this it was more long term project would be if you run. The output of your voters are -- generators basically up generators and -- voltage regulator that and shards as a bank of batteries -- batteries don't you yearn for more consistent power. That's the way they do when generation systems solar generation systems. We decided to do with the shortly here on a small scale there's no reason they couldn't do this on a bicycle obviously not everybody passage humans hamster on the backyard. But almost all of you have a bicycle or access to bicycle so quite literally. All the same principles being applied here you could charge your laptop. Using on a bicycle and Jimmy stationary bicycle or regular bicycle propped up so the wheels turning around. On and pretty much anybody. It's it's actually the same basic principles. Attached a generator two wheels in the we'll take the -- generator and probably put it into a batteries that work better for putting battery. Rather than a lesser evil about the television you want to television and be on -- lasers. You're basically converting chocolate chip cookie energy into actual. So. So we see if it works with. Us."
" We'll take a moment now for our Netflix sponsored pick of the week this week mad max beyond thundered out. The third installment in a mad max series mad max beyond thunder dome is the most iconic and probably the most goofy. Featuring don't flights in the -- post apocalyptic they haven't gasoline powered violence this 1985 classic start a pretty lethal weapon Mel Gibson. And a -- Tina Turner if you're gonna move to watch Mel Gibson kicking -- the Australian desert wasteland there just wonder where the phrase -- one man leaves came from. Stop this movie and Netflix queue to -- Browse the other 89999. Titles Netflix has to offer including bull that what Blu-ray titles you can find -- neighborhoods. Your map to find -- you're looking for with forty shipping centers almost all deliveries happen in a single business day shipping both ways free. Plans start at four dollars and 99 cents but the system me or you can score a free trial. By signing up today at www. Netflix.com slash system."
" This is the gentle song hopefully dimples on of the under powered murders over the real reason we're using it murder is because you know what it's a lot easier. T find it in murder that it is the planet be -- DC power supply for MacBook with a MagSafe connector so. Following guide is you can see your wires to these are wires connected directly to the voters there. The voters are."
" James -- right now my serafina. -- And Serbian -- hours -- murder as though this were hooked up to. Cigarette -- or something."
" And it works now again you don't have to use a human science hamster -- to do you got a bicycle but stationary -- anything that moves around in circles. You can hook up a modern -- generator we just had access to a human says hamster wheel. Thanks to our friends you. Brought us the disgusting spectacle with that to my wife's favorite things in the world. And you've even wonder if you build something like this or human size mousetrap -- or giant flaming robots where are. Britain and -- space over an Oakland center in northern California in space is a great place. To build your stuff to store -- not in my back yard and yes yes. Check and not -- MySpace dot org and if you're looking to build projects here means amount and I used to keep our robot combat arena. At Kennedy space is disgusting spectacle was built here it's -- place it is done some articles that we've ever seen at the maker Faire and -- don't apply have been made well facility very much like this from by the people to run this air space dot org."
" Wonder who else thought revision3.com. This week watch Tekzilla episode 81 who need to network to watch TV -- I look at the latest hard drive I get upset about media player. From Western Digital Seagate and -- and it is it -- delivers decent five point one surround sound for under 300 dollars. Plus -- the ratchet -- about it and give us -- insiders would -- ingredients absorb for a suspicious game developers conference. Tekzilla shows every Thursday it's PM eastern."
" It's not take a moment to thank one of our sponsors Squarespace. Here to tell you more -- our fabulous editor of release yeah. Hey everything of the editors -- them and I'm here to tell you about Squarespace the smarter web publishing site -- take the WTF. I don't -- Squarespace is a fully hosted environments which means that you don't have to worry about installing any code on any server. That combined with the great template design and gotten to take advantage of their fourteen day free trial. I was up and running within an hour and that includes the complete importing of my previous blog with their import tools. And even better use the code system that's SY ST and to get 10% off the light of your order. So head on over to Squarespace dot com and you won't be disappointed. Since."
" But the programs of the system check out revision3.com slash system join us of the forms -- revision3.com slash forums. And -- always email us with suggestions and ideas that system at Revision 3 done them a better Norton and they've got we'll see you next week. The system."
" Yeah."
dcalkins
Started discussion: March 30, 2009 @ 4:47pm GMT
Episode 97 - Giant Hamster Wheel Powers Your PC
http://revision3.com/systm/hamsterwheel/
Watch us lose weight while we charge a battery!
EnragedOstrich
8 months ago
Good news, when the [Zombie]Apocalypse arrives, I can do this near a natural river to power my stove/pc so I won't go completely insane. Better yet I can boil the water from the river so I won't die from toxins like the rest of the planet. I'll be adding this into my apocalypse survival guy for the future/my children.
curahee101
8 months ago
In reply to dcalkins:
- I think you meant "lose weight"
- I will also be adding this to my zombie apocalypse list of things I need to make/build/acquire.
computoman
8 months ago
I wished they could have gone a little deeper since the segment was so short. There was definately a proof of concept. Maybe they could have compared it to an earth battery used back in the 1800's to power telegraph lines. Earth batteries require no moving parts.
Snowfox
8 months ago
Somebody needs to make a business out of this...
Seriously, we should have 24 Hour Fitness with this type of device and begin "human" power generating stations.haku
8 months ago
A short but sweet episode, I like it, (here comes the) but like computoman said, would have been nice to have more in-depth information (like watts generated) and perhaps do a bike generator as well.
Watching the episode again and trying to pay more attention to what was happening during the building segments rather than listening to the narration, I did notice a Sunsei 10 amp solar charge controller at one point, why wasn't it used in the wiring of the final show-n-tell segment? did it not prove any use at all? I thought it would've been an ideal solution as a power regulator to stop the inverter from frying with too high a voltage because solar charge controllers are designed to handle 20+ volts and output up to 14.4v for 12v battery charging, whilst mains inverters will happily take 14.4v but probably won't like 20v+, plus solar charge controllers are easily available and fairly cheap.
Watching the episode again and trying to pay more attention to what was happening during the building segments rather than listening to the narration, I did notice a Sunsei 10 amp solar charge controller at one point, why wasn't it used in the wiring of the final show-n-tell segment? did it not prove any use at all? I thought it would've been an ideal solution as a power regulator to stop the inverter from frying with too high a voltage because solar charge controllers are designed to handle 20+ volts and output up to 14.4v for 12v battery charging, whilst mains inverters will happily take 14.4v but probably won't like 20v+, plus solar charge controllers are easily available and fairly cheap.
dcalkins
8 months ago
The Sunsei didn't work as advertised, so we took it out of the equation.
We were getting about 40W, but we weren't closely monitoring amperage, so I can't be certain. Patrick, who is very fit, did a great job of maintaining 14VDC, while I could keep it right at 12VDC, and Serafina pumped about 10.5VDC. So you should consider that wattage is a factor of RPM, which varies by "hampster."
And again, we didn't check amps on a regular basis. I recall Pat checked it once while I was running, and that was in the 4A range.... so 12V * 4A = 48W, but we didn't check current against RPM, so I dunno if that was a constant or not...
We were getting about 40W, but we weren't closely monitoring amperage, so I can't be certain. Patrick, who is very fit, did a great job of maintaining 14VDC, while I could keep it right at 12VDC, and Serafina pumped about 10.5VDC. So you should consider that wattage is a factor of RPM, which varies by "hampster."
And again, we didn't check amps on a regular basis. I recall Pat checked it once while I was running, and that was in the 4A range.... so 12V * 4A = 48W, but we didn't check current against RPM, so I dunno if that was a constant or not...
haku
8 months ago
The laptop might not have needed more than 50 watts so any power generated above that wouldn't have used/displayed on the multimeter.
Next time you do any power generating stuff, steal Roger's credit card and get a Watt's Up Meter ;)
Next time you do any power generating stuff, steal Roger's credit card and get a Watt's Up Meter ;)
computoman
8 months ago
Some older laptops and computers do not requre that much power. According to killawatt, my old laptop uses only 20 watts. In standby mode even less.... I have an old p2 that took only 40 watts (without the monitor). Crts are usually about one lightbulb or 60 watts. I do not have an lcd to try. Via is supposed to come out with some super low power cpu's. That will be interesting.










