Bike light generator from stepper motor

Generate electricity from a stepper motor to power your bicycle's LED lights.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• LED
• bicycle
• generator
• alternator
• ac
• diy
• stepper
• motor
• light
• bike
• energy

[214lilRobert]

@dinomaui where did you get the stepper motor from I bin trying to find one

[dinomaui]

@214lilRobert

1:30 in the video

[mikr0bas]

does the stepper motor need some pcb board for this conversion?

[dinomaui]

@mikr0bas No, just connect directly to the motor leads.

[mikr0bas]

@dinomaui how did you make that spring loaded thing?

[dinomaui]

@mikr0bas I just put it together out of scrap parts I had

[101AOK]

Thanks for TALKING about your project instead of having some stupid illegal background music and no info at all. Nice job on the lights. I want to make some for an electric wheelchair (not using the chair batteries) and use the small wheels. It should work the same wouldn't it?

[Arbator177]

you really need to make a tutorial on how to make this generator. I really would like to put this on my bike. This is pretty sweet man keep up the hard work!

[christo930]

I was considering installing magnets on the spokes and putting coil near the spokes, would this work, and if so, could it power maybe 4 leds? I am looking just for visibility of my bicycle, not light to see where I am going. I live in a city that is pretty much always well lit enough for me to see, I just worry about not being seen. I also worry about the resistance of a sidewall generator like yours. How much harder is it to pedal when you are generating electricity for your lights?

[bob3006]

Did you add diodes to protect the LEDs from the reverse voltage? Considering the stepper motor outputs AC and LEDs can usually only handle 5 volts of reverse voltage, I'm thinking a power diode in series with each LED would be necessary?

[aidanish]

@Arbator177 it's extremely simple, solder two wires to the motor (stepper motor taken out of printer might have wires attached already) solder other end of wires to an LED. On the side that you twist to generate electricity attach a small wheel (maybe an old toy car wheel) The wheel should rest against the bicycle tire and there you have it. Hope this helps.

[CovertOperations12]

hey if the motor was powerful enough.....you could hook up power to the motor and make a e-bike :D

[MSCompuServ]

You might want to think about inductive lighting. Less moving parts on top of the moving parts that are already on a bike.

[zackthegoth]

very nice, I made a fan generator with a stepper motor, now i have transformers that step up the voltage a little and I can run 8 leds for basically free. It's soon to change though if I can get the microwave turntable motor good on it.