Can you charge a phone with a bicycle dynamo?

Your dynamo hub can charge lights, an external battery, a GPS unit or your smartphone during rides. Touring cyclists can charge USB devices on the road.

What is dynamo charging?

Dynamo chargers are particularly useful if you carry any battery-powered gadgets. That said, hub dynamos can charge power-efficient devices at as little as 5KPH/3MPH – this includes Spot trackers, GPS devices, or small battery packs, and is the reason why hub dynamos are still popular for ultra racing.

Can I charge my phone from my bike?

The Atom is a generator, complete with a detachable battery, that is fixed to the rear of your bicycle. As you pedal away, the generator is charging the attached battery. However it can also directly charge your phone too, using a smart switching system that goes back and forth between the device and the battery.

Are bottle dynamo any good?

Most of available dynamos are complete rubbish and won’t last in use. High quality dynamos have been superseded by hub dynamos and battery lights. Resistance is still higher than with decent hub dynamo. They are noisy and the pitch depends on speed, making any slowing down obvious.

How do you connect a battery charger to a bike?

Step 3: Preparing the Cable

  1. Snap the USB charger into the extension cable.
  2. Snap the fused battery connection cable into the extension cable.
  3. Cut the double-sided tape to fit the profile of the USB charger.
  4. Peel the backing off the double-sided tape and press it onto the USB charger.

Can a dynamo hub charge a battery?

5 Reasons to get a Dynamo hub Dynamo lights are really bright and give a very even lighting pattern. Dynamos can charge batteries, phones, GPS devices and e-readers. In fact, they can charge most small electronic devices.

Can I leave my ebike on charge overnight?

Yes, you can leave your electric bike battery charging overnight. There’s no need to worry about overcharging or over-draining your e-bike battery.

Can I start my bike without a battery?

It is possible for a motorcycle to start and run without a battery, especially smaller motorcycles that are 250 CC’s or less and have a kick starter. The bigger the engine, the less likely the motorcycle will be able to start without a battery. Some proper rewiring is required in order for this to work.

Why bottle dynamo is not a dynamo?

Because bottle dynamos rub against the sidewall of a tire to generate electricity, they cause added wear on the side of tire. Hub dynamos do not. Bottle dynamos make an easily audible mechanical humming or whirring sound when engaged. Hub dynamos are silent.

How much power can a bicycle dynamo produce?

A typical bike generator can produce 100 watts. If you pedal for an hour a day, 30 days a month, that’s (30 x 100=) 3000 watt-hours, or 3 kWh. That’s less than 1% of what a typical family uses in a month (920 kWH). You generated 0.3% of your energy, and continue to get 99.7% from the grid.

How to hook up a dynamo to a bike Charger?

Use a volt meter to check that you have 0V at the head/tail light outputs and 5V at the USB output. Check that you have ~5V at the at the head/tail light outputs (from the 5V supercap) and 0V at the USB output. If all this works, take it to your bike and hook up the dynamo to the input.

What’s the efficiency of a dynamo USB charger?

The charts above show the power created at the dynamo hub by different USB chargers. The efficiency of a high-quality dynamo hub at low power (eg. cycling at 10-20kph) works out to be around 50-60%. This means that when the charger is making between 1-3 watts you can roughly double that figure to work out the drag (in watts) at the hub.

How to choose the best dynamo hub for bicycle touring?

For example, at 15KPH a Schmidt SON28 hub provides 1.9-watts to your USB device but will take 3.2-watts of your pedal power (see graph above). That means 59% of the SON28 resistance will be going towards charging your device. In comparison, the SP PD-8 will create 0.9-watts but will take 4.6-watts.

Can a USB charger be used on a bicycle?

However hub-dynamos don’t produce a regulated 5V voltage to charge my devices over USB, so I created a simply circuit that will transform the unregulated AC voltage from the dynamo to regulated DC 5V. I tried to build the USB-Charger very professionell and waterproof, so that it will look great on my bicycle.