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Cydekick_SpineticsSelf-powered phone charger that uses cycling motion launched on Kickstarter
Inventors in Miami have prototyped what they are calling a frictionless charger that generates electricity through electromagnetic induction, powered by a moving bicycle...and hoping a KickStarter campaign will fund the product's final development to the tune of $85,000.
The CydeKick uses a magnetic disc attached to the rear wheel hub, which spins next to coils attached to the frame as the wheel turns, generating electrical current without friction, all for the purpose of saving your devices from running out of battery miles from a plug socket.
The CydeKick has been three years in the making and the product's developers say they are close to final completion of the device, which comes as a front light with a USB port, or as just a front light.
Nick Zamora, developer of CydeKick and co-owner of Spinetics says: “The CydeKick Pro is a self-powered, add-on bicycle generator that converts a cyclist's motion into electrical energy for charging your phone and powering your lights. No need to worry about your battery or bike lights dying while you’re riding. The CydeKick generates, stores, and delivers power to keep you safe and connected. Best of all it adds no mechanical friction meaning you won’t feel like you're biking uphill.”
This product, Zamora claims, is the first to add a USB port to a bike in this way. He says the device, with its handlebar-mounted LED light, will be weather proof. It is being sold as an environmentally friendly way of charging mobile devices, and will convert AC generated power to DC for mobile devices. A different mount will be offered for bikes with disc brakes.
The $85,000 will help purchase tooling and produce the product in low volumes for consumer use, as well as going towards manufacturing and labour costs, and improvements to the product itself.
Zamora says: “To improve power output, we’ve applied several techniques including the use of high-grade neodymium magnets, special arrangement of coils with respect to magnets, careful selection of magnetic & non-magnetic materials, a closed loop path for flux, and our new track-and-swivel mount for maximizing the proximity between stator and rotor.”
The Kickstarter project has attracted $13,000 funding at the time of writing, with 19 days until the fundraising deadline of 29 August.
Laura Laker is a freelance journalist with more than a decade’s experience covering cycling, walking and wheeling (and other means of transport). Beginning her career with road.cc, Laura has also written for national and specialist titles of all stripes. One part of the popular Streets Ahead podcast, she sometimes appears as a talking head on TV and radio, and in real life at conferences and festivals. She is also the author of Potholes and Pavements: a Bumpy Ride on Britain’s National Cycle Network.
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15 comments
The marketing of this product seems a little misleading. I think quite a few people would read "Zero-Friction" and "No Added Friction" as meaning that it won't slow you down at all or make you work any harder to maintain your speed. The kick starter page doesn't seem to mention that the device will create a force that resists the movement of the bike.
Whether or not there's any friction isn't really relevant, its the overall efficiency of the system that matters.
This product, Zamora claims, is the first to add a USB port to a bike in this way.
B&M Luxos IQ2 has had a USB port for a while now.
For this to be useful it needs to sense when you are pedalling so the coils are removed from the magnetic field, hence no drag. As soon as you stop pedalling, e.g. going down hill, the coils engage and hey presto lots of free electricity. Alternative is to strap a solar panel charger on your helmet.
Hum, missed the quote. .re the downhill/freewheeling bit..
Except that for many people their cycling's done on the flat - plus it's pointless complexity, most dynamo hubs can't be switched to be magnetically drag-free but are equivalent to a few Watts IIRC.
As far as cost, it's not just the price of the the dynamo wheel but that of the charger too - you can't just strap a usb lead across a dynamo ! Al Might not be the only solution nowadays, but a B+M E-werk is 60-odd quid and you *might* have to use an additional cache battery depending on what you're trying to achieve
I don't know how you ride your bike, but I'm pedalling for 95% of any journey. So, if it only charged downhill, when not pedalling, it wouldn't be a whole lot of use - to anyone. I'm pedalling like fury down hills anyway.
There will be drag caused by this method of electrical generation, maybe not enough to significantly affect forward motion.
Even good tyre driven dynamos don’t add a lot of drag. Might as well just leave it on all the time. See http://www.bikequarterly.com/VBQgenerator.pdf.
Yeah, I can see that working well on my fixed wheel. Since my (lowend) hub dynamo works fine, I struggle to see the point of this 'invention'.
I use hub dynamo for my charger and one instant problem I can see happening to this charger is dirt. Hub dynamo is closed from any dust and etc, but this will need some care. 150 USD for a charger is a lot. I can buy a whole wheel(700c) with good shimano hub dynamo for about 70 GBP
I look forward to seeing if they can design a generator system that can handle the variance in speeds of all cyclists, going up hill and downhill. (commuter going uphill-5mph or less. regular sports cyclist downhill-easily over 30 mph, possibly up to 50 mph or more)
Saves buying a new wheel with a hub dynamo I guess...
Hub dynamos don't add friction over a normal hub either.
Unlike hub dynamos, this system may need careful adjustment to get the magnet/coil distance right, and also might be susceptible to dirt and the weather.
Possibly won't put Schmidt or Shimano out of business...
That was my main concern; I have a basic Shimano hub dynamo and combined with modern lamps, the 3W output is barely sufficient for unlit roads. Would like to see the predicted output of this, as I suspect it'll be a fair amount of coil and magnets.
I'd rather just buy a front wheel with dynamo. Something good enough for commuting isn't going to cost any more than this and will be a lot less ugly.
Kickstarter, still solving problem people don't have.
it might not add "mechanical friction" but it must make cycling slightly harder. It has to, otherwise it's magicking energy out of nowehere
It cuts out the 'contact' of dynamo but, of course, there's still a force in fact, some train use electromagnetic brakes (in conjunction with mechanical brakes), it'll be interesting to know how much power they can get out of it.
Some turbo trainers also use an electromagnetic resistance system.