Published on September 13, 2009
in news.
At Glastonbury, the bike cinema got damaged. We’re not sure how it happened, but I found the battery isolation switch in the ‘open’ position. The battery acts as a voltage regulator, and when out of the circuit there is nothing to stop dangerous voltages (> 16V) destroying the LCD, sound, DVD or microcontroller inside.
We accepted half responsibility each, and I’ve repaired the damage and also designed and installed an over voltage crowbar circuit (with fuse) before any of the electronics.
The system is now fully operational and even more robust than it was before.
I visited climate camp a few weeks ago, and it was a great inspiration. Met a lot of people and checked out quite a few bike powered setups. It was a great opportunity for me to ask “what would make this work better”, or “do you have any problems that could be solved with electronics”. Some of the suggestions were:
- visual feedback of power in/out
- some idea about how long you’ve got left on your battery
- cheaper/self build charge controller
I met Patrick from Bicyology, who was very keen to collaborate and help build an open/DIY bike charge controller.
I’ve started a new page on the wiki, and it seems an ideal step on the way to the fully fledged open charge controller.
