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bicycle dynamo powered soldering iron

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wisdumb

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I dont know if this is a good idea but i used my 12v 6w ac generator for my bicycle to power a 15w soldering iron.
I used a kind of bad transformer that made it up to 200v and added it to the soldering iron and after only 2 minutes of pedaling it was hot.
I want to make a low watt heating system for metal water/coffee containers connected to a bicycle so when you arrive wherever your tea/coffee/hot water is still warm. Would this be a waste of energy and is there a lower wattage heating thing i could use instead? (not very knowledgable about electronics yet).
Thanks in advance
 
I don't think you can generate enough energy to heat stuff (maybe you can, but I don't think so unless you are going fast). I know you can make enough to power a light from commercially sold products. Just use a thermos, dude.

BTW, no it's not a waste of energy since it's coming from your legs and not from a power plant.
 
Bit Of Over-Engineering Here

Well...here is a classic example of over-engineering....or not thinking outside of the parameters that you have set upon your own project. There is a far easier answer to this...
a thermal carafe, thermal travel mug, or any other thermal container that will keep a already hot item hot upon arrival. Heating it during transit seems a highly impractical, and not particularly efficient way of doing it.:D
 
For now i just have it suspended and pedaling in air so i dont know how fast i would be going...so maybe it wouldnt be such a good idea because i dont always go fast.
But if i was going for like a 40 mile fast-paced ride then maybe it could generate enough heat to keep the temperature the same?
 
Lets say a thermos keeps it hot for 4 hours, but your going on a long long distance ride from state to state on bike so it would get cold after a day.
Maybe it would work if there wasnt many stops or slow parts.
 
continuing in the massive over engineering vein. Why not set up the brakes to initially cut in a generator before applying the pads to the rim? Use a thermos wired with coils of nichrome wire around the inner vessel and dump the generated energy into that. kind-a-sort-a hybrid. hot food when you arrive!

the brakes would probably need a bit more thinking - I like to have fine control over the braking action on my cycle. and you'd need a thermal safety switch that would dump the power somewhere else when you reached a certain temp point (somewhat less than 100C, I'd guess).
 
I'm not quite sure how you would get wires into the vessel (Philba seems to know how but I don't quite understand if the inner vessel is in the cargo area or between the walls of the thermos). I just have to say make sure your materials are food safe (ie. you don't want bare Tin-lead played wires sitting in your coffee, or PVC insulation that breaks down at 85 degrees sitting in your 100 degree soup.
 
well, you really have to pay attention to my first sentence...

The dewar flask would have wires wrapped around the outside of the inner vessel. Kind of a pain to reseal it after sucking all the air out, though...
 
Just remember the energy isn't free, it comes form you. The body can produce something around 100W (for cycling) in a prolonged bout of excerise so 12W of power is 1/10 your output.
 
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