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Original pedestal and generator mount built by Bart Orlando in 1998 for the pedal powered TV/VCR.

Observations:

• We found that the original Panasonic 12v TV/VCR was not powering up when we pedaled the generator bike.
• We found that an output voltage exceeding 18v at the TV end of the 12v power cord when pedaling at a cadence of 30rpm. The system was originally geared to produce ~14v with a pedaling cadence of 80 rpm.
• We found that someone had substituted a small 2.5" diameter pulley on the motor's drive shaft, replacing the original 4" diameter pulley which the system was designed to use. The smaller pulley greatly increase the pedaling effort required in a way similar to that of pedaling a bike up hill in high gear. It also caused the generator to spin faster, producing much higher voltage than 12v.
• CCAT personnel informed our project team that they observed the system to be very hard to pedal, requiring excessive effort and that the Panasonic was still functioning during the fall 2010 semester.
• Mention was made of the possibility that the Panasonic may have been damaged if someone had set it down hard when moving the original system around from one place to another over the years.
• The Panasonic will need to be examined by a repair specialist to determine if over-voltage, far exceeding 12v (caused by substituting the smaller pulley) damaged its electronic circuitry.
• We found that after replacing the 2.5" pulley with a properly sized pulley of 3.5" in diameter the generator was able to charge a 12v battery used to power a RCA 12v TV/VCR. It could match the 70w load and also charge the battery at 13.5v while maintaining a pedaling cadence of 80 rpm with 1/3 less pedaling effort. The new Sky worth Flat-screen uses 25w less power then the Panasonic, further reducing the pedaling effort.
• Please consult with members of our project team for before secumming to any desire you may experience to tinker with this system in the future....

• Bart Orlando bart6591@yahoo.com
• John Hackett Hacksz@hotmail.com
• Thorin Somers sublimedthorin@yahoo.com