Greetings from Central Illinois. My introductory post, but seems most appropriately placed in the HOW TO department.
The '89 Schwinn Cruiser on which it's seen was stolen this weekend, but here's the solar-rechargeable bicycle stereo I designed and constructed.
(Took very little road testing after this photograph to find the unit more comfortably mounted reverse from shown, speaker tower to the rear).
Thief did not get the stereo. I was, in fact, just stepping out to attach it for a group ride when I discovered the bike missing along with the cut cable where my neighbor's had been parked.
I'll save the topic of bicycle theft and the model that replaced it for other threads; concentrate here on the stereo. Cheap USB-powered computer speakers, little better than a Watt of amplification applied to a portable mp3 player, but I've had people report hearing me pass as they stood outside at distance of a half a city block. Wires run down the 16" conduit speaker support tower to a 6V 2.5Ah lead-acid rechargeable battery, paralleled with a 7.2V 200mA PowerFilm flexible solar panel. Circuitry to prevent the battery from overcharging would perhaps be a good idea, but so far only a diode intervenes to protect the solar panel from the battery.
Any number of approaches to constructing the housing--the non-solar prototype worked fine in a cigar box. Here, I used a scrap of 4" diameter PVC pipe sliced lengthwise with a riveted continuous hinge. Endcaps were made from round wooden plaques sold in craft stores for decoupage projects. The base is a similarly sliced piece of the PVC pipe, automotive vacuum line hose mounted along the edges seated on the rack. This will be replaced, as it's not suitable for the new bike rack, and was with little tolerance suited to the old one.
The '89 Schwinn Cruiser on which it's seen was stolen this weekend, but here's the solar-rechargeable bicycle stereo I designed and constructed.
(Took very little road testing after this photograph to find the unit more comfortably mounted reverse from shown, speaker tower to the rear).
Thief did not get the stereo. I was, in fact, just stepping out to attach it for a group ride when I discovered the bike missing along with the cut cable where my neighbor's had been parked.
I'll save the topic of bicycle theft and the model that replaced it for other threads; concentrate here on the stereo. Cheap USB-powered computer speakers, little better than a Watt of amplification applied to a portable mp3 player, but I've had people report hearing me pass as they stood outside at distance of a half a city block. Wires run down the 16" conduit speaker support tower to a 6V 2.5Ah lead-acid rechargeable battery, paralleled with a 7.2V 200mA PowerFilm flexible solar panel. Circuitry to prevent the battery from overcharging would perhaps be a good idea, but so far only a diode intervenes to protect the solar panel from the battery.
Any number of approaches to constructing the housing--the non-solar prototype worked fine in a cigar box. Here, I used a scrap of 4" diameter PVC pipe sliced lengthwise with a riveted continuous hinge. Endcaps were made from round wooden plaques sold in craft stores for decoupage projects. The base is a similarly sliced piece of the PVC pipe, automotive vacuum line hose mounted along the edges seated on the rack. This will be replaced, as it's not suitable for the new bike rack, and was with little tolerance suited to the old one.
