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MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

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Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#71

Post by londons_explore »

bee_rider wrote: post #43
londons_explore wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regular humans can put out ~100 watts on a dual foot crank (like a bicycle) for hours. Since a phone battery is ~12 Watt-hours, you can collect energy for a full phone charge in ~10 mins (but you'll need a special buffer battery, since few lithium cells can charge that fast). Yet on a single hand crank, even 20 watts and you'll get tired pretty quick. Part of that is that leg muscles are bigger. Part of it is that yo…

It looks like the device even includes a little battery; I wonder if it holds enough charge to charge a phone battery fully, or if it just needs to be active charged for a while. This is definitely more about the message, but actually, if a person could pedal pretty hard for like a half hour and get a couple charges out of it, that doesn’t see too impractical (ignoring the obvious objections, like usually coffee shop…

Such a product does already exist (with a hand crank).

The buffer battery is needed because phones generally don't like having variable voltage/current to charge from. They normally choose what speed they wish to charge at (depending on charger type), and if they can't draw their desired current and the voltage drops then they stop charging entirely.

Also, humans generally expect a crank to have constant torque. Whereas if you wanted constant charge power, then the faster you crank the easier it gets, and conversely the slower you go the stiffer it gets, which is very unintuitive.

By using a buffer battery, you can solve both problems. And users can choose to crank faster to charge the buffer quicker, which is what humans expect.

Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#72

Post by mytailorisrich »

devoutsalsa wrote: post #23
mytailorisrich wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is illegal to use a socket without permission and there aren't that many sockets accessible outdoor.

“So how did you end up here in prison?” “I was charging my phone :(“

The fact is that this is an offence [1]

It does not help homeless people or anyone to suggest they should break the law.

This device that uses bike chains is a bit cheeky but it is a smart idea and it should be legal, or at least not a crime (ianal). So nice, clever hack.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstracting_electricity

Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#73

Post by dazc »

khaki54 wrote: post #55

There is approx zero chance that you can get a homeless person to do labor for 20 minutes, let alone the 2-5 hours this would actually take. By and large homeless are in such despair that they won't invest in activities that will benefit them in the future. If by some miracle this actually took off and all the bikes were now in use by homeless, non-paying customers, bike rental companies would implement blocking meas…

I think you have a limited of view of what being homeless is actually like? Walking around 30 miles a day (because there is nothing else to do and, sometimes, you may otherwise freeze to death) with your belongings in a backpack isn't exactly easy.

Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#74

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

dazc wrote: post #65

Most homeless people in the UK will be aware that they can charge phones in any public library. Also, most will have access to some kind of facility where they can also do stuff such as charge phones, have a shower and do laundry. If you present to the local authority as homeless you will usually be directed to a local charity that has these facilities. You will, likely, stay homeless but there is some basic help out…

> Most homeless people in the UK will be aware that they can charge phones in any public library. ..have access to some kind of facility to charge phones, have a shower and do laundry.

You describe a different universe from US homelessness. Here there might be a tiny bit of religious outreach but the public (therefor public services) tends to lean toward hostility.

Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#75

Post by doublesocket »

op00to wrote: post #64
netsharc wrote: post #44

Man, when I saw "hack" I thought the Santander bikes are e-bikes, and the hack would be a device that leeches power off their batteries...

Same! Like, the bikes are charging via some inductive method, and the battery sucks off that. That’d be cool as hell!

They have some sort of battery that powers the lights. I wonder if the dock also charges those?

Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#76

Post by dazc »

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #74
dazc wrote: post #65

Most homeless people in the UK will be aware that they can charge phones in any public library. Also, most will have access to some kind of facility where they can also do stuff such as charge phones, have a shower and do laundry. If you present to the local authority as homeless you will usually be directed to a local charity that has these facilities. You will, likely, stay homeless but there is some basic help out…

> Most homeless people in the UK will be aware that they can charge phones in any public library. ..have access to some kind of facility to charge phones, have a shower and do laundry. You describe a different universe from US homelessness. Here there might be a tiny bit of religious outreach but the public (therefor public services) tends to lean toward hostility.

Sorry to hear that.

Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#77

Post by Brian_K_White »

SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #61
extraduder_ire wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't use the gear system though. (aside from the large front sprocket driving the smaller one on the device) I'm quite surprised it can be built for £3, unless the battery is incredibly small.

That cost would be at a volume no one would ever produce this at.

Well, the volume could possibly exist if it weren't limited to one city, or one model of bike.

Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#78

Post by asadhaider »

op00to wrote: post #63

Or you can do what NYC did and (sell the right to) put USB charging ports on every other block or so. In that case, you just have to source USB condoms instead of a whole rigamarole involving pedaling and stuff.

They converted a lot of telephone booths to kiosks which have free chargers built in and usually also free wifi, calls, and defibs.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/06/bt-ad... (old article, they're in a lot of major cities now and have been for a long time)

Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#79

Post by op00to »

asadhaider wrote: post #78
op00to wrote: post #63

Or you can do what NYC did and (sell the right to) put USB charging ports on every other block or so. In that case, you just have to source USB condoms instead of a whole rigamarole involving pedaling and stuff.

They converted a lot of telephone booths to kiosks which have free chargers built in and usually also free wifi, calls, and defibs. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/06/bt-ad... (old article, they're in a lot of major cities now and have been for a long time)

I think they’re pretty cool. Privacy issues are important, but access is also important! It feels like the future. Like drinking fountains for information.

Re: MyPowerbank hacks Santander bikes so London's homeless can charge their phones

#80

Post by mcpackieh »

spaintech wrote: post #26

While I applaud the intent to bring the issue of homelessness to the forefront of the media, I feel like this project is more about gaining self attention for the project rather than solving the issue all together. The ~20GBP for the 18650 or 27500 batteries, the probably ~5GBP of the PCB needed, ~15GBP for the chain hardware and magnets, you are looking for a >40GBP to put this together, you can today get a <10GBP U…

> USB hand crank

Are any of those actually effective for charging a phone? I used to have a hand cranked radio, but radios built for this only need a minuscule amount of power. Does anybody have real experience using one of these to charge a phone? How long does it take?

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